There are two topics today that seem like balls of the same cloth: insomnia and disorganized work.
We can think of the first as an endless black night with eyes open. The second gray color is the color of uncertainty. In both cases, the word “deregulation” is appropriate. Something is out of place with the advent of freedom of movement. We work poorly, and we sleep worse. “Don’t blame anyone,” he would say, playing on the title of Cortázar’s story in which a knitted sweater ends up killing the protagonist. For some reason, Gongora attributed the nature of fairy tales to dreams: “The dream, the author of images… is usually clothed in shadows.” So let’s start dreaming, our second life.
Diving into the pillow is almost a hope for resurrection, and a door beyond every day. Step away for a while, allow yourself, don’t have to deal with any decisions, let your desires find their forms, their faces, their scenes; That what is repressed is somehow satisfied, as no one, not even one, realizes it, because we rarely remember our dreams completely. Only Borges, perhaps the great insomniac of our literature, always kept clear the coordinates of the streets on which he appeared almost every night. “I always dream of certain corners of Buenos Aires. La Breda and Arenales or Balcarce and Chile. I know exactly where I am,” he wrote in his “Nightmare” lecture given at the Colosseum in 1977.
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Sleeping comfortably. It is assumed that everything is allowed and there are no real victims. Awakening is a blank slate, a return from nowhere, or an unknown. The possibility of appearing in another way, and entertaining ourselves for a while with the smoke of what we dreamed of. As Petronius wrote, “The soul plays music without the body.” But what happens if we cannot pass through, if the door to the world that protects us from this world does not open? Sometimes I imagine Kafka’s little character, from the very short story “Before the Law,” transported into a dream, waiting and waiting. “In vain do I wait for the disintegrations and symbols that precede sleep. / It will shine on my clenched eyelids,” these are the last lines of the poem “Insomnia” by Borges himself.
Back to the balls. In these unregulated times – especially considering digital labor platforms – there are no longer working hours, and there is less and less protection. You get there how you can. At the end of the month and home.
The sleep path has become less illuminated. We no longer know where to land, or how to get off. Insomnia is like repair work. He does not let us rest, but rather imposes himself through impudence. The increase in the sale of hypnotics is exuberant. Plus you call yourself that hypnotist! Induced sleep is similar to forced labor.
How, then, can comfort and devotion be regained?
We can no longer control our presence even in bed. Carl Jung’s idea is far-fetched: “A dream is a theater where the dreamer is at once spectacle, actor, catalyst, theater director, author, audience and critic.” We don’t know who owns the theater? Or the author of the work! Some are called “instigators.” From the dream or from what you dreamed about?
There is no doubt that insomnia is spreading like an unconscious epidemic. But not wanting to wake up is one thing and being unable to sleep is another. Miguel de Unamuno also suffered from this, and wrote “In the Sleepless Hours”, a poem about boredom with oneself: “I’m leaving here, I don’t want to hear myself anymore; every sound seems like an echo of my own.”
Regarding the workday, I find the equivalence that is often made between “flexibility” and “organization” strange. How is flexibility structured? On the other hand, we are not talking about regulation, but about deregulation. The Wikipedia entry titled “labor flexibility” immediately introduces a second meaning, “labor market liberalization.” But isn’t it about laws, that is, frameworks and boundaries? The definition remains vague and gray: “a regulatory model of employment rights that overrides the regulatory rules for hiring and firing employees by companies.” What remains for us: is it regulated or liberated? “Law to Promote Investments, Employment and Productive Investments,” is the title of the project presented by Congresswoman Romina Diez, accompanied by legislators Lorena Villaverde, José Luis Espert, Lilia Lemoine and others. That is, dismissal without clear reasons; Possible extension of the working day; Leave by decision of the employer; New impact on the workers’ compensation and credit system.
Is it not possible to believe that happy work is more productive than forced work?
On the other hand, wouldn’t dreams end if we lost the dream of happiness?