When everything become “ethno-geolocated”

In multicultural societies, we look for the origins of the names of the people we have to speak to, work with, endure. And we always rather deal with our “likes”.

The life of the poor

Cycling, recycling, buying second-hand clothes or objects, using less of this and of that, living cheaper and poorer: this is the new social model, the agenda of the young “elite”, kids from wealthy families who know they won’t make better than their parents. So they have decided to promote a lifestyle which million of people have been living for ages: poverty. Only more dignified because it is the “Bobos-Gogos” who get to live the life of the poor. So chic.

Another cliché: the consumption of anything “local, proper, fair trade, ethical, organic, hand made”, so on and so forth. “Good” is not good enough. Hence, the caricature:

Black and white alike

Probably, it would not have been possible to hire so many monkeys if the level in France hadn’t been already very low. I wonder whether France will become the country of retirement. Since I came back from all my travels and temporary stays in other countries, I’ve observed how ideal France was as a country to live retired: one has absolutely nothing stimulating to do here in France. Nothing to do but to find oneself a corner, slowly rot and die.

To Purcell

Eventually, I feel like everybody around me has died. There is nobody left but me. Strange. In the same circumstances, interpersonal and material (minus the recent crisis), I used to feel I was becoming invisible. That was 10 years ago. I was imagining things more beautiful (than they are) and I would feel sad to be deprived of those things… What an idiot!

“O Solitude, my sweetest choice!” I wish I could sing along with Purcell.

“O solitude, my sweetest choice
O solitude
O solitude
My sweetest, sweetest choice
Places devoted to the night
Remote from tumult and from noise
How ye my restless thoughts delight
O solitude
O solitude
My sweetest, sweetest choice

O heav’ns! What content is mine
To see these trees
Which have appeared
From the nativity of time
And which all ages have revered
To look today as fresh and green
To look today as fresh and green
As when their beauties first were seen

Oh, oh, how agreeable a sight
These hanging mountains do appear
Which th’unhappy would invite
To finish all their sorrows here
When their hard, their hard fate
Makes them endure such woes
Such woes as only death can cure”

But, in general, I feel I am living at the lowest level of social existence without the consolation of art. Art is gone away, for good.

The more the merrier

The French social system is a system to manage and organize misery, poverty. The exported poverty, the created and maintained poverty. The more the merrier. It gives jobs to the yokels of France, the very retarded ones who needs more retarded people to control up, ruin their simple lives with paperwork, for example. People left to rot in the most dangerous areas of the country. For the sake of preserving the comfort and security of a few. Silly world!

“If you don’t move on, you die!”

France is well-known for being a country of xenophobia. But at times, I wonder whether it is not peculiar to humankind to hate their fellowmen. And I mean “men” for they really seem to hate other people, as a group and individually. Not humanist nor civilized. Comparing my life in London and my life in Paris: although I was going through terrible hardships, I always maintained a lively and fun social life back in London. In France, people will let you die like a dog!

Surprise, creation, beauty, luxury, poetry

To like or dislike. At the moment, there is no new object to be attracted to or to reject. There is nothing left to miss, no event, no social gathering, no party, no concert. Everything is closed down. Alone in the big city, where nothing good or fun happens. Only aggression.

It is between boredom and indifference now. It used to be between stress and frustration, the lot of the youth. The future is a past that turns over and over again.

Social distancing and reconditioning

I was wondering whether the recent restrictions would condition us even more. We were coerced into the digital transformation and we are very much obeying everything, with no protest at all. Automation for brainless zombies, the world in the 2020s. We are left with our “psychoaffective” defenses, like a residue of instinct. But the damage is done, especially the children. I am so relieved!!!!! Slaves and robots. I suppose that the idea that a political system is necessary to assure “individual liberties” is enough to make you depressed. People are impossible to control and yet they should be, for their own good. Modernity and multiple screens, alienation and isolation. We are all bound to be “clones of Stephen Hawkins, the crippled scientist. Universal man, his body ultra-dependent to machines yet super intelligent. The media are great help in making this “second world” possible: people believe the journalist who defends himself against conspiracy (the new word for “critical thinking”). Now is the best moment ever to brainwash people and give them a good beating as well, with digital shit all over, with no effort at all. Everybody is connected, hence sleeping.

How the social system design and control people’s lives

I want a bonus for being a good healthy person. The governments are ordering people what to do and not to do but they leave them at their problems, especially the small businesses. The French are masochist, at heart (in their body and soul). “Macron, vas-y, fais-moi mal!”

Coupe file

A quick sketch to express what the situation may look like now there is an obligation to show your “sanitary pass”, just to get to see an art show.

“Are you sure you want to see this exhibition??”

I don’t know how I did it, but the week-end before the media announced the new restrictions to access public places, museums etc, I had booked 3 new exhibitions which had recently opened plus a visit to the Château de Fontainebleau. I went to see the “Hiroshige” exhibition at the Cernuschi museum on Tuesday 20th July, the very last day before the sanitary pass become compulsory. I must have a radar, some intuition or a sense of anticipation… It’s interesting to notice how fast the French government implements new ways of controlling people’s identity and how equally quickly the public places receiving people are dropping the obligation of “washing hands”. “Keep your mouth shut and your hands dirty!”

Another thing is that, although I always complain about Paris and how miserable life has become, outside, it is a fact that the level of art exhibitions in Paris i high, especially in the less known institutions. I went to see a few art shows in the Fondation Cartier, in various “not-so-established” museums: Guimet, Quai Branly, Carnavalet, Petit Palais, Cernuschi, Luxembourg and they were great experiences. On the other hand, I am usually quite disappointed by the “Modern” and “Contemporary” events that recently took place at the Fondation Vuitton, the Centre Pompidou or, worst of all, the Palais de Tokyo. It seems quite obvious that the bigger the art institution, the bigger the art public, the less exhaustive and developed the art shows. It’s all about consumption rather than contemplation…