Season 1, Episode 5 - The Boxtops XVII - "The Dialectic of Centripetalism, Part 1"
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While Reed thumbed through the pamphlet, Isaac recalled what he knew about centripetalism from his school textbooks and the television documentaries he watched when he had some free time and was in an inquisitive mood.
Centripetalism is some sort of communism offshoot that wants to dismantle society and replace it with a new one. The ideology first appeared in East Africa several decades ago, and was used by a revolutionary movement that toppled several regional dictators in favor of one, big centripetalist government that now stretches from southern Sudan to northern Mozambique. Millions of people live there and I guess their religion is worshipping their own government or something. It’s a bad ideology because it’s totalitarian and destroys freedom.
Isaac rubbed his temple. Wait, I’m smarter than that. I just spent the past few months learning that things aren’t always as they seem. It still rubs me the wrong way, but...
Isaac did his best to appear disinterested while peering over Reed’s shoulder at the pamphlet. Reed noticed this and gave him a smirk, then looked back at the pamphlet. Audrey tried to remain focus but given the amount of butterflies flying around near her, Isaac didn't think she'd last that long.
“History has been driven by two opposing forces that eventually culminate into a third force that combines them,” Reed began, keeping her voice low so only the terrible trio and Stennis could hear. “Thesis. Antithesis. Synthesis. Hegel proposed these two opposing forces in terms of his cosmological, divine dialect – Force A is what the world is, Force B is what the world can be, and their tension and interplay gives rise to Force C, what the world becomes. Hegel believed these forces were all part of God’s plan, the will of a cosmic...cosmic spirit...”
Isaac nudged Reed awake again. When she saw Stennis frown, she just shrugged.
“I didn’t understand I was getting some sort of philosophical-history lesson,” Reed complained.
“Nothing exists in a vacuum,” Stennis countered. “Centripetalism is a theory of everything because the only way to achieve peace is through a theory of everything. Ignorance is why we keep fighting as a species. Keep reading, you’ll understand.”
Reed blinked herself awake, then kept going. “Marx put these forces into far more concrete terms – that of historical materialism. He proposes that economics is the backbone for all of humanity. Any expressions of humanity – culture, politics, religion – derives from the economic system behind them. The economic structure of humanity is what produces the two opposing forces throughout history - elites and commoners, aristocracy and the masses, haves and have-nots. These two forces have gone by many names throughout the various socioeconomic eras – spartiates and helots, masters and slaves, lords and serfs, bourgeoise and proletariat.
“Throughout each historical era, the division between the have and have-nots has got increasingly smaller and smaller, until one day, Marx hoped that the have-nots would rise up and seize the means of production, destroying the haves, and there would no longer be any have-nots as well, because the have-nots would now have all, erasing that distinction. Force A and Force B of the haves and have-nots would become Force C – the classless, world society. With only Force C existing, the end of history would arrive for there could be no more history – victory and peace would be achieved for all time.”
Reed and Isaac side-eyed each other. Isaac gave Reed a look to say what does any of this mean?
Reed just shrugged, but from the look in her eye, Isaac could tell she was actually trying to focus and understand it.
She read the next few paragraphs. “By the beginning of the industrial revolution, feudalism with its monarchs versus subjects gave way to capitalism with its plutocrats versus mass society. The short twentieth century saw the final showdown between the elites and commoners, with the elites facing off against threats from both left and right. Finally, as the third millennium dawned, the end of history arrived. But the commoners did not overtake the elites; instead, the elites won their victory for all time, totally absorbing the commoners into its plutocratic system from which there was no escape.
“How did they do this? The plutocrats simply created a system which gave the illusion of freedom. The people were satisfied on the surface – they had food, they had homes, they had televisions and sports and the old technology of the internet. They no longer needed ideas such as nationalism or religion – the instant gratification of media provided them with their daily bread. Nihilism ran rampant through the society, life grew meaningless, but by then it was too late – before they could wake up, the masses found themselves in a plastic nirvana, wrapped in white noise, zombies to consumerism, zombies to the system, with nothing they could do but amble along, no meaning in their lives, only mindless consumption, and this system, now in control of the entire world, would continue until the end of time...hey, hey wait a minute.”
Reed looked up from the pamphlet. “I don’t really care about nationalism or religion, and I like television. Television’s all I really do.”
Stennis waved his arms at the forests and trees surrounding the town. “If you had no television, what do you think you would do?”
“I’d walk around nature or something,” Reed answered. “I’d visit ponds, meadows...I like trees, you know. Oak...apple...”
Isaac saw the gears spinning in Reed’s head and frowned. “You’re acting like television’s the cause of society’s problems,” Isaac interrupted.
Stennis shrugged. “Well, not just television. Television’s just a stand-in word. Maybe I’ll need to emphasize in a later edition of the pamphlet that it’s media as a whole. Or rather, that complacent lifestyle enabled by instant gratification.” He counted off on his fingers. “Media, unhealthy food, drugs.”
“Japanimations, Ring Dings, Dopamine Rushers,” Reed mumbled to herself.
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
“But it’s like you’re just blaming that gratification thing as an excuse,” Isaac continued. “I got a television, but I’m not chained to it. I still train and practice. I like to write, too. I got creative hobbies. And I like our country and religion.”
Stennis pointed a finger at him. “That’s because you’re looking at it just from your point of view,” he declared. He looked at the patch on Isaac's greatcoat. “You, my friend, go to a premier learning institute – a Rddhi school. The average person in this country works hours and hours at the factory or farm or even an office job. To put it frankly, the average person is tired.”
Isaac saw Reed rub the circles under her eyes.
“Instant gratification is easy,” Stennis said. “When society puts you through the wringer most of the day, it’s far easier to get home and just lay around. That’s how the plutocracy wins. They beat you down at work, then provide you mindless comforts at home. Comforts that wrap you in a false sense of happiness. On the surface, you’re happy, but deep down, it’s all empty, but that’s when they tighten the cocoon, and you blind yourself to the emptiness. You blind yourself to the fact that society needs changing.”
Reed looked down at her stomach and scratched at it.
Isaac felt like he heard these words somewhere before...the image of Harriet slashing her own throat came to his mind again and he let out an involuntary shiver.
“I don’t think the system is inherently broken,” Isaac said slowly, remembering his argument with Harriet. “I think it needs some fixing, but we shouldn’t tear it down completely.”
Stennis pressed him. “Then how do we fix it?”
Isaac scratched his head. “Well...I don’t know.”
What did I say to Harriet?
“Stop engaging in self-destructive behaviors," Isaac recalled. "Making friends. Working within the system.”
“Empty slogans,” Stennis simply surmised. “How can you make friends in an increasingly isolated world? Where do you find the energy to break bad habits? And what does working within the system exactly entail? Does planting trees or volunteering at food drives fix a corrupt government and system, or just apply temporary bandages that are ultimately meaningless on a societal-scale?”
Isaac simmered, but didn’t speak. Damnit. When I made my argument to Harriet, things seemed so much simpler then. Maybe arguing with someone who hated the system so much that she was willing to kill herself to escape it...maybe that's why I’m having trouble making the same argument now.
If only I could punch this guy out like I did with Harriet. But that’s not right. I need to use my words...but all I've done is train my body. I never thought about training for this type of conflict where you can only use your voice.
Not sure what to say, Isaac let Reed resume reading.
“The end of history had arrived – endless consumption, for all time. But whether it was through a merciful act of God or man’s own hubris, the Unleashing occurred. The world was sundered, giving rise to instability and two centuries of atomic warfare. But the Unleashing was a blessing in disguise. The event broke the world free of its plutocratic chains, giving humanity an opportunity to reinvent itself, to save itself from its destiny of nihilism.
“But Marx also had a saying. History repeats itself – the first time as a tragedy, the second time as a farce. Post-Unleashing society is in danger of becoming a farce. The plutocratic world order has reappeared under the guise of the Unified Pact. And unlike the twentieth century, there are few opponents in their path to world domination. The only possible opponent is the Pan-Asian League, which is far more plutocratic than it lets on, and will no doubt join the Pact in perpetuating the plutocratic world order when the time comes. Besides that, all that’s left are unaligned, personal dictatorships, very much like our own New England.”
Isaac frowned at the word dictatorship, but even he knew that was a true statement.
“With no opponents, all that’s left for the plutocratic powers of the world is to re-establish their old system across the globe. We already see the return of nihilism through the rise of television in New England’s wealthiest districts and the rise of dime novels, radios, and recreational drugs across the entire country. Our current government, despite its claims, can’t resist the plutocratic tide that will enslave the world’s masses to nihilism once again.
“And if you need further proof of the plutocratic soft invasion, look no further than the so-called Theory of Cultural Stasis-”
“Oh, I can actually join in on the conversation now!” Audrey interrupted, taking her eyes of a monarch butterly. Isaac and Reed rolled their own eyes, since the only reason she knew about that theory was because the two of them once showed her an article about it in Reed’s Japanimation newsletter.
Audrey ahem’d so their attention would be on her. “The cultural stasis is like a Renaissance of yore,” she declared, at the last moment remembering to keep her voice low. “For the first time, we’re able to view the same media as people did from two hundred years ago. From the Golden Age. In that time, more people could talk to each other than ever before. Never before had humanity had the means to produce so much and the ability to communicate so easily. Anybody could make something back then. Anybody could do anything back then.”
Stennis saw the dreamy look in Audrey’s eyes and had a look on his own that suggested that his pamphlet already prepared for this. “Read on.”
Reed looked back down at the pamphlet in her hands. “This theory proposes that the late twentieth century and early twenty-first century were a Golden Age of prosperity and creative freedom. In reality, this theory is nothing more than a front by the plutocratic powers to get the common person to associate a plutocratic world order with a Golden Age. They reinforce this association through the incessant advertising and sales of twentieth-century works. This Golden Age casts a shadow over our lifestyles and cultures, invading our conscious and subconscious thoughts, forcing us to think of our own era in relation to the past, rather than by its own merits. The plutocrats don’t need to win through military invasions – they can achieve victory through a cultural miasma, as well.”
Isaac and Reed slowly looked at each other, feeling uncomfortable.
How they became friends – their shared interest in Golden Age-era Japanimations.
Their favorite television shows – Golden Age-era Japanimations.
Even their Halloween costumes – from Golden Age-era Japanimations.
Audrey joined them, looking just as nervous – because all of them called it the Golden Age.
Isaac knew that at least a few times this past year, Reed and Audrey had wondered if they were born two hundred years too late.
"But..." Audrey protested. "I try to live in the present."
"Again, maybe you do," Stennis said. "But one person feeling healthy doesn't mean society isn't sick as a whole."
Reed tugged at the collar of her greatcoat and kept reading. “Today’s media, when it is consumed, can’t escape the influence of Golden Age thought and theory. The soft cultural miasma is wrapping its invisible hands around us, preventing us from moving forward, instead keeping us chained to the past.”
Reed closed the pamphlet. “I think I’m all set with this.”
Stennis refused to take the pamphlet back. “Are you facing truths you’re not comfortable with?”
Reed sighed. “Don’t get the wrong idea. It’s just that this thing is like sixty pages and would take a few hours to read fully.”
“It’s only sixteen pages. But at least read on a little further, you’re just about to reach the part that introduces what centripetalism is.” He smiled. “And I think it’ll have some solutions you might like.”
Reed slowly opened the pamphlet back up and skimmed ahead.
“So, how do we stop the ever-advancing tide of plutocracy? To put it simply, we must destroy societal nihilism by giving the masses something worth believing in.”
Reed read the next few words a little more slowly, yet sounding out each word, attaching weight to each of them.
“Centripetalism - towards the center.”