Despair – that you can’t fake. That can’t be bought. Despair as an attunement – to what? To what is worth despairing about. To what is despair-worthy. Which is to say, everything. Which is to say, the total state of the world. Which is to say, the state of world collapse. Global spiritual ruination. And actual ruination.
A despair bias is absolutely necessary to correct the general positivity bias, Cicero said. And a horror bias is necessary to correct the general glee bias.
What has to be thought can only be done so through despair and horror, Cicero said. Despair and horror reveal what is to be thought, what is most worthy of thought.
Only the dead are strong enough, Cicero said. Only those who expect nothing. The already destroyed. The already ruined. For whom the apocalypse is a given. For whom every day is the Last Day.
The fools aren’t fooled, Cicero said. The stupid aren’t stupid.
Our blood ran fast, despite everything. We were never depressed, Cicero noticed that. Never down, for all our talk of the end times. The apocalypse.
Our idiot energies, in spite of everything. Our animal spirits. Our perpetual good cheer.
Weren’t we, as Cicero said, the best company? Wasn’t she at her happiest borne along by our high spirits? Didn’t she throw over her old friends to hang with us? Didn’t she tell us that she didn’t know the meaning of fun until she met us?
Our unserious seriousness. Our cheerful despair. Our fun-filled sense that there was nothing to be done.
Work in Progress 