ONE YEAR AGO TODAY:

I bought the new Bob Dylan album.

Amazing as always.

TWO YEARS AGO TODAY:

I have a fuzzy recollection of something I read in a Chomsky interview in the Sun about working and getting a job. The gist of it was that the conditions we work under are fairly tyrannyical. He said it in a real slick sort of way though and I think it is a good point. Here's me trying to flesh it out.

So you gets up in the morning or afternoon and you heads to work, traveling through our fairly democratic society. Free to walk down the street. Free, more or less, to protest. Free to speak your mind. Free to express anger at the conditions you find. Free to associate with whomever you choose.

Then you gets to work and a lot of things change. You leave your relatively democratic society and enter a much more tyrannical system. Granted, you're just going to work and it's not going to kill you or anything, but I think it's worth noting the differences. From that moment on, you musy obey what in many cases is a very strict system of regulations. You must do what you are told, how you are told to do it, when you are told to do it, until it is time for you to leave. You will be in a hierarchical system where the people above you can punish you in a variety of ways, more or less at will. Court their favor and you will receive awards. Fail to do so and your days will be plagued by extra nuisances.

Remember that you are always being watched and evaluated more or less continuously. In many situations you will be monitored by cameras. Your results wll be checked. Your behavior will be scrutinized. You must remember that even your emotions are not your own until you leave. You must act enthused about all of this. About this opportunity you have been given. You must show that you can work well with those around you. But you ought not to become too close. Close friendships might dirupt the system of obedience. Friends might prove too supportive. Friends might cover for one another.

It is an artificial and unsatisfying situation for a human being to find themselves in. Ideally for the business it is a team of antagonistic individuals, jockying for position and favor. Pointing out each other's flaws. Hiding their true feelings. Working together without building meaningful ties.

And the best part is that you have little to no choice in this matter. You pretty much have to get a job and the more reluctant you are to do so, the more likely you are to find yourself in the most restricted varieties of work. Those who buy in are rewarded with longer leashes. Those who work only with the enthusiasm of the obligated find themselves punching clocks and accounting for their every move.

There is nothing else you can do. You can't go off and live somewhere else where you don't have to pay rent and where you are free to collect the things you need from nature. The world belongs to the people who own the businessess. You can work for them or you can throw yourself on the mercy of a pretty unforgiving society. You can beg for a job or you can beg for a change.

You live in a free and democratic society but you probably spend at least half of your day following orders under the scrutiny of others in an environment where it is risky to speak your mind and where the freedom of assembly is touch and go. You don't have to like it, but you should probably act like it if you want to keep having the opportunity to pretend to like it.

There has to be a better way for humans to relate to their work and each other.