#tim barrus

Tim Barrus

America has collapsed. Act Up got included. "There was no time to waste." M. Gesson flat out goes for it. Act Up being included as a part of American history is radical. I wrote a novel called GENOCIDE in which America builds concentration camps. Murder becomes institutionalized. History is repeating itself. The "health camps" are all there now, and they are ready to go. Americans build them for other Americans. You can always depend on American ruthlessness and indifference. HIV in Africa is beginning to incubate again. We did that. We are responsible for what is about to hit us. Because we do not choose to learn from our mistakes, hatreds, prejudices, our violence, wars, failures, and we are very selective about what we regard as history. American history is perceived within the context of a heroism that is a cultural fabrication. We are always the good guys. We are always on the side of a god who does not exist. We have the ability to destroy the world 2000 times over and over. We are the venom of existence. What lives in our hearts is malice, brutality, and a savageness that can only be confronted by more savageness. We are ruled by an economic pornography of stunning wealth and malnutrition. We still have slavery. We just call it employment. America is having another party. The species is compelled to create moments and events that attempt to validate the animal's origin story so we can pretend there will be a future. AIDS is gunning for you again. How ordinary.

Your master has a master. Slavery did not disappear. The boss people will dig out their knives on this one. They will look you right in the face, and they will claim that you will be more valuable and creative if you live in a world where you tend to every need they have. You will be happier and richer and more fulfilled if you lead a life where the boss lives inside your head. Americans know. We understand (that does not mean we are able to talk about it) the extent to which we participate in our own humiliation. The dynamics of sadomasochism are ubiquitous. The lies we tell ourselves about how we as a species have evolved as our enhanced civilizations have matured into something beyond the paradigms of masters and slaves, serfs and castles, the word and the whip. But those masters and those slaves and those serfs and those words and that whip maintain the structures of capitalisms' original intent. Which is not to enrich you. The intent is to degrade you into submission. The managerial class gets off on it. Thrills and chills. Pull my chain. Work is pain. It's just the way things are. There is value in one's ability to endure. The whole system is set up so the rich can see you on your knees. Get ready for the kick in the teeth. Punch that clock. It's difficult to kick you when you are working at home. Work abuse is something we have to tolerate because if we rebel, we are punished, laid off, fired, shunned, and marginalized. Ego is the bottom line. Money is irrelevant.

I said NYT would do this. I'm back.

You can hear the frogs. It is an amazing place. I haven't seen a frog in over twenty years.

Our cottage is just down this road. It is surrounded by bulldozers and mountain slag. We come here to get away. It is a momentary fix. We have to move. I am very unhappy about it. Mountain people are being forced out. The only people who can afford to live here are the rich. When you talk to people who have lived all their lives in this place, you realize exactly how bitter they have all become. We're out. And they're in. They even resent the fact that we use their park. How dare we want to see anything other than construction.