Surrogate Activity

So, what keeps you busy or fulfilled?

A surrogate activity can be defined as a movement, enterprise or exercise that is directed toward an artificial goal. Objectives or ends, that we pursue, individually or as a group for the sake of ‘fulfillment’. Artificial goals appear limitless in variety, because within modern industrial society only a minimal effort is necessary in order to satisfy one’s physical needs. Let us ignore the emotional and biological needs for now as they are not surrogate in nature. The ‘surrogate’ part comes about as a consequence, of pursuing the goal, but not because we need to attain the goal itself but for the pleasure or deep sense of purpose and power it entails.

For a surrogate activity to stand the test of time, modest training and effort is needed, similar to new mission or challenge. “The only requirements are a moderate amount of intelligence and most of all, simple obedience.” (Industrial Society and Its Future. Ted Kaczynski). If we comply, society will take care of the rest, “from the cradle to grave”. If not for everyone, yet clearly that is the case with mainstream society. No surprise, that 21st century society is full of surrogate activities. For you and me, for our friends, parents, grandparents, kids, colleagues, even pets and who-else. The surrogate activity of your choice, provides you with involvement and a promise of fulfillment and perhaps more. And who does not wish to feel a little bit powerful?

Surrogate activities are vast and to selectively point out a few out, would illicit criticism for not including those that I will miss. However, in terms of a broader list of surrogate activities would include scientific work, athletic achievement, humanitarian work, artistic and literary creation, climbing the corporate ladder, earning loads of money and buying the latest technological gadgets. All amazing things right? Yet the desire to attain power or greater satisfaction, goes beyond a point, when the elements cease to provide any additional physical satisfaction (law of diminishing returns). For example, I think a majority of scientists will probably agree, that the fulfillment they get from their work, is worth more than the money or prestige. For certain artists and musicians it would be a similar case. But, there is more about diminishing returns and the aspect of fulfillment. While one struggles to pay rent, or stay afloat inside a market, a new surrogate activity might just help him or her through to the next day.

Activities which are militant or political, can also be considered as surrogate. Social justice, helping minorities, donating for the climate and environment, writing blogs, providing aid and charity to degraded forests and communities etc can be considered as surrogate activities, however not in negative sense, yet as aggregated social behavior within the specter of Leftism. Political rabble rousing is an engaging surrogate activity for millions of people. However it has near zero impact in reality. “Something that is burning inside you… increasing urban alienation, police violence, domestic violence, ecological breakdown.. which can take on forms of activism, that can be regulated and executed, infinitely within the technosphere giving way to several forms of global movements, be they motivated by left leaning ethics or humanism or futurism or right wing conservativism.” (the anarchistlibrary org Anonymous ‘Secrets-and-lies’).

Activities which provide instantaneous pleasure, such as social media, live camera, coding, hacking, gaming, metaverse etc can also be deemed as seductive digital surrogate activities. Yet a surrogate activity can also signify something that is not directly important, for the people involved. For example, in America many white activists who work for the rights of African Americans, Latinos, Asians, minorities etc. are sometimes truly motivated, in part by needs and problems of others, rather than the need for personal satisfaction or goals. Free political discourse is #1 in terms of surrogate activity. Especially people with high moral notions, who love to write about whatever hot stuff that generates followers.

Scientific work may be motivated in part by a desire for prestige and awards - artistic creation by a need to express feelings and be taken seriously - militant social activism by hostility and direct confrontation. Pacificism and non-violence by humanist feelings. The current Nazi Anti-Nazi circus on Substack is a good example, of thousands involved in one surrogate activity.

For a while now philosophers, historians and anti-technology writers like Julius Evola, Jacques Ellul, Nick Land and Ted Kaczynski have concluded, in various winding ways, that within a technological society, certain people will yearn for more power, over others, over their community, race, entire nation or for that matter over the entire technological, monetary, military and political specter of the world. While that is true if we check out the news, we are less conscious of the power process, that runs across every big society. We all make goals, put in all the effort and wish for attainment of the goal. Yet, because most of our biological needs are met so easily, we may just be bored or totally demoralized with our real needs. Instead, it appears easier to take on a powerful new idea or mission.

Yet is it even necessary for every individual to be part of the power process? Worse, could all 8 billion people bear true power? Sounds preposterously magical right? Surrogate activities have existed for eons in terms of keeping us busy, as a species while the good, the bad and the horrible times went by. Such has been the case for thousands of years. While there is no biological validation of surrogate activities, we know that they play a crucial role. Even as surrogate activities provide fulfillment, yet now we are living in an age, where that itself has come to define our identity, in terms of political, cultural and social integration.

As surrogate activity, a bunch of people are trying to dismantle fossil fuel corporations, while the same group is happy about equally destructive technologies and unsustainable industries. The futility underlined by Jacques Ellul in The Technological Society, as “ following the surrogate agents, pawns and activists, who will enable a constant state of technological innovation and domination.”

Surrogate activities surely appear very different yet by construct a deep sense of involvement is visible in each one. However helpless we may be, to many external factors, we still strive for more control. The modern individual faces threats, such as climate change, racism, possibility of nuclear disaster, carcinogens in food, pollution, war, increasing energy prices, invasion of his privacy, mental health etc etc, that may disrupt his way of life at any time.

One clear indication of this, in many cases is about “deeply involved” people, who are never satisfied, never at rest or seem to reach an objective end. Be it the millionaires and billionaires who constantly strive for more and more wealth, acquisition and power. Or the scientist, no sooner has she or he solved a given problem, it is time to move on to the next challenge. The athlete, football player, boxer, long distance runner, etc always aiming to be faster, higher, better and the record breaker. The pop singer or the influencer. The mindfulness guru or the crypto-anarchist. The social justice warrior or the militant activist. Sometimes deep involvement has no limits.

While working with a diverse group of people such as lawyers, social activists, the police, the bureaucracy, the court house, and also with artists, scientists, environmentalists and writers and even with friends and family, one can witness the pursuit of a wide range of surrogate activities. Many of these activities are totally at odds with each other. Little projects and missions, which get us far more fulfillment, release, drive and satisfaction, than the jobs, duties and official roles do. That includes me by all means. We prefer to take on so many surrogate activities, instead of the the “mundane business of satisfying our biological needs” (Ted Kaczynski). Is it because in our modern techno-industrial society, the effort required to satisfy biological needs have been reduced to triviality or totally removed from the equation of everyday life itself. For this world with no meaning, sure provides 1001 big and small surrogate activities for us, with rewards and implications.

The pursuit of sex and love is not a surrogate activity. The reason being, even if people’s existence were satisfactory (what a beautiful world that would be) they still would feel deprived, unfulfilled, even at a biological level, if they passed their entire life without ever having an intimate relationship with someone else. The hilarious or totally deprived aspects of love and sex predicated within cyberspace, via dating apps, online match making, web-cam services etc maybe considered as addictive surrogate activities, that equate of billions dollars worth business.

By definition, surrogate activity for some people (if not many) is not satisfying nor important. For them, the problem remains. About a real goal and the possibility of attainment. But, there is no denying Ted Kaczynski’s view that “we nevertheless need to feel that we do something meaningful, that we are in control, and that we sustain ourselves through our actions”. Ted Kaczynski, who died in prison, remains a spiritual and controversial figure who warned us all, about the fatal consequence of a world full of wonderful technology yet totally free of meaning and responsibility. In contrast, modern people, especially the young have a decent amount of autonomy, mostly based on technical superiority, in pursuing their surrogate activities. As long as those activities are unimportant according to the system. What system? Check here.

But a surrogate activity is not pretension. Even animals indulge in surrogate activities to an extent, however always within their ecological limits and mostly as part of their biological fruition. Since life inside the technosphere, creates and forces us to live under conditions radically different from those, under which human beings originally evolved, is perhaps why we modern creatures indulge ourselves, keep ourselves busy, occupied, fighting, protesting, pledging and striving via so many different surrogate activities. Chose one every season or one for life.

For now, the conflict remains, between the ‘things’ that aim at fulfillment versus the satisfaction of ‘real needs’. Personally, I am not even sure what my real needs are anymore. As much decommissioned by biology, as newly assigned to go further in life, with deep ecology. Less surrogate, more integrate. Thank you for being here… 🥕🐿️