11.05.2026
S: The stupidity of work is proved by the irrelevance of study.
A: In what sense?
S: Do you know what portion of a career in art and culture is made up of actual study in art and culture for the workers? Not very much. Less than ten percent.
A: Perhaps in your experience.
S: You always doubt the truth. But that does not make it less true. And then, most jobs, they do not require any particular education or knowledge. You can just pick them up in less than a week on the job.
A: And the conclusion to this?
S: Work is stupid. It is run by the stupid. It makes you stupid.
A: Even in art and culture?
S: It is actually worse than anywhere else in art and culture.
A: What about academia?
S: They pretend they know everything. Yet if you have a different agenda to their Eurocentric bias and their tedious morality, then you will witness the stubbornness and the ignorance of their exclusions. And that in fact is the key to their career. Keeping people out. People like me. That are different. Not intelligence. But the fear of difference. That is most of their job.
A: You are disillusioned by everywhere that you have worked.
S: A genius has to be at variance with society. Because society, my friend, it is abominable. And the genius is not abominable.
A: I do not think you are right that work is stupid.
S: Sit in a taxi cab. Talk to the average person in the country like the taxi driver. Their opinion is that you shouldn’t study English literature because all you can do is teach English literature. Forget about the talk about transferable skills and all that stuff, about being educated and well read. Because the taxi driver lives in an unintelligent country where it is not what you know but who you know that counts. The stupider and more pig ignorant that you are, the better. Because then you fit in with them. Then you can lower yourself to the lowest common denominator. I have heard these taxi drivers saying this stuff, this is not a made up story. And do you know what? It has always been like this. I have been reading ‘The Red and the Black’ by Stendhal. The hero goes into religion and it is exactly the same. He is smarter than everyone else. And because he is smarter, he cannot get ahead. They keep him down precisely because he is smart. They put every obstacle in his way.
A: You want someone to pay you for pursuing your interests?
S: Why not? Is it not labour? Is it not more worthwhile labour than most? Shouldn’t it be valued? Is it not important to learn about the secret construction of the self and to resist oppression? Are not freedom and honour the highest values? Is not this brain that has been very carefully constructed and which has had hundreds of thousands of pounds of education pumped into it to realise its full potential and transform this society?
A: I think you will have to quit work to focus on study.
diary of a lone man 