on consumption, order, and what remains human when rules collapse
Tender is the Flesh — Agustina Bazterrica
There is a system that begins with an attempt to prevent harm.
A virus spreads through animals, and what follows is not only a change of diet, of sweet loving sane routine, but a reorganization of reality itself. What was one consumption becomes threat. What was once normal becomes contaminated.
At first, the reaction is restriction. Avoidance. Substitution. But the structure does not hold.
Hunger does not disappear. It shifts directions when her daughter Insanity learns to run on her own.
What begins as control slowly becomes distorion. The boundary between survival and collapse becomes less visible each time it is crossed.
There is a moment where the idea of "not eating" turns into something unstable. Not morally, but psychologically. The absence of something essential does not create peace. It creates pressure.
And pressure needs an exit.
The world respongs by turning inward.
Not towards reflection, but toward itself.
Animals disappear first — erased in mass, as if removal could restore balance. But what remains is still unresolved. Fear does not stabilize. It expands.
What follows is not a single decision, if it could be called as if, but a gradual acceptance of what was once unthinkable.
A system is built where consumption is no longer hidden, but organized. Legalized. Encouraged. Structured into production.
And within that structure, a new category of being is created — not as identiry, but as function. Something to be used. Something to be exchanged. Something that can be consumed with the system's logic. Something. A something. A thing.
The distinction between survival and exploitation becomes administrative.
What matters is not what is done, but wha is allowed to continue without collapse.
There is no single moment where humanity "falls".
I haven't talked to her in a fraction of time.
The moral structure does not break. It adapts.
And in that adaptation, something fundamental shifts: the idea of vulnerability stops being protected and stars being positioned.
The weak are not simply lost. They are absorbed into a system taht requires them. That they are "needed".
What remains is not chaos. It is order without restraint.
A logic that continues functioning even when it no longer resembles anything human.
