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the 1950s are often referred to as the "consensus" period of american history, a time when labor, capital, and the political class cut a bunch of deals to run postwar "prosperity" to failure. the 2020s are another "consensus" period, except labor is out of the equation
there& #39;s a long-term reckoning that few are thinking about right now, a problem that is likely to ramify over time: what does it mean that all of the major corporations + the political/pol-adjacent class agree on an enforceable code of conduct without many offsetting concessions?
again, i don& #39;t truly care - i& #39;m someone who has always been lost in history, "untimely" on my best day - but the point of "consensus" here will ultimately be a kind of "run to failure" situation for the US. & the "code of conduct" will stay within these borders
the ramifications, for example, of extended "lockdown" (whatever that means) simply by itself necessitate such a new consensus. when various payment suspension and eviction grace periods expire, things will get real touchy. this "consensus" offers a path forward, such as it is
all of the great ideas of this time, the animating impulses, are tied to intermediate or long-term decline, the "run to failure" of life itself. COVID, climate change, a grudging acceptance that workers can bargain for a certain kind of protection "at best" ("Amazonism")
these are not simply appearing out of the ether, as "fundamentals" indicate "declension" is "inevitable" (again, whatever that means, and yet it means a heck of a lot). but out in the world, on any specific day, the sun may be shining & you may eat a pizza, or you might stay in
i am just not sure - and here i would urge people to read emil cioran, if no one else - that people have reckoned with the sense that something, perhaps everything, is being buttoned up. and if it isn& #39;t true, it could become true, like n. taleb rooting for the COVID black swan
