Basement Archaeology

It’s that time of the year again. Everything is broken.

Nothing works although there’s plenty of it to go around.

Nothing gets finished. Everything is started, the year is over, the work ain’t done, there are piles upon piles of incomplete tasks that nobody has the cojones to abort or make decisions on. Everything is half-arsed, half-done, poorly-researched, self-centred, and it’s cold and wet. Nobody cares. We’ve lost interest — except the bank, they charge plenty.

Nothing gets completed but everything got complicated.

Same as it ever was.

People require attention and a shoulder to cry on. Real and electronic notifications get too difficult to prioritise. Every in-box is overflowing, every message a task, everyone pushes for digitisation while the machines we are enslaved by require patches and updates.

You can believe nothing. The news is fake. Algorithms decide on your behalf what you should focus on first. Populism. Same as it ever was. Everything you thought you knew is confirmed by the ill-informed who like and repost with what is almost a waste of opposable thumbs. Outcry today, forgotten tomorrow. YOLO.

Everyone’s out for quick ‘n easy money. Nobody’s in it for the long run.

And if it gets too expensive to run, we either outsource to those whose working conditions we criticise, or we kill it altogether. The effort you put in doesn’t matter. There is no export function. There is no escape plan. Time to clear the air and throw out excess baggage.

Everything is broken. Same as it never was.