Dead Man Working
Carl Cederstrom, Peter Fleming
Language: English
Pages: 83
ISBN: 1780991568
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
Capitalism has become strange. Ironically, while the ‘age of work’ seems to have come to an end, working has assumed a total presence – a ‘worker’s society’ in the worst sense of the term – where everyone finds themselves obsessed with it. So what does the worker tell us today? "I feel drained, empty… dead." This book tells the story of the dead man working. It follows this figure through the daily tedium of the office, to the humiliating mandatory team building exercise, to awkward encounters with the funky boss who pretends to hate capitalism and tells you to be authentic. In this society, the experience of work is not of dying...but neither of living. It is one of a living death. And yet, the dead man working is nevertheless compelled to wear the exterior signs of life, to throw a pretty smile, feign enthusiasm and make a half-baked joke. When the corporation has colonized life itself, even our dreams, the question of escape becomes ever more pressing, ever more desperate…
Dead Man Working Dead Man Working Carl Cederström and Peter Fleming Winchester, UK Washington, USA First published by Zero Books, 2012 Zero Books is an imprint of John Hunt Publishing Ltd., Laurel House, Station Approach, Alresford, Hants, SO24 9JH, UK office1@o-books.net www.o-books.com For distributor details and how to order please visit the ‘Ordering’ section on our website. Text copyright: Carl Cederström and Peter Fleming 2011 ISBN: 978 1 78099 156 6 All rights reserved. Except for
is yet to arrive, since it is usually not until a number of years after the crisis, when the effects have made themselves felt more force-fully, that the real tragedy kicks in. Either way, these suicides are unmistakably tragic, in the literal sense of the word. Jumping off a roof with a glass of champagne in your hand produces a dazzling, almost mythic image. However, it is arguably not in tragedy that we find the answer to these suicides, but in 18th century England. In his essay on suicide
novels, unwittingly answered this question. Perhaps inspired by the coming wave of neoliberalism, The Shining and Fire Starter cast children in the role of the revolutionary subject. In The Shining, seven-year-old Danny is gifted with ‘the shine’, a curious ability to see the murdered ghosts crowding the deserted hotel, which his mother and father are looking after over a cold, dark winter. It is not far-fetched to see the hotel as a representation of a hostile market society that appears
strange: exactly what they were told to do, following the formal rules to the letter. As a result, when the invisible wealth of informal engagement, knowledge sharing, and mutual aid was withdrawn, the office was brought to a halt. The implications of Blau’s study is clear: the formal corporate form actually obstructs the creation of wealth, and is thus completely reliant on an undercurrent of non-commercialized living labor, the very thing it cannot help but demolish as soon as it gets its
luxury which only that business confers. While these heady-heights of philosophical reflection left many in a state of torpor, a new culture of criticism emerged in the 1960s among the youth and civil rights movements that defied traditional class politics. The student movement in particular rejected the very nature of daily life under corporate rule. It was boring, dull and exceedingly depressing. The old stereotype of the ‘organization man’ who was content to deny himself ‘a life’ suddenly