On Solidarity
Social solidarity is not
an ethical or ideological value:
It depends on the continuousness of the relation
between individuals in time and in space.
The material foundation of solidarity
is the perception of
the continuation of the body in the body,
and the immediate understanding
of my interest and your interest.
—Franco “Bifo” Berardi
excerpt from The Uprising, On Poetry and Finance
Solidarity requires psychic and cultural energy. Since the 1980s work has become precarious, fragmented, fractal. So you’re an independent contractor now! Your work is solitary, manipulating information flows on a screen, in a cubicle, maybe at Starbucks. In work, you submit to the accelerating rhythm of the virtual machine. Moreover you work more for less. Competition with the worker in India, in China gives advantage to the buyer of labor, to capital. Your work is dis-empathic, and invested with the dis-harmonization of social communication, happening on impersonal ground. You feel panic.
What can we do to reconnect, to reestablish the bonds of social connection? We form a big circle at the Long Grove Coffee Shop on Tuesday evening to exchange ideas sparked by our reading of an essay…..which often is as frustrating as is satisfying. Connection is frankly difficult because the syntax, the code, the language, the meaning of words is often not shared. Our society has become increasingly divided into camps which speak English but view reality in a radically different fashion. Topics of politics and economics are particularly difficult. We try but sometimes conclude with a heated disagreement. Then we adjourn to a local winery and drink wine for an hour. Ultimately the evening ends well.
Then some of us, a smaller circle meet at Taste of Paris Café on Thursday evening. There the bonds of solidarity are nurtured. The circle is smaller, careful listening is easier, and ideas are developed. Disagreement is easily managed over glasses of wine and a apple galette.
