turns out we live in a society sausage-factory trash-bin stomach

core thesis: if you constitute a yearly spectacle that valorises ruthless individualism, you destroy your civilians' ability to trust in one another. without trust, they cannot mobilise collectively, yet they still yearn for ontological security. this gap is filled by fascism, the dual spook of the self and the state. the self instrumentalised, in the absence of the social, towards totalitarian ends.

paranoia short-circuits intimacy, trust, and mutualism into terror, manipulation, and sadism. cornered kids lash out in fear, a fille fatale with no face rotates a dozen masks to suit whatever social situation arises, and a smooth amygdala-brained boy internalises the new rules of killing with mechanical precision. those who refuse the game are stomped on by either those too terrified to conceive of an outside, or those who've found the inside thrilling. the state fades into the background as all energy and thought is directed towards bare survival.

some other cool things: rock music is illegal but circulates underground, giving dissatisfied civilians a signifier of rebellion in lieu of revolution. i had more thoughts but my brain has stopped working.