Living in the Present: The Connection Between Jenny Odell and Franco Berardi
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After the Future by Franco Berardi, is one of a plethora of books he has written about his philosophical ideals. In his book, Berardi describes what the future has become, our fixation with the future, and the problems in how we perceive the future. He traces the perception of the future through time, in order to accurately define the changes to the relevance of the term. Berardi suggests the future has already arrived and left, creating a uselessness to its existence. Odell commonly referred to this book as an entrance way and validation of the ideas she presents. I found it to be both thought provoking and true to the society we live in today. Odell, in her book, seems to offer a solution to the claims that Berardi points out, creating a clear connection to the relation of the two books.
In her book How to Do Nothing, Odell refers to Berardi’s After the Future twice in what seemed to be influential points within her reading. One ideal of Berardi’s that seemed to stick to Odell were when “Berardi ties the defeat of the labor movements in the eighties to the rise of the idea we should all be entrepreneurs…therefore, we all have to take risks” (Odell 15). Furthermore, Odell claims that “for Berardi, the replacement of a ‘social brain’ that ‘appears unable to recompose, to find common strategies of behavior, incapable of common narration and of solidarity” (Odell 81). Her expansion upon these ideas of Berardi were used to suggest the common rejection of “doing nothing,” and the need to escape the algorithms that control our every move. Our societal expectations of productivity and the future have rewired one’s brain into believing solidarity is a negative action. In How to Do Nothing Odell writes about the need for solidarity in order to live in the present, while suggesting ways to do so.
While describing the future Berardi explains that,
“I am thinking, rather, of the psychological perception, which emerged in the cultural situation of progressive modernity, the cultural expectations that were fabricated during the long period of modern civilization, reaching a peak in the years after the Second World War” (Berardi 18).
He references this point in order to explain that we are, indeed, “after the future.” The world we live in has a psychological perception that the future is what is coming and that it is the time in our lives that is yet to arrive. The future is then planned for, causing us to live in a continuous cycle of time passing by us, as we use the present planning on how to spend our “future” time. Only for the plans to get thrown away when the time arrives because we are yet again troubled by the idea of the “future.” Berardi discusses the importance of letting the future arrive, rather than us arriving at the future before the present has passed. This allows Odell to offer solutions to this problem proposed. Odell suggests we “preserve what currently exists” and live in the present by “doing nothing.” “Nothing is neither a luxury nor a waste of time, but rather a necessary part of meaningful thought” (Odell 4).
If one can utilize “doing nothing” in a way that allows them to focus on the present, they can avoid falling into the trap that the “future” sets. One way in which Odell did nothing and suggests doing nothing is by experiencing the effects of nature. While at home, Odell found the time to partake in bird watching, an act she found relatively interesting and valuable. To the naked eye, it seems as though she is wasting time away, as the progress made is only internal, rather than an external benefit everyone can see. However, she is maximizing the use of her dead time, despite outsiders believing otherwise. Odell uses her free time to think, whereas in society there has been an overwhelming shift in using free time to stare at a screen. That is in fact the difference between beneficial and negative dead time. Beneficial dead time is time used to recollect and consider the values true to oneself. When many believe you could be spending this free time in a more “productive manner,” but you are figuring out who you truly are. On the contrary, negative dead time is time spent allowing outside influences to impact your personal feelings, in a manner that was unexpected. It is the free time we have to be ourselves, which we allow to be overridden by external influencers. Therefore, it is essential to convert negative dead time into beneficial dead time, which allows us to focus in on the present, escape the future, and preserve our current self, as Odell does.
My escape from the online world has always been playing the game of soccer. As online classes approached and COVID-19 had shut down the majority of practices, I found myself lost for an escape. I went from a two-hour practice per day, plus a four-hour drive to get there and back, to having to rely on practicing on my own. As this occurred, I realized not being able to drive to practice and back was just as equally devastating as missing the practice itself. The practice was made up on my own, however, I now had nowhere to drive with the lockdown. I was at first thankful to escape from the dead time while driving, but this proved to be what I missed the most. While driving, I had a mandatory escape from social media, and likewise everyone else around me. It was time, to simply sit alone, drive, and most importantly think. As I first thought of the drives as painfully time-consuming, I began to realize how productive they became. While driving, one must stay in the moment. If we begin to focus on the future and forget where we are, the future never arrives. Berardi explains that our society is incapable of solidarity, thought, and is too often controlled by the “future,” which in fact no longer exists. However, by using beneficial dead time in order to “do nothing” as Odell would suggest, one can truly recollect on themselves, and stay present in the moment.
Having the ability to think on our own and create isolation from outside influences at times is vital, especially with the influence of social media and algorithms on today’s societies. Berardi explains that,
“Human beings perform productive actions, but they are not conscious actors of what they are doing and seem unable to unite feeling and thought in a common space of consciousness” (Berardi 125).
This is truer due to the impact of algorithms on what we see, believe, and think. Having a release is having dead-time that is not spent on social media where we are given false narratives by algorithms attempting to reshape our thoughts. Dead time, that forces one to not be influenced by factors other than themselves. Being released from the shackles is being thrown into wasted time, in which we “do nothing” rather than spend it searching for false truths that are thrown at us by social media. We have become “We the Algorithm” because society has allowed social media to control what we see. If this is neglected, people become influenced by algorithms to such an extent that what they believe is in direct correlation to what appears on their social media, taking the say away from them, and giving it to those who portray these false narratives. The need to have an escape is undervalued in today’s society. To be able to escape the biased algorithms and everlasting screen-time is more beneficial then being “productive,” when the productivity Berardi describes is forced upon us by external influences.
Later in the book, Berardi claims that,
“This is why the future has lost its zest and people have lost all trust in it: the future no longer appears as a choice or a collective conscious action, but it is a kind of unavoidable catastrophe that we cannot oppose in any way” (Berardi 126).
Odell continuously suggests ways in which one can take back their own actions. Through doing nothing and partaking in beneficial dead time, we are able to uncover our true self, and uncover the creative collective conscious actions that are based upon our true feelings. The future contains no relevance but can regain its purpose if we are able to do nothing and create solidarity, in a way that allows us separation from algorithms and bias.
Berardi’s writings played a vital and relevant role in Odell’s How to Do Nothing as it is clear the relationship that exists. Berardi often highlighted the problems that are prevalent today, as we spend our time either preparing for the future or waiting for the future. There is no present amongst modern society, as that would be considered unproductive. Berardi argues that the “future” has already passed, and it is our job to uncover what comes next. Odell furthers these points as she explains the lack of preserving our current self and living in the present, while simultaneously presenting a solution to these problems. These two books work together in order to create an understanding of how to spend our time. Neglect the standards forcing us to exchange time for a salary and become the entrepreneur of your own life. Control your time, how it is spent, and what your “future” holds. By “doing nothing” and realizing that we are indeed “after the future,” one can regain their ability to have an input and ignore the capitalist values that have been applied to our lives in an attempt to control us.
References:
Odell, J. How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy. Melville House, 2019.
Berardi, F. B., Genosko, G., & Thoburn, N. (2011). After the future. Edinburgh: AK Press.
