Of all the unspoken assumptions we all thought held down civilization, but are finding out were just sugar plum dreams, one of the most subtly disturbing is that the rich folk in charge valued living luxuriously in a developed society over the simple pleasure of drinking the blood of the poor. - ThreadSky

catvalente.bsky.social • 1 day ago

Of all the unspoken assumptions we all thought held down civilization, but are finding out were just sugar plum dreams, one of the most subtly disturbing is that the rich folk in charge valued living luxuriously in a developed society over the simple pleasure of drinking the blood of the poor.

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angusm.bsky.social•1 day ago

My assumption is that they believe that they can now live luxuriously AND drink blood in larger-than-ever quantities. They no longer believe that a developed society is a necessary precondition for a luxurious lifestyle, but that their own prosperity can be safely decoupled from other people’s.

figureoutthesea.ca•20 hours ago

Right, it sounds like they'd be happy to go back to antebellum gentry, with their mansions and their plantations. Or pre-revolutionary French aristocracy, with the even more crushing wealth disparity and centuries of traditions telling them God is on their side

catvalente.bsky.social•20 hours ago

But in those eras, society DID function, up until it didn’t, then righted fairly quickly. Because rich people like to buy things, show off, impress mistresses, differentiate themselves while enjoying city life as only they can.

Now they seem to WANT a total breakdown.

figureoutthesea.ca•20 hours ago

True dat. Maybe they believe their little circle of friends will be spared from the apocalypse in their custom-made shelters, or some Libertarian Shangri La? It seems they really can't visualise things going badly for them in any way

catvalente.bsky.social•19 hours ago

But there didn’t need to be an apocalypse at all! Didn’t they like lording it over all of us? Wouldn’t they rather not live in a bunker? I guess not.

figureoutthesea.ca•19 hours ago

No I think you're right, that they'd rather hurt the Little People than be safe in their glittering palaces. Like, they really really loathe and fear us.

catvalente.bsky.social•1 day ago

And that is literally *insane* no matter how much they love ChatGPT.

othiym23.bsky.social•15 hours ago

Elizabeth Hand was right all along, which makes sense given that she came up in the DC milieu at the tail end of Reagan.

riecks.bsky.social•1 day ago

Exactly. Ursula K. LeGuin nailed it back in the 70’s, with her, short story, “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” — our society is too focused on individual gain and not enough on the happiness and well-being of everyone. It’s supposed to be that a rising tide lifts all the boats — not just yachts!

catvalente.bsky.social•1 day ago

I’m talking about something more fundamental than that.

They don’t seem to actually care if they have yachts anymore. Or docks or fuel or staff or anything. They either think they can still have those things if everything else burns or they prefer the burning to any luxury

riecks.bsky.social•1 day ago

So, less a progression of the Omelas delusion, and more of a quantum leap forward into the abyss?

catvalente.bsky.social•1 day ago

Yeah. Americans have been fine with the Omelas situation pretty much the whole time. Hence the story. This is weirder—they don’t seem to think they need a stable consumer base anymore, or employees, or products. They just want to be warlords in the apocalypse instead of pampered in society

ninaamaya.bsky.social•1 day ago

Ow. Yeah.

shanadubois.bsky.social•20 hours ago

Oof. The truth, it burns.

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