Go on…? Speaking of Beckett

I can’t go on, I’ll go on

Beckett’s famous line from his novel The Unnamable (1958) has been reiterated innumerably, in different contexts and for different ends. Regardless, these words resonate uncannily with our era. Today, every pretense to enlightenment reveals its obverse: unerring disregard for international law; relentless degradation of human life in the basest of conflicts; retrograde imperialism; ecological collapse; allegiance to capitalist abstractions requiring ever fewer workers, let alone human beings. The impetus to give up seems entirely warranted. Conversely, the motivation to keep going arises reflexively. For most, there’s no way to give up, there’s no outside, no security, no backup, no alternative guarantee of survival. Despite this, continuity can also be resistance, wilful obstinance in the face of circumstances weighted to make us quit, to shut-up, or to simply keep consuming as the passive receptors of content monetised through our inaction.