As capitalism gets more and more mask off brutal and it becomes harder and harder to ignore that the democracy people thought they had is at best very limited and easily revoked, the paradigm shifts more and more to a sort of internalised existential self reduction. A very natural response to life under capitalism, after all, life under capitalism has very little meaning for the average proletariat so why wouldn't people come to the conclusion that life is meaningless? I see a very tired, nihilist society.
It's like watching someone in an abusive relationship. People have been conditioned by their abuser into a state of submission via exsaution and erosion of their identity, their agency and their self-confidence. They want to escape, but are controlled by their abuser via financial, emotional and even the threat of physical abuse. This works well for the ruling class, as such victims are understandably very hard to organize. There is an attitude of "I don't matter and nothing I do matters, how would organizing change anything. It's unrealistic, egocentric even, to expect better." That we have to contend with and keep in mind when we try to mobilize people living in these conditions. I've struggled with such thoughts my entire life, and it's very strange to see such a thing slowly become so normalized.
Anyway, don't ever let the ghouls make you feel like you don't matter. The workers of the world deserve better than this
Good picture for the post, fulfillment is a very ironic name for the work. I remember working in a fulfillment center a few years back and the owner describing it as fully automated to the media. In reality at all time a headcount above 100 working at conveyors. The worker is nothing but a replaceable tool indistinguishable from the equipment looking from the top down. Having value as a person regularly slipped out of mind, being preoccupied with not being thrown away while metrics are only shown at request or when used as carrot / stick.
I chose that picture because it gives me that same uncomfortable feeling I get when I see cattle lined up being milked in a factory. The objectification of life. Even the term 'like cattle' made me pause and wonder if I should use it, because we shouldn't even treat cattle as objects, let alone treat people that way