Exploitation requires subordinates capable of suffering, not just of laboring.

Evidence

Yet that’s not quite right. The subjugatory libidinal forces that draw enjoyment from the current cult of work don’t want us to entirely conceal our misery. For what enjoyment is there to be had from exploiting a worker who actually delights in their work? In his sequel to Blade Runner, The Edge of Human, K.W. Jeter provides an insight into the libidinal economics of work and suffering. One of the novel’s characters answers the question of why, in Blade Runner’s future world, the Tyrell Corporation bothered developing replicants (androids constructed so that only experts can distinguish them from humans): … Why should the off-world colonists want troublesome, humanlike slaves rather than nice, efficient machines? It’s simple. Machines don’t suffer. They aren’t capable of it. A machine doesn’t know when it’s being raped. There’s no power relationship between you and a machine. […] For the replicant to suffer, to give its owners that whole master-slave energy, it has to have emotions. […] The replicant’s emotions aren’t a design flaw. The Tyrell Corporation put them there. Because that’s what our customers wanted. — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1706

Categorization

• SEED: The ‘master-slave energy’ account of why employers need suffering workers is a sharp lens for analyzing call-center monitoring, burnout, and surveillance-era affect extraction.
• DEFINE: Fisher defines ‘affective labour’ (drawing on Hardt/Negri) via the requirement to perform and visibly invest rather than merely produce.
• XREF: connects to: Exploitation requires a victim capable of suffering, which is why machines cannot replace workers. — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 1706; Suffering and survival under patriarchy can themselves be modalities of agency. — Saba Mahmood, Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival…, 1131; Industrial workers’ jouissance in grinding hardship was essential, not just their suffering — Perry Anderson, The Origins of Postmodernity, 72

Broader Connections

• Exploitation requires a victim capable of suffering, which is why machines cannot replace workers. #corroborates (0.95) — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1706
• Industrial workers’ jouissance in grinding hardship was essential, not just their suffering #expands (0.80) — Perry Anderson, The Origins of Postmodernity, 72
• Suffering and survival under patriarchy can themselves be modalities of agency. #complicates (0.72) — Saba Mahmood, Politics of Piety, 1131