The easy life, plentiful money and an
obscure but un-obscured view to the future. The feeling of more of the same,
just integrate ones-self into the smooth functioning system to find ones own
path, the aim, to eclipse the opportunities and achievements of the generation
before. This all felt possible and achievable, or the environment made it seem
so.
Someone's business fails and you can’t get a job and you cant afford to pay your
bills and your food seems to get more expensive every week. The official
statistics back up your feeling that things have become harder and more
expensive, the tone of the politicians and the texture of the mediated slogans
imbue the world with a pessimistic hue. A helplessness in the face of larger
uncontrollable technological / cultural / social forces.
The power of data, the unstoppable growth
of computer memory capacity and of processing speeds. The shrinking of device-size. The move to ‘THE [heavenly] CLOUD’ the virtual-virtual astral plane. We have no need to physically retain our own
data anymore, in true capitalist fashion this job is outsourced to lower cost
locations, in data centres on business parks in Slough or Palo Alto or Mumbai
or wherever.
Since 2007 all we’ve heard is that there is
a crisis. There is a crisis happening now, in our world all around us, although
we can’t always see it or feel it, it is there in the images and the articles
and replays and the data. A financial crisis in the world economy. A crisis in
the world. A world crisis. What more do we need to see to make it real. How
many more government budgets need to be slashed and taxes increased before we
see the enormity of the problems. How many sick and unemployed and disabled and
marginalized people must we force to straighten up and fly right before we FEEL
the crisis. We are either in a period of latency or complacency. The system is
broken and no one knows how to fix it, or whether we should bother to fix it
because you know it kinda works right? You have a job and a roof over your head
and internet and a twitter account and you can follow whoever
you want and you can share and swap and swirl and whirl the infinity of data
and electronic and physical commodities of our age around you in a blanket of
comfort and a sly wink to your buddy and the irony, the marginalized
who cant keep up who aren’t aware who don’t / want / can't occupy this space and don’t know
how to use it. As we disappear into this black hole the REAL WORLD carries on with
its building sites turning into factories producing goods shipped and packaged
and barcoded and delivered by a man in a brown van wearing an overall designed
by someone to your home where you live and there you go you have what you want
/ need now.
The numbing synthesis. The white horse in
the corner of your burger. The dislocation and the cleanliness of your
hands.
