Polemic

Let's have some fun. For me that means it is time for free association. Does that sound degenerate? Does the term "free association" bring to mind naked Woodstock style coupling or the swinging scene or some version of promiscuity? Well, what IS the first thing that comes to mind when I say the word "degenerate?"

Perhaps you are a substantive thinker, and you see in your mind's eye an image of a shadowy figure, perhaps in a gutter, black rain coat draped askew to suggest in shadow a large revelation of the unspeakable. Or perhaps you are action oriented, and see movement down a slippery slope from the squeaky clean acceptable to the scandalous morbid darkness of the questionable. Or perhaps with the political correctness of an apologist you see a non-value laden chronology from more to less functionally autonomous.

For my part, I am immediately reminded of a private communication from my friend Stanislaw Lec. He has been known to wonder brilliantly: "Is it progress if a cannibal uses a knife and fork?"

The word "degenerate" comes from the Latin genus which means race or kind. The de prefix indicates, in this case, an outward, downward movement. So it seems to me that degeneration would be a devolution from an achieved higher state to a state that is lower in some fashion. Duh gene racing, you know where, down below.

My personal free association wanders back in history to Niccolo Machiavelli, born in 1469 in Florence, Italy. He is most famous for "The Prince," which he wrote in 1513. Some say that this little text was dedicated to the politically powerful Medici family, in hopes of courting their approval. Others claim it was a satire. Whatever the author's intention, its definition of virtue as the effective application of power did not make friends and influence people as Machiavelli hoped it would. Instead Machiavellian has come to mean the essence of political corruption.

We can hear words echoing in our theoretical fleshy hearts that have supposedly replaced our hearts of stone: Machiavelli, Niccolo, listen: The ends do not justify the means. We creatures from beyond the Enlightenment know this. It is, after all, the 21st century. We have gone beyond the base of Maslow's pyramid. We have outstepped the first Kohlberg stage of morality. We know de profundis that the end does not justify the means.

Right?

Michel Foucault defines polemic as parasitic figure on discussion and obstruction to the search for truth.

Well, of course, there are ends which must be preserved. Aren't there? Like safety of our democracy, of our way of life, of our economic stability. We must take all means possible to ensure these ends.

We who have changed the shape of the world from flat to round, round one, must pre-serve hegemony over other alimentation.

Please, no more torturous polemics.

Torture comes from the Latin tortum which means to twist, to turn, to change shape. We know where we are going. We cannot be means spirited. The end is in sight, after all, before all, in the midst of all. Like a tin god for whom no sacrifice is too great, no twisting of moral fiber too rigorous. De rigueur, we follow the leader, knife and fork poised. To make an omelet, eggs must be broken, shape changed, skillfully turned. What a dainty dish to set before the king!

Alvin Toffler cannot shock us: "The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn."

For pirates, degeneracy has more to do with proprietary propriety than with the revelation of private parts.

We pirates do not flinch from biting the bullet, or rather, having others bite or be bitten. Smitten we be with ourselves, and sacrifices we are ready to impose. Imposture, even to ourselves, strikes, and we are on the road, end in sight, banging and whimpering from here to kingdom come.

— Rx is the FloridaW eekly muse who hopes t o inspire profound mutiny in all those w ho care to read. Our Rx may be wearing a pirate cloak of in visibility, bu t emanating fr om within this shadow is hope that r eaders will f eel free to respond. Who kno ws: You may even inspire the muse. Mak e contact if you dare.