Cosmos Economicus: ‘Squid on Strike’ and the Eternal Struggle of the Hapless Mind

There’s a lot of talk about ‘dismantling the establishment,’ and one day within the socius of Bikini Bottom, Spongebob Squarepants came rather close. An early episode, ‘Squid on Strike’, neatly executes a Marxist critique of capitalism within the confines of the Krusty Krab. The episode focuses around Squidward, who finally tired of Krabs’ efforts at increased accumulation by attempting to charge his employees for engaging in activities that take up time which could otherwise have been used to turn a profit. He leads a strike and attempts to mentor Spongebob on the plight that the worker faces against the forces of capitalism. The strike doesn’t go to plan, seemingly leading to further profit for Krabs, whilst driving a deep fear within Squidward that he will be on a directionless strike with spongebob for eternity. Ultimately, Spongebob’s proletariat, honest and excitable direct action, the physical dismantling of the Krusty Krab’s infrastructure, lead to both former employees getting their jobs back, at the cost of having to work there forever. The episode embodies the circuitry of an accumulation machine. It begins and ends with the oppression, and can be watched endlessly. For the viewer, Squidward and Spongebob remain trapped, constantly replaying the struggle that always ends with the two characters back where they began. Condemned to an eternal return, the episode - watched repeatedly - is a curse on the conditioning of reality.

The episode begins with a close up of the Krabs counting the take in his office: “Countin’ me money/Money sweeter than honey/Money money this, money money that/ profit will make my wallet fat!” He sings. He’s suddenly shocked upon realising that he was roughly $3 short from the last month. The Law of the Tendency of the Rate of Profit to Fall is a crucial element of Marx’s Capital Vol. III. To sum, it refers to the ways in which the counteracting tendencies of capitalism, such as businesses becoming more competitive, fluctuations in prices across the economy, to strikes or even war, capitalists must increasingly seek out new ways of maximising their own profit. This can be done by reducing wages, or introducing machinery to increase labour time, to increase surplus value. In the case of the Krusty Krab in Bikini Bottom, with its popularity through the infamous Krabby Patty, and the lack of competition from the failing Chum Bucket and other miscellaneous enterprises, an overall shortfall of $3 shouldn’t be too much cause for concern. Nonetheless, Krabs will attempt to increase relative surplus value by charging his employees for any time not spent accumulating capital. Taking to the restaurant floor, he berates Squidward, who operates the cash register, for giving somebody their change. “What’s the meaning of all this ‘change?’” For Krabs and the perceived threat to his business falling, the notion of float money leaving the cash register, that which is necessary for change, represents preposterous, unnecessary sidelining of value. Although change is required for the smooth flow of exchange, with money acting as the general equilibrium, Krabs appears to suffer from a mercantilist delirium. Spellbound by the symbolic worth of liquid cash, his obsession with preventing the rate of profit from falling satirises a dilemma faced by all capitalists. “Next time I catch you two goofing off, I’m gonna charge you for it.” Goofing off, in this context, relating to activities that take place both within and outside of work duties. Exasperated, Squidward takes a deep breath. “Breathe on your own time,” warns Krabs, “I don’t pay you to breathe!” But most workers already know this. With such low ‘meagre restitution’, a paycheck barely enough to cut it, Squidward fittingly replies, “you hardly pay us at all.”

Ironically, it will become apparent that Krabs’ attempt at extorting his own employees itself becomes a counteracting tendency. Instead of being given their payslips, after mistakenly being given Krabs’ dry cleaning, Squidward and Spongebob both receive bills for numerous, anti-productive misdemeanours, including breathing:

“Have you gone off the deep end?” Indeed, Krabs has. Every right supposedly held by the Krusty Krab’s employees plummet from such a tyrannical provision. And a plot regarding the dissatisfaction of workers could evolve around no better character than Squidward. Frequently portrayed as miserable, apathetic and fiendishly nihilistic, Squidward reaches the end of his tether at Krabs’ proposed policy. The former is a pastiche of the dissatisfied labourer; the latter a caricature of a most totalitarian boss. Spongebob, on the other hand, refuses the idea of a paycheck. He represents the most oppressive boss’s most ideal worker. Completely unconscious of his exploitation, he loves his job more than he appreciates the value of his labour time. He’s somewhat Lyotardian. Spongebob, like many workers, seem to relish in their exploitation . “I can’t accept your money, Mr Krabs,” Spongebob says, gleaming at his spatula, “grilling is my passion.”

The scene is illustrative of the weighting of the means of production over those transactional agents which operate them. Which came first, the worker or the tool? Spongebob couldn’t do his work without the spatula, but the spatula cannot alone do the work for Spongebob. The constant capital in the form of the spatula is as replaceable as the worker, but the necessary labour time that goes into training a worker for their duties overshadows the actual means of production. There is a tension in work, with positions knowingly precarious and employees easily exchangeable. Spongebob holds his spatula in high prestige, his eyes gleaming, but there’s no such glint on the spatula. In order for there to be a production of value, there must first be a worker. And Spongebob fails to see this crucial component of the work machine of which he is a part. He idealises the entire industrial apparatus over his very being.

Contrasted with Squidward, Spongebob exhibits an extreme degree of alienation. ‘From each according to ability’, to each according to his needs,” here comes across as a Marxist fallacy. For in an ideal world, we would all like to be paid for the work we enjoy doing. As stated in his invoice to his workers, Krabs seeks to charge his employees for existing. This is tantamount to an almost ultimate extraction of surplus value, way beyond the notion of intrinsic rights endowed by virtue by their natural being. Insofar as this, Spongebob almost willingly hands over to Krabs his bills for his “nonsense,” that is, his performative self acting in an anti-productive manner, including the extra 50 cents for “tying [his] shoes.” Before he can pay the drooling Krabs, he’s quickly pulled away by Squidward before he can do so. “We’ve got to unite as workers and demand the respect we deserve.” Fully conscious of the absurdity of his situation, he insists to Spongebob they must go on strike. “You like your job, right?… And you want to keep working here, right?… And while you work here, you expect to be treated fairly, right?” Now, the strike is an exciting prospect for Spongebob. Why not do so if they want positive change to be brought to their workplace? It seems fair, and after bumping into Mr Krabs, even confides in his boss about him and his colleague’s proposed actions. “You mean you’re going to make picket signs?” “And you’re going to make protest speeches? And you’re going to demand my respect?” “Yeah yeah yeah!” replies Spongebob, totally ecstatic. It’s as if there’s no concept of struggle for such a worker. In his mind, things can only get better. But no one is more truly enslaved than those who falsely believe that they are free, and Spongebob’s delusion is shattered after both him and Squidward are sacked shortly after.

“You didn’t tell me I was going to get fired!” Now outside, a devastated Spongebob sticks himself to the entrance of the Krusty Krab. Each time Squidward attempts to pull Spongebob off, parts of his body remain stuck to the door, before hastily attempting to reattach himself, reflecting a re/deterritorialization of his inner complex. His identity was fixed upon his position as a worker, ostensibly puppeted by the Krusty Krab’s infrastructure. “Without the Krusty Krab… I… I…” Without the Krusty Krab, for Spongebob, there is no ‘I.’ He is totally lost in unfamiliar territory. But Squidward emphasises that the strike is a crucial step they must wade through in order to get their jobs back. “He owes us for all the precious, irretrievable moments we’ve wasted in this trash heap.” Squidward’s statement is a reversal of Krabs’ ontology from the beginning of the episode. He argues it is Krabs that has been wasting their time, not the other way around. Working in the Krusty Krab under increasingly strenuous, possibly ridiculous circumstances, has wasted their lives, not Krabs’ business. Despite watching through the window as Krabs blows off a ‘Help Wanted’ sign, Squidward is firm in the belief that Krabs won’t last long without the two employees. “Soon he’ll realise he needs us more than we need him.” For only through the worker is the creation of value possible. Unless Krabs jumps behind the fryer, which most employers are ultimately reluctant to do, training new staff will inevitably bring the rate of profit down. Compounded by the strike of the two best employees, Squidward believes that Krabs will crack under the pressure. “Just do exactly as I say Spongebob and you’ll have your job back, and more.” Spongebob then fantasises about what more he could want than his job back. His vision of donning an enlarged, erect version of his uniform could not be more emphatic of his love of work.

Squidward takes Spongebob under his wing and begins to teach him to strike. The first lesson, he says, is to get rid of their uniforms, as they are “a symbol of [their] oppression.” He instructs Spongebob to take off his hat and “stomp it into the ground.” But Spongebob cannot bring himself to do it. It’s his sole remaining physical attachment to the job, and as he throws it, he finds it stuck to the palm of his hand. “I can’t do it, Squidward. This hat is my friend. It never oppressed me.” They then attempt to make picket signs, which proves to be a failure, as Spongebob instead creates first a picket fence and thereafter a sign depicting the picking of a nose. Squidward then shows Spongebob his sign, reading ‘Krusty Krab Unfair,’ “short, sweet and to the point,” as he says. Hoping to grab the attention of those passing by, Spongebob attempts one too, but puts ‘funfair’ in place of ‘funfair.’ This has the adverse effect of attracting more customers to the Krusty Krab, literally stamping out Squidward’s preventative methodology.

In the next scene, Spongebob seems to have gotten the hang of striking. Stood outside his former workplace, chanting “The Krusty Krab is unfair. Mr Krabs is in there. Standing at the concession. Plotting his oppression.” A teenager approaches him, asking what Spongebob is talking about. “I don’t know,” he replies, “Squidward told me to yell it at people.” The teenager recognises Spongebob as a legendary fry cook, and asks him to sign his spatula, to which Spongebob agrees. It then transpires that the teenager is there, not to support “the cause,” but instead to take his job. Squidward berates Spongebob for allowing his own replacement to cross the picket line and access the premises, breaking one of the most important objectives of striking. Drawing a large crowd of people, he proceeds to utilise the megaphone for a short speech:

Attention people of Bikini Bottom. You have been cheated and lied to! The gentle labourer will no longer suffer under the noxious greed of Mr Krabs. We will dismantle oppression board by board! We will saw the foundation of big business in half, even if it takes an eternity! With your support, we will send the hammer of the people’s will crashing through the windows of Mr Krabs’ house of servitude!

The cheering from the crowd suggests some understanding of the strike, but in fact, the residents of Bikini Bottom don’t know what he’s talking about, other than that “he has a megaphone.” Likewise, Spongebob states “I don’t know what Squidward is talking about, but he sure sounds convincing.” Perhaps neither a child watching this episode would understand the plight of the worker, nor even the parent watching the episode with them. What does this say about the general worker’s understanding of oppression? The power of trade unions has indeed faltered under the weight of friendly, hip business ontologies which attempt to establish a family feel to gloss over the inadequacies and inequalities within a given workplace. It seems as though no one in the town of Bikini Bottom takes seriously the reality of Krabs’ oppression, particularly when, after one citizen expresses hunger, they all decide to rush to the Krusty Krab for food, once again trampling over Squidward. Spongebob then congratulates Squidward on such a moving speech, saying he had practically had the crowd eating out of his hand. But ultimately, as Mr Krabs says when he approaches the two, the speech was a failure, as the crowd were too busy eating out his hand instead. The scene is reflective of a Fisherian reflexive impotence, the tension between attempting to fight for better rights under capitalism on the one hand, and eating out of the other which feeds them. “Nobody cares about the fate of labour as long as they get their instant gratification.” But Spongebob is not shaken by this failure. He yells to Krabs that he and Squidward will remain on strike until they get the fair treatment that they deserve, “even if it takes forever.”

The idea of being on strike with an annoying, irritable and inept Spongebob forever shakes something in Squidward. The concern speaks more to the feasibility that one could indeed go on strike forever, but to no avail. He goes to bed envisioning himself at an elderly age, still standing outside the Krusty Krab holding a picket sign, Spongebob perpetually floating around him in circles, betting. that“old man Krabs will break any day now.” Krabs may be long gone, perhaps Spongebob is referring to a relative of Krabs who shares the same name. What remains is oppressive establishment of the Krusty Krab, as well Spongebob’s ineptitude. Ironically, as displayed above, Squidward’s head omits the first ‘K’ in part of the scene, reading instead Rusty Krab. The struggle becomes as old as time. Strikes have been centrefold to changes in working practices since the dawn of industrial capitalism; the issue here is their frequency. The fact that striking seems to be a constant phenomenon within society, rather than a means for a restitution, speaks to the invisible issue of labour exploitation. The lack of awareness and overall acceptance of these issues at the heart of capitalism itself seems to be woven into the fabric of the working population’s collective conscience. The dominant paradigm of the global economy demands one lives to work, and works to live. For it, there are no compromises, no middle ground that can be gained by the strike. An endless, cyclical battle for complete systemic change can be difficult to envisage, yet so easy to contest. Frightened at this nightmarish prospect, Squidward jumps up from out of his slumber and makes for Mr Krabs to beg for his job back. But as he opens the door, Krabs is already there, begging Squidward to return. Despite the strike seemingly acting as an advertisement for the Krusty Krab, he admits that the restaurant “is a wreck” without his two formerly loyal employees. He admits that the teenagers he hired won’t leave him alone, and perhaps speaks to their inadequacy as new employees, likely a crucial element in the decline of productivity. Squidward then offers to take Krabs on a walk to discuss his “terms.” What is said during their conversation is not revealed on screen, but it’s likely that Squidward successfully negotiates his concerns about the conditions of work at the Krusty Krab, tying this to the fall in profits witnessed since the departure of him and Spongebob. “I’ve got a bad feeling in the pit of my wallet,” whines Krabs as they depart. It appears as though Squidward was right after all; Krabs realised how much he needed the two employees more than they needed him. It seems as though Squidward and Spongebob will return to the Krusty Krab with their jobs, and, as Squidward promised, “more.”

Meanwhile, however, Spongebob is sitting at home, unable to sleep due to the excitement at the strike Squidward has fostered. Obviously oblivious to Squidward’s very recent interaction with Krabs, and inspired by his passionate speech, Spongebob decides that the time for direct action is now. He proceeds to venture out to the Krusty Krab in the middle of the night, armed with a saw and hammer. He begins to rip apart the infrastructure of the restaurant, tearing up floorboards, sawing tables in half, as well as eating one of the wooden pillars, all whilst paraphrasing Squidward’s earlier speech. “I will restore the working man to his rightful glory… I will dismantle the oppressive establishment board by board… I will saw the tables of tyranny in half… I will gnaw at the ankles of big business.” By morning, Spongebob successfully achieves what Squidward could only lecture. By taking down the entire physical apparatus of the restaurant, Spongebob has unshackled himself and Squidward from the oppression they so long experienced. It’s often argued that when the left speaks about making structural change to society, what this structural change is, and how it can possibly come about, is not feasibly articulated in the contemporary discourse of critical theory. Here we have an example of a worker who has taken control of the means of production. Instead of utilising these to avert the oppression, Spongebob has accelerated the collapse of the oppression altogether.

At the beginning of the episode, it was Squidward who had the most radical viewpoint on the situation. He created a corrosive subject, who has, quite literally, eaten away at the socio-economic structure through which both the worker and the capitalist are supposed to thrive. And it turns out that Squidward became the one willing to negotiate the terms and conditions of their contract, before returning to the restaurant to realise that there is no longer a workplace at which the change can be implemented. It is representative of the warning that Deleuze and Guattari give regarding deterritorialization. It must be done at a slow pace, picked away at like the remains of a good meal. A deterritorialization that occurs too fast can have unprecedented ripple effects. Take Squidward. He is shocked at Spongebob’s actions, But after all, Spongebob dismantled the establishment, and now they’ll get their jobs back for sure.

However, in order to pay for the damages incurred, Krabs orders that Spongebob and Squidward work at the restaurant for eternity. Squidward is aghast. Ironically, Spongebob’s actions have caused them both to return to where they were at the beginning of the episode. It’s unclear whether the benefits and changes to the regime that Squidward discussed with Krabs were ever adopted, but it’s unlikely. Spongebob is delighted at the prospect of never leaving the job again. Does this suggest that those of us most frustrated by the problem are those that remain the most trapped by their situation? That indeed, no one really is more enslaved than those who falsely believe that they are free? What, if anything, can be taken from this 11 minute episode of children’s TV? Perhaps not all hope is lost, as even the most deluded worker, Spongebob, in the end, was able to completely deconstruct the apparatus of his enslavement. Even if it was too fast, it shows that the change is possible. Perhaps the direct action could have increased proportionally, a slow deterritorialization of the body of capital that is the Krusty Krab, an elongated, targeted struggle that forced Krabs’ hand anyway, with the threat of complete disestablishment lingering over the strike like a bad smell.

As stated in the episode is a circuitry on many levels. Both for the reproduction of the conditions for capitalism It begins and ends with oppression. It can be watched endlessly. They repeat their actions in the eternal circle, condemned by our conditioning of reality. Millions of children like myself would have watched this from an early age. Perhaps a comical attempt by MIME-NET to ingrain a friendly business ontology into the psychology of the future working class is a bit of a stretch. However, the episode speaks to the notion that struggle is pointless, as we’ll always end up back where we started. Squidward imagines him and Spongebob working at the Krusty Krab long after they pass, and the depiction of them working in the completely derelict Krusty Krab is eery of their ever precarious working situation. In a similar vein to Nick Land’s argument in his philosophical text Crypto-Current, everything, is becoming immanantised onto machinic production, where value in of itself underlies everything. The tragedy of Squidward and Spongebob’s struggle is cemented through their skeletal, pointless labouring in on the empty floor of the Krusty Krab. The episode is an early prediction of the absolute quantification of the cosmos itself. Everything, the human, the thing in itself, and now death, becoming immanentized into the spheres of production and exchange. ‘Cosmos economicus.’

The episode is indeed a curse on our reality. It suggests that there is no way out from oppression. Whilst the circuitry is testament to the deleterious effects of capitalist realism, it is still possible to dismantle established verticality of economic relations to pave way for new flows of desire to implant themselves on the material plane. In some ways, Spongebob momentarily achieved every Marxist’s dream. Perhaps were it not for Squidward’s encounter with Krabs, the outcome would have been different. A change in the structure of the strike, etching away at the establishment instead of imploding it, may have yielded different results. The important takeaway is this. There is no getting out of capital. There is only going through it. “Even if it takes, forever!”