As capitalists learned that access to knowledge would make charismatic organizations redundant they attempted to limit access to it. This process presented skills and people who had skills as units which could be deployed and wielded like tools. What used to be content (such as a craft) became a quantifiable product which could be traded. Production of people as stuff and stuff led to exploitation & exploitative globalization, which led to an array of catastrophes. Some catastrophes move fast and others slow.
Governments use the volume of consumption as a measure of citizen performance. Calling for consumption as a remedy is like adding poison to poison. It has nothing to do with the problem. Our only option forwards is in focusing on quality instead of quantity. We don’t need more stuff or skills, we need to hone our craft: To make life. Adding poison to poison only makes the poison more potent. If nothing else this situation proofs that rich people are good for nothing. We can see —and should forever remember— that wealth does not trickle down. We don’t need wealth, we need taxation. #☭
This catastrophe has made domestic spaces into production facilities. There is no life in this mess. Stuff is poring in through all screens as kids are taught as products. At the same time parents work desperately to shove their services trough their screens. Every second discussion I have ends up with me announcing my availability for work or a straight up pled for it. Sometimes we are working in the same room with the kids, passing in the backround of each others streams like placeholders for persons.