Resistance Through Uselessness: Honoring Life by Refusing Its Commodification

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The world came to a standstill. A virus laid bare what many already knew: the edifice of our certainties was fragile. For Ailton Krenak, this forced pause is not a parenthesis but a mirror held up to our age. It exposes the absurdity of a system that treats life as a commodity and time as a resource to be exploited. In this suspension, a question arises: what if life, in its very essence, is a refusal of utility?

The Illusion of Returning to Normal

Ailton Krenak observes how tempting it is to believe everything will resume as before. Schedules are adjusted, projects postponed, the wait begins for the machine to restart. Yet this “normalcy” we long to recover is precisely what led to the crisis. It rests on a separation between humanity and nature, on the idea that the world is a reservoir of resources to be consumed without limit. According to him, this vision has dug a chasm between peoples, between societies, between species. The pandemic merely made that fracture visible.

Still, some persist in seeing the problem as a mere temporary disruption. They forget that this “normalcy” is a construct, a convenient fiction that justifies exploitation. Ailton Krenak reminds us that Indigenous peoples, like his own, have lived for centuries under the threat of annihilation. Their resistance does not lie in adapting to the system, but in refusing to submit to it. They reinvent their daily lives, their communities, without seeking to bend to the demands of a logic that denies their existence.

Life as an Act of Resistance

Life is not useful. This statement, which might seem provocative, lies at the heart of Ailton Krenak’s thought. It does not mean life is without value, but that it cannot be reduced to a function, a yield, a performance. Life is not raw material to be optimized, but a presence to be honored. In a world where everything is measured, evaluated, monetized, this uselessness becomes an act of resistance.

According to him, we have become a species that devours the world. We behave like invaders from another galaxy, plundering resources before moving on. The virus, often portrayed as an external threat, is merely a symptom of this voracity. Ailton Krenak points out that we are far more dangerous than this microbe: we are the true plague gnawing at the Earth. Some are aware of this and cry out in despair. He evokes figures like Chico Mendes, whose struggle has been erased by oblivion, as if his sacrifice never existed. Other names, like Gandhi or Martin Luther King, are already fading from collective memory.

This amnesia is no accident. It serves those who prefer to ignore voices that disturb. Ailton Krenak cites a proverb: “a single swallow does not make a summer.” Yet these isolated voices, these acts of resistance, are so many seeds that could take root. The pandemic showed that the world can stop. It revealed that our lives hang by a thread, and that this thread is stretched taut by choices that are not inevitable.

The Future Is Not for Sale

The title of one of his texts sums up this idea: The Future Is Not for Sale. According to Ailton Krenak, we have grown accustomed to bargaining with time, selling promises, speculating on tomorrow. But the future is not a currency. It belongs to no one, least of all those who claim to own it. The current crisis invites us to break with this logic. It reminds us that life cannot be negotiated.

This rupture does not come through technical solutions or minor adjustments. It demands a profound transformation of our relationship with the world. Ailton Krenak offers no recipes, only a stance: that of listening, humility, and refusing to participate in destruction. It is not about giving up action, but ceasing to believe that action must always serve a purpose, an efficiency, a utility.

Life, in its simplicity, in its apparent uselessness, is already an answer. It is a reminder that we are part of a whole, and that this whole does not belong to us. By honoring this presence, by refusing to reduce it to a resource, we resist. We say no to the machine that grinds everything in its path.

Portuguese

Quando a pandemia da Covid-19 obriga o mundo a reconsiderar seu estilo de vida, o pensamento de Ailton Krenak emerge com lucidez e pertinência ainda mais impactantes.

English

When the Covid-19 pandemic forced the world to reconsider its way of life, Ailton Krenak’s thought emerged with a clarity and relevance all the more striking.