Almost had it

H/T Tex.

This editorial is pretty good, except for the part after he says “Clearly…”

Is it so hard to believe that people are bad on the inside?

If someone had designed a work regime perfectly suited to maintaining the power of finance capital, it’s hard to see how they could have done a better job. Real, productive workers are relentlessly squeezed and exploited. The remainder are divided between a terrorised stratum of the, universally reviled, unemployed and a larger stratum who are basically paid to do nothing, in positions designed to make them identify with the perspectives and sensibilities of the ruling class (managers, administrators, etc) – and particularly its financial avatars – but, at the same time, foster a simmering resentment against anyone whose work has clear and undeniable social value. Clearly, the system was never consciously designed. It emerged from almost a century of trial and error. But it is the only explanation for why, despite our technological capacities, we are not all working three to four-hour days.

David Graeber
The modern phenomenon of nonsense jobs

Here’s a related article on the brilliant philosophy behind The Office.

All of this fits perfectly into my psychosocial theory, combining post-scarcity with melonhead/cro-mag/neanderthal social dynamics. Those are on the NH, guess I gotta bring ’em over.

Last thought: my job at the strip club is an example of particular neanderthal dysfunction, in spite of the fact that I’ve succeeded in my strategy of melon piggybacking. They want to make me a freaking manager. Me! (Mostly, it is because cros are stupid, start shit, and cannot be trusted with money.) Life is a strange beast.

I do not think a strip club is a thing that should exist, but I tolerate working there because I understand that the entire human race disagrees with me on the subject. Like a university, I would burn it down…except that they’d build two more in its place. Actual morality aside, the utility calculation fails.