I found the article ‘The Rebellions of Misery’ by Gustavo Rodriguez extremely interesting and very informative. Taking history and portraying it like a long string with lots of knots along its length, which we have to untie. Though quite long, I consider it well worth a read in full. After all trying to understand what and why people will finally rebel, what is the trigger, what is the spark that will ignite the fire, and what direction will it burn, is always the enigma we have to solve.
‘The Rebellions of Misery’ by Gustavo RodriguezThe rebellions of misery.
“All control systems are based on the punishment/award binomial. When punishments are disproportionate to rewards and when employers no longer have any rewards left, uprisings occur.”
Burroughs(1)
In the second decade of this century, urban revolts are becoming more frequent throughout the global geography, with subtle variations in duration and intensity. Hong Kong, France, Algeria, Iraq, Haiti, Lebanon, Catalonia, Ecuador, Bolivia, Sudan, Chile, Belarus, and now the United States of America, have been the sites of massive protests widely reported in the means of mass domestication. As I have pointed out on other occasions, these demonstrations have very particular motivations that explain them; however, it is indisputable that they all possess an intangible link that serves as a common denominator of most of these mobilizations: the weariness and rage of despair.
Far from the leftist rhetoric that insists against all evidence that “as long as there is misery there will be rebellion”, what has really motivated the recent rebellions has not been “misery” but the conjunction of weariness and despair. These two factors – which drive the nostalgia for the “devil you know” and yearn for the return to the welfare state, to industrial capitalism and to the society of labour – are the causes of the widespread unrest that has led to the global revolt of our days.
It is increasingly axiomatic that “misery” only produces “misery”. That is to say, servitude, begging and even the loss of all dignity. As the proverb goes, “hunger is a bad counsellor”. She is the mother of all those specimens that hang a sign around their neck that says “I will do any work” (even for the SS, as George Steiner reminds us). Therefore, instead of creating rebels and refusers, misery breeds disease, malnutrition, mortality, fear, sexual exploitation, corruption, soldiers, police, informants and voters: human misery.
This is why misery is exalted by the left, knowing that the future is fattened in its jaws, as that is where future votes are counted. All we have to do is to consign some “prizes” and, to state abracadabra: the corpse-like clientele will remain guaranteed for a relatively long period of time, until “there are no more prizes” (Burroughs dixit) and the uprisings return.
