Energy is the basic unit of the universe. Energies transferring through the different channels, light, sound, heat, etc., ultimately disintegrates into the lower forms (mostly heat). Ultimately productivity refers to the integrating or organising of more chaotic energy to a more ordered one. Work itself in thermodynamics refers to that transference.
Colloquially, productivity means a different thing. It refers to anything that provides a tangible output, which I coin as the ‘meaning’ in this essay. Meaning is an ambiguous term, attributing to anything that brings some kind of pleasure or returns. Most meanings are created and propagated through the dictums of a society. A doctor’s work is in saving people’s lives, an engineer in designing the infrastructure and technology, etc. And yet, a doctor can find a personal meaning in the regular routine or the empathy rewards in treating the patients. Society and self can intersect in such ways. Using the modern utilitarian concepts, one could theorise, that a human ought to maximise meaning for the case of the collective through any means possible. In such a society, leisure time or the daily rituals are effectively meaningless(zero collective output), unless enforced by the individuals themselves. Under these principles, the western societies enjoyed a boom in leisure times due to the economic development until 1980s. Despite the boom, mass consumer culture took a central stage in US and spread to the western parts of Europe, in which adulations of freedom and individuality were sung. The main characters were cool and decisive, wild and independent in most of the American movies, as a lineage of the rustic Western classics.
On top of the utilitarian framework, words such as freedom and individuality became a new mask for the old world. It does not take a brilliant mind to figure the irony of such a suggestion. The right to freedom is not a freedom here, but a necessity. You must be free. ‘Why aren’t you free?’. Following such a question, we have advertisements for fast cars in long roads, clothes for a charismatic man, an elegant bag for the strong independent woman, etc. Things to make you feel free and strong.
Welcome to the capitalist authenticity era! In the past decade, Instagram influencers have posted photos about their lifestyles and highly choreographed travel destinations to gain followers or subscribers. Freedom, and authenticity become trend words amongst these influencers. Such trends are spread to their followers as mimetic desires, that replaces the old world order where sincerity and religion played a significant role. In addition, alienation towards work and surroundings results in humans occupying their times with Instagram celebrities and trends. Beneath all this, a certain guilt remains underneath this bed of authenticity which compels us to be productive, partly to alleviate the background anxieties. Through a number of miracles, the socially meaningless activities have attained meaning in social media, by sharing them and quantifying it in terms of likes and comments. An action cannot be done for its own sake. Walking or wandering is a useless and an excessive activity that should not produce any sort of meaning to the social. But by quantifying the amount of steps and sharing it online, I can provide it ‘meaning’. Regular gaps in life have been shortened to create a machinery of meaning production. And yet, here we find a modern paradox. Regular phone users cannot help but watch meaningless YouTube or Tiktok videos, creating a certain guilt towards doing so. Nothing should be wasted.
Where does this paradox come from? Inability to handle boredom. For the free desiring that works synchronous to the capitalist machinery, boredom is something to be solved. In western cultures, inhibitions or hurdles to pleasure are also problems to be solved in the capitalist machinery. “Don’t want to cook. Don’t worry. Order it online.” According to Lacan, jouissance which is enjoyment from not getting what you desire takes a back stage. Deep dissatisfaction runs parallel to the free willing and limitless desire. With this deep dissatisfaction and improper defences towards dissatisfaction (or boredom), wasteful behaviour runs rampant. Gaps, the in-betweens, have been shortened to fit a short attention span, and the low pain threshold. Everything must be made enjoyable or else it is not right. Indeed, nothing should be with discomfort or any delay.
In such a culture of free desiring, how can we cope with overproduction of meaning that does not get saturated too soon (Internet is just full of content, also this). Stoicism has re-emerged in the recent years as a defence and runs in direct opposition with free desire. Sincerity and virtue follows the authenticity to its other end. Right in there lies a certain hurdle. Its failure to adapt to modern conditions. Even though one separates oneself from desiring and focuses on the internal balance, it still carries with it the modern problems with it such as alienation from work and surroundings. And yet, stoicism is a good way to alleviate the compulsion of pleasure, and focus on virtue. Stoicism still converts everything to logical arguments, thus providing meaning to every action. Our obsession with meaning production does not get interrupted by stoicism.
Instead, I propose another option. Our cultures need to be saturated with boredom (although a luxury nowadays). I call it the non-meaning, the potentially useless. Shunya as a concept means the nothingness, but also a certain waiting for the action to take hold. The useless can be thought of as a scaffolding for the useful. Rather than converting everything useless to useful through an act of signs, it is better to just leave it as useless. Excessive feats that can still be deterrent or wasteful are to be celebrated in all cultures. Slackers should be heralded as heroes. Every culture needs a Diogenes, loitering in the streets.
Addition: If you realise how useless philosophy is, compared to the sciences, it makes me extremely happy. Silence is the useless commodity compared to the words. But without the proper silence, words don’t make any sense.
Other posts
Djinn's Cave 
Leave a comment