Demand Everything

Post-Capitalism, Rage Tweets and A New Playlist

I had a spectacular day yesterday, the love of my life and I took our old convertible across the baltic sea line, east of Hamburg, top down for most of the day for what was probably the last day of summer. No destination in sight, no phones, no google maps, just a good playlist of old hits from 70s and 80s, coffee and some smokes. Took a couple of dips in the baltic, visited some towns we hadn’t been to before and I can only speak for myself here, day-dreamed of simpler times ( man I miss Bowie ), which is a weird, addictive side effect of nostalgia more than anything else. Sure, it was Monday but one of the wonderful side effects of self-employment responsibility is that you are occasionally rewarded with freedom, not the alt-right fable, but self-determination, and it’s wonderful. Essentially, a component to this day aside from the obvious was tuning out of the digital realm though. This might come across as some proto-anarchistic-hippie cult shit but there isn’t a deeper message to it other than: turn that shit off. Ignore social media, don’t quantify your time-off by allowing google maps to tell you when you’ll be where and take in the pace of the world around you.

This newsletter being by my own virtual Speakers Corner though, I am obviously not going to leave it at that. Large parts of yesterdays day dreams revolved around the idea of work, or rather, fuck work!*

*Disclaimer: I enjoy work, I do believe that meaningful, socially sustainable work is exceptionally important for us animals, for both our mental health and our world at large. Essential Work. That should be a term we are awfully familiar with at this point.

When I say “Fuck Work” I mean the 80-90% of jobs we’re brainwashed into believing are meaningful and relevant to our own survival as well as our societies. There is a wonderful book called “Bullshit Jobs” by David Graeber that I can only recommend in that regard.

Now, imagine a world where those bullshit jobs are automated. Further imagine that WE not THEM own the machines, receive an equal share of those automated profits. magine a world where WE have globalized all tech, and thus all equally receive the profits from the data mining - or hell, go even further, stop data mining for population manipulation all together. Imagine a world in which we produce what WE need, not what THEY want to sell us. Imagine an automated world in which WE determine, via A.I., a global production cycle that is based on a sustainable Cradle to Cradle concept without borders, without hierarchical power structures based on profit, but mutual aid. Now imagine having a day like I did yesterday as a general rule, imagine the potential for good we all inherently have set free, once the pressure of Capital is removed from the equation.

It is all possible. The ideas already exist, the technology exists or is on the brink of existing. Now think of who and what is in the way. I don’t have to spell this out for you. The deal breaker here is that this world is possible. It is merely a question of Political Will - and that is derived from you and me.

Think on that.

This is what genuine care free, relaxed happiness can look like if we want it to:

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Waking up to news that this is now an apparent reality in a for-profit private prison in the country that is supposed to lead the free world ( I do hope I don’t have to explain sarcasm to anyone ) is another lesson in that you cannot and shall not allow Capitalists to run a society. This isn’t new. See tweet below this one for more history on this.

This is where you need to read this book: “Killing the Black Body” by Dorothy Roberts.

In 1997, this groundbreaking book made a powerful entrance into the national conversation on race. In a media landscape dominated by racially biased images of welfare queens and crack babies, Killing the Black Body exposed America’s systemic abuse of Black women’s bodies. From slave masters’ economic stake in bonded women’s fertility to government programs that coerced thousands of poor Black women into being sterilized as late as the 1970s, these abuses pointed to the degradation of Black motherhood—and the exclusion of Black women’s reproductive needs in mainstream feminist and civil rights agendas

There is a point in posting these two pieces of news from the same day right behind one another. Tech, which is run by megalomaniac, money hungry dragons aka massive fucking asshole in the way of our survival, never produce anything without a quiet capitalistic machine behind it that is always looking for ways to reduce you to nothing.

On that note. You are worth infinitely more than your job or your salary.

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We have ourselves a new playlist for this week and my comrades, I kind of went off the beaten track last week. There were plenty of days when nothing by classics were being played here but this one is nothing but deep cuts, in a really good way. It’s generally speaking quite soothing but I will leave it for you to enjoy. Again, do send me tunes that you are feeling here or via email, I am always eager to hear what’s being played at your end.