subtitle: some principles for a gentle polite caring survival in self-administered and floss infrastructures
disclaimer: the title and subtitle might change
reading conditions:
chapter: admin realism
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*More and more of us looked up one day and realized that the emperor had no clothes. It is in this dilemma that new tools for noticing seem so important*
*Anna Tsing - The mushroom at the end of the world*
That we are living in time of crisis it is no surprise, as well as there's no wonder in saying the current [economic and ecologic system] is no longer sustainable. It's actually been a while that the emperor has been going around with no clothes. Of course, we can all laugh about it. But even if more and more people started noticing that majestic nakedness and got used to it, to the point that is no longer a scandal, there is something that remains uncanny about this image, something awkward that a simple smile cannot undo.
I'm wandering what would have happened if only Andersen's folk tale wouldn't have stopped there, and perhaps this is a worthy exercise of imagination: what would have been the reaction of the peasants after the laughter had gone? How to deal with such a realization?
Now, while the emperor keeps walking followed by his retinue of ministers, nobles and other crooks, it doesn't really matter if what we look at is a metaphor for a specific form of power structure, capitalism (sorry, i need to say it), that is loosing its meaning/authority/legitimacy. What matters is that this capitalism, in its multiple forms, has created an incredibly interwoven network of dependencies and dominations which is threatened to collapse at every moment, creating a generalised condition of precarity. And here it comes the big dilemma: are you playing dumb and joining the emperor's entourage or are you facing precarity? And if the latter is the case, how to survive?
I like to think that in this question lies the reason why Andersen couldn't help but end the story with a laughter. Firstly because he could have never answer for somebody else. Secondly because at that point the folktale would probably fork into a miriad of versions, in which the narration had to adapt to the locality of histories and individuals' [own strategies to cope with, well, life.] And thirdly, that collective laughter is the symbol that the folklore encoded in order to point towards the diversity of survival strategies, turning the awkward image of nakedness into an ironic opening of possibilities. (sorry, getting meta).
What matters is that this situation of precarity creates a big dilemma: how to survive? Apparently the choices are 2: either joining the emperor's entourage, or, and this one is more probable, you're left alone, and it is precisely what it is desirable for the absurd theatre to keep running. In this isolation of the ruins, what Anna Tsing has the courage to suggest is that....
the irony of doing taxes, it seems the monster that self-employed, free lancers need to confront, a topic for adults, a boring weekend on the spreadsheet. What is it actually to do the taxes? can we do taxes otherwise? what is it that we need to pay and for whom?
