Meditationes de cadavere
In the same way I recently came across the rotting carcass of a massive sea lion on a deserted stretch of beach, furiously picked at by gulls and flies, as I make my way through these preposterous, hardscrabble days I come upon reliquiae putresentes imperii – the rotting remains of the empire.
The remains are everywhere, strewn over the landscape like the garbage and debris that covers parking lots and empty fields, and accumulates along the side of all our roads. And yet, almost no one notices.
This invisibility is a testament to our genius. (It is a supreme genius, namely, replicating the imploded world of The Cave as described by Plato)