I’m not a robot – Julian Summerhayes

The workplace sucks.

Some would have you believe otherwise.

Of course, you can dress it in Emperor’s New Clothes, talk a new paradigm and offer all sorts of sweeteners but it’s all part of a regime that trades in comfort in order to seduce us into believing that this is life.

And I should know, given I’ve been at it for (bloody hell) 40 years, going on my whole life.

I wish it were otherwise. By god I wish it were but there’s little else on offer other than the other gig of self-employment or going large on the journey of entrepreneurship. But both of these are a trap in that they too often play to the same capitalist narrative that’s got us into the unholy mess.

And your solution smart-arse?

You heard me.

Oh sure, there’s ye old work in the mix but if we all worked together to build something life-sustaining, then we wouldn’t need work. I think of my locus: a small village in South Devon. What if we all came together to grow our own food, make and mend what we actually needed and set up a Council of Elders for the big and sometimes little decisions that needed to be made about the future, justice and all the nitty-gritty of a life well lived?

I know it all sounds so unreal but is it? Is it really? I can’t speak for you but I know that there’s got to be a better way than going to work, greenwashing our futures to death and pretending that this is life.

Where are you going with this?

Nowhere right now. But I know there’s a conversation to be had about living in community. Perhaps not in my lifetime but the one to follow, once we (whoever that is) realise that if we’re going to live sustainably then the company vehicle doesn’t cut the proverbial mustard.

Anyhow, onwards, forever onwards (at least until days end)

Have a good one dear readers.