Linen Lives As we mark the Centenary of The Deluge here on the Linen Isles we reaffirm our connection to the first linen mill workers; to the early victims of Capitalism. We remember those who interfaced with the establishment of a system that led to resource collapse in 2050 and which initiated the Global Troubles from which we are just emerging. On the Linen Isles, we identify with those innocent victims of ruthless greed.
Drawing on materials secured from the few archives that survived both The Deluge and the subsequent Global Troubles, we present our understanding of how Linen played an important role in weaving the fabric of society. We pay homage to those workers crushed in the factories and mills prior to the populace being hypnotised by status, credit and consumption to play a role in their own destruction; before they became consumer collaborators.
We share in our fore-parents’ suffering and mark how Linen played an important cultural role in uniting the populace before society became atomised by demographic led policies suited to marketing and bureaucratic controls. The manner of their treatment was a foreshadow of the ‘war’ waged on the planet, over decades, during The Great Consumption.
Never again will citizens become customers nor humans mere resources. The Linen 3080
Isles
Reimaging
Consortium
Linen Equates With our wet, humid weather and the necessity of treading water, we share our fore-parents propensity for Onychia. This condition also affected those in the linen mill spinning rooms. This disease is a form of Candida and some have called it, “the worst in this worst possible of worlds”.
We encourage our citizens to take comfort in the shared suffering with those early mill workers. This disease recognises no religion or creed. It is an expression of our common humanity. We name our whitest linen ‘Candidus’ in honour of those proto-victims whose working conditions were the cause of so much suffering.
Onychia is blind to religion, colour, creed.
Linen Fashion During and after the Global Troubles linen bandages became so prevalent that their application evolved into an art form. Now, in more peaceful times, the fashion for wearing bandages has shifted to a cultural statement. They have become emblems of the suffering endured by all earth creatures pre and post the Great Consumption. At the annual flax planting ceremonies in Siberia, they are worn as a sign of solidarity with the early victims of Capitalism.
Preparations for the annual Flax Sowing Ceremony in Siberia
Couture collection of linen bandages
Linen Remembers As the earth cooled and sea levels receded, rediscovered monuments were appropriated to commemorate the suffering of mill and factory workers.
‘Hackling’ (left) depicts the damaged hand of a mill worker. The hackling room was the place in which many mill workers lost fingers and suffered crushed limbs.
‘Pouce Lungs’ (right) breathes new life into an ancient monument. Pouce was the name given to flax dust by the workers. Its effects on the health of the worker were most grievous. In this monument, the damaged lungs are placed between the previous depictions of industry and commerce.
Linen Sings Linen related songs seem to have played a role in giving voice to worker’s harsh experiences. One such song was recorded and its lyrics documented by a researcher in 1919. This fragile transcript was retrieved by divers from the Linen Hall Library, Belfast in 3075.
Linen Recovers The Greek personification of rot, decay and petrification, Phthisis, is a suitable nomenclature for a disease that took such a toll on the lives of the early mill worker. The conditions in the mills were a perfect breeding ground for Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteria. The number of workers in mills and close physical proximity also meant it spread rapidly. The wasting effects of the condition on the infected person’s body earned the disease another name - Consumption. How apt that the disease that wasted
the physical bodies of mill workers would also become a term for a whole society. The Consumer Society eventually laid waste to the entire planet during the period known as the Great Consumption.
Linen Unites The archive reveals the hatred with which inferior fabrics were held by the citizens of the island prior to the oceanic shift that transformed the land into an archipelago. It is obvious from these photographic images that the communities who inhabited the Island were united in their distaste for nylon and shared a love of natural fibres. Perhaps these marked the beginning of the Natural Fibres Movement which commenced attacks on petrochemical plants in the late 2020.’s
Linen Regenerates As we look to the future, our desire on the Linen Isles is to weave social structures that ensure equality and mutual respect amongst people whilst at the same time replenish the earth we rely on for our existence. Although separated by sea we are eternally connected through the historical threads that bind us together - our linen heritage and the suffering of Capitalism's early victims. We may no longer be able to grow flax and instead import our weaving stock from Siberia, but we can still lay claim to our fore-
parents’ legacy. We can create a common identity through their shared suffering. Echoing the sentiments stated on the Banbridge Relic, a centuries-old linen cloth that bears images relating to mill workers; on the Linen Isles we may be divided by water but the populace still stands united.