#aotk

like wow..

if i was a kid and i had one of these i would be so happy tbh <-- normal childhood haver

The theme of puritanism and correctness within art in Flesh is very unsubtle, but is approached from a somewhat unusual angle: "Are you sure your morals are just propaganda?", and it is exemplified through the three sequential art installations that we get: - "Wash Your Hands": an extremely banal truth that is frankly too obvious to have like a dozen pieces dedicated to it and have them say anything of worth. But the pieces are still there, and the elevation of this banality, to me, seems to be a propaganda tactic to give the other two "morals" validity, equating them to this. Notably, we don't get a painting-world for this. - "Strangers": paranoia of the external, mistrust of the fellow man, conquest through social division. It is the love of the "stranger danger". In the painting-world, this is refuted - the strangers are indifferent to BB. They simply lead their own lives. - "Elephant": maintain pure "moral" soul or be crushed to death by Go-, I mean the Elephant. Paranoia of the internal, the mind-rotting desire for purity. Extremely notably, this is both the first painting-world encountered, *and* the Elephant is the only other hostile entity in the museum besides the Lion. It also just also looks way scarier than the Lion.

And there's, of course the more obvious bit with the morality machines just being torture devices from the "academics" from Hands - wo are then revealed to be one of the patrons of the entire operation.

But, Lemur, you might ask, what about the fact that the museum is a vault that requires an entire heist for a normal person to get inside? That is a part that probably took me some time to figure out, because of how incongruous it was with the above. But I think I managed to connect it too.

Fundamentally, I think the rich got too high on their own supply. In society where "moral" is a desired virtue, that virtue will be desired by everyone. And so they purchased and hoarded all these art pieces to signal the virtue to everyone around them, and put them in a vault because that's what you do with your expensive stuff. But the problem is that it is nothing. The morals are bullshit, invented for populus control. And the buyers themselves don't even comprehend them, they look at them like the "organic" labels on store sanwiches! The substance is not relevant, only the signal of the presence is what matters. This is how Lion is defeated - with illusions and distractions.