The Cyclic Rise and Fall of Workfare

1. The Patient realises that the whole System is a farce, that there isn’t work enough for all no matter how you squirm and turn about and that a Great Change is needed regarding both Work and Consumption if Life on Earth is to remain.

2. Most unexpectedly the Patient is offered a Job of Work to do, meaning safer grounds and a new feeling of security. The Patient is euphorically anticipating at last being accepted as a Productive and Good Member of our Society.
Emotional Incubation Period: about 1 to 2 weeks.

3. The Patient is now preaching the Benefits of Workfare for anyone who still cares to listen: We have to Accept Things as They Are, Create New Opportunities and do Positive Thinking.

4. The Patient surprisingly loses his job, very quickly too, and thereby also all rights to Joy, Love and Life including the right of being a Patient. Everything was a Lie. Emotional Incubation Period for this insight: about 5 to 10 seconds.

5. The Patient realises that the whole System is a farce, that there isn’t… etc. The whole treatment may be repeated ad libitum et ad infinitum until we Finally Understand or cease to breathe.

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Being quite annoyed with a certain kind of people who preach unconditional welfare when they need it and unconditional workfare when they themselves do have work, I drew this little satire. I know a few. It is aimed at the short-sightedness of people in general rather than at some specific political colour, most of which have faded into Obsolete Grey anyway (and this is to no little degree due to the same eternal propensity for egoism in the shallow, fickle mind).

Materials: Ink on paper; electric hues.