https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X276jp-vvRY

(https://xoxohth.com/thread.php?thread_id=3122684&forum_id=2#29779509)

The Epsilons had an identity that they could take pride in. The Alphas may have looked down on them, but even they were told that the Epsilons were indispensable, that society needs to appreciate the people that work the crappy jobs. The Epsilons never earned anything extravagant, but the jobs were stable and left plenty of time for recreation. The Epsilons weren't constantly told by the media that they were worthless, Epsilon jobs weren't shipped off to third-world countries, and their misery wasn't treated as collateral damage in an increasingly stratified society.

(https://xoxohth.com/thread.php?thread_id=3122684&forum_id=2#29779612)

The first is the economically marginalized group, treated like shit by elites in a highly stratified society. It's often the story of genocide and dictatorships. The poverty is present, but the heroes of the struggle are tied together by a common sense of purpose--a struggle for their survival and livelihoods, but also for something bigger than themselves, the ultimate exaltation of their people.

The second is the group who lacks purpose, as conceived of by Huxley and later, Camus and Bradbury. These people are stable economically, but are unable, for whatever reason, to use their leisure to enrich themselves in any non-hedonistic way or achieve any self-actualization. They were incapable of love, or independent thought, or the notion of meaningful interaction. Their entertainment was entirely based on TV/movies, they used sex purely for carnal pleasure, and they dealt with any unpleasantness through drugs. In the end, they die alone and unfulfilled.

Now, here's the important part: The first group thought that class struggle was a common feature of human history, but that inherent in it was a shared sense of meaning and purpose among the downtrodden to regain their humanity. The second group thought that the essence of humanity would be lost in a modern world where first-order needs were met and mindless entertainment could be derived via pills and radio waves, but that people would need to have basic needs met first.

No one ever imagined the confluence. No one ever thought that when the economic position of a once-respected people stagnated or declined, that the people would have nothing to fight for because their humanity was gone. No ethnic ties, no God to share, no homeland to defend because the rent went up, no friends or community in the era of rootless cosmopolitans, no family in the era of Tinder and "sexual liberation."

We let this go unchecked and now there are MILLIONS who have no community from which to derive their humanity, and no resources to discover it themselves when it takes two Wal-Mart shifts to be able to make rent. That's why the new dystopia isn't a class struggle or the presence of mindless zombies, it's just a bunch of drug addicts praying for death until they grab a Remington and decide they're tired of waiting.

(https://xoxohth.com/thread.php?thread_id=3122684&forum_id=2#29779808)

ftge

(https://xoxohth.com/thread.php?thread_id=3122684&forum_id=2#29781750)

it's been a while

(https://xoxohth.com/thread.php?thread_id=3122684&forum_id=2#29784446)

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/06/business/economy/a-dilemma-for-humanity-stark-inequality-or-total-war.html

(https://xoxohth.com/thread.php?thread_id=3122684&forum_id=2#32186034)

18000000000

(https://xoxohth.com/thread.php?thread_id=3122684&forum_id=2#29788476)

what i mean is that the process of social decay is a physical one as well, and to the extent that "challenges to the system" are posed most ferociously by stoutly-constituted younger men, the dynamics of the existing system reinforce themselves via the degradation of the system's natural opponents.

look at the shambling, shaky way a druggie even walks. what can you do with that? you can't build a social movement on that; it would collapse. you can't "foot your tent" on a mat of narcotic lardasses. pre-revolutionaries are usually hungry but energetic; these people are an anti-energy. they actually sap the energies of those forced to deal with them.

(https://xoxohth.com/thread.php?thread_id=3122684&forum_id=2#29798946)