I don’t remember when I first saw the clip. You know the one: Back when I was a right-wing libertarian (2008-10) I saw speech this get shared around the place more than a few times. I knew it was from a movie called Network but I never did digging past that. I figured this was…
Imperialism first appeared in popular usage around 1870 during a period in which Great Britain sought to colonize every part of the world they could find and get away with in an attempt to seek ever-increasing cheap goods and labor. Before and during this period, Britain claimed for itself the colonies of Australia, New Zealand,…
A breezy and fun article I found a while back and read today talks about the psychological benefits of using voodoo dolls of your boss for frustrations related to abusive workplace conditions. Here’s a snippet: A study of 229 workers in the US and Canada found that engaging in ‘symbolic retaliation [sic]’ lowered feelings of…
Whiplash is defined as: “a sudden change of direction, resembling the motion of the tip of a whip when it is cracked.” In which case, the first interview we have serves to illustrate the art of thematic whiplash as we go from a leftist spiritual hippy to the publisher of the Capitalist Reporter who is…
I have a theory about why movies about work aren’t more popular than you might think they should be: Work is boring as heck. The movie Clockwatchers (terrible title) doesn’t do much to dispose of that concept. The movie begins with the monotonous ticking of clocks and it feels like it takes the first half…
I’ve been depressed lately and it’s for a multitude of reasons. One of those reasons is being confined to a single job for almost a month has given me cabin fever. The work itself isn’t too bad as I’m watching a lovely dog, but being completely dependent on someone else’s car to get anywhere or…
I’m only about half-way through this chapter and what a roller coaster ride it’s been already! You might be wondering, “Who the heck is Charlie Blossom?” Well, Terkel has an answer for us in his first interview and wow, I have so many feelings. Note: I was originally gonna include two other interviews but this…
Superman’s first appearance in any media form came in the first issue of Action Comics on April 18, 1938. On the cover is an image of a man wearing a blue spandex uniform with a red cape flowing out behind him. He’s lifting up a green car. The front end of the car is smashed…
One night at my job I recently noticed that the security cameras in the break room didn’t have their usual red light on. I checked closer and sure enough it didn’t seem to be active. Curious, I went to switch off some lights through the breakers and sure enough, the red light came back on.…
This is quite a chapter title and, as it implies, it’s got plenty for an anti-work thinker to chew on. Unfortunately we start off with a mixed bag and then go on to something okay and finally onto something great. It’s a bit of a roller-coaster ride when it comes to this chapter and the…
Do you ever wish you were perfect? Wish you hadn’t dotted those eyes when you meant to cross those tees? Maybe you made a critical error in judgement and it fucked with you for the rest of your life? Maybe it was something as “simple” as saying something awkward to that cashier you keep wanting…
In many parts of the United States and likely other cultures, the most authoritarian, rigid and manipulative cultural demands are found in workplace environments. It seems particularly evil and cruel to set up a competitive, (supposedly) meritocratic environment and simultaneously hold people to unhealthy standards of being polite, fake, obedient and passive. If you really…
In his work, The Meaning of Confederalism, Murray Bookchin wrote: The assumption that what currently exists must necessarily exist is the acid that corrodes all visionary thinking (as witness the recent tendency of radicals to espouse “market socialism” rather than deal with the failings of the market economy as well as state socialism). Doubtless we…
My school semester is finally over which means I can dedicate time to this site once more. I will be writing at least one post a week until late Summer and spoilers(?) but most of the posts will be about this book, Working. Working has been my big project for checks notes for over a…
(Minor spoiler warnings for The Umbrella Academy!) Would you love a job that took you to different locations? One where you could see not only many sights but many times? You’d get to meet fascinating people and you’d get to kill them. All in the service of a noble cause: Preserving world order and making…