Alienation aka "renting your time and skills"

[pan]

Marx was right. Not in his utopian eschatology that ensured a workers' paradise, but in his analysis of capitalism.

Just looked in my job search folder and realized that I have submitted 15 applications in the past month. The groovy hippie college down the road that prides itself upon valuing individuals, etc, has completely blown us off after the phone interview that was full of standard issue, cookie cutter questions and interviewers who seemed to be more annoyed that they had to take the time to do this than engage in any exchange with the professionals on the other end of the line.

Ms. Medusa and myself both applied to a J.C. in CA wine country. She got the call indicating that she was one of 13 culled to pay their own full expenses for an interview trip. I decided to come along an make a weekend out of it. Last night (in)human resources called to say that they had made a mistake and then disinvited her because it was me that they wanted to come.

Was shocked when the mail brought a courtesy letter acknowledging receipt of application materials from a U. "Common" courtesy in the hunt to find a renter of your time and skills is exceedingly rare these days.

It will only get worse as more layoffs and less job creation accelerates. Who is going to be the new Woody Guthrie?

[BO]

Good luck in your escape, Paul. Not sure where you are going to find a fascism-free zone here in the US, but if you do, you'll have BO and the Mrs. as neighbors.

Here's Chris Hedges talking about the way Harvard feeds the plutocracy. Pretty sure most college administrators figure they need to follow suit. After-all, don't we all want to be part of the 1%?

Chris Hedges: Harvard Feeds the Plutocracy

http://www.truthdig.com/avbooth/item/chris_hedges_harvard_feeds_the...

[waldopaper]

well... THAT was interesting.  The "presentation," I mean. 

A handfull of academics... a few curious students... and a smattering of occupiers and otherwise interested parties.  Would guess there were about 30 people in a theater designed to hold about 300. 

It IS the beginning of "finals week," I added my own bleeder-blah theory about what's going on... nobody has any fucking idea, including the twits all over the world who think they are driving the bus.  I DID introduce the specter of global war and famine, and shook my gory locks about creeping death.  Not sure anybody heard it-- and don't care because I have my own mortality to deal with. 

Down at the *occupy site I froze my ass off in a very short time.  My "superior" gear seemed to fail my weak skinny old ass with bad circulation.  Plan to adjust the gear and try again.  The young folk there seemed almost impervious to the cold... and it's still 25 degrees F... and bound to get MUCH worse.  It's all happening too fast to notice every detail... but still has been going on for months-- and have not been there for most of it. 

Most of the traffic whizzed on by... people blabbing on their cell-phones... a few friendly honks... and I heard about hostile responses earlier- but did not see any myself.  Dam- gettin too old for this shit.  An old dude- even older than me- expressed an interest in collaborating on a new Das Kapital.  sounds cool.  plan to get with that guy.  Other than that-- much the same ol same ol... with a few new twists...

...which could be interesting... 

[pan]

A new Das Kapital.....you don't give yourself small projects do you?

I'm thinking that, in spite of your crusty, curmudgeonly persona, you still retain some idealistic optimism.  Marx's analysis of Capitalism was spot-on, it was his rather naive adoption/adaptation of Judeo-Christian eschatology (like every other Modernist) to his materialism that led to his utopian errors.

You say you want a revolution turn, turn, turn, meet the new boss for every season under heaven. 

The art of not being there may be the only way.  Not a workers' paradise but a way to survive as an individual who still owns his soul.  Josef K didn't fight his execution but he refused, finally, to participate in his Trial.  His problem is he didn't own a Slipcraft.

[waldopaper]

shit- had a reply at length here and me fekkin browser crashed. 

I think the new Das Kapital should be danced.  Still want me to work on the libretto? 

[pan]

Of course!

[pan]

Teacher’s resignation letter: ‘My profession … no longer exists’

[waldopaper]

The 1% bug-out plan.  Conspiracies do exist.  Beyond the Media Matrix.  America's sell-out intellectuals. The usual suspects.  Asturf U.  Communications Management Units.  The Irony of Youtube:  So, did the GOP steal the 2004 election?  Indiana Bill will make it illegal...  Insider Game.  So bad it lost a lawsuit.  Media Reform.  Oh yeah... "the shareholders..."  

If you took some of the courses I did... like Corporate 101... your first lecture was probably "this is not a democracy... ga-hyuck ga-hyuck."  (condescending laugh optional).  The final curtain they hide behind is the "shareholders" (ga-hyuck)... same as the "murrikan peeple" (sniggering not usually allowed... in "public"),  Now the full-timers are worried about their "jobs."  ga-hyuck.  Ain't that a switch?  

Now to can some spammers...

[pan]

Meet your new professor: Transient, poorly paid

In its annual survey on faculty compensation and the economics of higher education, the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) finds 76 percent of teachers in colleges and universities are what the organization calls “contingent,” meaning full-time faculty members who are off the secure and relatively well-paid tenure track or part-timers (often known as adjuncts) and graduate students.

The median pay for adjuncts is just $2,700 for teaching a three-month course – and these professors are almost always on their own when it comes to health insurance and other benefits.

“There are PhD's working as adjuncts and living in poverty, on food stamps, etc.,” an adjunct professor who lives and works in California wrote to NBC News. She is a poet with a master's degree, who asked that we not identify her or her school for fear of losing her job.

“Despite the fact that I basically work full-time hours teaching, tending to administrative duties, and holding office hours,” she wrote, “I am on the verge of renting a garage apartment that does not have a kitchen or bathroom because that's all I can afford (and barely).”

Meanwhile, at Idiot State University, the President has called for a hold-back of 2.8% next year (read - part-timers get cut) in order to pay for a building they bought thinking that private industry would beg to pay leases......the building is still empty several years later......kinda like that war that was going to pay for itself....  I love how the "business model" of higher education doesn't require any sound business practice like cost/benefit analysis or needs assessment for the muckity mucks to muck it up in the interest of the "business model".

[waldopaper]

here's what we're going to talk about today:  

Prof. Carlin's opening remarks.  "Phorusrhacids, colloquially known as terror birds,"   Gould and punctuated equilibrium related to triadic awareness,  dognition and demes.  Flecktarn and the cost of education. 

If you still need me to connect all those dots, I have become redundant. 

[pan]

Meanwhile,conservatives are whining that higher education is skewed towards critical thinking (aka not conservative)