Voluptuary

August Minz

        Only the mixture of elements is different, a difference very
        important for the individual, insignificant for the race.

                                                -- Kafka--

The cooptation of imagination into a servant of self preservation and artificial negativity speaks to the bankruptcy of man's creative possession. The imagination, wrested from the employment of the individual, has been marginalized and institutionalized to concretize and legitimate existence. The manipulation of the image relies upon the passive, dependent reception of the object of desire. The forces of domination: economic, social or political, understand the exploitation of harmless nuances in the stage production of individualization. The exaggeration of these vanities produces the desired satisfaction millions experience when putting on the same brand of jeans. The self projects itself on the world through fashion and material possessions which are established by external forces.

Her continuous efforts to be beautiful is reminiscent of the repetitive punishment of Hell.

                                           --Benjamin--

Imagination reduced to rigid social conformity loses its original function as play impulse. Images are produced to fortify a social correctness that restricts experience and defines success with narrow boundaries. The psychological term, process, becomes a rationalized successive approximation toward happiness. Objects of desire acquire redemptive status and acquisition is equated to self worth. This process can never be satiated but is always a deferred payment or installment for future consumption.

And whereas it is in the nature of being to appear and thus disclose itself, it is in the nature of process to remain invisible; to be something whose existence can only be inferred from the presence of certain phenomena. For here in the processes of inner life, found in the passions through introspection, can become the standards and rules for the creation of the "automatic life" of "that artificial man" who is "the great Leviathon."

                                           --Arendt--

The establishment of definition or parameters is the essential component to manipulate the direction of imagination. A child's indoctrination into organizations with specific guidelines constricts the play impulse. Affiliation with youth organizations, represented by governing boards, rules committees, and ever present authority figures, instills a concrete value system to which the imagination adheres. Imagination is transformed into a goal and success oriented image that falls within a strict code or outline supplied by the organization. Happiness becomes equated with compliance and performance precipitating the mutilation of unstructured play into conformity.

The diverse appetites subjugated to state authored definitions become a passive groundwork for manipulation. Authorship and manufacture of the definitions allows for the apotheosis of the image and thus domination over the passions. Systemic compliance becomes the only legitimate means for the fulfillment of the various appetites. The definition is notable, not for its abstract nature, but for the all inclusive manner in which it holds sway over all lived experience. Improvisation is adjusted to complement the definition. Imagination loses its insouciant character within a political and social correctness. The critical impulse evaporates within the miasma of obsequious slogans which focus on the undiminished supply of narcissistic pride.

Passion is the motivating element which governs the imagination to its extremities. The successful dominance of avarice and vanity over reason through strategies, calculations and machinations needs no further explanation than this:

As long as we're young, we manage to find excuses for the stoniest indifference, the most blatant caddishness, we put them down to emotional eccentricity or some sort of romantic inexperience. But later on, when life shows us how much cunning, cruelty, and malice are required to keep the body at ninety-eight-point-six, we catch on, we know the score, we begin to understand how much swinishness it takes to make up a past. Just take a close look at yourself and the degree of rottenness you've come to. There's no mystery about it, no more room for fairy tales; if you've lived this long, it's because you've squashed any poetry you have in you.

                                           --Celine--

The schadenfreude has extirpated the organic values of community, neighborhood, and friendship. Veracious individuals become a rarity and reticence impregnates every disclosure. (Linguistically competent technocrats provide a glaring example). There's no mystery how we evolved to this point when we closely analyze this misanthropy inherent in an economic system motivated by self preservation. Calculation of given reality has produced a rigidity that results in instrumental reasoning for survival. What is only admitted to oneself is what needs to be studied. A society with few contradictions has little need of this moralizing.

			(August Minz is a writer in Philippstahl, Germany.)