Category: Politics

qbdp episode #4: Being employed in the 21st Century

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In Coffee House, Sofia - Bulgaria
In Coffee House, Sofia – Bulgaria. Picture by Zanda

Is employment still relevant today? What is there left than needs doing? What’s going to happen to the world’s unemployed? What does automation have to do with all this? Is there an alternative? This and more in this episode of qbdp.

In addition, I mention this episode of The Cracked Podcast (it’s called “What America can’t admit about the Millennial generation” – trust me, it applies even more to the European South). You really need to give it a listen, it’s a must if you’d like to hear more about what unemployment means today, what more it could mean in the following years and why you shouldn’t be listening to your parents when they’re telling you that when they were your age they had already gone through 14 jobs or so. You should check out the rest of their episodes too, they’re doing a fantastic job.

Review: Αντικουλτούρα: Τα “κακά” παιδιά

Αντικουλτούρα: Τα Αντικουλτούρα: Τα “κακά” παιδιά by Juan Carlos Kreimer

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Δύσκολα η γενιά μας έχει πρόσβαση σε πληροφορίες για το τι γινόταν 50 χρόνια πριν, σε μια εποχή που είχε ελπίδα, όραμα και παραδόξως -γιατί τότε ήταν ο τρόπος ζωής των παρείσακτων – γέννησε μεγάλο μέρος αυτού που σήμερα λέμε pop culture (δηλαδή δημοφιλή κουλτούρα). Δεν διδάσκεται πουθενά και όλοι μας σχεδόν έχουμε σαν δεδομένα αυτά που έγιναν τότε: από τα κεκτημένα στα δικαιώματα των μαύρων μέχρι τους ανατρεπτικούς μουσικούς που γέννησαν τη ροκ και τις ενθεογενείς ουσίες οι οποίες άνοιξαν μυαλά αλλά διώχτηκαν και συκοφαντήθηκαν. Δυστυχώς από τότε έχει περάσει αρκετός καιρός ώστε να μαθαίνουμε μόνο αυτά τα οποία το κύριο ρεύμα μπορεί να χωνέψει και έχει εντάξει· είμαι σίγουρος πως πολλές ιστορίες, φιγούρες και άλλα σημαντικά για την εποχή γεγονότα και διεργασίες έχουν πια ξεχαστεί ή/και επιμελώς θαφτεί.

Το βιβλίο ως βιβλίο καταπιάνεται με όλα αυτά. ο Juan Carlos Kreimer και ο Frank Vega προσπαθούν με το Αντικουλτούρα: Τα «κακά» παιδιά (thumbs-down στην μετάφραση του τίτλου και των εισαγωγικών, που στο πρωτότυπο είναι Contracultura para principiantes, δηλαδή Αντικουλτούρα για Αρχάριους), να μας δώσουν εμάς, την γενιά του 21ου αιώνα, τι έγινε εκεί πίσω στην εποχή η οποία δημιούργησε τις περισσότερες φιγούρες στις οποίες πιστεύει το σημερινό περιθώριο, όσο κι αν σπάνια έχει συνείδηση της συστημικότητας -ήδη απ’το ’70- πολλών απ’τα στοιχεία που αυτό οικοιοποιείται σήμερα. Τα καταφέρνει; Ναι και όχι.

Ναι, γιατί αναφέρει -αρκετά συμπυκνωμένα είναι αλήθεια- όλα αυτά που μόλις έγραψα. Πώς έγιναν διάσημοι οι Beatles, πώς ξεκίνησαν οι Sex Pistols, ποιος έκανε το LSD διάσημο, ποιοι ήταν οι πρώτοι διανοητές beat, ποιες ταινίες επηρέασαν το πνεύμα της εποχής, γιατί δολοφονήθηκαν όλοι οι πολιτικοί -μαύροι και λευκοί- οι οποίοι θα μπορούσαν να είχαν κάνει τη διαφορά, τι διάβαζαν οι χίπιδες, τι δυσφήμισε τα κινήματα κτλ.

Όχι, γιατί δεν κατάφερε να δημιουργήσει μια συνεκτική ιστορία που θα συνέδεε όλην αυτή την πληροφορία σε μια ιστορία, σε μια ενιαία αφήγηση. Διαβάζοντας το μαθαίνεις αποσπασματικά τις λεπτομέρειες αλλά δεν λαμβάνεις την όλη αίσθηση της εποχής τόσο πολύ.

Τελικά όμως θα μου φανεί χρήσιμο ως σημείο αναφοράς για να ψάξω από μόνος μου κάποια από τα πρόσωπα, τις ταινίες, τα συγκροτήματα, τα πρόσωπα και τα γεγονότα που σημάδεψαν την γέννηση της αντικουλτούρας. Γιατί αν δεν ξέρεις ιστορία, είσαι καταδικασμένος να την επαναλάβεις (Santayana), ακόμα κι αν η ιστορία δεν επαναλαμβάνεται, παρα μόνο κάποιες φορές κάνει ομοιοκαταληξία (Twain) και τελικά το μεγαλύτερο μάθημα που μπορεί να μας διδάξει είναι πως οι άνθρωποι δεν μαθαίνουμε από αυτή (Huxley). Νιώθω πολύ πόζερος που μόλις το έγραψα αυτό.

Πολλά ευχαριστώ στον Κίρα που μου έκανε το βιβλίο δώρο πέρσι τα Χριστούγεννα. Άργησα (σχετικά!) αλλά δεν μου ξέφυγε.

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Something Is Killing Life All Over The Pacific Ocean – Could It Be Fukushima? (Activist Post)

I’ll just drop this here…

noaawater

Note I don’t know how old this map exactly is, but somehow I won’t feel much better if it’s newer rather than older.

Me & My Shadow

me&my_shadow

It’s a resource for the privacy policies of different large and small websites, how they enforce them, what you can expect to have surrendered knowingly or not and, perhaps most importantly, measures you can take to use the web with a little bit less transparency.

It’s an expertly, fantastically designed website that you can’t resist not using once you get there. The information and sources are also top-notch. Very informative in this  cultural representational way that always makes me feel warm and cozy inside.

It’s important, very important information, too. There’s just so much being revealed about privacy online: Snowden, Greenwald, Prism, Xkeyscore (the “God terminal into the Internet“), NSA -along with every secret service in the West at the very least- and I honestly believe that even now we know next to nothing about what’s really going on. Like a lot of things, this is going to get a lot worse before it gets any better. Thankfully, people who work on projects like Me & My Shadow give me back my trust -if only just for a little while- in the power of the Internet to make the world a better place.

PS: I just found out about Data Dealer through them, an online tycoon game in which you get to be one of those data mining corporations. The objective is to collect millions of profiles to take advantage of through various websites such as “Tracebook” and “Schmoogle”. Check it out!

On the Phenomenon of Bullshit Jobs

Bullshit Jobs Rage

In the year 1930, John Maynard Keynes predicted that, by century’s end, technology would have advanced sufficiently that countries like Great Britain or the United States would have achieved a 15-hour work week. There’s every reason to believe he was right. In technological terms, we are quite capable of this. And yet it didn’t happen. Instead, technology has been marshaled, if anything, to figure out ways to make us all work more. In order to achieve this, jobs have had to be created that are, effectively, pointless. Huge swathes of people, in Europe and North America in particular, spend their entire working lives performing tasks they secretly believe do not really need to be performed. The moral and spiritual damage that comes from this situation is profound. It is a scar across our collective soul. Yet virtually no one talks about it…

Excellent article by David Graeber that had been sitting on my tab stack for a few months now waiting for me to post it here. It confirms my suspicion that we don’t need to work as much as we do and that much of what people are paid to do is purposefully not useful.

Of course, it could also be that I’m looking for further evidence and support to ground my avoidance of these bullshit jobs, what has made me prefer unemployment to -in my idealistic, INFP eyes- ridding my life of meaning. Some people would call such behaviour laziness, but I suspect those people probably wouldn’t agree with the article anyway.

Your Lifestyle Has Already Been Designed

Another article I found through Ran Prieur on how working 40-hour weeks works against the welfare of people, forcing us to consume more because there’s less time for us to enjoy life and the types of entertainment or habits that contribute to personal development and are free but take more scarce time than their costly counterparts. It is however necessary for the economy to keep going.

Review: Το Λαβωμένο Νερό

Το Λαβωμένο ΝερόΤο Λαβωμένο Νερό by Cristina Cuadra García

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

To ξέθαψα από τη βιβλιοθήκη μου. Ούτε που έχω ιδέα πώς έπεσε στα χέρια μου αρχικά. Το όλο εγχείρημα πρόκειται για μια παρουσίαση του πώς λειτουργεί το Ευρωπαϊκό Κοινοβούλιο και η ΕΕ σε θεσμικό επίπεδο μέ πρωταγωνιστές ευρωβουλευτές, βοηθούς τους, εταιρείες κτλ.

Το σχέδιο δεν είναι άσχημο αλλά η ιστορία (ακόμα κι αν όλο μαζί είναι άντε 32 σελίδες!) είναι τελείως αδιάφορη και δεν εκπληρώνει τον σκοπό της, δηλαδή να κάνει τους ευρωπαϊκούς θεσμούς να φαίνονται λιγότερο ανούσια περίπλοκοι ή τρομερά βαρετοί και γραφειοκρατικοί.

Βρήκα ενδιαφέρον πώς, τόσο το 2003 που εκδόθηκε το Λαβωμένο Νερό όσο και μια δεκαετία μετά, το 2013, η ιδιωτικοποίηση του νερού και η εκμετάλλευση του από διάφορες επιτήδειες εταιρείες παραμένει κεντρικό πολιτικό ζήτημα. Επίσης ενδιαφέρον για μένα προσωπικά η απεικόνιση των διάφορων αιθουσών του κτιρίου του κοινοβουλίου στις Βρυξέλλες (υπάρχει και δεύτερο, στο Στρασβούργο, στο οποίο μεταβαίνουν με έξοδα της ΕΕ όλοι οι ευρωβουλευτές για τις συνεδριάσεις τους τακτικότατα — ουδέν σχόλιον), τις οποίες επισκέφτηκα πρόσφατα και έτσι μπορούσαν να φανταστώ πιο ζωντανά την εξέλιξη της δράσης που διάβαζα.

Ειρωνικό και τραγικό μαζί πόσο έχουν αλλάξει οι φιλοδοξίες και η κατάσταση της Ένωσης 10 χρόνια μετά. Όλα προσχεδιασμένα από μια μεγάλη συνωμοσία; Μια ένωση η οποία ποτέ δεν είχε δημοκρατικές βλέψεις αλλά οι θεσμοί που προέκυψαν ήταν ένα ευτυχές ατύχημα (looking at you, Υοuth In Action, Erasmus κτλ); Μια ελίτ που καπηλέυεται μια «δημοκρατία» που από την υπερβολική της αδράνεια δεν μπορεί να κάνει τίποτα για να αποτρέψει την πρώτη; Μεγάλες ερωτήσεις για τις οποίες οι απαντήσεις μου είναι απλά ανεπαρκείς.

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Three “censored” TED talks

Source: High Existence

Nobody can ignore TED, a powerhouse of fast, mind-blowing and paradigm breaking talks that last around 20 minutes. Experts in diverse fields such as anthropology, entrepreneurship, cosmology or brain science deliver a presentation all under the motto of ‘Ideas Worth Sharing’. But as TED has grown over the years and the TEDx events have spread to all the outskirts of our globe it seems it has shifted its focus from controversial ideas to the goal of preserving its own brand. Is it trying to defend science or is it trying to defend the ones who use science as a political tool?

Rich People Don’t Create Jobs

Around a year ago TED banned Nick Hanauer‘s talk named ‘Rich People Don’t Create Jobs‘. The talk was deemed too ‘political’ and was never put online. However, after word got out, a large number of people signed a petition and demanded the rights to view it. TED reluctantly published Nick’s talk which you are able to view right here:

The Science of Delusion

In this fascinating talk Rupert Sheldrake in ‘The Science of Delusion‘ questions current scientific dogmas and challenges us to reconsider them. According to TED, talks like Sheldrakes ‘strays well beyond the realms of reasonable science. Yet, ironically, this philosophical talk is exactly about such opinions of what science is and is not. Watch the controversial talk here:

The War on Consciousness

The third censored talk is by Graham Hancock and called ‘The War on Consciousness‘. Graham talks about the end of his 24 year Cannabis addiction and how another ecodelic drug named Ayahuasca helped to change his consciousness for the better. He argues that we live in a culture that wages war on certain states of mind and promotes others, exactly what TED tried to do.

“If this is how science operates, by silencing those who express opposing views rather than by debating with them, then science is dead and we are in a new era of the Inquisition.”

– Graham Hancock

Do you think any of these talks should be CENSORED? Why or why not?

It’s hard to maintain the same level of radicality once you escape the grassroots. After that, the more you grow, the necessity to conform to the tastes of a forever greater number of people slowly arises as well. Since they still have the videos online they’re not really censoring them, just saying “we don’t believe these ideas are worth spreading, but if you’re seriously going to make such a fuss about it…” Come to think of it, maybe that’s the way “civilised” people censor things without looking too bad. Still an interesting development any way you look at it.

There is the relevant enlighting discussion on TED’s website itself.

Review: The Trap

The TrapThe Trap by James Goldsmith

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

“Sir James Michael “Jimmy” Goldsmith was an Anglo-French billionaire financier. Towards the end of his life, he became a magazine publisher and a politician. In 1994, he was elected to represent France as a Member of the European Parliament and he subsequently founded the short-lived eurosceptic Referendum Party in Britain. He was known for his polyamorous romantic relationships and for the various children he fathered with his wives and girlfriends.”

This was the author of this book written in 1993-4. He clearly can’t have been a leftist, marxist or “liberal”; at least that’s how our presumption would go. I for one was confused about Mr. Goldsmith’s political identity after reading his book. He goes over what the potential dangers of globalisation looked like 20 years ago, after the fall of the USSR when Fukuyama’s End Of History seemed like it might have been rather spot-on. Now of course we know that history didn’t end and that globalisation was a real phantom menace, but back it wasn’t yet the concrete everyday reality of 2013. And you most certainly wouldn’t have expected a “billionaire financier” to lean that way.

Basically, this rich guy predicted: the crisis of the European South 8 years before even the introduction of the Euro; the inevitability of unemployment, recession and austerity when the world had to competing with the ocean of cheap labour that is Asia; the dangers of monocultures and GMO mega-corporations like Monsanto; even the dead-end that is nuclear power, among other things. Unexpectedly, for me at least, he doesn’t even touch neoliberalist ideas in the book and uses very lucid and clearly-constructed arguments to demonstrate that the path humanity, or at least its more powerful chunk, has chosen, is basically wrong.

His predictions were logic-driven. They were there in 1993, just like they are there today. If no-one listened back then they might be excused. But there is no excuse today for not listening. Following a strategy doomed to obvious failure is either extremely stupid or criminal -and I’m not buying that anyone making this much money off of the world can be that stupid…

The Trap showed me just how little the discussion has changed, how old false dilemmas have reared their ugly heads again and again, never failing to fool the masses anew and always succeeding to make the world a little bit of a worse place to live in. James Goldsmith wrote this book as a warning. Everything he was warning against has come true. Why should I think that the unseen rest of this huge trap hasn’t already been long prepared or perhaps even sprung?

Time will tell. Fortunately, my pessimistic side doesn’t usually get the best of me.

Kudos go to Dan Carlin for bringing this book to my attention (listen to this episode for a much better review and comparison of The Trap to the present situation than I could ever write) and my father who actually bought it when it first came out. I found it in his bookshelf; it’s apparently rather hard/expensive to find now.

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