Thoughts on production, alienation, and ideology
As we enter a new baseball season, I’d like to talk about money. Baseball fans always complain about the rich teams spending money and winning all the time. They’ve argued for decades that financial imbalances make the game worse. In the strongest version of these arguments, they claim outright that a team can buy the World Series.
Can they, though? Can a team buy the World Series, or is this just hyperbole? ESPN recently wrote about it with regard to the Mets.
Let’s figure it out.
As I recovered from Covid at the end of last year, I researched what I should watch out for in the coming weeks. After all, Long Covid loomed as a possibility. And I wanted to make sure I didn’t miss anything important.
As a basic piece of pandemic advice, it’s a good one. You should watch out for ongoing or recurring symptoms like fatigue, shortness of breath, cough, brain fog, GI issues, and so on.
However, I can’t help but notice a disconnect between what I read in the press about Long Covid and what I see in the world around me. The press routinely claims that 10-30% (or 30-50%, or 20-80%) of people infected by Covid go on to develop Long Covid. But when I think about all the people I know who Covid has infected – which is pretty close to everyone I know at this point – waaay less than 10-30% of them have ongoing issues like the ones above.
In short, I do know people who still suffer from Long Covid. And I hope they recover. But they comprise maybe 1-2% (maybe less) of the people I know who have had Covid.
What’s the deal here?
I focus a great deal on the corporate world in this blog, notably on the special brand of ennui that cuts through that world. Given my focus in past posts on the need to organize workers in white collar industries, you might think I recommend the David Graeber book Bullshit Jobs whenever I get the chance. After all, it’s the best known popular critique of leadership and fluff in corporate land. It especially aims at pointless and/or socially negative elements, such as HR leaders, PR types, and lobbyists.
But you’d be wrong.
As I’ve mentioned before, Graeber’s best work is The Utopia of Rules. Recently, Matteo Tiratelli published an article in Catalyst that goes a long way toward explaining why. He effectively criticizes Graeber’s notion of ‘bullshit jobs‘ and points toward a better alternative.
I took a look at this month’s reading list and saw right away that it’s all about politics. I guess that’s not such a surprise for a political blog! But it’s actually not the case in most months. So, this month hits at the core issues we discuss here at the blog.
Read on, enjoy, and let me know what you’ve been reading lately!
Way back in college I took 7 semesters of Latin courses. I stuck with it from the basics of the language all the way up to Catullus and Tacitus. I was always one of the best students in my classes, and I learned a lot about how the language works. But I never quite felt like I had a full grasp of it. I had a limited vocabulary, and I struggled to translate difficult texts.
More than 20 years later, I decided to learn the language again! I started by busting out my old copy of Wheelock’s – both text and workbook! – and worked through the whole book again.
After that, I decided on a different approach. I picked up a book and workbook series by Hans Ørberg on learning Latin by the natural method. In other words, I decided to learn the language by reading and speaking in Latin without trying to translate it into English.
I found it all…both more and less difficult, in a way. Getting into the first few chapters turned out easy enough, given my significant background in Latin grammar. It got more difficult from there, especially trying to retain long sentences in the original language. But I did find it an intuitive way to learn. I find that I can sight read and pronounce Latin words far better than I could the first time around.
Who knows? Maybe it will help me learn Spanish someday.
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