subject: Smile: confusion and alienation within the capitalist system [print this page] Smile: confusion and alienation within the capitalist system
"Smile" says my supervisor having noticed my glum face and lethargic movement which I thought I'd successfully concealed. It's the second irritable comment within the space of two minutes the other one being "just think of the money" this generic statement was meant to console me after being told that I'd have to stay to work late. Does he really think that the money' ever evades my mind as I stroll around and count down towards the next hour that's worth only six pounds? And I'm supposed to think of this and somehow appear cheery about my whole situation?
It's another night collecting glasses off strangers who rush to the dance floor to hear musical dreariness disembogue out of the speakers, they drink cheap wine and dance with an obvious foolishness, they capture it on their camera phones and watch it immediately afterwards, I just hover over in the distance like a ghost questioning my own existence. I envy their simple pleasures that I also see in my co-workers who manage to approach menial tasks with a sense of care and even a slight tint of enjoyment. I feel alienated but I know I'm not the only one; across the country there are genuine intelligent people doing jobs that they know they have to do and resenting every moment of them. They can feel their soul dissolve and their thirst for academia dwindle every time the management congratulate them on how much profit was taken from the till. They feel disillusioned when their fellow employees repeat the profits in order to impress their recipient. It's as if they don't know that their pay remains the same. The palpable injustice of capitalism is hidden to them under a battered and haggard veil, but it still works.
In response to this bleak injustice it seems that there are two camps which we fall into. Within the first camp lie those who seek action. They march on the streets of our cities trying to prevent the draconian policies that our governments throw at us. They turn up in their thousands exercising the rights that our pseudo-democracies allow us to have. But it's been seen before and to a greater extent, millions marching in London and achieving no result, many of us just sat back and thought what's the point? That's where the second camp comes in; it's those who have given up, lost their politics, lost their hope, lost their voice. We are quasi-nihilists and we seek escapism; we watch football, watch films, play video games and we drink- oh how we drink!
We meet friends and we find cheap and disgusting bottles of high strength cider and try to disguise the taste with blackcurrant juice. We laugh and smile and most importantly we forget. We forget about our own situation, we forget about the world as a whole, we're smiling but we're not thinking about the money. Our irresponsible behaviour breeds only temporary bliss as we wake the next day forgetting the night before and forgetting everything we tried to forget. The brutal banality of everything gushes back into our thoughts and we can see nothing but a funereal future ahead of us, at least until that broken veil is removed.
