I would offer that our representations, no matter how abstract that they may seem, always refer, more or less, to a pure presentation of Nature's Economy (though it may be many, many times removed). Nature's Economy, as the Totalizing Flow of pure presentations, is the base from which all of our flights of representational mapping and symbolistic discourse stem from (and necessarily return to for that matter). In this way, Nature's Economy as pure presentational delivery is analogous to our Primal Ground, the Spiritual Ur-Stat, the Primordial Referent from which all representations necessarily flow (both to, as in return, and from, as in source).

The particular pure presentation that we are each intimately entwined with and as is the Body. Bodies are pure presentations of Nature's Economy, which in the Market become representations of labor capacity, potential commodification, consumption, tastes, desires, and productive output. Numbers. Representations of actualities. Productivity. Investment. Wage. Return. Market language.

The various Bodies are also the flows of Nature's Economy that unfold as pure presentations right now. Fly buzzing on window pane. Spider patient in web. Belly of man growling in hunger.

Pure presentations, then, are the bodies and beings, the flows of bodies and beings, expressed outwardly by Nature's Economy. Each Body flows out of Nature's Economy as an export, expressed as a pure presentations. Bodies are like the Ur-Capital of Nature's Economy; the singular 'valued' expression, or pure presentation of those forces and flows of Nature as an Economy to and for ItSelf.

The Bodies that are those pure presentations of Nature's Economy become representations of labor, and potential commodities in relation to the Market. The Market does not know pure presentation, as such (not in the way that Nature does). The Market, being a representation of Nature's Economy, a representational structure and system, can only offer representations. Likewise, Nature's Economy knows nothing of labor and capital, production and efficiency in the Market sense of those terms. Those terms are representations of and for the Market, which have a likeness derived from the impression that Nature's Economy makes on all of its subjects.

Pure presentations make no referral to anything other than Nature's Economy, which they are a pure presentation of. Representations must make referral to other representations, or to the pure presentations of Nature's Economy which they are meant to refer to. Likeness and metaphor-representations of similarity --- these are derived from the pure presentations of Nature's Economy. It flows like a River. It is as vast as the sky. As powerful as thunder and lightning. Cars are called Jaguars and Mustangs. Beer is sold by associating it to an actual mountain stream. As pure as moutain air. The Market refers to Nature for its potency; Nature's Economy refers to Itself alone...

In that Self-referral, Nature gives rise to and unfolds expressions of an Economy, which are the actual pure presentations expressed as Nature's Economy in reference to ItSelf. In turn, these pure presentations become referred to other pure presentations --- bodies are referred to other bodies --- and it is this which gives rise to representation. It looks just like that. Here let me draw it for you.

Based upon these recursive and reified referrals to the pure presentations of Nature's Economy alone, self-aware Bodies begin to re-present Nature to ItSelf in new forms, i.e., re-presentations. The birth of the simulated real commences.

As we have noted, Nature's Economy renders pure presentations. An actual mountain lion is itself a pure presentation of Nature's Econonmy. It is not a representation, though a picture of that mountain lion would be.

The pure presentations are flows and forces, culminating in Bodies that serve as expressions of Nature's Economic viability, i.e. the ability to produce, to create from out of ItSelf a pure presentation, which takenm in whole cannot be reduced to anything else; meaning it is essentially non-representable in whole.

The self-aware Bodies of Nature's Economy are those Bodies, which through reflect-ability give rise to representations based on the various pure presentations witnessed, perceived, intuited, imagined. It is the self-aware Body that can, unlike other embodied species, reflect on and refer to other Bodies as well as their own Body. This initial reflection and referral is what seeds those initiatory loops of referencing that begins the cycle of the representational paradigm that humanity is the present culmination of.

The increasing referral of pure presentations to other pure presentations --- of Bodies to Bodies --- further conditions the comparative analysis of the ensuing representational paradigm. In this way, and increasingly so --- exponentially so, even --- representations are perceived as having the ability to stand in for the actual pure presentations of Nature's Economy. Here is where can note that the self-aware Bodies increase the many-foldedness of the representational paradigm that constitutes humanities current apex. And it is where we note that the map is just beginning to define the territory; as representations increasingly stand in for pure presentations.

My most certain guess is that the representational paradigm springs forth from the time when self-aware Bodies became the latest pure presentation of Nature's Economy. In other words, the last emergent species of the order of higher mammalian capacity. In this way we notice that "representational paradigms", in relation to Nature's Economy, do not arise apart from self-aware Bodies. Only self-aware Bodies can give birth to comparative analysis, which lights the fire of the representational paradigm. The mirror of analysis and comparison; referencing the past, present, and future; birthing a system: culture: those are just some of the fruit-seeds of the representational paradigm.

Self-aware Bodies are Bodies that are aware of a self; a self that re-presents the Body. "I" am a self that represents the newly aware Body. Self-aware Bodies are Bodies that are able to refer, not only to Nature's Economy, but to a self that is the representative awareness of the Body reflected. It is this self that re-presents the Body, rather than the Body merely arising as a pure presentation of Nature's Economy. This emergence of a new "self" that represents the Body is the emergence of humanity in a nutshell. The Being-human is the pure presentation of Nature's Economy that begins to initiate and exponentially increase the amplitude of the representational paradigm over time. Through comparative analysis and the ability to reflect, the emergent "self" represents the Body. As a pure presentation of Nature's Economy the self-aware Body is the emergent capacity which initiates and gives birth to the representational paradigm; a paradigm which which serves to re-present Nature to ItSelf in new forms of simulated realism.

What began as just a pure presentation, not unlike other species, can now be determined to have evolved into increasing representation. That which is a pure presentation of Nature's Economy, a Being-human, expresses self-awareness through offering representations of the Real. These self-aware Bodies, that are themselves pure presentations of Nature's Economy, progress into the representational paradigm through the ability, or capacity, to compare and judge likeness and difference, thereby constructing representations of those noted likenesses and differences. These representations, over time, begin to fold in on each other, so that at some point the self-aware Bodies are faced with an increasing discrepancy between the faintly intuited sense of the pure presentations of Nature's Economy, and the representations that have evolved in a recursive and reified manner. This, then, the two worlds: The world of pure presentation, and the world of recursive and reified re-presentation. And here in the postmodern epoch is the representational paradigm foregrounded; while the pure presentations of Nature's Economy become backgrounded in deference to the increasing ornamentation and representation that we create and give birth to as the newly emergent tool-wielding species that we are.

A certain sense of gnawing vacancy and persistent alienation is a side effect of the "representationmal paradigm". Due to the increasing dissociation that is prevalent between the two worlds imaged above we can feel as if there is a fraud being perpetrated on us. The very presence of the foregroundedness of the representational paradigm increases that sense of fraud and fakery that the self-aware Bodies begin to feel in relation to themselves and their world. Precession of Simulacra. Representational offspring. What is real anymore? Alienated from authenticity. In exile from Authentic City.

As we, the self-aware Bodies, increasingly invest our attention in representations it stands to reason that we will have to increasingly forego the Pure Presentations of Nature's Economy. This serves to create, if not already increasingly exacerbating, the pervasive virtuality of the Real. When images are overlayed ontop of images, and the holographic paradigm can convince self-aware Bodies that there is in fact no necessary end to representations --- that all is at one, one time and one space, including representations and the simulated real --- then the creation of virtual bardos comes about and any and all awareness of the Ur-Stat --- the Ground of Pure Presentation which is the flux/reflux of Nature's Economy --- is forgone. Stated more simply: The pure presentations recede from view, or are obscured via the preponderance of representations that, en masse, create a recursive loop, signifying nothing other than that representations now refer to other representations, simulations to simulations. This leaves the self-aware Body in a hyperspatial font of fluxual represntations, divorced and alienated from the Ur-Ground of Nature's Economy and The Pure Presentations of Nature's Economy that are still distantly present (only that they are, perhaps, unrecognized by the self-aware Bodies who have grown to favor representations over Reality).

Mark Slouka echoes a similar understanding when he states, in relation to computer technology, that there is a "flattening effect [in] the world of computer representations --- or any other electronic representations". The screen is two dimensional; a flat simulation of the Real. It may be fine as tool amongst others, but the fervor with which this techno-revolution is sold and consumed is a tad bit disconcerting to some. Slouka goes on to state that his "gripe with the digital revolution, to put it bluntly. Is that it offers too little and demands too much. What it offers is information (representations), lots and lots of information, and a new, abstract kind of 'connectedness.' What is asks in return is that we shift our allegiance from the physical world to the virtual one." I would only add that we get more digital representations and simulated realities in trade for increasing alienation from the Ur-Ground. The Primordial Affinity with the Other and All through being co-pure presentations of Nature's Economy is backgrounded as we recur through digital domains seeking out next best simulations.

 

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The looping, spiraling, reifying chain of representations creates what can only be termed as "a labyrinth of apparent meanings."

"What does it mean?" becomes a superior question than asking "What is being presented here?"

In relation to a pure presentation there is no voice that exists apart from that pure presentation. In other words, there is no meaning apart from that which is signified by the pure presentation itself. "It is exactly what it is." The pure presentation does not refer to anything other than its own arisen exactness. For instance, the pure presentation is not representing anything; the pure presentation is itself a "once in forever" expression of Nature's Economy; which it does not so much as represent as present itself as.

There is no again in relation to the pure presentations of Nature's Economy. This is it. Meaning, there is no re-presentation, there is just "this", this pure presentation itself as an expression of Nature's Economy, transcendent of meaning and the representation of anything other than the pure presentation itself. Pure presentations speak as a Body amongst Bodies, a Flow amongst Flowings, a Force amongst Forces, a Pure Presentation amongst Pure Presentations, Nature presenting itself to/as Nature.

A long-lived aspect of the Western Heritage of Cultures (excluding certain indigenous cultures of the West) is that the pure presentations of Nature's Economy can be represented in an improved fashion and manner. Without exception the imperialistic forces of the representational paradigm have concluded --- and based as their main assumption --- that the pure presentations of Nature's Economy are left wanting, lacking in some regard. And it is the imperial forces of the representational paradigm themselves who are just that force that can re-present the pure presentations of Nature's Economy in a manner more fitting and conducive to the growth and progress of this or that ideological Empire.

The Garden cultivated.
Competing ideologies conflict
On the further designs of
What Is.

Never good enough is
The lasting sentiment
Of the Garden
Cultivated.

Those Bodies/Beings that are the pure presentations of Nature's Economy are not as they could be, nor as they should be. And it is up to us, the re-presenters, to re-condition and alter the pure presentations of Nature's Economy in a way that concedes victory to us, the imperial forces of the representational paradigm who may or may not succeed in totally re-presenting Nature in a new form-at. Digitized.

The assumption is that pure presentations are flawed. This foregone conclusion of ours results in the felt and conceived need that representation is a must... a verifiable necessity... increasingly so. Re-present the present in a new format. Silicon. Saline. Symbolized. Simulated.

As previously stated, the self-aware Bodies of Nature's Economy are those Bodies that are able to reflect on the pure presentations of Nature's Economy --- and then offer a judgment based upon that reflection.

Self-aware Bodies are able to reflect on the Bodies of Nature's Economy, the Forces of Nature's Economy, and the Flows of Nature's Economy. This reflect-ability is also the ability to compare, to draw distinctions, to note likeness and similarity, along with difference and distinction. As the self-aware Bodies of Nature's Economy further reflect on the pure presentations that arise from/as Nature's Economy, through comparative analysis there begins to be this desire that imagines ways to re-present those Bodies, Forces, Fields and Flows in a judged to be better way than is now.

In the realm of languaging the self-aware Bodies, through this ability and capacity to reflect, draw out the distinctions and similarities from amongst the pure presentations that surround such self-aware Bodies. These similarities and distinctions begin to be noted and become coded as symbols that serve to re-present the pure presentation that the symbols are a likeness of, a signifier of. Example: The symbol of a circle re-presents the pure presentation that is the Sun. The symbol of a crescent moon is a representation of the pure presentation that is the actual crescent moon. The symbol of a wave, with both frequency and duration, re-presents the actual waves of the atmospheric Ocean lapping on shores far and wide. The symbol is meant to turn our attention to the actual for purposes of communication, which is the first phase of the image Baudrillard noted. It doesn't stop there though. As we have seen, the successive phases of the image progress by regressing away from the initial intent. Culminating in an image that bears no relation to any basic reality whatsoever. Essentially casting us into representational hell; the labyrinth of apparent meanings.

In the first phase of the image the symbol is taken as representing the actual. The symbol re-presents the pure presentation of Nature's Economy. The symbol is meant to signify and allude to --- stand in for, be a "reflection of a basic reality."

I have no doubt that the first representations arose in direct connection with those pure presentations that the representational symbols or figures were meant to "actually" refer to. Of course, the representation is not the pure presentation; but at this stage we know that there is a direct relationship between the representation and what the representation is meant to signify. The representations refer to, are arise as signifiers of, that which is a pure presentation. The symbol is not the Reality. The menu is not the meal. The map is not the territory. And the representation is not the pure presentation that the representation is meant to refer to.

In Zen terms, we could state that the representational figure of a finger pointing to the moon is not meant to be confused with what the finger is pointing to: The actual moon. Our attention is meant to be drawn to the actual through the use of representational figures and symbols. Not to create a web of recurrring representations which consume the original intent. Look at the Moon! Not the finger!

 

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We can, perhaps, imagine the first representations arising as a means to communicate across boundaries. Being that self-aware Bodies are aware, aware of the Body they are, and the Body they are not, it stands to reason that there is a perceptual boundary between Bodies. This abyss that exists between Bodies is exactly what representations serve as a means to travel across. Boundaries and the need to travel across the chasm dividing Bodies, one from the other, are the conditions from which representations are known to arise --- even now this is so.

We could say, "representations arise because of a necessity brought on by being aware that this Body appears separate from that Body. And, in order to communicate regarding the pure presentations of Nature's Economy --- that we share as common ground --- we must agree on the representations that will serve as symbolic referents to those pure presentations, that are real and affect us both."

The pure presentations of Nature's Economy are where we find agreement (if we are to find it at all). It is also that Basal Realm upon which we base our references, as well as what we allude to and fall back on with each of our representational exchanges. Again, it must make sense. It must be sense-able. If it doesn't make sense, then either we have not shared a common ground of experience, or our representational structures are not linking up in a synchronous manner. To communicate there must be common referents that we fall back on; which I am calling the pure presentations of Nature's Economy.

The pure presentations of Nature's Economy have conceptually evolved. This conceptual evolution is best noted in those who are a self-aware Body. This conceptual evolution is the ability to produce, distribute, and consume representations. For purposes of communicating across bodily boundaries, as well as communicating about the various pure presentations of Nature's Economy, the self-aware Bodies have conceptually evolved a representational capacity that allows for production, distribution, and consumption in relation to representations. This representational evolution has increased exponentially, as self-aware Bodies now produce, distribute, and consume more representations than at any other time known or representable to those self-aware Bodies.

We can know understand how representations serve as bridges that allow communication to travel from Body to Body. In this way, then, we note how Bodies re-present the nature of pure presentations so as to communicate about them. Maybe it is to communicate about the conceptual evolution of representations; or the attachment to certain representations and not to others; or even to communicate, through representation, about those pure presentations of Nature's Economy that are ever-more backgrounded against the sky-writing of the representational paradigm which humanity is the current apex of here on Earth.

Self-aware Bodies are now (re)presenting themselves with attached representational attire. Image pasted on top of image. Symbol derived from a symbol. These, the signs of the times. Herein, meaning is referred to what was, all cascading into rivulets of increasingly more involved/evolved conceptual representations. This our conceptual evolution: the recursive build-up over time, with only slight variations per unit generation, until....

...In our current epoch --- the representational paradigm --- where the experience and awareness of pure presentations becomes increasingly burdened under the weight of ever more involved conceptual representations. This must fit into that. Life becomes managed, functionally fit into representational structures of bureaucratic doctrines. Ideologies reign supreme. Pure presentations are heavily clothed in representational attire.

Here, then, is where Nature's Economy becomes burdened: Under duress of representational analysis and comparative discriminations, that set apart and categorize interdependent flows and forces in relation to what is the directive of one ideological representational structure or another. "We need to get it to do this. Because the Market forecast says.... Because the codes determine... Because the law indicates... Because..."

The evolution of --- or as I like to call it, "the increasing involvement of" --- conceptual representations in relation to Nature's Economy, culminates in what can only be described as a progression into ever increasing representational necessity; wherein pure presentations fade into the background as more and more conceptually evolved representations ascend like one hundred and thirty floors of office space stacked on top of each other. In this order of arrangement the Being-human ceases to be able to function apart from the representational support structure. The Being-human has become so dependent upon the representational support structures that to function, or be at all, is to function and be only in relation to those representational support structures. Outside of the representational codes of conduct and referencing the Being-human is a naught, a nothing. That is how far the Being-human has come, and how many reflections hence the Being-human has traveled from pure presentational living as an expression of Nature's Economy.

This ascendancy of representations is not a sign meant to signify anything. It just is. Or: Other than being an indication of a representational paradigm in progress, there is no other meaning to representational ascendancy. "It is what it is." It is a sign of the first order. Meaning, it is a direct reflection of a representational paradigm amped up on its own momentum. And, as the representational paradigm accords to itself its own momentum, it, in effect, becomes a recursive loop that cycles representation into representation. A new order of evolution commences. This time conceptual mind reflecting on what Nature has rendered, as well as what mind has rendered as second-order evolution (the representations of Nature's pure presentations). In deference to this second-order evolution we experience an exponential ascendance of representations. Self-reflective art and suicide. Adorned in image derived from conceptual reflection. Alienated from the Ur-Ground of second-order evolutionary ascendance. Awash in representations.

What we realize from this is that the representational paradigm now hinges on an increasing alienation with pure presentations. For us to have accorded ascendant status to representations is to also have accorded dissent in our relationship to the pure presentations of Nature's Economy. Again, the primary assumption underlying this two-pronged movement accrues motivation from the premise that pure presentations are amiss, and therefore, only a re-presentation can "manage" the situations for us effectively. The motive force is to reconfigure. The representations are what will heal the world. The representations are what will alleviate the fallen state of the pure presentations. The pure presentations are not to be trusted --- they are wild and unruly, not easily colonized until Spirit is divorced from the Body, then they can be easily managed for profit and gain in relation to the Market.

The exponential nature of recursive tendencies means that the pure presentations of Nature's Economy need to be managed by ever more increasingly involved conceptual representations. More codes on top of old codes. More regulations on top of old regulations. Bureaucrats managing bureaucrats. Representations referring to representations. And no one knows anymore how it all got started, how it all got so out of control! How the inner bureaucracy externalized itself in the volumetric swell of managers the world over. The representational paradigm. We must represent Nature's Economy as best we can. Meaning, lots of managers re-presenting Nature's Economy on behalf of their ideological superiours.

This managing of the pure presentations of Nature's Economy, through ever more involved and complex conceptual representations, is where the bureaucratic momentum has taken us. Lots of red tape in this here world. Lots of paper work. Can't do anything without signing your name --- without a representation of your intent to protect your ass from a lawyer representing a client who was misrepresented by your firm, which was representing the small business association that represents small businesses.

All of those representations, and those translations from one to another; just to better manage Bodies and Flows, Forces and Fluxes in Nature's Economy. Representations = Illusion of Control. Managed Life-forces and flows of information. As all on Earth are destined to be managed through increasingly complex representations. I am sorry, there is lots of red tape to live with brothers and sisters! We all must be represented by the forms of regulations, the codes of law, the constitutional framework of the representational paradigm.

Sign here please....

The Wild and Unruly Nature of the blooming Earth, as known under a mid-day sun, is destined for bureaucratic oversight. Managed flows of the fruits of the Earth is our time. And the bureaucratic structures are the energetic vacuum which consumes the elan vital of the Earth. All that sings "Rise!" in chorus with the dawn destined to become colonized by the managers of flows and forces. Yes, the Wild and Unruly Nature of the blossoming Earth becomes increasingly bankrupted. Under the weight of bureaucracy Nature's Economy becomes oppressed; just like citizens who are the representatives of governmental and political oversight, while always being pure presentations of Natures Economy (even if that pure presentation is heavily garbed in identifying symbols and multiple meanings).

The managed codes are what represent pure presentations; with those codes also representing the total sway of unrepentant signification as meaning is fostered in the name of increase and progress through recursive accruals.

As a civilization, globally, we are increasingly coded for progress; meant for progress; representatives of progress. The mythic structures in consciousness and culture have not departed; just taken on new dress is all. The dirge song, sung for the dying of mythic mind, was just a phantom play so as to render up and offer the most powerful and pervasive myth that humanity has so far known. Inviolate: The Myth of E-Progress; fostering all an Eternal Return cum Eternal Nightmare. For, there is no rest for the Progressives, for those who often manufacture problems and dilemmas just so that Progress can make a "necessary" appearance once again.

Create a problem. There's a new lack in town. Manufacture a solution. Sell it. Profit. Reinvestment as creating a new problem. Another new lack. Manufacture that solution. Sell it as commodity. Profit. Reinvest by creating a new problem. Recursion. Self-reinforcing capitalistic progrom. Seduced masses. Progress. Problems presented. Multinational interests represented. Commodity solutions offered for a price. Someone gains offset someones lack. The whole story.

The very Myth of E(ternal) Progress has become the MYTH of the collective human at this time. No matter the political or religious orientation --- we are all believers in the notion of Progress (to some extent). IT is the most powerful ideological force on the planet. Subduing the Being-humans and subjecting the Wild Other to the wrath of the progressive machines that must consume more in the name of Progress. Onward!

And the engine of all our Progress? None other than that governing hand of impersonalism, called by us "The Market".

 

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When the Market is good we are good. "The Market was up today in trading." Good news! And when we are able to consume what we desire, what we want, then we are good, right? When we are able to circulate our commodities and see a direct return and reinvestment in our corporate structures, then we are good --- all is right the world.

The Myth of E-Progress demands from its believers that they be progressive. It sets up a scale of judgement within the ideological believer. No progress = not good. Progress = Godliness = Goodness = I feel Ok about my self and the world = All is right, because the Market was up in heavy trading.

The Myth of E-Progress demands progress from its believers. In the same way that a dictator demands devotion from his underlings, so too does the Myth of E-Progress make certain demands on its underlings. For instance, we must be progressive. We must make progress economically and in other areas as well --- especially technologically, as technology is heavily bound up in the Myth of Eternal Progress.

The notions of progress, in a culture of progressives determines that that which is not progressive is to be tucked away and hidden from view. So, we progress out into the suburbs and colonize farmlands and forests, fields and swampy wetlands. In this way we can just turn our back on the regressive inner cities by progressing outward and colonizing new lands for ourselves. Where does it end?

Maybe: The very same state and rate of decay that confounds the inner cities is also the heavy print of progress that is left behind as the singular condition that will be spread throughout the Earth when we progressives depart for the Stars and distant Planets as the culminating vision of all of our progressive drives. In other words, the track of progress will culminate in a depleted Earth, with us blasting off for the celestial suburbs. When all we have colonized is a part of us and our newly formed monoculture, when all has been rendered obsolete or has been made a commodity for cultural purposes, then we will know we are on top where no threat of Nature --- Wild and Unruly --- shall ever be able to offend us again. We will have subdued Nature, those Pure Presentations of Nature's Economy by negating them, denigrating them, consuming them only as candy-coated images that don't bite and sting, that don't rain on new hair-dos, and that are much much easier to manage and bureaucratize for profit and gain. Until, that is..... Nature's Economy is so thoroughly oppressed under the burden of representation that we are dealing with a corpse, then the necrophiliacs shall ascend.

The trajectory of Progress knows no limits. Progress is an unlimited supposition. Progress confides in no known limits. Progress is movement, a colonization, a signal of discontent, a sign of and for the malformed victim of culture who has come to know nothing other than the chant of "More! More! More!... Better! Better! Better!" Progress marches on the world like Alexander's armies marching through Persia. Colonize more lands. Commodify more products. Consume more experiences. Colonize more. Commodify more. Consume more. Colonize more so as to meet the growing appetite, so as to meet the demands of the Market, so as to capitalize on the situation, so as to know self as untouchable, as conquering band of warriors subsuming all unruly elements under the flag of Imperial rule and law. Colonize more. Stretch the fabric of civilization out to the suburban pathways of the distant stars and galaxies where we can infiltrate Wild and Unruly Nature with broadband replays of our favorite sitcoms from the Golden Age of TV. Run away from home and take your nostalgia with you. Pictures from a fading jewel. Earth consumed; the steady march of Progress continues. Unlimited. Hungry. Driven. Mad.

Our engines need some fuel. The engines of Progress are mostly madeup of low-economy models. They are high-revving beasts that resemble the most progressive and radical tendencies of our time. Expansive growth and a high return on investments, in accordance with the Myth of E-Progress. We dictate to our environments, our very moment to moment lives, like corporate chief, CEO, CFO. Each instance is an opportunity for Progress, or a moment which to feel left behind --- further compounding the sense of guilt at not having progressed far enough, fast enough. In short, every instance is measured by the yardstick of Progress. Conservatives and liberals alike believe in and foster the Myth of E-Progress. Communist and capitalist alike believe in the Myth of E-Progress. Atheist and religious fundamentalist alike believe in the Myth of E-Progress. The Myth of E-Progress, along with its material and ideological partner, the Market, form the greatest cultural force that the world has ever known, seen. witnessed. Never before has a culture had such an influence. Never before has a civilization spread itself so wide across the Earth like an all-encompassing web --- a web of progressive ideology. Tribes want to progress. Families want to progress. Everyone wants to be a millionaire. Nations want to progress. Unions want to progress. Trade partners want to progress. Technology progresses. Persons want to progress. Records are meant to broken. Landmarks are destined to fall. Progress is meant, is destiny, is dogma, is propaganda, is prejudicial, is colonial and industrial, informational and capitalistic. Progress is viral meningitis for the collective. Onward cultural descendants of Alexander the Great, Napolean, Hitler, DuPont, Dow, Ford. New capitalistic vistas await us!

I am not sure if anyone has noticed this or not --- that, for the most part, we live with a firm and quite unconscious belief in the ideology of Progress. I say unconscious precisely because the notion of Progress goes unquestioned in most cases. It's just the way it is. Nothing to be aware of then.

Little, or even not at all, is Progress seen as the most pervasive notion that civilized humanity espouses and affirms daily and repetitively. Kids will do better than their parents. Each generation is hailed as the latest generation of progressives to enter their codes into the World Bank. We are Progressives marching on the uncolonized regions of space-time so as to procure for our children and ourselves a better life. No better plan has anyone affirmed than that Imperial notion that constitutes the march of Progress. We have the vision. We attribute this vision to any number of gods, or natural inalienable forces, and then we begin our assault on the Fabric of Existence, rendering Pure Presentations obsolete and then coommodifying the obsolete Au Natural in quite ironic and nostalgic reformulations. More easily managed. More user-friendly. Ready for the digital environment. A Kodak moment. Take it with you.

So, there was the slaughter of the American Bison, and then a short generation later we get rendered back to the world that same American Bison as a nostalgic commodity to be glimpsed on a summer's day by the whole nuclear family leaning out the rolled down windows of the SUV (sport-utility vehicle). Wipe it out. Genocide. Slaughter. Feel guilty. Bring it back in an enclosed space for viewing pleasure. At the zoo. The multiplex.

"See, we still have it. We didn't wipe it all out.... Don't you feel good about yourself now?"

I can even imagine one day that photos of a once delicate and fragile Earth will be taken along with those last departing citizens as they leave behind the rotting corpse of a planet that once shown like a jewel from afar. Here, Progress knows no limits.

The Myth of Progress breeds addicts, those self-aware Bodies who are increasingly addicted to Progress, and where the process is only a process if it results in and contributes to Progress. The processes that do not contribute to Progress are a waste of resources, a failing, a mistake that we can learn from, that we can Progress from. Pick up the pieces and march on. Pick up the fragments and march on. March on ye noble progressives. There is an illusion waiting, a mirage in the desert of progressive civilization. Whatever you want to see as the end of progression is what you will believe to be the end of all progress, though it may not be so in Truth. The proverbial pot of gold at the end of the rainbow appears only with distance. Moving closer and closer it fades, liquifies in waves of heat --- gone... gone... gone beyond. Such as that, all the roads of Progress end in illusion; figments of imagining, mirages born of myth and desire, collective and/or personal.

The end of Progress is thirst. For the means and ends of Progress are one and the same --- thirst. Thirst fuels the machine of desire. Thirst is the stink on the breath of Progress. A thirst that never ends. Consuming more. Progress = Thirst.