SYSTEM STUDIES
The concept called “system” is without moral value. Order, however, is not. Order and disorder are both sorts of systems, but they are special in that they are intrinsically ascribed a positive or negative moral value. Disorder is a de-railer. Disorder, in a simple and unheroic way, crashes the car of collective function.
Moral value is ascribed in accordance with the capacity of one system to lace into another, larger system, which in turn, if it is in order, fits into another. If every system were in order, and none were in disorder, they would all lock together. The world, in that instance, would be totally good. Total order is total goodness. This is the way, finally, of determining the absolute value of a system.
SYSTEM STUDY 1
In the army, there is a systematic retooling of basic psychological processes and responses. As in the second law of thermodynamics, one type of energy is losslessly transformed into another, through a kind of emotional alchemy. In the army they turn fear into anger. In the army, they turn anger into physical energy, almost as though they've found a way to turn fear into food.
In the army one gets humiliated. One gets lonely. One gets afraid. One gets told that because of one's loneliness and fear, one is inadequate to the task at hand. One's spirit rebels. One feels enraged. One is inclined to lash out at the source of one's fear and anger: one's Drill Sargent. This is the truly forbidden thing. The rage is not forbidden. The rage is allowed, even encouraged. It is simply re-routed. Instead of lashing out, one performs physically demanding actions, such as doing push-ups or running laps.
This is an effective system. Fear does become anger; anger does become physical energy. The system also fits into other, larger systems, like war and masculinity.
SYSTEM STUDY 2
In bulimia, there is also a retooling of process and response, and it too entails lossless transformation. Bulimia turns general desire into two specific drives: the drive to eat and the drive to be thin. It is a system for the management of desire and disappointment.
In the culture of abundance, one feels a constant pressure of disappointment. One feels bored. One feels confused. One feels an expectation that one ought to excel; if not the young in the culture of abundance, then who? One resists. This resistance inclines one toward abandon and failure. One finds gluttony is an excellent way to fail. One develops a system: one deprives the body of food until hunger eclipses any other sensation, then one deliriously gives in. One focuses most of one's energy on this event, the hunger and the giving in. The rest is spent in anxiety about one's weight.
This too is an effective system. Things are transformed and things are controlled. The system of the body is transformed and controlled. Bulimia fits itself onto the system of the body, and onto the system whereby the small woman is prized and rewarded.