Wakeboards on campus, meditation, laughter yoga and (online) digital detox workshops. It is that magical time of the year again: the Surf your stress-week is upon us! Although many speak highly of it, I have a special place of hate reserved in my heart for this campaign.
I quote “Learn to balance and ride the waves. Everyone experiences stress once in a while and that’s alright because stress is part of life and encourages you to perform better. It’s about finding your balance and riding the waves.” No, it is not. Stress is not ‘cool’ like surfing. It is a horrible aspect of our society, manifesting itself in our education through overweight and underweight, insomnia and chronic fatigue, back problems, headaches, burnouts, dropouts, depression and solitude. The cherry on top is a sense of exhaustion that inhibits protest, anger or even surprise.
Stress is not ‘cool’ like surfing. It is a horrible aspect of our society
“If you feel you can’t solve your problem yourself, then you should make an appointment with a student mentor at the university.” No, it is not your problem, it is a socio-political problem, a product of the terrible logic of efficiency. It’s the constant competition of all against all fostered at every level of our society. Do yoga, do sports, recreate efficiently so that you can be productive again as soon as possible. You work eight hours, the rest of the day you spend on what seems more and more like unpaid sick leave. ‘Don’t worry, be happy!’ We manage ourselves like a damn company.
And that is straight out of the (neo-)liberal handbook: let things compete, so they become more efficient. Then, prices will settle around the limits of the means of production. That raises the question; what are the limits of an academic?
The question ‘why?’ is once again forgotten during the Surf your stress-week
This free-market logic has been presented as the only option. As a result, the only response we can imagine to stress is ‘surfing it’. And we are so busy surfing we forget to ask why. And, as students and academics, this should actually be our main contribution to society: asking why. The question ‘why?’ is once again forgotten during the Surf your stress-week. Instead stress is talked about in terms of dopamine and cortisol, raising the question whether these workshops are meant for people or for Petri dishes.
So, Luuk, what do you propose then? Well, to stop being competitive, for everyone’s sake. Burn your CV; push back. Maybe then we can finally find a minute to spend on talking about the why. Actually, excuse me, minutes are not ‘spent’ at all, they are lived.
Less work, more politics. Don’t surf your stress; overthrow the government.
Luuk Slegers is masterstudent Internationale Ontwikkeling, richting Sociologie, en woont in Wageningen op Droevendaal met zijn vijf huisgenoten. Hij gaat graag ’s morgens een stuk wandelen in het Bennekomse bos.
