edphil on Tue, 3 Jun 1997 03:20:11 +0200 (MET DST) |
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<nettime> orgies, works, play |
Richard, I don't think that our esteemed friend, El Iblis, is quite so unaware of the social conditions in which we all live, although, perhaps, he is not writing policy papers or working out compromises. It may be the very impraticality of the zero-work "solution" that gives it appeal. Yet, the adoption of a zero-work strategy is not the exclusive provenance of a smug and self-satifisfied techno-elite retiring at 40, those code writing Charley Marlowes. The celebration of the ludic to the exclusion of work has it's terrible undertows, well worth exploring. But your 'nuff said is not going there, or anywhere, really. Last week, I met and spent some time with a drifter whose "class origins" would place him well below your French Workers. He has been drifting through post industrial America for the last fifteen years. He espouses a philosophy very similar to that of our fine fallen friend. A philosophy tested, I assure you in the fires of this oh so fallen world. The man had more in him of wisdom, humanity, and courage than almost anyone I've met. The "laborious lies of the rich" and the dream of progress were tattered rags this man has tossed off. I felt after speaking with him that what kept the rest of us on the treadmill was really cowardice. There is a nice quote from that mad elitist, Bataille, that came to my mind. "the true luxury, and the real potlatch of our times falls to the poverty-stricken, that is to the individual who lies down and scoffs. A genuine luxury requires the complete contempt for riches, the somber indifference of the individual who refuses work and makes his life, on the one hand an infinitely ruined splendour, and on the other, an insult to the laborious lie of the rich." I met that man. It's not so easy. This is no policy statement. Nor is it so easy as to just say "make work into play", as John just said. Norman O. Brown has recently had some interesting things to say in the way of critiquing his own celebrations of play in Life Against Death. He wrote a Georgics, a Palinode in Praise of Work and he has been exploring some of the vulnerable, tragic eroticisms of Bataille. We suffer our own play. --- # distributed via nettime-l : no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a closed moderated mailinglist for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: majordomo@icf.de and "info nettime" in the msg body # URL: http://www.desk.nl/~nettime/ contact: nettime-owner@icf.de