From Chaos Marxism...

[Cramulus]

from http://chaosmarxism.blogspot.com/2010/10/chaos-marxism-aims-to-be-technology-of.html





Chaos Marxism aims to be a technology of ecstacy - or, more importantly, integration of ecstacy into the Real World of Horrible Jobs, of inner and outer worlds - which has always been the goal of mystical paths and dialectical materialist praxis. Capitalism generalises alienation, in which work is turned against the self; and, in the modern era, a "Chinese Wall" is erected between production and consumption, with the ideological apparatus of society actively encouraging a "split personality" (the dutiful worker always pushing for greater productivity suddenly transforms into a raging, impulse-buying party animal and sexual tyrannosaurus after 5 pm and on weekends).

In this sense, you could even make an argument that the Stalinist and fascist party-states had a slight edge, whereby officially promoted ecstatic states (generally in the form of leader worship, eg North Korean "mass games", or "compulsory social solidarity" events) were closely integrated into the daily grind of routine labour. "It's very chaste, but everyone has a good time," as James Church's Inspector O put it. Recent advances in the "creative workplace" in the capitalist countries are catching up, though - they're trying to integrate fun into work, but in such a way as to subordinate fun to work.

But Stalinist, fascist and capitalist technologies are simply safety valves - imposition of order leads to escalation of chaos, so there are clearly defined limits to "official ecstacy". When Saturnalia is over, the slaves go back to being slaves. So much "revolutionary" practice, unfortunately, fits into this remarkably well - political activism is something you do in your leisure time and lunch breaks, which is 100% compatible with the perpetuation of capitalist normality, as it's just another leisure activity. Assertion of workers' power and self-management on the job breaks the cycle, but of course that can't be done by isolated individuals - it needs social organisation, which capitalist normality does everything in its power to prevent.

So our problem is: how do we achieve ecstacy in a way in which something is disrupted in the system of the Black Iron Prison, rather than just letting off steam? Probably the answer lies in personality integration - that we should strive to become the same person on the job, in the sack, and communing with the Gods, rather than building barriers and compartments between experiences. They actually enforce something like this in Stalinist countries, but in the service of a closed, static, self-perpetuating social order - the people who talk about North Korea as "neo-feudal" are close to the mark, although I'd say it's much more like the Byzantine emperor+bureaucracy system than European feudalism, which if nothing else was radically decentralised.

Reactionary systems: workaday self and ecstatic self merged in a static loop.
Capitalism: workaday self divorced from ecstatic self.
Revolutionary systems: workaday self and ecstatic self merged in a dynamic loop.

[Cramulus]

This is an interesting post. I've always accepted the compartmentalization of personality to be something kind of necessary for survival in the strange times. But it does create a tension between the personality I express at work and the personality I express on the weekends. Perhaps they should all be rolled into one, no?

Because my workplace self is more straightfaced, more submissive than my weekend self, but he also is a lot better at getting things done.

and my weekend self is more oriented onto play and subversion - something which may make my office life a bit more enjoyable.


perhaps I have built these walls just so I can break them down

[Reginald Ret]

The problem with being myself in the workplace is that I get fired.
But i see no harm in letting more of myself be seen after i've gotten some jobsecurity.

Dok Howl's stories of the shit he pulls at work are a good guideline:
First make sure they need you,
then start having fun while still doing what you're paid for.

[Cramulus]

well certainly you will still end up having different personalities in different contexts

I don't meant to say that I'm going to start drinking beer at my desk, because I do that at home


At work I've cultivated a rather introverted demeanor. I've kept a wall between me and my coworkers and I haven't wanted to let them in.

And meanwhile, in my personal life, I find myself reaching out, trying to make new friends, explore new social situations...



And meanwhile, Dolores says you have to connect the conflict you experience in your inner world to the conflict you experience in the outer world.

In my inner world, my quest is one of direction. I am growing stagnant. I need to figure out what the Next Step is.

And meanwhile in the outer world, the Real World of Horrible Jobs, I have been stuck at this dead end job. And maybe my problems will clear up once I figure out that inner problem. Or maybe it's the other way around - maybe once I figure out my workplace problems, the issues in my personal life will make more sense. Like maybe all my issues revolve around some personality flaw that's in a personal blind spot. Or maybe I can better transfer motivation from one sphere to another.


food for thought

[Cramulus]

lol

was sitting in my cube wearing my fake moustache

boss #8 came by to chat about something, laughed her ass off at the moustache. Described me as "gauche".

had to look it up. 


maybe I need to checkity-check myself before I wreckity-wreck myself + 

[Doloras LaPicho]

The problem with being myself in the workplace is that I get fired.

Yeah, that reminds me of the "elementary remark" from the early chapters of Animal Farm: "The farmer feeds us. If he were gone, we'd all starve to death."

The whole thing about compartmentalisation of personality is that it's not only necessary for survival under capitalism, capitalism actively promotes it. If you think capitalism is the best way forward for human civilisation, that's not a problem, but if you think it leads to ecological collapse and mental illness on a planetary basis, that compartmentalisation is something that needs challenging. Of course if you do it on your own you just get fired or whatever. If a collective does it, that's a whole different matter. It's one of our fundamental principles that labor union organisation can and should be an altered state of consciousness... if done right 

[Doktor Howl]

The problem with being myself in the workplace is that I get fired.

Yeah, that reminds me of the "elementary remark" from the early chapters of Animal Farm: "The farmer feeds us. If he were gone, we'd all starve to death."

The whole thing about compartmentalisation of personality is that it's not only necessary for survival under capitalism, capitalism actively promotes it. If you think capitalism is the best way forward for human civilisation, that's not a problem, but if you think it leads to ecological collapse and mental illness on a planetary basis, that compartmentalisation is something that needs challenging. Of course if you do it on your own you just get fired or whatever. If a collective does it, that's a whole different matter. It's one of our fundamental principles that labor union organisation can and should be an altered state of consciousness... if done right 

You're trading one hive for another.

[Cramulus]

Since we're talking about collectivism - it sounds like we're talking about bridging the gap between one's group of friends and one's coworkers. To achieve ecstasy in the midst of labor, one must be able to find joy in these Sisyphean tasks, and that probably has more to do with the company one keeps than with the work itself. Is that what you're getting at?  or am I simplifying too much?

[Golden Applesauce]

I think the psychology phrase here is "self-monitoring".

I don't know whether more recent research has confirmed or debunked the idea, but the theory goes like this:
In general, people act differently in different situations.  You probably swear less often around your mother than around you friends, and get rowdier at a football game then you do in the office.  Some people do this a lot (i.e., act radically differently in different situations) and some people do it less (act more-or-less the same in different situations.)

This gets interesting if you compare it to the question of whether there is a "unified self" or if people are more like bundles of drives.  Because if there is some unity of self, then acting against that unified self is in some sense being dishonest to yourself.  I had to quit a quite well paying job over the summer (they were paying about 20-40% more than other companies for comparable work) because while working that job I had to deny some of my core principles - radical honesty, radical curiosity, and the belief that a job worth doing is worth doing well.  I was sleeping terribly (nightmares and really bad teeth grinding) for really no other reason than job stress.  And the job itself was not stressful otherwise - the work itself was done in a quiet room and required almost no personal interaction.  Okay, the fact that I had to sit with my back to the managers who were checking my word in a chair with no back support for 9 hours a day didn't help.  (Also, in the few months I worked there, there was well over 50% turnover.  When I left, none of the temps who were there when I arrived were still there.)

[Golden Applesauce]

The problem with being myself in the workplace is that I get fired.

Yeah, that reminds me of the "elementary remark" from the early chapters of Animal Farm: "The farmer feeds us. If he were gone, we'd all starve to death."

The whole thing about compartmentalisation of personality is that it's not only necessary for survival under capitalism, capitalism actively promotes it. If you think capitalism is the best way forward for human civilisation, that's not a problem, but if you think it leads to ecological collapse and mental illness on a planetary basis, that compartmentalisation is something that needs challenging. Of course if you do it on your own you just get fired or whatever. If a collective does it, that's a whole different matter. It's one of our fundamental principles that labor union organisation can and should be an altered state of consciousness... if done right 

You're trading one hive for another.

"Collective" doesn't necessarily mean hivemind.  I think that might just be language difference - PD discordians use "collective" to mean self-destroying conformity,  but Chaos Marxists probably mean something different.  Doloras - does "a group of individuals working together" accurately convey what you were trying to get across?

And I need to go read Animal Farm again now.