I’m going for simulation, at this point. It would be easier in some ways to go with being high but that’s… well, it can be ruled out.

Not to completely plagiarize Baudrillard but here’s the definition of another word:

simulacrum

nounSave Word

To save this word, you’ll need to log in. Log Insim·​u·​la·​crum | \ ˌsim-yə-ˈla-krəm  , -ˈlā- \plural simulacra\ ˌsim-​yə-​ˈla-​krə  , -​ˈlā-​ \ also simulacrums

Definition of simulacrum

1: IMAGE, REPRESENTATIONa reasonable simulacrum of reality— Martin Mayer2: an insubstantial form or semblance of something : TRACE

Everyone’s out here doing their best imitation of themselves, or living out a representation of themselves. A living portrait of media portrayals they’ve put together and called “ME.” That’s on the elemental level and then there are identity groups, from personal social circles to ethnic representations on to national representations.

Identity.

Who and what is real? Babies, perhaps, are real and living their best lives founded on very, very basic needs. The rest?

Nah.

So if it’s not real, then what matters? All of it? None of it? We all have to go along to get along but when it’s fairly obvious to everyone, except perhaps dunces and babies that none of it’s real it becomes really easy to see why so many people suffer from alienation and depression. Think about it. You’re a fraud and you know it. Everyone around you is a fraud and you’re at least pretty certain of that. What do any of the connections mean?

I think there is a tendency to hold on tighter to the representation, just out of the sheer terror that everything is going to fall apart and into utter meaningless. You hold onto the meaningless as the fear goes to desperation… the desperate fear to not be wrong. To remain in the relationship by holding onto the artificially created value. The fear to not be alone and to have some meaning to someone else or a group. One might actually adhere more closely to the representation than they would something real, with real value.

Fanaticism.

There is a lot of fanaticism, if you haven’t noticed, whether it be nationalist, or religious on one end of the spectrum, or something as simple and empty as being a fan of a TV show or a pop band. It’s an artificial moral imperative.

And it’s all false. We want so badly to believe in something that we will create something to believe in. We want something that gives us meaning and value and it has to be something more tangible than goodness just for the sake of being good. Someone has to be right, therefore someone has to be very, very wrong. That latter part isn’t out of any real necessity. It just makes it easier.

Now, I’m not saying that nothing has value. There is plenty of value but it’s not necessarily the simulacrum. It’s not the simulation. That’s all fairly random and they occurred much the way piles of debris collect on beaches. It’s all random heaps of sticks and garbage that gathers and the mass gives it shape and gravity. People collect randomly like debris and form an identity that is no better nor worse than the pile that formed 100 yards downstream. It’s when the components en masse decide they are morally superior to the components of the next pile simply by reason of being here and not there that things get sticky.

The heaps get larger and larger until the perimeter of one nears the perimeter of another and identity is threatened. The next strong rain draws them nearer and components of one become components of another. Oh dear no this can’t happen! Artificial values of East and West and North and South get challenged.

Anxiety.

Depression.

Frustration.

Anger.

Bullshit.

All bullshit. We can’t be happy living in a simulation. There will be eventually a challenge and all sides being equally pointless there will be some issues. My take would be to embrace the pointlessness and celebrate it as an opportunity to rebuild on a solid foundation, but that’s not happened yet. I think we are in the earliest days of the conflict and the worst is yet to come. There will be no winners. There can be no winners. How is it going to play out? Who the fuck knows? When those of us left are sitting in the ruins we will know true pointlessness and then we’ll stand up and start the same process over. That’s what history has shown anyway.

I could definitely go all science fiction too with conjecture about how deep the simulation goes but there are more talented people doing films and books on that. There are simulations of the simulations. Hell, we even have future simulations of what happens after this simulation falls apart. Hell or example… or Heaven if you will. It doesn’t get more science fiction/fantasy than that. Even our major religions are founded on the very good hunch that one day we will all be destroyed so to confront the pointlessness of the pre-catastrophy times we invented a point. Why are we here in the first place if we’re all going to die horrible deaths anyway? Oh, because there is an eternity afterwards that’s not fake and pointless and we’ll live on there forever.

Okay.

Sure.

Let’s all say it together then.

Good morning.