Limited, Inc.

Hell is easy: a blanket will do it Under which, on hot nights infinite Lay down a body like mine And cover the feet closely, against its lifetime habit – and that is all, my dear. An intolerable discomfort Dilated to the size of the universe.  So yes A God that is the master of tortures is conceivable A God in our own image, habit’s double agent Who knows that bones crush, that skin is nothing Against flame, ice, steel, the sharp edge. But a God beyond our temptations is A God we can’t imagine. Only, we can abstract an inch Beyond the grind and crush of those winged and walking generations – Something skinless, needless, blessed. But what would this God be up to? What’s in it for him With no root in any image or song? This is truly a God for atheists. Surely our sacrifices have not all been in vain?

The qualification kerfluffle between Sanders and Clinton is ripe with meritocratic comedy. Nothing is more important in a guild-oriented plutocracy like the US than "qualification". It is the testing mania raised to a mythological level. Making the presidency something like a brain surgeon's position (or a taxi cab drivers) where there is a vague licencing credential is, I think, expressive of a whole dimension of what is wrong with American politics. In fact, I think I am much more qualified than both of the candidates, since I've seen fire and I've seen rain, I've been poor and now I'm a bourgeois, and I've read several books - including, How to be President of the USA for Dummies - so there is that. Qualification is an especially juicy subject for academics and writers, since holding on to this last privilege is, in the age of ferocious humanities downsizing, about all we have left. But fuck that. Nobody asks if Mark Zuckerberg is qualified to do