Hyborian Bridge 137

The modern world of the algorithm has its origin in Ada Lovelace, Byron’s legitimate daughter. But, as noted in HB136, Lovelace was deliberately kept clear of Byron’s legacy of bodily temptations by his wife, Annabelle Milbank.

 

That split is no longer possible in a world where the Big Tech Companies are all about merging the two. Something similar cropped up in Kanye West’s interview with Cannon. Is the sci-fi world we are entering bound to advance whether or not we like it?

 

These questions never occur in “conventional” mainstream politics. From what I gathered, West’s view of most metropolitan areas was that the design is bad for living. He specifically cited alternates such as Kibbutzim, from his focus of being a type of extended family (tribe) that shares and cares.

 

West seems to pick-up on rustic models as alternates to the urban sprawl that dominates western culture and seems to value the rustic aesthetic. This goes contrary to what you could call the super-confident western espousal of built-up areas over desolate wilderness. You could also call this an American way of life – whether that’s totally fair or not – and this idea of confident tricksters was pilloried in the famous 30s operatic play City of Mahagonny.

 

ALABAMA SONG

 

Set in Alaska, it’s a parody of the great plans of roughneck lumberjacks to establish a city of pleasure in the snowy wastelands. This basic theme of the super-confident paving-over of nature could also be likened to a type of sterilization of nature. In Mahagonny, as in 30s Berlin, prostitution is rife, but it could be as time goes by that’ll get cleaned up and pure boredom will return!

 

One thing you get from Mahagonny is that weasel words take the place of idealism pretty quickly, and there’s a descent into chaos. There’s also the idea of continual protests, which has a modern sound.

 

In his interview, West makes a point of saying that words are never enough. There will in the future be a fight for scarce resources, and it’ll be a case of “water” over “words”. This is something no self-respecting politician would ever say, as words to them are “things” (in Byron’s phrase). The “thing” is number (the monetary system) and politicians only differ in the numbers they cite!

 

Tweedledee, “The retail price index should be 1.1”

Tweedledum, “The retail price index should be 2.2”

(based on Paul Kantner’s line at end of Stairway to Cleveland on JS DVD)

 

In some ways, then, West seems to espouse a primitive and more tribal approach to living with the planet, in its green and blue vastness, as opposed to what “they” call the inevitable sci-fi advances – that “inevitably” pave-over nature.

 

From that perspective, West has a poetic sense of the physical (land) and psyche (of farmers, herders) which mainstream politicians don’t (be they Kamala black or Biden blue.)

 

It’s not only mainstream politicians but also protestors (such as XL) who get their sureness of ready-fire words from numbers. Mahagonny takes the place of the original wilderness – or reality – and puts sterilization in its place (once the prostitutes are moved-out a la Bloomberg).

 

The modern scene is a very convincing illusion (of the ego) that depends on the sterilization of culture and nature (see P135 pictures of Ayn Rand versus Perrine Sandrea).

 

The ego is convinced by numbers that occupy these illusory spaces (reflections, repetitions) and endlessly recites them (somewhat akin to the mantras of Dawkins!)

 

With repetition comes ever-more conviction, and numbers become the only news. The sterile culture doesn’t even seem to realize that the symmetries and proportions seen in nature are always the result of differences – a basic untidiness.

 

Predators chase prey, and the cycle of fertility is strong and pure. Dirt is essentially fertility, as in the fields of wheat, and the cycle is essential for strength and health. This cycle can never occur in a sterile factory setting such as a city, and the connection to the land is paramount (Lil Abner?)

 

Eating dirt is actually healthy; children develop immunities by playing in the fields. Empirical tradition treats less clean things as healthier and cleaner in the long run (for the exposure to germs) – Mosaic Law HB70.

 

There’s a connection to Robert Robertson’s book on Fulling where earth and stale urine were the original detergents on river banks (HB60) Pure cleanliness never exists in nature, as that mitigates against strength and defence.

 

Empirical tradition teaches people that dirt can be cleansing; empirical reason (The New Atlantis prev.) appears to teach the opposite. Sterilization is simply another word for rubbish-removal so you might say neverending rubbish-removal is the city of the future (Motter’sMr X). This attracts the ego, in the form of numbers, so we’re back to Grace Slick’s quote on numerical eho-compulsion (HB62/1)

 

The sterile land is the economy but, as noted previously of Hyborian trade, economy and ecology were much closer in past ages. Pack-animals would carry a mobile ecosystem of pests; health was a question of balance. Anything that goes away from ecological balance in the long term is weak, and this applies to the current economy. The ego is attracted to weakness because it is attracted to number, which is the sterilization of culture.

 

Mahagonny could be taken as the city that practices the facile rituals of pleasure over the stronger, long-lasting ones that are grounded in physical and psychic reality – physique and action, Diana and the hunt over vale and dale.

 

The physical reality is the cycles of country living; the psyche that benefits from the fertile symmetries born of strength, of blood and rebirth.

 

AGNETHA

 

I found this track as a member of the Facebook group. You might call it European ethnic, which might seem less American. On the other hand, the ethnicity of Last of the Mohicans is very American. As I was saying to the group, you can’t have Agnetha wearing cornrows instead of braids as they’re not Nordic. The Abba stage-style was Nordically inflected just as West’s clothing range is urban-black inflected. Both have international appeal.

 

As was said previously of Howard’s Outremer (W11), differences make for psychic affinity. The politicians’ formula is that only the numbers are different, everything else is the same. The natural formula is that differences make for affinities outside of the sterile land of dormant egos. The sun or the mirror of illusion (Mahagonny, electromagnetism).