(2014-07-30) Alexander Meditations On Moloch

Scott Alexander: Meditations on Moloch. Allen Ginsberg’s famous poem, Moloch: What sphinx of cement and aluminum bashed open their skulls and ate up their brains and imagination?

What’s always impressed me about this poem is its conception of civilization as an individual entity. You can almost see him, with his fingers of armies and his skyscraper-window eyes. A lot of the commentators say Moloch represents capitalism. This is definitely a piece of it, even a big piece. But it doesn’t quite fit.