After an impassioned ranting session with my younger sister, it occurred to me how neoliberalism has seeped so deep into our lives that we describe ourselves and the people we know through their work.
How my father talks about me to his friends, “Oh my daughter is a fashion designer, she is working in XYZ company. And what about your daughter?” So essentially we are not asking how the daughter is doing as a living human being in a pandemic but viewing her as a factory that has to produce a product and contribute to the cycle of capitalism.
Most of our conversations revolve around our “ambitions”, “goals”, “where do we see ourselves in five, ten, fifteen years?” Do we ever talk about how we would like to spend our day without bringing our work into it? Why do we not ask a person how he/she/they are feeling? How the constant battle of just making it “big” in the world has battered down a person who was not naturally “designed” to be this machine to run the unending cycle of greenhouse gas-producing, planet-killing system.
Out of millions of possibilities of living our lives, and constructing a society, we chose to go with neoliberalism, capitalism, imperialism, colonialism? A system created mainly by the White cisgender heterosexual men in the eighteenth century to dominate, exploit, torture, insult, and kill. After hundreds of years, we have turned ourselves into a factory that is expected to contribute to society and pay for basically everything for something as basic as water. Work work work, aim for that next promotion. Step over your colleagues who are a rival factory through immoral means. Slog and work for that Harvard degree, for that job at multinational company headquartered in some western country that previously looted and oppressed your ancestors. You are just choosing slavery now because it has been repackaged in this shiny sleek looking badge that you wear in your social gatherings and show off on social media.
You are a factory that is expected to come up with new products every five years so that your value in society remains high and you stay relevant at social parties. Acquire a new skill, make connections, collaborate with fellow top-ranking slaves to attract more customers.
And if you are not this? Darling you are an outcast.