Remedios Zafra: "The association between precariousness and anxiety tends to be invisible"

The work dynamics and thoughts described by the philosopher Remedios Zafra in her book

'Enthusiasm: precariousness and creative work in the digital age'

are so recognizable by those who try to follow their vocation that they are frightening. It is scary to think how the economic system has been able to modify our attitude towards work at will and make us self-exploit without realizing it. It is scary to think how even before the pandemic we had normalized life in front of the screens. It is scary to think about the normalization of the association between precariousness and anxiety.

It is scary to think that enthusiasm, the passion to dedicate yourself professionally to what you like and give meaning, 

to what punishes you

, saves us and condemns us at the same time

. And, above all, it is ashamed to admit that we have fallen into the trap of not only economic precariousness:

“The precarious expectations of those who studied, of those who thought that doing things as they were told they were going to get at least a decent job and yet they look totally disoriented. Losing that citizenship, which is stumbling in contexts of temporality and precariousness, I think is something that we cannot allow ourselves socially, ”

says Zafra.

A few months ago and in response to a letter that a reader of '

The Enthusiasm'

sent her, the public philosopher

'Frágiles. Letters about anxiety and hope in a new culture '

, where, as an epistolary, he tries to find hope for enthusiasts. Who are the enthusiasts?

"Those of us who maintain a tension between the work that gives us the salary and the work that gives us meaning (...) They once told me that I was so enthusiastic that it was impossible not to abuse me."

A few weeks ago, the Second Vice President and Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, announced in an interview that the Government will launch a group of experts to study the impact of precariousness on mental health. Zafra's intellectual work focuses precisely on the anxiety of the precarious life of many workers, of a production

-

oriented

work-life

in which truly free time is scarce within the framework of a system based on accumulation, not only material, but also academic certifications and lines in the curriculum. In that world enthusiasts navigate,

“amidst the passion that

pierces

them

and those who instrumentalize enthusiasm and use it to keep the machinery productive, to ask for more for less because they know that those who are enthusiastic will often do things for the satisfaction of doing things, ”

says Zafra during the interview.

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The life of many creative and cultural workers, says Zafra, has become an endless succession of tasks in which what produces pleasure is not being able to create something new, such as discovering a new vaccine, making plans for a building or writing a book, but the fact of completing pending tasks.

“How lucky you are to do what you love! Under this approach, many times there are people who work without payment or even pay to work. Suddenly, you find yourself in that irrational position from which some benefit and others hide in that enthusiasm as something feigned ”

.

The mind of an enthusiast is between expectation and frustration, between anxiety and precariousness, between the pain of feeling losing in front of the system and regaining the passion to create. In short, it sails in a sea full of fog, always neutralized and contained in precarious job markets in which the digital revolution and capitalism promote a diffuse border between the intimate sphere and the public sphere that manages to keep us connected 24 hours a day:

“The new forms of capitalism have benefited from the great availability of enthusiastic people, with training, willing to do a lot for little and also willing to put that symbolic capital first, that added value that gives them what they like, even before than salary.

And, therefore, willing to chain a series of temporary and precarious jobs with the hope of a postponed future that is lengthening indefinitely ”.

The mental health of young people: a problem prior to the pandemic and with hardly any judicial instruments

The magistrate in a family court in Móstoles Natalia Velilla and the head of the psychiatry service of the Hospital Universitario de Burgos Jesús de la Gándara go to 'La Ventana' to deal with the problem that has arisen as a result of a thread from the manager from different areas of the Sant Joan de Déu Hospital

Zafra identifies three syndicates of precariousness: the crisis of the academy and the operationalization of knowledge, speed and excess production, and the breakdown of ties between equals. Precisely with regard to the latter, he points out that it is necessary to recover the bonds of solidarity to overcome the rivalry between precarious workers that the system and the conservative forces nurture in an interested way:

“There is no hope that does not arise from a deviation from what is always the same. There is nothing that has made us change that has not come because of an uneasiness or discomfort (…) In front of the screens we become a multitude of people alone because the ways of creating collectivity in the network world are different ways, the links that unite us are much lighter links ”

, he highlights.

The enthusiast often opts for mechanisms of self-deception to maintain hope in the face of the cruelty of capital, is the inclination towards that ignorance survival and hope for the enthusiast? At what point did the job market become so inhumane? Is it possible that vocation and sustenance are condemned not to be understood? Why does this situation generate frustration and not anger?

In short: is there hope for enthusiasts?