(Draft #2) Is there no alternative?

My 1L year has made evident the many ways in which we police ourselves and feed into the bureaucracy of late capitalism. Though we have witnessed many attempts at structural change, both within our school and in the world at large, our attempts at challenging the prevailing order have been narrow-minded and compatible with the existing system. We have allowed the Lacanian notion of the ‘big Other’ to guide our decision making; we feel that we are subordinate to an invisible force and act according to our idea of its demands, even if this is not rooted in anything material.

In 2008, Finnish performance artist Pilvi Takala went undercover and performed “The Trainee” at the international accounting firm Deloitte. Over the course of a month, Takala acted as an eccentric trainee who took long breaks throughout the day to do nothing-- whether aimlessly riding the elevator or sitting by herself in the cafeteria looking out the window. When questioned about her activities, Takala told the other employees that doing nothing helped her come up with creative ideas and that her strange breaks were in fact part of her process. Before long, Takalas co-workers started talking behind her back and sending alarmed emails to each other about the peculiarity of her behavior. Takala notes that aimlessly scrolling through the internet or social media elicited no such reaction; this was an unquestioned “norm.” Takala’s work highlights both the absurdity of our commitment to what is expected of us and the power of refusing to participate in this system. In her own words: “It is non-doing that lacks a place in the general order of things, and thus it is a threat to order.”

In many respects, the pandemic has allowed us to turn inward and participate in some forms of the ‘non-doing’ that Takala refers to. Yet this period can also be summed up by Adrian Tomine’s popular New Yorker cover art, “Love Life.” This illustration shows a woman on a Zoom date, elegantly dressed from the waist up with a martini glass in hand. Outside of her camera’s view, however, is total pandemonium. Garbage is strewn throughout her room, dishes pile up in the sink, Amazon boxes and pill bottles lay about, and the woman holds a smartphone under the desk, presumably dividing her attention between texting and her date. While this cover art was likely meant to be amusing and relatable, I found it highly depressing. Our culture seemingly values justice, equity, inclusion, positivity, and honesty. Yet in the midst of a pandemic, many of us have put all of our (very diminished) energy into broadcasting a certain image to the world or doing what we think we should be doing. There were many times throughout this year when I joined a wretched Zoom call or “virtual happy hour” rather than take care of my personal needs, just to feel that I am somehow involved in something.

Mark Fisher’s Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative? further sheds light onto this issue. Fisher notes that capitalism has bred an obsession with PR; “mission statements,” “aims and objectives,” and “targets” have become ends within themselves (Fisher 44). Traditional top-down bureaucracy has morphed into more widespread, surveillance oriented systems of administration that rely on self-reporting. We can see this shift very clearly in schools, where teachers are told to perform frequent self-evaluations and report back on their students. In discussing the new forms of “rigidity,” Fisher points to Kafka’s distinction between ostensible acquittal and indefinite postponement: with indefinite postponement, one is seemingly free but ridden with anxiety that their case will never close (Fisher 51). While we were all technically free to ignore the Zoom evites and spend the year in a thoughtful state of observation, most of us (myself included) were too busy upholding our personal brand out of fear of what would happen if we let it all go.

We cannot expect to enact meaningful change when we have so deeply internalized the big Other and continue to operate in a state of anxiety. Though there is no one solution to this issue, it seems that stepping back to move forward is a good place to start. ‘Non-doing’ can make clear the absurdity of what we call the norm, and bring attention to the things that we truly need to change.

Is there no alternative?

The Problem

I don't understand. How could one particular, no matter which or of what order, possibly be the sole measurement of the state of a complex species-wide social process? Because this is absurd in operational terns, but is contained in the essay's initial statement of its idea, the reader is signaled not to take the proposition seriously. This doesn't seem to be what you want.

Why are we like this?

Is there a way out?

The essay's main idea seems to be contained, or seems to be to be contained, in this last paragraph that was going to he heavily restructured at the end of February but remains unchanged. I gather that the whole draft remained suspended, awaiting evaluation in its undisturbed condition.

One evident route to improvement is not to devote more than a third of the draft to a paraphrase of Mark Fisher. We do not need a theory of capitalist realism to summon the banality of organizational life, or to understand why an effort in professional school to prepare people for meaningful rather than meaningless professional existences would be highly relevant. Those ideas we can make vivid for the reader in one sentence apiece. If Fisher is actually necessary, we can add a few words of citation. That leaves the rest of the essay for what you yourself have to contribute, for which the placard of forthcoming heavy restructuring is a welcome but unpaid promissory note.

Is there no alternative?

-- By HadarDouek - 26 Feb 2021

The Problem The pandemic has forced us to turn inwards and admit just how much is outside of our control, which in turn has uncovered a widespread sense of hopelessness, cynicism, and loss of faith in our institutions. Over the past few years, immense grassroots movements have sprung up around a variety of progressive causes, yet these movements are often met with stagnation and lasting change begins to feel impossible. When Steven Donziger is still under house arrest for holding Chevron accountable, for example, how can we have any faith in meaningful climate reform? This sense of hopelessness has seeped into our private lives, and the many implications of the pandemic have intensified this phenomenon. Data shows significant increases in anxiety, depression, substance abuse, suicide, and chronic illness among Americans in the past year alone. Yet this surely this did not occur overnight and solely as a result of the pandemic-- the decay that we are experiencing is years in the making.

Why are we like this? To gain insight into the structural underpinnings of this decay, I turned to Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative?, by the late British theorist Mark Fisher. Fisher calls attention to the Lacanian concept of the “big Other,” as interpreted by Zizek. The big Other is elusive, but can be described as the invisible force of the regime under which one lives, as conceptualized by society. We feel that we are subordinate to the big Other and act according to our expectation of its demands, even if this is not rooted in anything material. Fisher points to the big Other at work in the bureaucratic systems of late capitalism. He notes that capitalism has bred an obsession with PR; “mission statements,” “aims and objectives,” and “targets” have become ends within themselves (Fisher 44). In the neoliberal version of decentralization, traditional top-down bureaucracy has morphed into more widespread, surveillance oriented systems of administration that rely heavily on self-reporting. We can see this shift very clearly in schools. While teachers were once strictly inspected by the headmaster or other such figure, today they must jump through different hoops. Teachers are expected structure rigid syllabi, course objectives, and rubrics for evaluation. Many are told to perform frequent self-evaluations and report back on their students. All of this serves the ultimate form of evaluation, the standardized test, around which most schooling is oriented these days. Of course, none of these mechanisms have produced any good results, and education is more compromised than ever. My aunt teaches at a NYC public school, where she feels that the obsession with the common core and standardized test results produces an environment where students are treated like customers. Any deviation from the standard is strictly discouraged; a student who arrives at an answer on a math test using an approach other than the one that was taught does not receive points. Education has not become any less rigid, the rigidity has simply changed forms. Fisher notes that the difference between the old forms of inspection and the new ones corresponds to Kafka’s distinction between ostensible acquittal and indefinite postponement: with indefinite postponement, one is seemingly free but ridden with anxiety that their case will never close (Fisher 51).

Bureaucracy is vital to capitalism because it eliminates the center of power. It's much harder to point fingers when there never seems to be a final authority on anything, or a "definitive official version." Those upholding the system might disagree with it but still defer: I'm sorry, that's the rule. This is apparent in the various Covid responses that we have witnessed, many of which have been confused, inefficient, and counterproductive. Deferral of responsibility is all part of the big Other, which cannot be identified in itself (Fisher 49). All of this serves to create a world in which we are, for the most part, severely unhappy with our conditions yet feel incapable of changing them.

Is there a way out?

In 2008, Finnish performance artist Pilvi Takala went undercover and performed “The Trainee” at the international accounting firm Deloitte. Over the course of a month, Takala acted as an eccentric trainee who took long breaks throughout the day to do nothing-- whether aimlessly riding the elevator or sitting by herself in the cafeteria looking out the window. When questioned about her activities, Takala told the other employees that doing nothing helped her come up with creative ideas and that her strange breaks were in fact part of her process. Before long, Takalas co-workers started talking behind her back and sending alarmed emails to each other about the peculiarity of her behavior. Takala notes that aimlessly scrolling through the internet or social media elicited no such reaction; this was an unquestioned “norm.” Takala’s work highlights both the absurdity of our commitment to what is expected of us and the power of refusing to participate in this system. In her own words: “It is non-doing that lacks a place in the general order of things, and thus it is a threat to order.”

Our class discussions surrounding law school culture and the challenges of this year have all brought to mind the myriad ways in which we police ourselves, feed into the bureaucracy of late capitalism, and allow the big Other to drive our thought processes and decision making. Even our recent attempts to challenge the prevailing order have been narrow-minded compatible with the existing system. I don’t have a solution to our society’s increasingly bleak prospects and that lack of political agency that we feel, but recognizing the driving force is a step in the right direction. The personal and political are deeply intertwined, and taking measures to remove ourselves from the systems that we unthinkingly subscribe to can be a catalyst for change. (**will be heavily restructuring this paragraph).

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