In previous episodes we teased out some interesting ideas about mortality and its determinative status in human psychology. All that Sheldon Solomon stuff. (By the way, if that was of any continuing interest, I have one more link on it for now–Sheldon’s spiritual ancestor was a guy named Ernest Becker).
You’ll recall that the proximate source for all that was a four-minute slice of Planet of the Humans, produced by Michael Moore. I have a second potentially rich vein to mine from that same source.
The other night on Rumble, Episode 94, he had on a guy named Steven Reisner, who I knew just a little because he worked to take over the American Psychological Association, to push that org in the direction of censuring the psychologists who engineered the torture programs under Little Bush. This was covered extensively on DemocracyNow, back when I watched it daily. (I still think highly of that show, but see Aaron Mate’ and his critique of DN’s stance on Russiagate, for example–I do think they’re a little out of touch with the leftish zeitgeist.)
So Reisner. Turns out he too has a fresh new podcast to offer. Only six episodes so far, downloaded here but not yet heard. But the psychologist-host is very much on board with Moore’s Capitalism: A Love Story take on capitalism, and the interview on Rumble is thought-provoking in many directions.
What provoked me into elevating this to a spill though was the tagline on Reisner’s podcast. It’s called Madness, and the subtitle on his site reads:
“Where psychology and capitalism collide.”
First thing I thought when I read it was: Yeah, I could see doing that. With computer topics for example, and the resulting collisions. In fact, that’s my intended approach to the first class I write, assuming I write it. We don’t start with the boot sequence, but with the roots of GNU/Linux in the very socialistic Free Software movement. A thing I could never do at a “college”.
I bounced over to the Wikipedia page on Anticapitalism. There was some Marx for sure, but in their telling the real mind force behind the term was Emma Goldman. Even more significantly, a good-sized chunk of the page is given over to a section on
I use this term ironically all the time. I never realized how serious some people have taken the concept though.
“The abolitionist and former slave Frederick Douglass initially declared ‘now I am my own master’, upon taking a paying job. However, later in life he concluded to the contrary, saying ‘experience demonstrates that there may be a slavery of wages only a little less galling and crushing in its effects than chattel slavery, and that this slavery of wages must go down with the other'”
Friedrich Engels:
The slave is sold once and for all; the proletarian must sell himself daily and hourly.
One of the most tragic aspects of our broken country, to my mind, is that you will hear plenty of proles willing to drink the kool-aid and natter on endlessly about ‘the dignity of work’ and the pride they take in Holding Down a Job. But precious few ever stop to consider what that system really costs them, in life hours. There are parallels here with the whole Fear of Mortality discussion. Most people literally can’t afford to think about the water they swim in, with a critical eye. There’s no bandwidth available for that.
I don’t have a problem with glorifying the notion of doing good work.
But that valid ennoblement doesn’t have much relevance to the average cubicle-dwelling, asslicking bullshit that passes for a Job in the lives of most people. We’re not blacksmiths. We’re not even human resources. We’re cogs in the ugly machine, propping up a system that doesn’t even know how to care about the people inside the machinery, or outside of it, and ultimately each of us on average are both.
So yeah, fuck capitalism, and fuck its much closer relative Wage Slavery.
There’s a personal tangent here about having a ‘good job’, and doing it well, and how in the end that isn’t enough to satisfy the machine. Doing it well doesn’t mean anything to the machine, unless you too are willing to drink deep from the kool-aid vat, and be a Team Player, and chatter about how your enterprise is doing God’s work and not Satan’s. I’m not taking the tangent today.
There’s also a connecting Wikipedia page on “Hairshirt Environmentalism”.
“This term is often used in a derogatory way in reference to the anti-consumerism present in the environmental movement.”
So on the other side of the coin, yes, fuck consumerism too.
Kicking against these triple pricks was always a thing I did naturally as soon as I was an independent conscious thinker. Growing up and growing old was a long slow process of kicking less and less. I bought a house. I bought a brand-new car. I came to depend on the luxury of a relatively painless form of wage slavery.
That was weak and stupid of me.
Being comfortable was a betrayal of my best self.
Fortunately, I am very uncomfortable right now. I find it soothing. I feel more alive.
Finally.
The hairshirt page links out to a piece from Bruce Sterling on Viridian Design. I quote it at some length, by way of closing and pointing forward.
***
Now to confront the possessions you already have. This will require serious design work, and this will be painful. It is a good idea to get a friend or several friends to help you.
You will need to divide your current possessions into four major categories.
Beautiful things.
Emotionally important things.
Tools, devices, and appliances that efficiently perform a useful function.
Everything else.
“Everything else” will be by far the largest category. Anything you have not touched, or seen, or thought about in a year – this very likely belongs in “everything else.”
You should document these things. Take their pictures, their identifying makers’ marks, barcodes, whatever, so that you can get them off eBay or Amazon if, for some weird reason, you ever need them again. Store those digital pictures somewhere safe – along with all your other increasingly valuable, life-central digital data. Back them up both onsite and offsite.
Then remove them from your time and space. “Everything else” should not be in your immediate environment, sucking up your energy and reducing your opportunities. It should become a fond memory, or become reduced to data.
It may belong to you, but it does not belong with you. You weren’t born with it. You won’t be buried with it. It needs to be out of the space-time vicinity. You are not its archivist or quartermaster. Stop serving that unpaid role.