2018-02-23 18:58:03 +00:00
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---
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created_at: '2017-12-25T10:24:44.000Z'
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title: Electronic Loneliness (1995)
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url: http://www.mediamatic.net/5909/en/electronic-loneliness
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author: doots
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points: 43
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story_text:
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comment_text:
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num_comments: 7
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story_id:
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story_title:
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story_url:
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parent_id:
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created_at_i: 1514197484
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_tags:
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- story
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- author_doots
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- story_16003560
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objectID: '16003560'
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2018-06-08 12:05:27 +00:00
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year: 1995
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2018-02-23 18:58:03 +00:00
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---
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2018-03-03 09:35:28 +00:00
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Post-sociologists disguised as trend tasters are projecting all their
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reborn enthusiasm onto the home. Their concern is directed at the army
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of out-of-action white- and blue-collar workers, who will be taken out
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of their state of anomie and unproductivity thanks to home terminals.
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Individual enthusiasm for techno-gadgetry is being transformed into the
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hope of a new economic élan. It turns out that installing new media in
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your own home provokes a labour situation. The combination of data
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highway and enhanced television will inevitably lead to the return of
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cottage industry in the form of virtual looms. The countryside will
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bloom again, traffic jams disappear, the environment will be spared and
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the family restored. And in all reasonableness, who wouldn't want that?
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2018-02-23 18:19:40 +00:00
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2018-03-03 09:35:28 +00:00
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In the age of the shop floor, the open-plan office, the canteen and the
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meeting room, a political work climate still existed. One could still
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speak of spatially proximate and visible hierarchical relationships
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within a technically integrated division of labour. Engagement in
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material production fostered a compelling solidarity. This laid fertile
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ground for the corporate dreams of the 20th century, from Fordism and
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Taylorism to Japanese management and New Age. Labour unions ensured the
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pacification of always-latent labour unrest. After World War II in the
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West there thus arose a configuration which guaranteed a manageable
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social dynamic. Until the perpetual restructuring finally resulted in
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empty factories. Passion for socialism and communism disappeared just as
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soundlessly. The social question thus shifted from the factory gates to
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people's front doors. The home has thereby become the object of fantasy
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for political economists and other social visionaries.
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2018-02-23 18:19:40 +00:00
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2018-03-03 09:35:28 +00:00
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Those who take early retirement are no longer motivatible and are de
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facto written off. This grey mass belongs to the industrial past, is
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using up the last of the welfare state's money and is otherwise left
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alone. But these were the people who consciously dedicated themselves to
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home furnishing. The post-war generations discovered the home as leisure
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object and mirror of the ego. Remodelling and renovation became the way
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they filled their lives, and their relationship therapy (an open kitchen
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in an open marriage). It all came down to the order of purchase and
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correct arrangement of refrigerator, stereo, living room furniture,
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floor lamp, motorcycle, lawnmower, blinds and washing machine. Means of
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communication occupied a privileged place: the car for outside and the
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television for inside. The house was a recovery centre where you got
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what was coming to you: a sheltered space where family ideals were
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practised. The fatal turn came with the delayed insight that people were
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working on a realised utopia which was impossible to stand for long. The
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complete collection of comforts became dead capital. The social function
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of the familial reception room died out and made place for an active and
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temporary arrangement of support functions geared towards the
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individual. The excess of dusty knickknacks has made way for a strictly
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selected mix of sterile objects. A combination of stylized and
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functional ambience ensures the house is ready to be turned into a
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workplace.
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2018-02-23 18:19:40 +00:00
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2018-03-03 09:35:28 +00:00
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Visions of home tele-work are on a par with wishful imaginings about
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robots, artificial intelligence and transplant organs. There is an
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appeal to a coming stage of development, as yet unknown but imaginable.
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Working at a home terminal creates a work situation lacking in all the
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traditional attributes (physical exertion, collegiality, change of
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place, noise and dirt). Everything which used to make work a nuisance
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now seems to have disappeared. The work at (industrial-age) machines of
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a few vouchsafes the prosperity of the many who stay home. But the
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internalised urge to work cannot bear this apparent idleness, which is
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scarcely discernible in unemployment statistics. A feeling of urgency
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must be created, the feeling that unless we all do something about it,
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everything will end posthaste in decadence, crime and entropy. There is
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delight that the masses will once again have something to do and can
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once again be kept on a leash. At home we are experiencing a
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science-fiction invasion: the spaceship is ensconcing itself in the
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living room and the feeling of being on a virtual trip through space
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imposes itself.
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With video games, toll numbers, interactive media and home shopping
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people have been put in the mood and acquired the tactile skills to work
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for money at a distance. But the decision makers still have to be warmed
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up to equip the tele-sector with a technical as well as an ideological
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infrastructure. They can be helped by the articulation of an act of will
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that we will, together yet individually, create a positive perspective
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on economic activity. An axiom of self-realisation has been slapped onto
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telework in passing: you're only someone if you're in business. No
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activity, no identity. Pepped up, in shape and evaluated for
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performance, the individualised mass must be brought into a state of
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readiness for digital piecework.
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Telework is not an institution, but a constitution, a mental frame in
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which the new work effort can move. Psychic, to begin with: what used to
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be called immobility is now the point of departure for delivering labour
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performance. Isolation must thus be conditioned. The individual is shut
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up in a niche, at one with the network. One is urged to keep one's mind
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on the screen, for there is nothing else. There will be no flourishing
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family life, no workplace adultery. And even the promised outlet of
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virtual sex has come to a dead end. All we're left with is the bill.
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Since chance meetings have been banished, dating services bring us
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videos and careful matching and screening techniques to line up our
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wishes with a tailored selection. But once the stage of visitation
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rights is reached, the all-too-human imperfections come to light, and
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become acute obstacles before the adventure is even underway. By and
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large, the other we choose is unbearable. The other's always-lacking
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gloss and perfection create a social footing of boredom and apathy.
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Communication is stifled, and the tele-beings stay invisible and
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meaningless to each other. Martin Buber, where are you?
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Electronic loneliness cannot be expressed in metaphysical or psychiatric
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terms. It is not a melancholy depth, but an artificial surface.
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Desolation is a fatal production factor, a trap people fall into through
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reckless thinking and belief in mirages. Only organised tourism is still
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seen as a solution. One builds up a collection of psycho-physical
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experiences, of meditation, repentance, exhaustion, ecstasy, fasting,
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pilgrimages for heroic assistance. But these sensations yield no answers
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in the extremely personal confrontation with the machine. Pulling the
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plug on the Net is suicide. There is no future without the Net;
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alternative scenarios no longer circulate. Nothing seems to stand in the
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way of the advance of enclosures. The age of despair is definitively
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behind us. Get serious. Sentiment has landed up in the archaeological
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layers of consciousness (in an age in which the history of mentality is
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being written). The Net as ideal treadmill for self-styled identities
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will create no revolutionary situations, nor bring the world to an end.
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Cybernetic emptiness need not be filled, nor will it ever be full (of
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desire, abhorrence or unrest). Until telematic energy finally disappears
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into the flatland of silence in the face of blinking commands.
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translation Laura Martz
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