What I Think About Racism

Racism is like criminality: it's something that obviously shouldn't exist but does.

Work Sucks

I've been thinking a lot about work lately . . . well really that is a subject I regularly think much about. What kills me is that it seems that the large majority of jobs really suck. I mean who the hell would want to build toasters, pave roads, work at the post office, do secretarial work, etc. A few years back I got a hold of some statistics that categorized the various occupations in America and then gave the percentage of the working population working in each. The statistics intrigued me and they still do, but they are also daunting. What is one to think about something like that? What is good about it? What is bad about it? I don't know, but I do like the idea of having an overview of our entire economy.

I dream about an economy where everyone loves their job. But how can we ever get there? What are the principles we need to follow in order to get to that point? What are the characteristics of today's jobs that cause so much unhappiness? The monotony? The lack of autonomy? What else?

There is a book related to this issue that I really want to read. It's called The Working Life: The Promise and Betrayal of Modern Work and it's written by Joanne B. Ciulla . Perhaps this is a subject I need to get more deeply into. Hmmm.

And this brings up the issue of all of the things I want to study: methodology, economics, economic sociology, information glut, education, city planning. It's really hard to decide what to study when? But now that I'm looking at this list I just made I think it would be best to work on the first three first.

Because I've missed writing the personal blogs

I haven't been blogging much lately, nor at my more academic truthandprogress.wordpress.com. It's been hard to figure out what to write where, but I think I'll have that figured out soon. More personal info about me will be written here. Political, philosophical, and academic content will be posted at my other blog. At least that's the plan. And as for all the in between stuff, I'll just have to figure that out as I go along I suppose.

So I'm living in Brooklyn now, and going to school in Manhattan at Eugene Lang College. I'm less than a month and a half from the end of my 1st semester and I'm starting to feel annoyed at this general way of life. I don't like being forced to put my intellectual energy into reading particular books and writing about particular topics. The discussions at school feel contrived. I mean, some of my teachers do a really good job, but still, what about MY projects? What about the questions that are most important to ME? When do I get the opportunity to discuss THESE issues with the professors and classmates? When can we have a seminar about MY issues?

I came to New York thinking this would be the place to find like minded people and to form groups to discuss and tackle those issues most significant to me. So far I've been disappointing by the people I've met. I see people just living there lives and not much else. It's hard for life not to feel meaningless in this situation.

I just don't feel very free these days. I've also been feeling overwhelmed with the complexity of life. And I've been feeling lonely too. I'm either at school or cooped up in my small room most of the time. It's not pleasant. But I don't have many other options right now. Hopefully I will soon.

So what should I do? What is worth doing? This is what I'm trying to figure out right now. Hopefully the answers will come soon.