Thoughts on production, alienation, and ideology

Month: September 2019 (Page 1 of 2)

A One-Liner Against Each Candidate

Let’s say you put together a team and you’re running for president. You generally don’t make it that far in politics without some bad stuff happening. Taking some corporate donations here. Maintaining the status quo there. You know, politics.

So, what’s each candidate afraid of? For each candidate, there’s got to be a downside. Something about their politics that doesn’t line up with the image they’re presenting to you. After three debates, maybe it’s worth asking.

Eh, or maybe I’m just being dramatic.

But, really though, here’s a post about each candidate’s dark side. If you’re looking for a close and careful reading of the candidates, try some of my other posts. This one’s more in the spirit of fun. Read on for some (probably only mildly) exaggerated takes on what’s wrong with the candidates. A one-line objection to each.

Continue reading

How Does Our Work Shape Us?

I read an in-depth and at times terrifying account of how moderating Facebook posts impacts staff. The Verge published it some time ago, and in fact I read it some time ago. Apparently Facebook moderation is an endless wall of hate speech, graphic porn, threats of violence, depictions of violence, etc. And people spend hours at a time wading through the stuff. It’s enough to give anyone panic attacks and nightmares.

I don’t have any stories like that, though I’ve had the kind of chronic career stress grad school in the humanities often produces. And we’re at a unique historical juncture when it comes to issues of jobs and career.

How about you? How does your work shape you?

Why Do Companies Have Middle Managers?

The business literature says middle managers form an essential part of the company. But, really, why do companies have middle managers? Do they perform some essential task or service? Do they serve some rhetorical or ideological function? I’ll lay out some thoughts on middle managers, what they do, who they serve, and why the role exists.

Continue reading

Stayin’ Alive: The End of a Working Class

stayin' alive

I recently saw the film Blinded by the Light. There’s a lot here: a young man’s love for The Boss, the struggles of South Asian immigrants to the UK, and a musical with a ton of Bruce Springsteen songs. Stayin’ alive, right? It’s a genuine story of stayin’ alive. But more than anything, it reminded me of a book called Stayin’ Alive. Jefferson Cowie wrote the book, and he also wrote a history of RCA called Capital Moves.

Continue reading

The Caves of Steel

Isaac Asimov published his science fiction detective novel The Caves of Steel in 1954. One of the detectives was a robot. That’s the twist. Lots of sci-fi fans know Asimov for his robot stories, and Asimov invented the word ‘robotics‘. The Caves of Steel became Asimov’s best-selling book to that point in his career. Asimov followed up with the Robot Series: The Naked Sun (1957), The Robots of Dawn (1983), and Robots and Empire (1985).

But that’s just the history. It’s not what this post is about. The Caves of Steel is less a detective story, or a robot story, than a sociological story. Let’s talk about that.

Continue reading

« Older posts