Pleasure Activism

The organizing principle of the modern world is pain. To build a world that is truly sustainable and just, pleasure needs to replace pain and become the new organizing principle of our future .

Once you consider that pain or suffering is the foundation of our system of work, even our economy, it’s hard to unsee it as we use so many terms and phrases to mask this pain foundation and its historical origin:

Non-coercive marketing is about creating customers who are both happy and empowered. […] An empowered customer is someone whose choice to transact comes not from insecurity, but from self trust. In other words, it's a ‘fuck yes’ decision for them, made from a place of wholeness.”

Work has been stripped bare, unveiling that most of our current system of work is built on the idea of suffering, on pain. Consequently, people are either giving in (i.e. quiet quitting, anti-ambition), giving up (i.e. great resignation), or rising up and demanding change (i.e. anti-work, 4-hour workweek, UBI).

Lots of pain at work comes from being someone else. It’s only when we find or create a job in which we can truly be ourselves, that we realize how much time we actually lost or wasted trying to be (or become) someone else