idle hands, idle minds

Though it might be considered "wasteful" or even "coming on too strong" to post two posts in as many days, sometimes, I just can't help myself. I'm ackin' like an animal. Now here's my scandal:



Bob Herbert writes in "Even Worse for Young Workers" (NYT 2/28) about the effect of the recession on the current under-30 crowd ("millenials", children of "baby boomers", somewhat younger than GenX, etc). Times Are Tuff. (Couldn't tell ya the relevant Roman Numeral but let's start off @ III)

"According to a report by researchers. . . : 'While young college graduates have fared the best in maintaining some type of employment, a growing fraction of them are becoming mal-employed, holding jobs in occupations that do not require much schooling beyond high school, often displacing their less-educated peers.' "

I'm gonna have to start using That phrase more often.

That's certainly not the only, or nearly the most important point of the article, it's just one that stuck out for me due to my White Privilege and sense of related Entitlement. It's still Tuffer for everybody else, clearly.

Readers drill home the unignorably, shockingly obvious:

"The young college-educated in Dallas [k.c.: "didn't dallasftworth have a reputation as an up-and-up place to live'n'work?"] have labeled this the 'gig-economy', so my niece tells me. They are living from one temp job to the next, hoping to make the rent and buy food for the month, never mind EVER hoping to purchase a luxury such as health insurance.

Inevitably, an injury sent her to the ER with a resulting bill she says she will be paying for the rest of her life, along with her student loans. It's obvious that this generation will not be buying up any of these vacant foreclosed homes anytime soon."

And it's worse than a greek tragedy that health care has become a Luxury. This is absolutely 100% the mindset of many under-30s like myself. You rarely, if ever, wonder why you don't have health care. That's de rigeur. It's unquestioned, understood. If there's one thing people should be "entitled to", it's affordable health care.

Us youngins don't think to talk about this issue so much now, exactly because we are cutting throats looking for pennies, while benefitting from the general good health conferred by Youth.

But in 10 years when the threats of cancer and diabetis and heart disease and all that other scheidt becomes impossible to ignore, then, I believe this health care crisis will surpass even the fever pitch of the current economic crisis. Not only will people not be able to find gainful unemployment, but they'll also be Physically Dying.

As I see it, the only reasonable solution is to KILL YOURSELF BEFORE AGE 30.

A few days previous, our favourite newspaper-of-record had run another titillating piece by Patricia Cohen entitled "In Tough Times, Humanities Must Justify Worth." I'm sure you can glean what that one's about. There's some good discussion on the pitfall-ridden dichotomy of "Vocational Training" (i.e., trade schools, certificate programs, job-oriented, woebegone Community Colleges) vs "Traditional, University Liberal Arts Education."

I agree that this dichotomy is harmful to everyone in the damn country. The Liberal Arts argument goes that the vaunted "critical thinking/writing" skills are vaunted for the damn good reason of creating a well-roundedly educated and mature electorate. But these degrees aren't job-oriented. And most people who get these degrees are privileged enough that they don't really need a job-oriented degree anyway.

The Job-oriented side doesn't even really NEED an argument: they see a real need (real jobs) and fulfill that need (educating students FOR those jobs.)

So is anyone actually saying that this "Niche" Education does not a well-rounded, rationally-thinking populace make???

Well...that is a terribly black-and-white thing to say, but you know people do love their stereotypes'n'snap judgements. ("heuristics?") I've had the ridiculously unique and valuable opportunity to be privy to both of the aforementioned worlds; have had the reassuring pleasure of meeting people from the working-class "vocational route" who were 6,000,000 times Smrtr than people from the (Un!)Getawaywithably Bourgeois Liberal Arts route.

I do argue that incorporating Moar Humanities into Vocational Programs is definitely not gonna HURT anyone's education, however, it damnsure will hurt their damn pocketbook. WHAT A WORLD!

I have a problem with the term "middle class". I think I've mentioned this before. When you hear public figures speak of "the middle class", they're really actually probably talking about "the working class." I think we just need to throw out the "middle class" term, call a duck a duck, and get back to using the terms "working class" and "bourgeoisie." Then again, I AM Kenneth Classwar. Go figure.

Commenter Phil Balla puts it nicely:

"As you ... note the excruciating damage of our bankrupt economy for so many, Patricia Cohen’s column stressed the squeeze...on the traditional humanities, as if such courses in our colleges and universities scarcely had relevance anymore, given the severe hurt of our economic downturn. But many of the “comments” turned market realism around and pinned greater blame on our MBA culture: a wasteland...of historically imbecilic and amoral specialists.

"We don’t have to divide schools into vo tech and other professional programs on one hand, and the flowers of humanism on the other. We could instead have a program to combine them – apprenticeships that give experience with all these companies, foundations, NGOs, charities, and other organizations, along with classroom activities that balance out the practical with deeper background reading, and wider writing exercises for wider connections, personal and multidisciplinary."

[FWIW (good god, those feminist blogs I read really like their acronyms and intranets shorthand), there's also an article in this week's Time about "boomerang kids" (moving back with parents during Tuff Econ Times.) The article is not that great, but it points out how "boomerang kids" are not just the domain of "Emerging Adults" (18 - 2?) anymore, but, due to The Horrendous Economy, is being extended into the 30s and 40s. Boomerang Grandkids, son.

(As You can see, I'm of the mind that linking as many things as possible might increase readership of the SIBHoD. Really I don't know a damnthing about Internets Traffic.) ]

TIMES MIGHT BE TUFF IF.... merely blogging about Health Care (and especially Libido!) is considered decadently extravagant! And actually getting these "needs met" is even worse!

OF COURSE the only Action we're getting is when we're getting Raped Up The Ass from Emergency Room Medical Expenses! I don't have time to talk about it, I have to spend all day cutting throats to find a job I'm vastly overqualified for!

Remind me, again, WHY did I stop drinking? Because the HANGOVERS made me feel bad??!

Oh yeah. Before I forget. Gotta cram as much Economic Woe in here as possible: I would like to give Big Ups to yet another guy I know who just lost his job. Layoffs, baby. Mostly everyone I know around here is underemployed at best, including myself. Many people are unemployed, some getting unemployment checks, and some Not. I know people whose primary source of income is online gambling. Jesus Fucking Christ, What a World. It devours the youth. Hell, it's devouring everyone, young, old, and in-between. Unless your surname rhymes with "Blernsteim."

Are you beginning to understand why I str8-up don't TRUST happy-go-lucky and bubbly people? If you have any sensory or intellective faculties and are even 1% aware of the world around you, you cannot possibly be a super-happy person! Kill Yourself! NOW!

If you need a little "encouragement", just read the comment thread to Herbert's article.

YOU KNOW YOU MIGHT BE IN MICHIGAN IF... somebody is wearing a goddam SWEATER that says "UP NORTH."

It's weird being the only known specimen of Your Species. Take me, for example. I don't think it's fun to hang out in large, noisy, chaotic rooms filled with screaming, drunken, violent barbarians. It's because of that (not to mention the fact that, being a Different Species, I'm Biologically Unable!) that I will never reproduce.



Our Esteemed Queer Male Feminist Blogger (heh, I originally wrote "blooger" on mistake) Figleaf has just written a purty good new post that screamed out "link me! link me!"

Figleaf was inspired by an article by Ezra Klein which describes the maladjusted luv-life of a recently laid-off investment banker who feels completely emasculated after he no longer has the means to maintain the same standard of spending he'd lavished on his ladyfriend when he was rakin' in the Large.

Figleaf astutes notes:

You see that effect in a lot of guys: not just thinking that *being* "worthy" is the key to "getting" women but actually taking themselves *out* of consideration when they don't see themselves as worthy enough to "deserve" a partner. Putting yourself in because you think money makes you attractive, and taking yourself out because you think not having it makes you unattractive, is kind of leaving, you know, actual women's opinions about whether or not they think you're attractive out of the equation. Which is pretty self-destructive but also awfully, well, patriarchal.

You don't see this only in finance-managing, east-coast douchebags, but even in my home environs. Which has been hit especially hard by The Recession (which I've heard described as "The Great Depression II"), just in case that wasn't clear from the Huge Speech I gave a little while ago.

Hard-working Everyday Joes are feeling the financial strain worse than ever, and for some, it certainly does affect their Sense of Masculinity. Masculinity, for better and worse, is a big part of many guys' Wholesale IDENTITY. A man without a gainful job can't support himself, and he sure as hell can't afford as many meals at Fancy Restaurants anymore. So he worries, alone, privately, very evolpsych thoughts: "What kind of woman would want anything to do with a man who's not a Solid Provider?"

There's some sexism going on here in that he's so worried about himself that it never occurs to him that women are affected by the recessional shitstorm as well, and that they might possibly understand how someone can't "make it rain" every night, because they're facing the same problems themselves. As Figleaf points out, Men's Obsession over money completely ignores any sort of Thought/Agency/Decision-making on the part of women.

But men don't necessary do all this sexism in ill-will, or even consciously. This is just how people are Raised, son.

Oh yeah. Figleaf had another great quote on That point:

Semi-related aside: There's a larger point to this... I'm... pretty sure most women don't see men mostly as "walking wallets" but that's how a lot of men are indoctrinated to think women see them. I'm similarly sure most men don't see women mainly as "life support for pussies" but that's how women are indoctrinated to think men see them....I think a lot of the resulting assumptions interfere with both inter-gender communication *and* personal decision making.

Jeez. Why don't I just approach Figleaf to write the SIBHoD.


Your song of the day is "Mourning The Death Of Aase" by everyone's favourite true nerdy norwegian pseudo-blackmetallers IN THE WOODS... (ps opeth totally ripped this song off with their song "epilogue" LUGAF)



Your Second Song O The Day is "The 3rd World" by Immortal Technique:



It's kind of interesting that he says "you might have a black president but he's useless, because he does not control the economy, stupid!"

I will be eagerly awaiting IT's new work and what he has to say about Obama, and The Recession.

Your Unsolicited Recession-Proof Advice of the Day is: Go to school to become a NURSE.

Allright. I got most of the Bathwater out here. You goan haffa wait a lil fo nex sibhod suckaz.

Have a saturday that is not excruciating or dehumanizing.