Notes on fatigue

I. Fatigue is not a state. It is a territory. An entire country lives there without knowing it.

II. We are told that fatigue is personal. That we should “take care of ourselves.” Meditate. Do yoga. Drink water. Sleep more.

Nobody says: the system is designed to exhaust you. Fatigue is the product, not the defect.

III. Late capitalism no longer asks you to work. It asks you to be available. The difference is fundamental. Work has hours. Availability does not.

IV. Political fatigue is when you know exactly what’s wrong, but no longer have the strength to articulate it. It is when indignation itself becomes exhausting. It is when you scroll through new catastrophes with the same energy you scroll through sales.

V. Refusing fatigue is not “resting.” It is refusing the conditions that produce it. Rest in a sick system is not rest. It is maintenance. They repair you to put you back to work.

VI. There is a revolutionary fatigue. The one that says: I will no longer play. Not out of laziness — out of lucidity. The refusal to continue is not surrender. It is a beginning.

These notes were written at 3 a.m. The irony is lost on no one.