In a book of metamodern poetry I published on November 9, 2016 entitled GOLDEN AGE, I wrote that "reality is a unit of measure"—meaning that discrete reality streams can be commodified and marketed. Rolling Stone called me "a deep thinker and a philosopher."
And now here we are.
And now here we are.
PS/ I'm not trying to get anyone to buy my poetry books. I don't care if anyone does; that's not the point. My point is that metamodern cultural theorists have for *years* imagined the rise of a politician who declares war on reality—a war postmodernists don't know how to fight.
PS2/ Those who think Trumpism is just about lying are wrong. It's about crafting discrete new reality streams that are hermetically sealed and contain their own past, present and future. They can then be exploited as commodities—and weapons. Yes—wars can be fought with realities.
PS3/ We and our neighbors don't just have different opinions or values now. We exist in discrete reality streams with their own—sometimes not even overlapping—past, present, and future. Our opinions and values arise *within* such alien soil. We don't even live in the same nation.
PS4/ OK, so...the art on my book's cover really isn't the point—though I appreciate all the questions about it. Truly, I am *not* trying to sell books. I'm talking about ideas that metamodernists are conversant with whether they write poetry or not. But the answer is Glenn Brown.
PS5/ People are asking, "How do you fight a war on reality?" Needless to say, the answer is complex. The first thing to understand is that you don't argue with your opponents in the war, because their opinions arise from alien soil you don't have the time or resources to re-till.
PS6/ Arguing against Trumpist "opinions" is like debating whether the firemen you plan to call to save your burning home should wear yellow coats or black ones—it won't save the house or change its condition, as it's merely an accoutrement of an event you *can't change* yourself.
PS7/ So once you have saved all the time, resources, and energy of arguing with people who can't hear you because they inhabit a different "stream," you must establish rules for yourself that will govern the stream you're in: e.g., only verifiable (non-anonymous) sources of info.
PS8/ In a war over reality, info streams are essential equipment; saying "blogs are as good as the AP" is no better than entering jungle combat wearing a yellow raincoat and carrying a lollipop instead of a sidearm. If your info-intake process isn't drum-tight, you got a problem.
PS9/ Anyway, I'll say no more on this here. This isn't a feed on metamodernism—and this info isn't of the sort folks read this feed to acquire. I may teach metamodern theory at an R1 university, but—proving the point of how info streams work—most are here because I'm an attorney.
PS10/ The only thing this metamodern theorist who's been writing on political metamodernism and Trump since 2015 would tell you is (and I must learn to take my own advice on this): (1) stop arguing with Trumpists, (2) lock down your info-intake processes. It's about to get hairy.
