No one talks about anorexia nervosa anymore, and though lots of people walking around downtown are very thin, it is mostly men, and is not the result of a morbid aversion to eating. More likely it's a relatively new physique resulting from one hundred years of veganism. Not that I miss hearing of it, but I suspect a change has taken place on the global level. Perhaps the social rewards people used to obtain by merely being thinner than average were unearned, and are no longer granted. After all, no one remembers the myth of the starving artist.
This is not to say artists, or anyone, aren't/isn't starving in the U.S. or anywhere else. So the media reports, world hunger is still out there, nearly everywhere. I'm not so callous. In the US people valued a fashionable appearance over and above the importance of health, longevity or even human equality. The fashion industry, and the entertainment biz, convinced everyone large built people are less valued than those of the Rolling Stones Skinny. One is as thin as a fashion model, or else is common and ugly, Times have changed. Everyone is beautiful, as long as they have money.
And how have things changed? Fucking near silently, the middle class took over a complex of non-profit social and cultural organizations, and over time, phased out the poor. Years ago, the story was that those same organizations were for the benefit of the poor, but now they simply pay the middle class to pose as humanitarians, because they are entitled to elevated social status. Most upsetting to me, the money, either tax exempt contributions or infusions of tax dough through the government, now subsidizes a fat, privileged sector of the upper middle class. There are no starving artists. Only fat, subsidized ones. No one gets brownie points for being exceptionally thin, and why should they? Fat people are just as creative, and they aren't starving, they are staying fat on the public nickel. They are entitled to this arrangement, so to prevent them from becoming gaunt, starving artists. They are well fed and entitled to be well regarded, no matter what the assholes do.
Now, who would have thought that the cure for anorexia nervosa would have been as simple as subsidizing the rich and already fat? It's a sad case of unintended behaviorism. Reward people for starving themselves, and you'll fill the graves with creative and troubled souls. Feed the already fat and rich, compliment them on their art work (no matter how shitty and vacant) and you get a culture of happy bovines with a normal life expectancy. It's a bourgoise world out there. The poor are dying to climb on board.
This is not to say artists, or anyone, aren't/isn't starving in the U.S. or anywhere else. So the media reports, world hunger is still out there, nearly everywhere. I'm not so callous. In the US people valued a fashionable appearance over and above the importance of health, longevity or even human equality. The fashion industry, and the entertainment biz, convinced everyone large built people are less valued than those of the Rolling Stones Skinny. One is as thin as a fashion model, or else is common and ugly, Times have changed. Everyone is beautiful, as long as they have money.
And how have things changed? Fucking near silently, the middle class took over a complex of non-profit social and cultural organizations, and over time, phased out the poor. Years ago, the story was that those same organizations were for the benefit of the poor, but now they simply pay the middle class to pose as humanitarians, because they are entitled to elevated social status. Most upsetting to me, the money, either tax exempt contributions or infusions of tax dough through the government, now subsidizes a fat, privileged sector of the upper middle class. There are no starving artists. Only fat, subsidized ones. No one gets brownie points for being exceptionally thin, and why should they? Fat people are just as creative, and they aren't starving, they are staying fat on the public nickel. They are entitled to this arrangement, so to prevent them from becoming gaunt, starving artists. They are well fed and entitled to be well regarded, no matter what the assholes do.
Now, who would have thought that the cure for anorexia nervosa would have been as simple as subsidizing the rich and already fat? It's a sad case of unintended behaviorism. Reward people for starving themselves, and you'll fill the graves with creative and troubled souls. Feed the already fat and rich, compliment them on their art work (no matter how shitty and vacant) and you get a culture of happy bovines with a normal life expectancy. It's a bourgoise world out there. The poor are dying to climb on board.
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