At a time when productivity theater, task masking, and sham production have become commonplace, it is clear that we’re facing a profound crisis of work, indeed, of everything considered valuable in our society. Therefore, it isn’t surprising that the principle of performance itself has come under criticism. This crisis has drawn our attention to Daniel Markovits, whose work explores whether the widely revered meritocracy is actually a trap. Consider that the term meritocracy was coined just over sixty years ago, suggesting that this could mark the beginning of the gradual erosion of its meaning. Because the Ivy League university system, whose tuition fees increase each year—so much so that it's questionable whether many students could ever repay them with their ›hands,‹ or more accurately, with their minds—favors only those who have access to the necessary financial resources, while excluding those born into less comfortable circumstances. As a result, it is becoming increasingly clear that we’re currently dealing with an incestuous ruling class in which our elite universities exhibit the characteristics of a closed society primarily focused on self-reproduction. Nevertheless, it seems that this pale cast of thought is affecting the students and graduates of these elite institutions. Why else would it be seen as good form to portray oneself as demonstratively overworked compared to those in lower castes? This brings us back to where we began: the question of whether all this might be a significant productivity charade against our discontent with Modernity.

Daniel Markovits (born August 4, 1969) is the Guido Calabresi Professor of Law at Yale Law School and the founding director of the Yale Center for the Study of Private Law. His book The Meritocracy Trap was named one of the best books of 2019 by The Times.

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Vor einem guten halben Jahrhundert sind Hannah Arendts »Elemente und Ursprünge totaler Herrschaft« erschienen – und auch wenn dieses Werk, als Resultat eines langen geistigen Winterschlafs, etwas in Vergessenheit geraten ist, bietet es doch die psychologisch präziseste Beschreibung dessen, was man als die totalitäre Versuchung der Moderne begreifen kann. Und wenn die Politikwissenschaftler den Totalitarismus allein unter dem Rubrum des totalen Staates verbucht haben, machen heutige, eher dezentral agierende Organisationen klar, dass der Totalitarismus eine Wiederauferstehung erlebt hat, im neuen, überraschenden Gewand. Und dies wiederum ist ein Grund, sich mit Jens Hacke zu unterhalten, der zu der Wiederauflage von Hannah Arendt großem Werk ein langes Nachwort beigesteuert, das selbst die Länge eines kleinen Buches hat. Und weil auf diese Weise die Gedankenwelt der Hannah Arendt revitalisiert wird, lässt sich ein neuer, frischer Blick auf einen Klassiker werden – ein Jahrhundertwerk, das in seiner Bedeutung bis heute noch nicht vollständig erfasst worden ist.

Jens Hacke lehrt, dessen Habilitationsschrift sich mit der Ideengeschichte der Weimarer Republik beschäftigt hat und dessen wissenschaftliche Arbeit mit mehreren Preisen ausgezeichnet wurde, lehrt als Politikwissenschaftler an der Universität Halle-Wittenberg.

Von Jens Hacke sind erschienen

Themenverwandt

It may be that the world around us is transforming into a vast puzzle, even a Mystery Play. This situation also extends to our professional environment, prompting organizational sociologists to observe a particularly unsettling phenomenon: the silent exodus of the workforce, characterized by a state of inner resignation where employees merely do the minimum while their minds have long since disengaged from producing quality work. Now, Generation Z, a cohort that can no longer imagine a World without the Internet, has surprised organizational sociologists with a behavior that exhibits highly performative traits and has spawned influencers such as the Anti Work Girlboss and a reigning TikTok hype. What is it all about? The underlying question is relatively straightforward. It asks how one can perform a kind of productivity theater for one's employer or coworkers, in which everyone pretends to engage in highly difficult and complicated tasks. The answer is simple: you stare intently at the screen, make audible grunting noises, wander through the company corridors with your laptop open, or engage in loud conversations at the water cooler or coffee machine. In reality, however, it's all about masking your own inactivity – and using quick shortcuts to hide the fact that you're using your working hours to update your dating profile or live feed.

Cam Caldwell, with whom we discussed all these questions, has spent his entire professional career exploring the issue of effective leadership after honing his management skills in a managerial role. In this context, he has also examined the phenomenon of quiet quitting and its various manifestations.

Cam Caldwell earned his PhD in Human Resources and Organizational Behavior from Washington State University, where he was a Thomas S. Foley Graduate Fellow. Prior to earning his PhD, he accumulated over twenty years of experience as a Human Resource Director, City Manager, and Management Consultant. He has authored more than 20 books on management topics.

Cam Caldwell has published

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If identities in the Digital Utopia can be defined with the click of a mouse, it isn’t surprising when people want to make their lives as colorful as possible. After all: Who wants to be »a boring Normie?« as Eliza Mondegreen puts it in the simplest possible terms; consequently, those who wish to overcome their deep sense of emptiness proceed like computer gamers eager to endow their Avatars with superpowers. With this in mind, it’s easy to understand how the Trans debate (a marginal phenomenon only two decades ago) has seductively seized the public’s consciousness and taken on such political explosiveness. However, this raises the question of if the need for transcendence and the dissolution of selfhood boundaries can be met by administering hormone blockers to pubescent adolescents and promising them that a physical gender swap – or more precisely, a surgical modification of the body – can make all their problems disappear into thin air.

And, as someone intensively involved with gender issues for several years, this is precisely where the question Eliza Mondegreen poses begins. While initially studying the fundamental reality of Gender and Identity Dysphoria, she suspected there was a question of psychical countra-banding here that was strikingly similar to that found in cult-like phenomena. Just like the cultist, who feels newly reborn after a divine encounter, so do those adolescents embarking on a gender-changing journey. They adopt a new name, become active in their new fellowship of believers, oppose apostates while proselytizing, and proudly do everything they can to distinguish themselves from the rest of an unbelieving world.

Eliza Mondegreen is a researcher and freelance writer (for Unherd, Freethinker, among others) and photographer. She runs the widely read substack blog gender:hacked. She is currently working on a book about gender medicine, which will be published by Polity.

Link to gender:hacked

Eliza Mondegreen’s articles in Unherd

Freethinker

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It's common knowledge that capitalism has been in a deep crisis of values since the financial crisis of 2007/2008, while the question of where it comes from and how it affects our existing institutions is much more complicated. Talking to Philip Pilkington about this is worthwhile if only because it combines the perspective of a sober observer looking back on a career in investment banking with the acumen of a macroeconomist who can counter his profession's intellectual aberrations based on Philosophy. And because he's also familiar with contemporary thinkers, our conversation dealing with questions of energy, the political class's level of education, and the looming deindustrialization wander easily through entirely different areas. And while you are considering economic »bads,« it may happen that Jacques Lacan pops up, as does Kant’s definition of marriage (›...as a juridical consequence of the obligation that is formed by two persons entering into a sexual union solely on the basis of a reciprocal possession of each other’s private parts‹) and his tacit affinity to the Marquis de Sade. And so, despite the subject's darkness, the conversation is one of great hilarity—and the question can be resolved why the consultation with an OnlyFans model contributes to the GDP growth while, at the same time, conjugal coitus remains a quantité negligeable.

Philip Pilkington is a Senior Research Fellow at the Hungarian Institute of International Affairs where he focuses on macroeconomic and geoeconomic issues. Before joining the institute Philip worked in investment management as a macroeconomic strategist. Philip is the founder of the Multipolarity podcast. He regularly writes for the New York Post as well as other outlets, like The Telegraph, The Spectator, UnHerd, American Affairs, and First Things. He can be found on his Substack Philip Pilkington.

Philip Pilkinton has published

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Here is a short video that provides some illustrative footage for a documentary we have been planning about the carnival activities of Castiglion Fibocchi, a small town in southern Tuscany. Because the performance is based on a medieval event from the 11th century, its festival staging could be understood as the continuation of a local tradition. On the other hand, the fact that this tradition was in the world of avatars, a kind of cosplay in baroque robes—shows how the traditions of the past can be blended into future community building.

Hier ein kleines Video, das Anschauungsmaterial für eine Dokumentation liefert, die wir den Karnevalsaktivitäten einer kleinen Stadt in der südlichen Toskana widmen wollen, Castiglion Fibocchi. Weil das Ganze sich auf einen mittelalterlichen Anlass aus dem 11. Jahrhundert bezieht, könnte man die Inszenierung als Lokaltradition verstehen, andererseits mag der Umstand, dass diese Tradition im Jahr 1997 reaktiviert worden ist, ein Vorschein auf die Welt der Avatare und des Internets sein, eine Art Cosplay in barocken Gewändern.

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When the cognitive dissonances of our present-day made themselves felt in the aftermath of October 7th, the question of where and how the abysmal hatred leading to this pogrom originated has remained unanswered. This question drew our attention to John Aziz, a British-Palestinian journalist who passionately writes about the events in his father's homeland. His perspective is particularly interesting because he clearly sees the weight of this heritage as the dark shadow of a tragedy imposed on him, but even more on his relatives remaining in Palestine. Because, as a product of the English education system and, as a young musician, he also feels part of the digital world. And it’s in this sense that he personifies the global mission of a digital native who, as a peace activist, wants to share his view of Islam with a wider public.

John Aziz is a musician active in the peace movement and digital economy. As a journalist, he has a Substack blog and has written for Quillette, Foreign Policy and Prospect. His music can be found on Soundcloud.

John Aziz in the media

This is not Late State Capitalism, in: Quillette

The West is Next, in Quilette

The Death of a Deluded Man

Replacing Isreales with Palestne. A Dangerous Delusion

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