Monday, February 07, 2005
The day the blog stood still
I'm going back and forth about this being a political or a personal blog. Then I figure no one's going to read either, and separating the personal & political is a symptom of capitalist alienation anyway. Everything is both, if you see yourself as a node in the big web of society (I read _Alienation: Marx's Conception of Man in Capitalist Society_ by Bertel Ollman, which got me thinking this way.)
So, people's blogs are filled with unmet expectations. I read one middle-aged guy observing other middle-aged guys down the pub and "waiting for something to happen"; I read another woman my age with two kids regretting jumping into family life before she'd had a chance to be independent.
Based on that - anecdotal, unscientific - observation (though one confirmed by others I've spoken to), it appears we're all proverbial rats running through the maze, looking for the cheese.
But expectations are created. It's no coincidence we all feel badly about where we are:
1) Capitalists make money off how badly we feel about ourselves. I'm convinced most shopping is an emotional crutch for powerlessness. We hate our lives, our jobs, our partners, the way we look, etc. - and that moment of consumption lets us feel a little more in control of our lives. The advertising industry makes sure this isn't random. Our car, clothes, jewellry, etc. is no good - we need newer models.
This is pretty obvious. However,
2) alienation is less obvious. Why do we feel badly about ourselves? I'd argue it's not just because evil capitalists put the ideas in our heads. I think it goes to the root of capitalist society itself. We're separated from our creative drives. Most of us work shit jobs, and they're getting shittier as work hours increase & wages stagnate (except for a thin layer of happy professionals, who make their living telling us how wonderful it is to be a happy professional!)
Our lives are spent trying to survive. We don't get time or opportunity to figure out why we're here, what we're good at. We have to pay rent, meet expectations of others, etc. - so we take what work we can. Our leisure becomes a process of escaping work, rather than an end to itself. And then 40 years later we wake up with the gold watch by our side (or, more likely, getting up for the senior's shift at McDonalds), wondering what happened.
Those of us who get to think about alienation in a consistent, coherent manner usually do it at school - which is a temporary relief. In many cases it makes it worse: you learn how fucked up society is, and then you have to go back to it.
Why do we have unmet expectations? The social division of labour. We sell our labour power for 8 - 10 hours a day, doing a specialized task that can't possibly absorb our creative energy. We're never allowed to give "free reign to our impulses", because work is structured to make a profit, not to fulfill our spiritual needs. And then we end up years later, wondering why we feel miserable. All of us, together, thinking the same thought separately. Which is the most pernicious feature of alienation: what is a social, collective experience - misery, drudgery, and the fight to resist it - is experienced as a lonely, isolated urge.
Marx said the answer was struggle - in transforming society, we transform ourselves. Being active in a social movement can give a new sense of purpose to life. However, it doesn't make up for those days spent at a cubicle, watching the world slide past in a grey blur.
So, people's blogs are filled with unmet expectations. I read one middle-aged guy observing other middle-aged guys down the pub and "waiting for something to happen"; I read another woman my age with two kids regretting jumping into family life before she'd had a chance to be independent.
Based on that - anecdotal, unscientific - observation (though one confirmed by others I've spoken to), it appears we're all proverbial rats running through the maze, looking for the cheese.
But expectations are created. It's no coincidence we all feel badly about where we are:
1) Capitalists make money off how badly we feel about ourselves. I'm convinced most shopping is an emotional crutch for powerlessness. We hate our lives, our jobs, our partners, the way we look, etc. - and that moment of consumption lets us feel a little more in control of our lives. The advertising industry makes sure this isn't random. Our car, clothes, jewellry, etc. is no good - we need newer models.
This is pretty obvious. However,
2) alienation is less obvious. Why do we feel badly about ourselves? I'd argue it's not just because evil capitalists put the ideas in our heads. I think it goes to the root of capitalist society itself. We're separated from our creative drives. Most of us work shit jobs, and they're getting shittier as work hours increase & wages stagnate (except for a thin layer of happy professionals, who make their living telling us how wonderful it is to be a happy professional!)
Our lives are spent trying to survive. We don't get time or opportunity to figure out why we're here, what we're good at. We have to pay rent, meet expectations of others, etc. - so we take what work we can. Our leisure becomes a process of escaping work, rather than an end to itself. And then 40 years later we wake up with the gold watch by our side (or, more likely, getting up for the senior's shift at McDonalds), wondering what happened.
Those of us who get to think about alienation in a consistent, coherent manner usually do it at school - which is a temporary relief. In many cases it makes it worse: you learn how fucked up society is, and then you have to go back to it.
Why do we have unmet expectations? The social division of labour. We sell our labour power for 8 - 10 hours a day, doing a specialized task that can't possibly absorb our creative energy. We're never allowed to give "free reign to our impulses", because work is structured to make a profit, not to fulfill our spiritual needs. And then we end up years later, wondering why we feel miserable. All of us, together, thinking the same thought separately. Which is the most pernicious feature of alienation: what is a social, collective experience - misery, drudgery, and the fight to resist it - is experienced as a lonely, isolated urge.
Marx said the answer was struggle - in transforming society, we transform ourselves. Being active in a social movement can give a new sense of purpose to life. However, it doesn't make up for those days spent at a cubicle, watching the world slide past in a grey blur.
