Sergio Monje

In Greek mythology, Sisyphus is condemned in the Underworld to push a heavy rock to the top of a mountain, only for it to roll back down when he reaches the summit, forcing him to repeat the exhausting task forever. *Just Keep Doing: Sisyphus and the Work Ethic* is a research project tracing the historical forms of the work ethic and its current drift towards neoliberal ideology. The research begins with Spanish colonists introducing the piñata as an instrument of evangelization in the “New World”. The game’s symbolism, linking religious faith to the reward for labour, belongs to a culture of discipline and deferred gratification that colonists established to facilitate Indigenous exploitation. Sisyphus is the story’s central figure, a metaphor for the eternal and absurd effort of human labour. Yet in a new productive context where flexibility is central, his story needs updating: the subject is no longer enslaved by an “other” but becomes their own boss. Work and life merge; subjectivity itself is put to work. Sisyphus’s self-exploitation is more effective than externally imposed exploitation because there is no master to rebel against. Being able to do is more profitable than having to do. Freedom itself becomes its own opposite. Sisyphus’s piñata has become soft, liquid and flexible. The subject as a project becomes work that never ends, a piñata that never breaks, and the rock Sisyphus is condemned to push uphill forever.