America is a slave state

America has become a slave nation-- because the American people are now little more than one gigantic ATM and credit card. Every American is valued because he has $X of disposable income in his pocket, and others are vying for the 'right' to transact for that X (for a profit of course). This leads to slavery because, over time, everything in American life becomes re-defined as transacting for one's X. The surplus value loss (real cost, in philosophical-subjective terms) is now built right into the X-transacting.

Anything that doesn't allow itself to be re-defined in this way stagnates or just vanishes. At best, these resistance points simply... resist, for a while anyway, and act as a kind of invisible network of non-capitalizables that act as a principle of limitation upon the larger system of transacting, and this limitation also acts as a potential field of expansions for future transactions (think t-shirts with images of Jesus on them).

"Love is the gravity of the soul", as Abstract said. Today, almost everything in America competes to be the one to replace that love with itself, with its own object or product or fetish or advertisement or meme or mandatory pre-programmed reaction or consumer service. Love is relational in nature, whereas consumerism is transactional in nature -- the transactional nature of love is naturally buried underneath mountains of uncomfortable truths, and today the Socratic spirit has deformed into raving cynicism without a Mind, whereas Socrates at least launched radical critiques from a position of raising platforms of truths, even if he didn't obey truth itself as a form. Indeed, critique on that level often requires serving truth-platforms rather than serving truth itself, if only for the language and emotion barriers involves in serious criticism and self-criticism. To be a builder, one must stay one's hand at a certain point. Even serious critics seem to obey this logic, perhaps because unfettered criticism would simply undermine themselves (again, because they merely have platforms of truths, and are not operating at the behest of truth itself).

Everyone's X is up for sale. The most successful transactions are those that recreate the experience of love by renegotiating love-elements to the modern forms of commodifiable experiences and the exhaustion of self-consumption -- Disney, the NFL, Apple Watches, Tinder, Netflix, Visa, Facebook, the Democratic Party -- until these powers become nearly ubiquitous in American life. These powers are what offer themselves as True Love to the American soul.

Slavery is having an X that everyone wants to buy. We used to know this at the deep innate level, for example as our suspicions of fame and fortune, and as our general uncomfortability with open displays of vanity. Those older forms of innate knowledge are now all but gone.

In America, the only required prescription is 'work'. This is prescribed for every ailment.

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PRESCRIPTION: Take Three to Four Doses of Work, Daily
DURATION: Continuous
NUMBER OF AUTHORIZED REFILLS: Unlimited
MAY SUBSTITUTE WITH GENERIC IF AVAILABLE? No
POSSIBLE SIDE EFFECTS: Insomnia, Constipation, Diarrhea, Manic energy, Ringing in the ears, Excess consumption of alcohol, Excess consumption of tobacco smoke, Fatigue, Malaise, Rage, Psychotic breaks with reality, Lost opportunities, Nostalgia, Loss of nostalgia, Fits of crying, Inability to cry, Uncontrolled fits of laughter, Mood lability, Dysphoria, Paranoia, Memory loss, Anal leaking, Hypersexuality, Hyposexuality, Confusion, Cancer, Diabetes, Stomach cramping, Shivering fits, Obesity, Hair loss, Pulling out one's own hair, Ugliness, Insatiation, Delusions, Increase susceptibility to colds and flu, Decreased ability to process environmental toxins, Oversensitivity to radiation, Radiation exposure, Impaired thinking & decision-making, Loss of sense of self, Decreased quality of life on self-reporting scales e.g. WHOQOL, Decreased lifespan, Poor eyesight, Gingivitis, Loss of empathy, Loss of enjoyment in daily activities, Muscle pain, Restlessness, TMJ, Autoimmune problems, Inability to operate a motor vehicle, Dystonia, Parkinsonism, Loss of sense of taste, Loss of orientation to place and time
ORDERING PHYSICIAN: Death

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Most people feel like consumption is freedom. But if consumption is really slavery, we have ourselves an Orwellian quagmire.

Traditional bartering needs to return in full swing.

With great sadness I must agree with what has thus far been said.

We have been brain-washed into "consumerism" and therefore enslaved by it.

Capable wrote:

=================

PRESCRIPTION: Take Three to Four Doses of Work, Daily
DURATION: Continuous
NUMBER OF AUTHORIZED REFILLS: Unlimited
MAY SUBSTITUTE WITH GENERIC IF AVAILABLE? No
POSSIBLE SIDE EFFECTS: Insomnia, Constipation, Diarrhea, Manic energy, Ringing in the ears, Excess consumption of alcohol, Excess consumption of tobacco smoke, Fatigue, Malaise, Rage, Psychotic breaks with reality, Lost opportunities, Nostalgia, Loss of nostalgia, Fits of crying, Inability to cry, Uncontrolled fits of laughter, Mood lability, Dysphoria, Paranoia, Memory loss, Anal leaking, Hypersexuality, Hyposexuality, Confusion, Cancer, Diabetes, Stomach cramping, Shivering fits, Obesity, Hair loss, Pulling out one's own hair, Ugliness, Insatiation, Delusions, Increase susceptibility to colds and flu, Decreased ability to process environmental toxins, Oversensitivity to radiation, Radiation exposure, Impaired thinking & decision-making, Loss of sense of self, Decreased quality of life on self-reporting scales e.g. WHOQOL, Decreased lifespan, Poor eyesight, Gingivitis, Loss of empathy, Loss of enjoyment in daily activities, Muscle pain, Restlessness, TMJ, Autoimmune problems, Inability to operate a motor vehicle, Dystonia, Parkinsonism, Loss of sense of taste, Loss of orientation to place and time
ORDERING PHYSICIAN: Death

=================

Ready for print.

Unfortunately there are different strains of weed each with radically different effects. Best I ever had in the last year was some orange kush from CA, but that's also the only time i smoked this year or last. In the US you need to be a criminal to smoke weed. I usually don't bother going through the effort to get it, plus I hate having to maintain contact with the kind of people which used to supply me in the past. But I can say that the kush really did soul-heal me at a critical moment.

I do drink every work day, it is an absolute pure necessity. As Milosz said in one of his poems:

"It was submitted to customs in full awareness that they are absurd, to the
necessity of getting up in the morning and going to work.

With unfulfilled desires, even with the unfulfilled desire to scream and
beat one’s head against the wall, repeating to myself the command “It is
forbidden.”

It is forbidden to indulge yourself, to allow yourself idleness, it is
forbidden to think of your past, to look for the help of a psychiatrist or
a clinic.

Forbidden from a sense of duty but also because of the fear of unleashing
forces that would reveal one to be a clown.

And I lived in the America of Moloch, short-haired, clean-shaven, tying
neckties and drinking bourbon before the TV set every evening."

In some states it is easy to get a medicinal license, in LA it was offered to me on the street, I just had to say I have a headache now and then. I refused, as I wasn't there to smoke weed...

Of course yes different strands have vastly different effects. Much weed is just not worth smoking.

The most interesting thing in America politically in a long time is how Trump isn't hurt by any of the negative statements he makes. Never seen anything like this before. I wonder if we should interpret this as a Sign that something about the slave-state nature of the American system qua consumerism, is breaking down into some new or emerging-new truths.

Hey wait, this thread is about weed? I thought it was about finding a catalyst away from death.