The Melancholia of Class

[Murphy]

Will have to read the book @shakahislop , scuse the Celtic spam last night, got a bit wonky. Ideally, we’d live in a world where all drugs were legal and the funds raised could finance education/mental health systems that dissect use/abuse, transference, why/how, thresholds, markets etc

Got invited to an informal chat about drugs at my oldest lad’s school and the staff were an apoplectic joke, “you cannot talk about using heroin” = wtf, why bother? Shambolic, the entire premise was to talk about addiction, ending up with Chris Morris and Cake clips as a compromise

Seen the flip too with the occasional friend who inherited an amount they weren’t expecting, enough to go deep down the wormhole for a few years and disappear almost entirely, only to reappear when they’ve blown it all for a loan

 

[shakahislop]

Distance seems crucial to keeping the machine running. The customer's insulated from the process and only interacts with it via palatable intermediaries, intermediaries which are swiftly being automated as an app provides less friction than a human being.

I doubt it's designed specifically with this in mind, but it's clearly an integral part of the thing, whether it's conscious or just naturally arises out of necessity, e.g. most people having no direct line into the slaughterhouses their meat comes from.

yeah, bang on. i find it really noticable and people don't mention it much. there's a thing with uber in nyc as well where it is set up to feel fine not to tip. whereas in a yellow cab you definitely 100% are going to tip the standard 17%. the anonymity is definitely one of the appeals of the service.

there is an absolutely huge difference with these things, uber and the delivery apps, where you only see the geezer performing the service once, and therefore there is no chance of forming a relationship of any kind, and obviously any kind of human relationship creates obligations.

that is one of the reasons why those things feel dirty to use. you get to treat people as less than human.

i was about to click post and then i remembered the best example. was talking about putting a tenner in a christmas card for the postman, beers in the milk hanger thing for the milkman. coz its the same person every day. but the delivery companies, hermes and those guys, different person every time, no tip, no hello, no relationship.

 

[shakahislop]

Is coolness enough to outweigh the privileges of the middle-class though?

i don't know. probably not long-term. but i did used to love being secure in that knowledge. rude-ness is quite a nice thing to inhabit if you have the opportunity. actually people being a bit intimidated by you is quite nice to inhabit. don't get to do it anymore but it was kind of, kind of fun as a teenager going into middle-class spaces and people interpreting you as trouble (especially if you were like us essentially very polite kids from the countryside).

 

[version]

 

[shakahislop]

Is coolness enough to outweigh the privileges of the middle-class though?

it doesn't seem to be the case anymore either, at least not with the people i know. i did hear zadie smith, who actually is another major class jumper, make the argument that in the 90s esp post-rave etc working class-ness was at a peak of cool.

 

[luka]

it doesn't seem to be the case anymore either, at least not with the people i know. i did hear zadie smith, who actually is another major class jumper, make the argument that in the 90s esp post-rave etc working class-ness was at a peak of cool.

We've talked a little bit here about how The Hipster represents a kind of restratification in the wake of that moment and th establishment of a specifically middle class notion of cool and cultural currency

 

[sus]

$30 for dinner each night. Insane.

$0.25 of rice in a rice cooker with $0.50 of tofu and some sauce, yum.

Sometimes I see people ordering... veggie burgers? Like the shit that comes out of a freezer and you microwave it and toast a hamburger bun? Or they'll order... pasta with marinara? For $14 at a diner? Plus delivery fees? Because they want something "comfy"? Like kiddo, that's $0.50 of noodle and $1 of sauce, all you gotta do is heat water and dump the noodles in.

I dunno I sorta get it I sorta don't. Because unless you're making serious money, $30 a night is an hour's wages, maybe more after tax.

So to save 12 minutes of boozy pasta cooking in your pajamas, you're gonna go into the office to for an hour.

 

[version]

We've talked a little bit here about how The Hipster represents a kind of restratification in the wake of that moment and th establishment of a specifically middle class notion of cool and cultural currency

Much more reliant on acquisition and material goods; lots of hobbies based around buying expensive equipment, collecting things. A coolness that demands actual wealth in order to buy in.

 

[sus]

Hell, cooking's pleasant, very relaxing, good to do something productive that doesn't use verbal intelligence after a day in the office. You can light up a spliff walk around in socks and boxers, warm your hands on the gas burner.

 

[catalog]

Cleaning got relegated a while ago as something people just cannot be arsed with, foods going the same way. Whoever works out how we can download it is gonna make some money.

 

[version]

3D printing scrambled eggs.

 

[luka]

Hell, cooking's pleasant, very relaxing, good to do something productive that doesn't use verbal intelligence after a day in the office. You can light up a spliff walk around in socks and boxers, warm your hands on the gas burner.

It is for people like me and you that don't work

 

[catalog]

I think thd dog economy has brought back a little of that personal touch you don't get anymore from the postman. My wife gave our doggy day care woman a bottle of wine for xmas

 

[sus]

What I don't get is working more hours for these little luxuries. I'd rather make my own damn pasta or eat rice and beans instead of artisanal chickpea bowls, use the savings to take six months off & live in the tropics. Doesn't make any sense to me, you hate your life so you spend money and then you needa work more so you keep hating your life. Bizarre helpless cycles

 

[sus]

It is for people like me and you that don't work

How dare you I'm on the clock as we speak

 

[catalog]

It's cos yoj are over thinking things and have a strategy whereas most other people's just wake up and get in

 

[sus]

😎

 

[luka]

What I don't get is working more hours for these little luxuries. I'd rather make my own damn pasta or eat rice and beans instead of artisanal chickpea bowls, use the savings to take six months off & live in the tropics. Doesn't make any sense to me, you hate your life so you spend money and then you needa work more so you keep hating your life. Bizarre helpless cycles

Nobody works more hours so they can get Deliveroo

 

[version]

What I don't get is working more hours for these little luxuries. I'd rather make my own damn pasta or eat rice and beans instead of artisanal chickpea bowls, use the savings to take six months off & live in the tropics. Doesn't make any sense to me, you hate your life so you spend money and then you needa work more so you keep hating your life. Bizarre helpless cycles

This isn't a world that encourages long term planning.

 

[sus]

They do though each dollar spent is a dollar less savings is a dollar more work down the line

For instance, if you gave up drinking you could've retired ages ago, toured America's natural beauty reserves with Craner, filmed a British road trip buddy comedy