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For the last several years, and with no particular purpose other than a desire to meander through reflection, I have taken the period between Christmas and New Years Eve to produce a summary of the slice of the year to which I paid attention through epigrams and aphorisms. It follows an end-of-year tradition I started in 2016 (for those see here), 2017 (for these see here), 2018 (for those see here), 2019 (for those see here); 2020 (for those see here); 2022 (for those see here); and 2023 (for those see here).
2023
was the year of belief, of the believer, and in the believing. It was
the year in which one could personalize truth --my truth conflated
belief in a thing with the thing itself. And it became a marker--not of
the thing itself but of faith and loyalty to the holder of this
personalized belief-truth. In 2023 it became clear that the suzerainty
of the Enlightenment was now contested even as its own nature was being
interrogated away by its feuding factions. 2023 was, in this sense, the
year of total war in the sense of conflict at virtually every level of
human relations. Nothing is now uncontested. And all of the old
prejudices, tactics, ploys, tropes, are on display as they are hurled
into the battles among those who would claim not merely the rights of
the suzerain but also that of the high priest. Yet these trajectories
appeared poisoned as well by addiction, by desire, and by the
irrational. Belief here is not merely the exercise of a rational faith,
but the eruption of passions and lusts which, in their own way, assert
the sort of control that in its 21st century manifestation is
increasingly played by our rich investment in pharmacopeia of the body and of the mind--that cornucopia
now provides the ambrosia in the service of which and in the
expectation of uninterrupted access to that sustaining elixir, some
sectors of the human collective have sworn fealty.
At the start of this year I noted, in passing on the Annual Oracle of the Ifa practitioners of Cuba, that this was to be the year of Obatala (The
Orishas Speak: The 2023 Letter of the Yoruba Association of Cuba (Letra
del Año para el 2023 de la Asociación Yoruba de Cuba) and My
Preliminary Interpretation
). "For
2023, there is something new and something old. Working through the
semiotic signification embodied in Ifa and the ruling spirits one can
translate the fundamentals of the 2023 oracle this way: Obtalá returns
as the ruling sign--but with a vengeance. " Obatala
is the essence of rationality and irrationality. Obatala represents the
highest form of rational creative potential as well as its basest forms
of dissipation. Obatala in 2023 was reinforced by Oshun, the essence of
fertility, wealth--and passion. Passion that served as an intensifier
of the positive and negative gyrations of the rational irrationality
that marked the year.
And 2023 did not
disappoint. It
was a year of the passionate and dispassionate believer; and it was the
year that belief, again, became the primary addiction of the human
collective and its social relations. However presented, in whatever
fancy dress it might be offered up. . . .and consumed by humans who
appear to have been starving for its nourishment. It was a year in which
the only belief worth having, was in the passionate/dispassion of the
believer. If the year had a credo, it might be this (with apologies for
the inelegance of the Latin text):
Quod ex fide;
Quod formare omnia potest;
Veram formationem dant desiderio meo;
Vera illa imago fidei meae communitatis est;
In quo absurditas rationis essentiam format;
et appetitus formae rationis;
Fides autem in sua transmissione est;
Credentia autem in sua logica et veritate est
I believe in one absurdity
That emerges from a faith;
That can shape all things;
That give true formation to my desire;
That is a true reflection of my community of faith;
In which absurdity forms the essence of reason;
and desire reason's form;
And faith is in its transmission;
And belief is in its logic and truth
And it is in that spirit, of belief and the believer, of the insistence of the human spirit to be human despite its best efforts, of the spirit of 2023, that the epigrams and aphorisms that follow are offered. Each aphorism links to a essay written during the year. The first set focuses on the manifestation of belief formed from out of its etymological roots: to desire, esteem, trust (to make these real). It is in the context of desire and its manifesting, that the highs and lows of 2023 begin to emerge. The second set focuses on the human spirit spirited away. It looks to how that manifestation of desire marked 2023. One considers, then, the voracious appetites of the human spirit and its metamorphosis. The inability to sate that appetite appears to be an important theme for 2023.Yet even the consumption of those bodies have become the stuff of spirit, existing more immediately in the virtual realms than in those of the physical. The third set focus on the education of the masses. Nothing says self actualization better than a guide. And human social relations has been nothing is not about the (re)constitution of the guiding classes over the course of 2023. But the semiotics of narrative itself has become complicated even as corruption of the idea has become something of either a fetish and a cliché. But then 2023 appears to have elevated the fetish as well as the cliché to new and odd levels.
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The last (fourth) set is structured as a counter riff to Gil Scott Heron's well known song, "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" (poem 194, lyric 1974))
You will not be able to stay home, brother
You will not be able to plug in, turn on and cop out
You will not be able to lose yourself on skag and skip out for beer during commercials, because
The revolution will not be televisedThe revolution will not be televised, will not be televised
Will not be televised, will not be televised
The revolution will be no re-run, brothers
The revolution will be live (Text credit here).
Nonetheless, the romantic notion of masses as revolutionary forces; of the individual, singularly transformed, who is a tiny but essential part of an incarnated communal transformation, in 2023 might well have been tempered by the realities that the human is increasingly an object, a consumable, in the machinations of collective interactions, made more potent by the augmentation now revealed by the operationalized devices of technology. The human is both the consumable object, and the embodied signification of collective physical and virtual reality the value of the productive force that they represent then emerging; from the people to the people is a universal concept, but one with semiotic irony. So, indeed, the (Re)(De)(Trans)(Con)(E)-volution will be televised, tweeted, recorded, videostreamed, performed, made virtual, analyzed, managed, realized, corrupted, (mis)directed, and overcome as a function of the technologies that can be used to, and that may themselves be the object of, these "-volutionary" trajectories. But that -volution will seep into everything--from the grandest collective drama, to the most mundane elements of human life. And it will be public. The first great transformation--the disappearance of privacy onto -volutional decisions to refrain from disclosing. And thus 2023's anthem:
“It’s funny, but I don’t want to mess up things with my son,” Leek added. “It’s so unnecessary! It’s my birthday! Y’all didn’t have to put me out there like that. That was not supposed to be seen. I was talking to my family. They gotta give me a flag when I’m going to be on camera so I can be politically correct.” (Penn State player’s mom goes viral for reaction to Drew Allar interception)
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And its motto: “What the f— was that?”
Belief, desire, education may be the necessary predicates; technology appears to be the operational force; and this year that technology emerged more clearly revealed as a vessel of belief, desire, and education in its own right (discussed here). Indeed, what 2023 may well be remembered most pointedly for, a century from now, is that it was a point of singularity volution--a rolling or revolving motion, the flows along the spiral or coil of the very human, made up of the people who make such rotation possible. For that people will be necessary, but not central.
Links to the 2023 Year End Ruminations here:
Part 1: I believe I believe I believe;
Part 2: The Human Spirit Spirited Away
Part 3: The Masses Must be Educated!
Part 4: The (Re)(De)(Trans)(Con)volution will be Televised!
1. "They gotta give me a flag when I’m going to be on camera so I can be politically correct."
The internet delighted in a Penn State fan who went viral for her vulgar reaction to a Drew Allar interception during Saturday’s Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl, but it was not just any fan. . . . ESPN cameras caught the reaction of one fan who could clearly be seen mouthing a simple question: “What the f— was that?” The fan, as it turns out, is Victoria Leek, the mother of Nittany Lions defensive lineman Coziah Izzard. * * * Leek’s biggest concern was for her son, a backup defensive tackle, who she said was going to “kill me.” “It’s funny, but I don’t want to mess up things with my son,” Leek added. “It’s so unnecessary! It’s my birthday! Y’all didn’t have to put me out there like that. That was not supposed to be seen. I was talking to my family. They gotta give me a flag when I’m going to be on camera so I can be politically correct.” Leek was not saying anything that other Penn State fans weren’t thinking. Allar may well have been asking himself the same question. If anything, we want to know if she gets as annoyed at James Franklin as some other Nittany Lions fans do. (Penn State player’s mom goes viral for reaction to Drew Allar interception).
2. Everyone is now performing for the cameras; it is not the actual performance but te replay of its snippets from which a reality-narrative is created.
Congress was engulfed in chaos throughout the year and little lawmaking was actually done amid the brawls and never-ending drama. The incidents ranged from a Senate sex tape in a hearing room, to the censure of a Democrat for pulling a fire alarm to a successful coup against former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. * * * This month [December], a clip went viral of a Senate staffer filming himself having sex in a historic Senate hearing room. Aidan Maese-Czeropski, 24, a staffer for ongoing Senator Ben Cardin, D-Md., was fired over the emergence of the tape. The video depicts a graphic sex act between two men, and was reportedly leaked to the Daily Caller after being 'shared in a private group for gay men in politics.' * * * (The Most Scandalous Moments in Congress this Year from Marjorie Taylor Greene's displaying of nude Hunter Biden photos to a Senate staffer sex tape: All the times lawmakers exchanged barbs and came near to blows during a chaos-filled 2023)
3. Observation and accountability are a function of the ideologies against which accounts are to be taken; revolution is s possible merely by shifting ideologies of accountability.
"OpenAI needs open-heart surgery. The ChatGPT developer’s new board of directors and its briefly fired but now-restored CEO, Sam Altman, said last week that they’re trying to fix the unusual corporate structure that allowed four board members to trigger a near-death experience for the company.The startup was founded in 2015 as a nonprofit, but it develops AI inside a capped-profit subsidiary answerable to the nonprofit’s board, which is charged with ensuring that the technology is “broadly beneficial” to humanity.* * * If you take OpenAI’s mission at its word, the stakes couldn’t be much higher. The company aims to develop AI technology that makes machines with capabilities on par with—or exceeding—those of humans, potentially affecting nearly every job in the world. Even if it falls short of that goal, the way OpenAI governs itself could determine who prospers and who suffers from the rollout of world-shaping AI technologies like ChatGPT. At the same time, competitors like Google and Amazon aren’t bound to the same structural limitations as OpenAI." (How to Stop Another OpenAI Meltdown: OpenAI designed its governance structure to protect humanity—and it imploded. The company could take pointers from Mozilla and other projects combining lofty goals with for-profit ventures.)4. The easiest way to watch a dependent is to carefully control the flow of needed goods; this is especially useful in times of armed conflict; ex ante surveillance and accountability makes it possible for ideological discourse to soar rather than the leashed dependent military.
"The U.S. secretly modified the advanced Himars rocket launchers it gave Ukraine so they can’t be used to fire long-range missiles into Russia, U.S. officials said, a precaution the Biden administration says is necessary to reduce the risk of a wider war with Moscow. * * * The previously undisclosed modifications show the lengths to which the Biden Administration has gone to balance its support for Ukraine's forces against the risk of escalation with Moscow" (U.S. Altered Himars Rocket Launchers to Keep Ukraine From Firing Missiles Into Russia: Experts debate whether long-range missiles for Ukraine would deter Putin or widen war)
5. The revolution will be fueled by national security and secured by the apparatus of observation.
"Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, Chinese president, and chairman of the Central Military Commission, presided over the first meeting of the National Security Commission under the 20th CPC Central Committee on Tuesday and made an important speech. Xi is head of the commission. He stressed the need to fully implement the guiding principles of the 20th CPC National Congress, deeply understand the complex and challenging circumstances facing national security, properly grasp major national security issues, and accelerate the efforts to modernize the country's national security system and capacity, so as to safeguard the new development pattern with a new security architecture and break new ground for national security work.. * * * It was stressed at the meeting that the complexity and severity of national security problems faced by our country have increased dramatically. The national security front must build up strategic self-confidence, have enough confidence to secure victory, and be keenly aware of its own strengths and advantages. We must be prepared for worst-case and extreme scenarios, and be ready to withstand the major test of high winds, choppy waters, and even dangerous storms." (Xi urges accelerated efforts to modernize national security system, capacity)
"Full equipment, full ammunition depots and full training opportunities: In view of new threats, Bavaria's Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) has called for more speed to modernize the Bundeswehr. "We have to make our country 100 percent capable of defending itself," the head of government told Bild am Sonntag. Procurement must be "revolutionized". A "drone army with 100,000 drones for our armed forces" is also needed. He also explicitly called for a return to conscription – but there is still a lot of controversy on this point." (Modern equipment and a return to compulsory military service: Bavaria's prime minister is putting pressure on the Bundeswehr reform – and is calling for 100,000 drones.)
6. The most profound revolution is in the transformation of human by pharmaceuticals and the technologies of medicine; one need not understand self-actualization as an abstract exercises, but one of the human capacity to embrace dependence.
"Investors piled into exchange-traded funds tracking Novo Nordisk in the last three months as the Danish drugmaker rides a wave of demand for its diabetes and weight-loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy. * * * These drugs introduce a brand new category to the market, and so with that comes really enhanced returns." As the global obesity crisis gathers pace, Morgan Stanley Research expects the market for obesity drugs to go from a $2.4 billion category in 2022 to $77 billion in 2030, according to a note last month." (Ozempic craze drives big flows into pharmaceutical, Danish funds).
"An unintended consequence will be the perpetuation of America’s cultural obsession with being and staying thin, which is often glamorized in the entertainment industry. From a public health perspective, this can have devastating consequences, providing people a drug to perpetuate eating disorders like anorexia or bulimia. “Any time there are medications for weight loss, we know that is a tool that people can use for a disordered eating reason,” states A. Janet Tomiyama, a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles who has studied eating disorders." (The Ozempic Craze Is Sending The Wrong Public Health Message)
7. If the traditional notion of privacy is dead, and it is, then the contemporary understanding about privacy is more about ownership, exploitation, and narrative control, than it is about any right to be left alone.
"It’s not clear that even now, having authored a book, Harry entirely understands what a book is; when challenged by Tom Bradby about his decision to reveal private conversations after having railed so forcefully about the invasive tactics of the press, Harry replied, “The level of planting and leaking from other members of the family means that in my mind they have written countless books—certainly, millions of words have been dedicated to trying to trash my wife and myself to the point of where I had to leave my country.” Pity the poor ghostwriter who has to hear his craft compared to the spewing verbiage of the media churn—by its commissioning subject, no less. (Man, what a piece of work.) Remarkably, Prince Harry has suggested that he sees the book as an invitation to reconciliation, addressed to his father and brother—a way of speaking to them publicly when all his efforts to address them privately have failed to persuade. “Spare” is, you might say, Prince Harry’s “Mousetrap”—a literary device intended to catch the conscience of the King, and the King after him." (The Haunting of Prince Harry: Electrified by outrage—and elevated by a gifted ghostwriter—the blockbuster memoir “Spare” exposes more than Harry’s enemies).8. The state remains an indispensable object in revolutionary theater; especially when it can be used to further others' interests.
"Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., said Monday she was the victim of another "swatting" incident at her home in Georgia; the incident was confirmed by local police to NBC News. "I was just swatted. This is like the 8th time. On Christmas with my family here," Greene said in a post on X. Major Rodney Bailey of the police department in Rome, Georgia, said that a person based in Rome, New York, made a call to the suicide hotline claiming that he had shot his girlfriend at Greene’s address in Georgia and threatened to kill himself next.* * * In a separate incident Monday, Republican Rep. Brandon Williams of New York tweeted that his home was swatted, and said state and local police "left with homemade cookies and spiced nuts!" . . Cayuga County Sheriff Brian Schenck said that law enforcement responded Monday afternoon after receiving a "false" report from an unknown caller about a shooting at Williams' address and that the sheriff's office was working with U.S. Capitol Police to determine the origins of the call." (Police confirm swatting incident targeting Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's house on Christmas)
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