Autonomies

The current problem is altogether different: it’s a matter of using up, without war, the unprecedented accumulation, which has turned the whole world into a colossal powder keg.

                                                                                       Georges Bataille, Sovereignty

Krauss misses his stroke, a lump of mud flies up and splatters over my knees.  It is not the first time that it has happened, I warn him to be careful, but without much hope: he is Hungarian, he understands German badly and does not know a word of French.  He is tall and thin, wears glasses and has a curious, small, twisted face; when he laughs he looks like a child, and he often laughs. He works too much and too vigorously: he has not yet learnt our underground art of economizing on everything, on breath, movements, even thoughts.  He does not yet know that it is better to be beaten, because one does not normally die of blows, but one does of exhaustion, and badly, and when one grows aware of it, it is already too late.  He still thinks … oh no, poor Kraus, his is not reasoning, it is only the stupid honesty of the small employee, he brought it along with him, and he seems to think that his present situation is like outside, where it is honest and logical to work, as well as being of advantage, because according to what everyone says, the more one works the more one earns and eats. 

                                                                                        Primo Levi, If This is a Man

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