Thoughts on production, alienation, and ideology
So, I’ve been listening to (and greatly enjoying!) Mike Duncan’s podcast Revolutions. In particular, I’ve been listening to his series on the Russian Revolution(s). Along the way, Duncan provides a great deal of background on Marxist theory. That makes sense, given the central role Marxism plays in 1917.
Overall, Duncan very skillfully explains Marxism 101, especially thorny terms like ‘means of production,’ and so on. I’d recommend his podcast, along with my own tips for reading Marx.
I might start this post by pointing out, as have so many Native Americans, that the real story of the holiday of Thanksgiving doesn’t match the history people in the U.S. give it.
As for the blog, it’s time for an end of year note. Like past years, I’ll take a break around the holidays. My plan is to keep the regular schedule of about two posts per week through early December. And then the second half of December will be a lot slower.
I hope readers have a chance to take a break around the holidays as well.
This post is about David Graeber’s book The Utopia of Rules. But that’s not what comes to mind when most people think about Graeber.
Upon his fall 2020 death, many leftists rushed to define the work and legacy of David Graeber. The socialist left tended to focus on his work with Occupy Wall Street and his book Debt. By contrast, the mainstream press focused on the more popular book Bullshit Jobs. And both sides had a word to say about his final book The Dawn of Everything, which formed a kind of grand synthesis of his historical and political views.
That’s all well and good. I’ve read each of these books and written about a couple. Graeber’s work follows a familiar pattern – insightful, but problems tend to lurk.
But I think The Utopia of Rules is where we should go if we want to find Graeber’s most compelling work. In it, he goes after bureaucracy, especially its history and its shaping by the modern world. Though it wanders into the more speculative realms of social theory, it hits a key topic from several angles. And so, that’s our topic for today.
We’re headed for another Midwestern winter, and it’s time for yet another edition of the reading list! Even though the baseball season has been done for a week or so, I included a couple of (final?) baseball books. Along with it, we’ve got some politics and sci-fi.
Enjoy! And let me know what you’ve been reading lately.
Sometimes in the business world a company assigns a worker or (more commonly) an executive to a ‘special project.’ Companies call it by several names. They might call it a ‘special assignment’ or a ‘temporary assignment.’ They might relabel a person a ‘special adviser.’
Readers might wonder what all of this means. In short, it means one of two things. One, the company might be very gently firing the executive. As a nod to the phrase ‘quiet quitting,’ we might call this ‘quiet firing.’ In fact, this is the most common reason and one workers in particular should watch out for. If you’re suddenly relieved of all job duties and placed on a special project without much in the way of explanation or instructions, it’s probably time to brush up the old résumé.
Again, though, this applies mostly to executives. It often happens when a company buys another company. They, e.g., assign the executives from the other company to the role of ‘special adviser.’ That’s a very polite way to move them along. These days, companies usually just fire workers without warning. They rarely offer anything like a golden parachute or grace period.
Two, it might mean the company assigned the worker (or, again, usually executive) to clean up some sort of mess. Maybe another department has become dysfunctional. Maybe the company has a special need and put together a team to handle it. In contrast to the first scenario, this scenario offers benefits and career opportunities.
Readers who encounter this whole situation should first decide which of the two things is actually happening. That determination should guide next steps.
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