This Is How We Live Now #2 - Neoliberalism As a Form of Social Control

When George Monbiot makes contact, he doesn't miss. His Op-Ed in The Guardian yesterday is worth a read. Here's the link. And here's the money paragraphs, but the whole ting is worth a read.

New extremes in the surveillance and control of workers are not, of course, confined to the public sector. Amazon has patented a wristband that can track workers’ movements and detect the slightest deviation from protocol. Technologies are used to monitor peoples’ keystrokes, language, moods and tone of voice. Some companies have begun to experiment with the micro-chipping of their staff. As the philosopher Byung-Chul Han points out, neoliberal work practices, epitomised by the gig economy, that reclassifies workers as independent contractors, internalise exploitation. “Everyone is a self-exploiting worker in their own enterprise.”

The freedom we were promised turns out to be freedom for capital, gained at the expense of human liberty. The system neoliberalism has created is a bureaucracy that tends towards absolutism, produced in the public services by managers mimicking corporate executives, imposing inappropriate and self-defeating efficiency measures, and in the private sector by subjection to faceless technologies that can brook no argument or complaint.

Saves me the time of saying it myself. Thanks, George. As someone who does part-time work transcribing meeting notes of financial advisors--I could be fired simply for telling you that btw--the "my stats" page on my online employee profile has enough stats to make a pro sports analyst blush. I do have the freedom to make my own hours. Walk in, log on, and start earning $$. Based on my proficiency, I can earn anywhere between $8.25 and $11.00. Usually I'm around $9.50. I only work 16-20 hrs a week, and the extra physical/mental effort it would take for me to crack $10 is more than I'm willing to do. I like that freedom. It allows me to juggle my pro writing life (there's a signed contract, w/an advance, that says I will deliver a manuscript on Nov. 1st) with my family life. The other half of my legally binding romantic partnership had a PhD. dissertation due in six weeks, and together we are raising a five year old son. I'm saying the job fits with my lifestyle right now in a way that most other jobs would not. But I have no illusions. About anything.