Definition: A decaying system or institution that’s visibly held together by makeshift fixes, bureaucratic bandaids, and sheer luck—while everyone pretends it’s not one sneeze away from total implosion. Think public schools using expired textbooks patched with literal tape, or engineers bribing shadowy chip scalpers to keep your smart fridge running.
It thrives on collective denial, where temporary hacks become permanent fixtures. The term mocks how society props up crumbling infrastructure (bridges, grids, supply chains) with optimism and chewing gum, ignoring the rats’ nests of rust, corruption, and deferred maintenance festering underneath until the whole duct-tape dynasty peels apart.
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Example:
The city’s power grid, reliant on decades-old transformers jury-rigged after every storm, is a decaying system everyone fears will fail catastrophically during the next heatwave.
That aging bridge, held together by emergency repairs and crossed daily by thousands, perfectly illustrates the city’s crumbling infrastructure and dangerous collective denial.