[lbo-talk] cynicism, opportunism and fear (was lefties, fulfillment)

[Tom Walker]

The words in the subject line are not directed at any individual on this 
list. They refer, rather, to a dynamic that Paolo Virno dwells on in his 
analysis ("The Ambivalence of Disenchantment" and "Virtuousity and 
Revolution") of the contemporary experience of work  Virno's central 
idea, which he reprises in the recently published A Grammar of the 
Multitude, is that modern work has been "politicized" to an extent that 
undermines the traditional, Aristotilean distinctions between Work, 
Action and Intellect that Hannah Arendt emphasised in The Human 
Condition. To use the analogy of art, modern work is more like the 
performance of a pianist or a dancer that expires with the performance 
than it is like that of the painter or sculptor, which results in a 
product that endures beyond the performance. That's why Virno uses the 
term "virtuosity" to describe it.

This politicization of work has consequences, one of which is to make 
"politics " seem like a pale imitation of work. Virno's argument here is 
an inversion of Arendt's about the technicization of politics. Or 
perhaps it would be better to say it combines Arendt's argument with an 
inversion of that view. Related to this politicization of work is the 
blurring of boundaries between work and non-work. Some people are 
working all the time, even when they're not at work. Others, who are 
essentially doing the same kinds of things are unemployed because they 
receive no remuneration for the work that they do. That is to say the 
distinction between working and not working is no longer so much the 
kinds of activities people do but whether or not they are getting paid 
for doing them. And what they do is mostly talk. The job of teachers, 
lawyers, journalists, etc. is to talk. (and talk and talk and talk.)

Another consequence of the politicization of work is that this 
performance requires an audience. And audiences can be cruel and fickle 
things. You're only ever as good as the _reception_ of your last 
performance... and tastes change. As virtuosos of talk, we also become 
afficianados of talk and critics of talk and we thus are aware that we 
are often rewarded for what are not our best performances and vice 
versa. It isn't even so much the performance that the audience applauds 
as our reputation or our "personality". Success depends on projecting an 
image of our self that conforms with what the audience wants us to be. 
The precariousness of this operation means that we need to always be on 
the look out for new opportunities -- either better opportunities or 
else a fall back when the current gig runs its course. Cynicism and 
opportunism are thus the crucial ingredients for success at work.

The training in this cynicism and opportunism occurs during 
unemployment, the long and recurring intervals of looking for work, 
marketing what we can do, "selling ourselves." The "looking for work" 
thus becomes the model for the kind of work we do when we eventually 
find it. Value has become unlinked from the time that the worker spends 
at work to the extent that surplus value is produced in the time outside 
of work, both the non-working time of the worker and the 
looking-for-work time of the unemployed.

That is why I remain your most humble and obedient servant,

The Sandwichman