Leaving, On a Jet Plane
Song of the day 10/26/2022
Leaving, On a Jet Plane by John Denver
It’s a beautiful sunny day in Berlin, weather in the mid-60s. For those of you that have spent time in Berlin, you’ll know that a sunny day in October means that no one is working, or doing anything productive. In Berlin, for the most part, people don’t do much in terms of traditional work. Anything before noon is considered early. It’s that old joke of the American visiting Europe and gawking at all the locals sitting at cafes drinking coffee and then wine at all hours of the day, thinking, don’t any of these people have jobs?! The truth is, not really. Some have ‘remote work' or are freelancers. Others work odd hours in the service industry and are lucky enough to enjoy the day as they’d like.
What’s true and clear is that, in Berlin, there isn’t much of a productive work energy in existence, especially on days like these. And that’s fine, all well and good. It could also be dangerous, as I personally tend to lose focus when I’m not in a structured environment. I also tend to lose inspiration and ideas when I’m in a structured one. Too much of anything isn’t healthy, I suppose. Sometimes I think the best place for me to jet off to would be nowhere. If anyone writes back to this email with the response, ‘wherever you go, there you are’—you will be, never mind. I don’t have any sufficient retributive threat to offer. Pissed is all I would become, all that would happen.
Environment, in other words, what city or place you’re in, does have an effect on things like happiness and work ethic, doesn’t it? Does everyone have to live by the psychological maxim that we’re the makers of our own world and perspective? I think that whole belief is getting a bit dated, and will soon be widely exposed as a sort of libertarian, egoistic, and individualistic take on life. It’s time to go back to the idea that society, politics, the economy!, and climate do in fact dictate our lives and perspectives. Perhaps if this becomes vogue once more, individuals will begin to act a bit less… cunty. What a shame that Schopenhauer has been so clearly abused by the greedy ethos of new-age mindfulness.
Well, I suppose I’m rambling now.
I read an article in the Times the other day detailing how airlines are profiting largely off of remote work culture. ‘Airlines Cash in as Flexible Work Changes Travel Patterns’ was the headline. What this means on a practical level is that, for the tourism industry, there’s no more off-season, no more lower-priced periods of Sept-Nov and Jan-Apr. A wandering soul sick of the hegemonic, neoliberal, free-market, every-and-any-emotion-or-phenomena-is-a-financial-commodity ecosystem can no longer escape the west and use their meager amount of strong currency to exploit somewhere more green, peaceful, and poor. All this will probably be over, and everything will be more expensive for quite a while.
It appears that even if one’s work is remote, these economic consequences will end up forcing people to stay put for the time being. And if they don’t like it, if their city is a drag and waking up in a tiny apartment and doing nothing but practically staring at a screen for 10-12 hours per day because the office has taken advantage of recent historic events to continue cutting costs and this means you mustn’t socialize like a human anymore, well—happiness comes from within, no?
Either way, I’m a writer. I was working from home since the very beginning. Interiority and quietude work with me just fine. To put myself in the shoes of extroverts living in the current climate, I just have to imagine myself forced to spend five days per week at Burning Man or Coachella—that’s what this whole thing going on must feel like to them. For that, I’m sorry that the world has worked out a little bit better for me, for the ones who for years now couldn’t be damned anyway, the ones, who for a while, have preferred to watch from afar.