Anxiety and Panic
Who has toilet paper?
The English-speaking world is in a rising panic. While hundreds are implicated in criminal violations that occurred in association with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, the hegemony of the Ruling Class forces a sublimation of anxiety that can be seen expressed as a moral panic.
There is a social class element to modern moral panics—they are suffered most strongly, and directed, by those who have a “fear of falling,” as David Wagner identified. It is both very important that the moral condition be prioritized and dealt with, and that the solutions do not attack social class structures themselves.
The concern over the Epstein file is concern over the moral failing among what Wright Mills termed “The Power Elite.” One pillar of current ruling class hegemony—necessary in a class system (but not a caste system) is meritocracy. Those who claim vast wealth and power deserve it. The moral bankruptcy of close Epstein associates, who overlooked his open pedophilia, or who themselves molested children, via Epstein’s pandering, are what Erving Goffman termed “disqualifiers.” All the other social cues presented seem consistent with elite status, but the moral depravity runs starkly counter to it.
To preserve the social class hegemony, these people will be divorced from the social class system that made them, and treated as individual “bad apples.” This is important for the maintenance of meritocratic hegemony.
Social panic has had an ongoing presence in the U.S., ever since the professional and managerial middle class arose in the 19th century. It grows and wanes, through eras; it seems we have only so much bandwidth in our popular culture, such that when “Terror” became the focal point, “Drugs” were relegated to a lower priority. The second Trump Administration’s War on Immigrants was justified by equating immigrants with drugs and terrorism, and from a more distant moral panic, criminal gangs.
The rest of this piece is from April, 2020, when America was swept up in a different moral panic:
Just about ALL of us are losing our pandemic virginity here in America. All of us, that is, except those who survived the 1918 flu pandemic, who would be at least 103 years old right now. Wouldn’t that be a bitch? You’re born, and at the age of one you survive a disease that wipes out more people in a year than the Great War wiped out in four years of trench warfare. You make it to live past 100, and the next thing you know, it’s another goddamn pandemic!
The rest of us, though, we are (were) full pandemic virgins. And it’s funny to see how people have come to respond to this.
You get the toilet paper hoarders—right off the bat!
COVID doesn’t give you the shits, but there they are, snatching up every square they can get their infected little fingers on. Some people think this is social panic, and at first, I was inclined to agree, but then it came to me: This is America.
What does that mean?
It means that 60% of our households cannot make $400 cash appear without having to go outside personal finances to get it. 60% of us have to sell something or beg for charity, to reach $400 cash.
Now, when an industry is that cash-starved, usually they get their lobbyists to lean on our elected officials to throw a little pork (or a BIG socialist disbursement) their way. But the sellers in the labor market are not quite the same priority, when they become cash-starved.
So we have about 200 million people who do not have the resources to survive for much more than a couple of weeks, if unemployment jumps up and they cannot find income. What do you do? Invest! You invest in a durable commodity that does not degrade or otherwise decline in quality when stored in any dry area, regardless of temperature. It comes pre-rolled with a set amount of squares, and every square is exactly the same as every other square, so rolls can be portioned off without losing any value. Toilet paper is also considered by many to be a necessity and so demand will never disappear.
It is the perfect bartering commodity for poor motherfuckers, in a time of economic crisis. Need a gallon of gas? 150 squares. Need a can of beans? 10 squares. Your daughter’s hand in marriage? The full 48 roll Charmin Costco pack. What? Are you offended by the thought of exchanging your daughter for the only commodity that everyone values equally?
Yeah, like this total societal breakdown is going to be SO MUCH DIFFERENT than all the others.
But before we get to the anarchic state, let’s come on back to the present day: early April, 2020. Now that the President has decided to stop intentionally hiding the severity of the outbreak (that is literally his explanation for doing nothing and saying it was all going to clear up soon—that he always knew it was serious, but lied because he wanted to keep people calm), we see steps taken in areas where the outbreak is worst. We are also seeing overburdened medical staff on the news every day and night. They lack proper protective equipment and are at grave risk of infection, just for doing their jobs.
So, running parallel to the TP Anarchists are the suburban virtue signalers. Unlike the 60% who don’t have $400 to draw from, these folks have surplus cash and access to consumer credit, and they are using it, publicly, to show they care (a lot). The most recent trend is ordering a bunch of food for hospital staff and having it delivered.
“Hi. I would like to order 24 sandwiches, turkey and cheese, tuna, ham and cheese, and some vegetarian plates, plus condiments and toppings folks can add to them. And deliver it to the COVID ward at St. Trachea’s Hospital. Here’s my debit number: ...”
The restaurant gladly takes the order, the guy working the sandwich prep station bangs them out in 10 minutes, and the delivery guy takes the bags and puts them on his passenger seat and drives them to St. Trache’s. He walks to the main reception desk and asks, “Where to?”
He learns that hospitals don’t need food. They need PPE!
Besides, the guy who made the sandwiches is not in a position where he can take two weeks off to make sure the headache he had last night was not actually a symptom, and the delivery guy’s weed dealer with the cough (”It’s just the last joint I smoked. Don’t worry.”) sat in that same passenger seat during a re-up, ten minutes before the sandwiches sat there. Bringing anything in from outside puts everyone inside at greater risk. Hospitals have cafeterias that are designed to feed everyone, staff, patients, guests, three meals a day, everyday.
And while hoarding TP can be understood as a rational response, the desire to order food for people that they do not need, and that only increases their risk of infection just doesn’t make sense.
But it is further proof that a lack of money doesn’t mean people are stupid, and that a surplus of it doesn’t mean people are smart.