So there it is, Obama won and change has come to America and, by implication, to the world.
As I described in my wind down notice this blog has been inextricably linked to the last eight years of humanity’s implosive collapse into the steaming oceans. In short, the Neocon adventure, Bush, the internet and the death of Britney Spears.

It’s weird to say so, but I quite glad that it is over – this blog I mean. Over the years I’ve become very attached to the journal aspect of it and I will carry it over in an archive form to individuated.org. But I am fatigued at the state of mind that this blog’s view requires. I am tired of laughing at the absurdity of celebrity culture or letting surveillance wash over me like a tide. I am drained of the need to fight 00′s-americanism. It has failed and everyone knows it. There is no need to point out that Dick Cheney’s approval rating is 18%.

It’s time for a new view on the world, perhaps more optimistic. But believe me, I am under no illusion that the world is fucked and that no Obama/Clinton lovefest can save us. Humanity has been killing itself for 6000 years and $700 million in campaign contributions and Osama bin Laden’s arrest ain’t gonna change that. So what is there to be optimistic about? I’ll mention a few things that sustain my optimism[1].

But first, as has been my wont, some music. I’ve seriously pondered what should be the last music that I drop on this blog. What could I possibly pick as the last sound for thecages? Something electronic? Stoner metal? Dub (from when I started the blog)? A wide-ranging compilation of all of the above? Of course no song or compilation could ever live up to the self-imposed hype of being my definitive selection to comment on the state of the world. But I have to try.
In the end I decided on pop, and in particular one pop song. Or rather three pop songs recorded as a single 23 minute ocean of sound. I decided on Talk Talk’s glowing opening track to the most significant piece of pop recorded in the 80′s – Spirit of Eden. For easy listening I’ve cut it up into its constituent parts, The Rainbow, Eden and Desire – but they are actually one sound.
I won’t bother trying to comment on the music itself but I will quote the opening lyrics

	Oh Yeah The world’s turned upside down Jimmy Finn is out Well how can that be fair at all? Too Lenient The song the lawyer sang Our nation’s wrong Well how can that be fair at all? Repented changed Aware where I have wronged Unfound corrupt This song the jailer sings My time has run Sound the victim’s song The trial is gone The trial goes on

I chose Spirit of Eden because, while it is sorrowful, it is fundamentally optimistic. But what is there to be optimistic about? We now have daily evidence that the planet is about to kick our asses with its uncontrollable weather. We are seeing the unflolding perfection of police and surveillance states in Russia and the UK. Capitalism has again proven that while it may be the most viable economic system available to us it will, on a regular basis, consume itself. Not much to feel good about on the long view then.

Well, there are things to balance the horrors; we are also seeing the arrival of technologies that have and will continue to empower us as individuals. In the arms race against the nation state’s drive to control, the internet gives us assurance that it will always be possible for the open-sourced masses to outrun the military-industrial complex, at least in terms of private communications and, I believe, the privacy of our own thoughts. The very death that approaches across the gulf of Mexico will force capitalism’s greed to invest in the efficient use of energy. Our greedy survival will force us into electric cars and will make carbon sequestration a utility[2]. And finally, it feels to me like in the last few years we’ve started recognizing two attributes of our society that have been driving it for thousands of years but have remained unseen within a generation until now; complexity and acceleration. We now recognise the importance of acknowledging and studying complexity as the fundamental reality of our lives. And we have started tracking the unending acceleration of that complexity. My child(ren) will process their world at a rate and to a depth that will drive me to despair for their racing hearts – but we’ll be ready for it because we know its a certainty.

The world is a death rollercoaster and we scream and laugh as we hurtle around corners, feet-over-head with tears streaming from our eyes. I’ve never been happier.
And so, goodnite sweet cages. You never really existed did you?