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The New Baroque: the Symbols of Success,
Emptied of significance, it has become a new religion.
Greed has become the purveyor of justice, freedom and liberty.
They have commodified your anger and pain. Yet, the injustices still reign. Your howls of injustice have become pastiche: a parody of parodies. They are devoid of authenticity, an empty echo propagating through the ether. Money, rather than emotional nuances, is the meter of its value.
I hear your voice, a familiar signature metre and delivery. It leaves me cold. You tell me that I am old and so cannot be sold. I can see the gloss reflected from the gold chain around your neck. It dazzles and leaves me blind.
They see you as the new arbiter of cool. I see you splashed on the cover of Vogue. The disciples of taste have initiated you into the hallowed halls of the — signifiers of success. You have climbed from the ghetto’s streets and are living the dream. You have made it to the top of the unjust system you used to decry. But, alas, your protest has monetary value. Here we have a inversion of signifiers, which some will label as Irony. But, isn’t this the very essence of the signifier?
We can now sit and admire the picture of the Madonna and Child on the wall. Hallelujah, I see you in Louvre posing next to works Arts. I believe they are attempting some transference of meaning. Bling has made into the hallowed halls of the Fine Arts. See, there are precedences. Excess and decadence have always attracted the Nouveau Riche. But, alas, the significance is lost in the void of nothingness and hence is meaningless. It bounces from signifier to signifier and so can mean everything and nothing. There is no way for one to anchor its meaning. Bling sings and is now the expression of ‘good’ taste.
