***
Nick Land's conceptualization of Capitalism:
an autonomous, self-reinforcing, feedback loop that accelerates at a greater rate than the subjects it produces as a byproduct, thereby rendering the byproduct - i.e. the human - obsolete.This is not unlike Deleuze and Guattari's application of Samuel Butler's thesis - that machines use humans as nodes in the reproduction process of machines - in that Capitalism uses humans as nodes in its own growth process. In both cases, the future may do away with the human once it becomes an obsolete form of reproduction.
I have understood the concept intellectually for quite a bit, but it was not until yesterday that I understood it on an intuitive and personal level.
The (short) story goes like this: COVID19 has qualitatively (staff and patients alike are psychologically effected) and quantitatively (staff call out, forcing other staff to stay to cover shifts, etc.) intensified the already absurdly long and hard hours I work at the clinic. As a result of this, and because I've been at the same clinic for years, I've become quite burnt out myself.
Burnout means I seek less human contact and have less frustration tolerance. Less human contact and less frustration tolerance means colder approach to the humans I do come in contact with. Colder approach means less psychodynamics and more behaviorism. More cold behaviorism means this:
I recently developed what I call a 'behavioral mechanism' to solve the problem of staff not attending mandatory supervisions. The problem: there were many supervision sessions being offered, the staff had many to choose from, and therefore the value and risk of not attending was low - 'why attend this supervision when I could just attend one next week? And if I attend, why pay attention to which one I attend?' This meant low attendance, and low interest. To incentivize staff to attend and choose wisely, I proposed we offer less supervisions, and increase the value of supervisions. 1 or 2 supervisions a month, and each supervision is worth more hours than before. Now if staff wish to reach their mandatory minimum supervision requirement, they must choose and attend, and if they wish to lessen their own discomfort, choose and attend one they can tolerate.This is not important in and of itself. It is merely a symptom of my burnout - turning to cold behavioral mechanisms to induce desired action.
Cold behavioral mechanisms means this:
That I am primed towards further use of behavioral mechanisms. Coldness begets more coldness. So I became cold. Flash forward a day - I am sitting in a staff meeting. We are discussing how to better make efficient the mental health clinic program schedule. Should we move smoke break to this time? Should we shorten the group therapy sessions by 10 minutes? Can we push this or that back? etc. And the humorous thought dawned on me
"Program would run better, smoother, more efficient, if it simply didn't have patients"
The groups, meals, and smoke breaks would begin and end exactly on time, or they wouldn't need to be ran at all. The regular staff would not have to attend to the residents and could devote their time to completing the back log of digital paper work, or filling out notes that document nothing happened.
This is Capitalist efficiency.It sometimes feels like this is what positivist psychological research is trying to do - hone its research methods by utilizing the patient as a feedback node to improve the efficiency and accuracy of the method. This has nothing to do with positivism, but is simply positivism, like my clinical thought here, appropriating the efficient mechanisms of capitalism that have no regard for humanity.
We recently saw cringe-worthy high profile celebs singing John Lennon's Imagine. Imagine this:
Imagine there's no humansImagine, if you will, a clinic with no residents. A market of machines. Imagine machines talking to machines about nothing. Imagine a full, rich, nothing. A massive, substantial, zero.
It's easy if you try
Only hell below us
Above us, scorched sky
Imagine there's no people
Livin' at all today
Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion, too
Imagine there's no people
Livin' life in patches
***
Hyperbiovirus accelerates technocapitalism accelerates human-burnout accelerates coldness accelerates inhumaneness tends towards policy that introduces inhumaneness into institutional structure tends towards...
...
