Motivations

The blackboard in the public square owned by the Hobart City Council where I've written hundreds of quotes from various books, mostly abut economic inequality, tax evasion and corruption

People have asked what motivates me to do what I do. I have read a lot of books on a very dry topic. That's not something someone like me usually does as a hobby. I get bored very quickly if I don't have a powerful motivation to drive me. So, what does it take to produce a person who behaves in this way? Well you take a reasonably well educated young lad and set him out on his own at 17. You give him the impression that if he works hard, is an honest, loyal employee, one day it will be rewarded. At every corner this fairly talented young man is given every reason to feel as if he is under-performing (by the spoiled brat children of business owners and the like. You know, the one's that get the promotions). When he looses a job, you make sure the support systems are geared also to inculcate the idea that if you are not succeeding, you are lacking in one or more areas. You continue to gaslight this person throughout his career at work, in his social circles (mostly by those same brat children, and their like. They did, after all, learn this behaviour from their parents) and every time he is told he is lacking in any area he doubles his efforts. Educates himself. Changes industry. Expands his skillset. You end up with a very talented, but insecure and disempowered young man who has skills in a variety of industries. Very easy to exploit, but highly valuable. Then you extract every last drop of value from this person, slowly reduce the buying power of his wage while increasing his rent on the other end. Make him feel responsible for his own exploitation at all costs. Then, once he finally burns out, strip him of his money, his possessions, his social status, his dignity, his social capital, everything he has and leave him stuck in third world conditions for 10 years with nothing left to do but educate himself about what the fuck just happened. And you get me.

I'm not representing “the people” here. Nothing so high-minded. This is personal. I wouldn't have the hubris to say I have the right speak for anyone else, or the arrogance to believe anyone wants me speaking for them. Someone asked me if I ever get “imposter syndrome”. I don't claim to be anything but a bum who reads books. I'm the mad person who scrawls writing on a blackboard daily. That's not a super high pedestal to knock me off, but feel free to try. I'm not stupid. I'm aware of what this looks like. I'm leaning into it. Besides, imposter syndrome is a middle class thing. It's hard to feel like an imposter when you have nothing. You kind of wish you were an imposter when you have nothing. It would be so nice if someone came to my house and said “oh, there's been some mistake, there was a mix up with the paperwork and we accidentally switched you out with one of the useless, unproductive, creatively dead, mindless sycophants. Quite frankly he's insufferable. So we're switching you around, he's moving in here and you get his house, his boat, his nightclub, his family and his trust fund. Can you please come and work for us, we've had a lot of staff meetings this year and our heads are now so heavy and unstable from all the red wine and cheese sloshing around that we've forgotten how to program the cash register and all of our customers are very, very angry.”