I wrote my yesterday’s post about Clivern Bundy in jest but I have to say that the response I’m seeing to it is very disappointing. If we are so much better, so much more sophisticated and so much more integrated into the spirit of our times than this guy, then maybe we can manage to step aside from the good guys vs bad guys mentality for two seconds? Maybe we can draw some conclusions that are a tad more interesting than the tedious, “Republicans are bad”? If we ridicule people who cling to gender and sexual identities because these identities make the world more comprehensible, how come we cling to our political identities just as stubbornly and for the exact same reason?
It’s easy to feel superior to people like Bundy. His vocabulary of tyranny and homesteading is pathetically outdated. He is clinging to a way of life that is already extinct. The transformations of the times we live in will sweep him away as a remnant of a long-gone era. We, on the other hand, are handling the historic moment so much better. The collapse of traditional identities doesn’t bother us because those identities were horrible and restrictive anyway. We are not afraid of the highly fluid world where nothing can be relied on and every day there is something new to process.
That is, until we reach our limit, the limit that is different for all of us but that everybody has, and encounter a change that we just can’t process. The job market is becoming highly fluid, are you sure you are 100% psychologically ready for that? Working for free, working in conditions of extreme precariousness, competing with others in who’s more mobile and can pick up and leave faster? And this is just a single area of transformation. There will be so many of them and I promise that one day there will be one change that will freak you out.
So maybe instead of the cheap drama of, “This Bundy fella is such an evildoer that he doesn’t even care about the dead babies in Afghanistan!” we could use this story to ask ourselves, “And what about me? Which change will I not be able to handle?” We don’t have any influence on the way the Bundy story develops. So since we have to think about it anyways, why not use it to glean something useful for ourselves?
Instead, many people observe Bundy’s trauma of old certainties being eroded and try to avoid feeling what he does by evoking, obsessively and repetitively, the old certainties of their own. And that, my friends, is not a productive way to handle the new historic era we are entering because there is no place for old certainties in it. It will be just as cruel with your certainties as it is with Bundy’s.
Clarissa's Blog 
“The collapse of traditional identities” – the question is: which identities? In Israel and imo in USA too, national, patriotic identity hasn’t collapsed at all. Some ideas about gender have changed, but on the whole there are plenty of identities still required by society.
“competing with others in who’s more mobile and can pick up and leave faster” – how can one be mobile after buying a house? I am not ready to change my address. Thankfully, Israel is relatively small country, enabling one to live in one place and work in another, and I live near center (Tel Aviv area), where most jobs are.
Which other areas of transformation do you predict in the near future? Would have been an interesting post. 🙂 I can think only about gender roles, work and world becoming more interconnected.
During my life I don’t expect big changes in Israeli society. Interesting how my prediction will turn out. 🙂 If you have any predictions about us too, would love to hear.
As for Middle East in general, our region is still in the Middle Ages and intends to stay there at best.
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“Some ideas about gender have changed, but on the whole there are plenty of identities still required by society.”
– Yes, for you and me the changes are nowhere near enough. But there are people – and there are many of them – for whom the changes that have already happened are too much to process.
““competing with others in who’s more mobile and can pick up and leave faster” – how can one be mobile after buying a house?”
– Exactly. So this is something that will also be changing rapidly.
Look at the people who have not found a place in the academic job market. Unlike Bundy, they direct their rage inside and not outside. Instead of lashing out violently at others, they do violence to themselves, get depressed, get sick. They strategy is more convenient to all of us but a little less convenient to them.
“As for Middle East in general, our region is still in the Middle Ages and intends to stay there at best.”
– Just like Clivern Bundy does. But history doesn’t care about our expectations and concerns. It just happens.
It’s a good idea to discuss the future developments. I will think about it.
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// Yes, for you and me the changes are nowhere near enough
Depends which changes. I welcome changes in gender expectations (men doing work around the house), which are not so big for me anyway, with my grandmother already having a career. Probably in USA there were more housewives.
I don’t welcome changes in job market, which lead to zero insurance, even if you are a good worker. You say “So this is something that will also be changing rapidly” – no more owning houses then, except mobile ones on wheels? 🙂 I do care about living near old parents, siblings and their children, etc.
// Look at the people who have not found a place in the academic job market.
What will change for them? Like now, they will have or find a job outside it, or inside it. What more can be done?
// It’s a good idea to discuss the future developments. I will think about it.
I would love it. For instance, regarding the job market, does it mean zero workers’ rights? There were such struggles for them, and now all goes *poof* ?
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“I welcome changes in gender expectations (men doing work around the house), which are not so big for me anyway, with my grandmother already having a career.”
– For me, it’s sexual mores. My sister is living with her partner and bringing up a kid without getting married. Even just 15 years ago, none of us in our family could have imagined something like this. And now it’s just the most ordinary, regular thing.
“I don’t welcome changes in job market, which lead to zero insurance, even if you are a good worker. You say “So this is something that will also be changing rapidly” – no more owning houses then, except mobile ones on wheels? 🙂 I do care about living near old parents, siblings and their children, etc.”
– The nuclear family is falling apart very rapidly. In North America, proximity to parents and siblings is already a thing of the past for many. I’m not happy about it but I’m forced to live this way.
“// Look at the people who have not found a place in the academic job market.
What will change for them? Like now, they will have or find a job outside it, or inside it. What more can be done?”
– Not for them, for us. We will all be them soon enough. Now we just need to accept that somehow. And it will be painful.
“For instance, regarding the job market, does it mean zero workers’ rights? There were such struggles for them, and now all goes *poof* ?”
– I think so, yes. And the costs of this reality will be socialized.
Thank you, el, for participating in this discussion. I appreciate your open-mindedness. This tells me you will do better than most with these changes.
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Autobahnmotorwayautoroute by Adrian Mitchell
Around the gleaming map of Europe
A gigantic wedding ring
Slowly revolves through Londonoslowestberlin
Athensromemadridparis and home again,
Slowly revolving.
That’s no ring,
It’s the great European Limousine,
The Famous Goldenwhite Circular Car
Slowly revolving
All the cars in Europe have been welded together
Into a mortal unity,
A roundaboutgrandtourroundabout
Trafficjamroundaboutagain,
All the cars melted together,
Citroenjaguarbugattivolkswagenporschedaf.
Each passenger, lugging his
Colourpiano, frozenmagazines, high-fidog,
Clambers over the seat in front of him
Towards what looks like the front of the car.
They are dragging behind them
Worksofart, lampshades made of human money,
Instant children and exploding clocks.
But the car’s a circle
No front no back
No driver no steering wheel no windscreen no brakes no
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“Slowly all the roles we act out become our identity and in the end we are what we pretend to be” Jerry Cantrell
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Liked this post about Jewish-German sportswomen:
Долгий прыжок в высоту – из Берлина-1936
Гражданке США Маргарет Ламберт 12 апреля исполнилось сто лет.
Она родилась и выросла в Германии в городке Лаупхайм, и звали её тогда Гретель Бергманн.
http://arusinov.livejournal.com/204496.html
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\\ And the costs of this reality will be socialized.
What do you mean? We, the usual people, will have to create a stronger social net? Or pay for poverty in indirect ways (jails, police, return of epidemics in 1st world countries), without enjoying any safety net? Surely, 1% or even 10% won’t want to pay too.
// – Not for them, for us. We will all be them soon enough.
Without a job? But you don’t really think you will be this way.
// This tells me you will do better than most with these changes.
No, I just hope not to live till they reach Israel. 🙂 We have enough problems as it is, and those changes sound horrifying. What is good in those economic changes?
You make it sound like: “15 years ago, you were expected to marry to have a child with your partner, even though there were enough single mothers and a few unmarried couples too. Now, people (in Israel, at least) still care, but less. In return, you’ll be unemployed quite often, stressed because of lack of any security, and cut away from relatives. If you are divorced (and 2nd parent moved to work far away) or single parent, and away from relatives – good luck! Isn’t it great overall?”
More like nightmare.
Meanwhile, today I read an article on Israeli Hebrew news site about 50+ Americans moving back with their parents because of economic crisis. You read it right, children are 50+, parents are 70+.
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Ah, so now you are getting the nature of Clivern Bundy’s terror. 🙂
These changes will happen whether we consider them good or bad. They are bigger than all of us. There will be greater fluidity in everything. And it will be both great in some aspects and horrible in others.
I now have 2 jobs and the second one, in translation, is my form of insurance against these changes. I’m not saying that I will necessarily see the destruction of tenure and public education in my lifetime, but I can’t be sure, so I need to prepare.
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There will be greater fluidity in everything(Clarissa)
What does this mean?
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Fluid identities (gender, sexual), porous borders, strings of part-time jobs instead of 1 permanent employment, moving around a lot, further erosion of nuclear family, loss of most attachments, loss of the attachment to the land for sure for those who still retain it, inter penetration of languages. And I’m sure there is much more.
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Also, erosion of the concept of property. Amazon is renting digital books, which is a step in that direction. People say “my house” while living in a place owned by a bank or sometimes by God knows whom.
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Oh, you mean life…………I see. 😉
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As for socializing the costs, it’s like this: fewer people will work. There will be a sizeable and growing underclass of permanently unemployed. We don’t let people starve on the sidewalk in the 1st world, so we’ll have to keep them fed and reasonably content with life. So this is what those who are flexible (on every level) will have to do.
Once again, I’m not saying this is good or bad. It just is. All efforts to stop these transformations have only led to world wars, civil wars, dictatorships, etc.
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\\ We don’t let people starve on the sidewalk in the 1st world
Well, why wouldn’t that change too? I just don’t see flexible minority supporting permanently unemployed majority. Or even significant minority. Seems as idealistic view of human nature as one promoted by communism.
“reasonably content with life” – Does it include Internet? 🙂 What does it mean exactly? May be, old English workhouses? Will those unemployed have children?
In Israel Haredi have many children, who are supported to a large degree by tax payers. The latter are already unhappy, and significant increase in not working population would lead to explosion of “let them starve, if they refuse to work and/or teach kids math & English too.”
I don’t see most people being content with not working and getting X calories a day like domesticated animals.
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This scenario is already a permanent reality in Spain with 30% of people unemployed. Yes, there were protests but now everybody has settled down into this state of affairs, no revolution is brewing.
As long as everybody gets a TV, a tablet and an Internet access, the scenario of peaceful acceptance of this state is very likely. In the USSR the absolute majority lived like this and was very content.
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What Nancy P said earlier today about Obama realizing that now it will all be about the charity of the rich throwing crumbs to the poor, is spot on. And I hear that this best selling book by the Pickety fellow says the same thing.
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” “15 years ago, you were expected to marry to have a child with your partner, even though there were enough single mothers and a few unmarried couples too. Now, people (in Israel, at least) still care, but less.”
– This is not a trivial development. My grandfather beat his daughter to a bloody pulp because he heard a rumor that she might have spent a night with her boyfriend. This is an enormous tectonic shift and it isn’t going to come without a price.
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Also, we are all enjoying social mobility of the kind that couldn’t even be imagined 100 years ago. And that also isn’t a trivial gain. But we aren’t going to have the good without the bad. No, we will have both in spades.
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Also, we are all enjoying social mobility of the kind that couldn’t even be imagined 100 years ago(Clarissa)
Though it may have been very different more than 100yrs ago. Its an assumption that this is the only time period(culturally in the west) that you have that ability.
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“Though it may have been very different more than 100yrs ago.”
– I know how my ancestors lived back in the shtetl. They couldn’t even leave their villages, let alone choose employment or a place to live.
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Stretch your imagination Clarissa, go back further. Maybe even before you can record your family heritage. Cultures have existed for a really,really long time.’
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Sadly, life for Jews and Ukrainians always sucked. In what concerns Jews, we have this very famous record from 5,000 years ago, and it’s all kind of sucky. 🙂 🙂
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In the grand scheme of things that is but a blip. 😉
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Interestingly enough though, you did prove your post. 🙂
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This is what comes of American capitulation to mindless entertainment.
What constituted mass entertainment in pre-television, pre-radio times? Newspapers and magazines, books, travelling speakers presenting all manner of topics, travelling acting troupes, and…..POLITICAL DEBATES. Clarissa, the debate between senatorial candidates Douglas and Lincoln drew 50,000 people who walked (most people walked back in the 1850s), rode horseback, rode on carts 10, 20, 50 miles or more to hear the two. There was also the very American institution of the summer “Chautauqua”, named after the original site of this type of educational vacation.
American working peoples’ prosperity was gained with much blood. Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, innumerable mining strikes with management-hired private security (“Pinkerton”) murdering striking miners , and other Labor History episodes are unknown to the public. Why? The textbook censoring (er, “recommendation”) committees in large states are dominated by far-right “free enterprise” radical fundamentalist White supremacists (google “Gabler Texas Textbooks” to read about the pioneers in dumbing down and pacifying). If a high school textbook is not approved for sale in a big market like Texas, textbook publishers will gut the text of “controversial” notions such as evolution or the fact that the US Civil War was fought specifically over the right to own other people. So, we have textbooks that portray the powerful as saints and the poor as ignorant and shiftless by their own desire.
Owning a house: This is an American obsession. MANY middle-class people elsewhere are fine with renting, because many other countries don’t provide the generous tax subsidies for home buying. The mortgage exemption is a tax on the poor to benefit the middle class, in a way, as are the provision of extensive high-throughput urban-suburban highway systems (as opposed to interstate highways used at least 30-50% by commercial traffic (trucks)).
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“Clarissa, the debate between senatorial candidates Douglas and Lincoln drew 50,000 people who walked (most people walked back in the 1850s), rode horseback, rode on carts 10, 20, 50 miles or more to hear the two.”
– You are going to make me cry. Compared to my “What presidential election??” students, this sounds like a fantasy.
“American working peoples’ prosperity was gained with much blood. Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, innumerable mining strikes with management-hired private security (“Pinkerton”) murdering striking miners , and other Labor History episodes are unknown to the public.”
– Zinn wrote in a fascinating way about this history.
“MANY middle-class people elsewhere are fine with renting, because many other countries don’t provide the generous tax subsidies for home buying.”
– I don’t know, we’ll see next spring, but I’m guessing that my taxes will become even higher after we buy the house. I have never received any tax exemption for any reason anywhere I lived and I don’t expect this ever to happen to me. Lincoln is more likely to rise from the grave to debate Hillary Clinton in 2016 than I am to get any tax exemptions.
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You will owe property taxes. You pay property taxes now, through your rent, but you aren’t conscious of them as “taxes” because you don’t write that check to the local government. You will be able to deduct interest on your mortgage.
So far as the public high schools are concerned, Zinn’s book may as well have an “X” rating.
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“So far as the public high schools are concerned, Zinn’s book may as well have an “X” rating.”
– I heard that, but for the life of me can’t say what’s so subversive about them. I’ve seen some minor inconsistencies and incoherences in his work, which is only normal, but nothing that isn’t, in my opinion, common knowledge. He writes well, the narrative is engaging and well-structured, but the facts are – as I thought – extremely well-known.
But if they aren’t as well-known as I thought, I realize why I find it so hard to discuss history with students.
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The Chautauqua movement was originally partly religious, with a component of “Sunday School” and a component of general adult education and culture. It started in New York near Lake Erie. However, there was a local Chautauqua just north of Alton IL and only 20 miles or so from your University campus.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chautauqua,_Illinois
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Bataille’s suggestion is that everybody ought to experiment with themselves by going to the limits of their being. Because, one only knows what one’s morality is when one is on the retreat from the scary possibilities of a completely open-ended reality. One defines oneself when one says, “No”, and succumbs to one’s limits. But that a really important experiment to do and very necessary for self-knowledge, otherwise one may be under all sorts of illusions about oneself.
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And musteryou will obviously kick ass on any transformations coming her way. 🙂
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As you would see from my memoir, I have not and I did not.
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Your life made you crazy strong. You will march on, I know it.
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My life made me a shaman — someone caught perpetually between two worlds, but who has learned to manage that condition.
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Very thought-provoking post!
Your example of the rapidly changing job market was excellent. I do have worries about what kind of jobs I’ll get when I graduate. I’m still quite ‘conservative’ in this area, and there’s nothing I’d like more than to find a decent enough job in a decent enough area, set my roots there, and fucking die after 40 years. My girlfriend’s the same way even though she works in a more dynamic industry (IT). I’m aware that this type of thinking is outdated, and people would even call it a sign of not being ambitious enough with my career, but that’s really not the case. I do take pride in my work, and can be quite hard on myself for failing to live up to my high expectations.
So yeah. At this point I’m not sure how to process all of this, and change my mindset because, like you say, there aren’t many careers in which you can enjoy this kind of stability.
As an aside: I and my friends talk about what the next generation is going to shock us with, socially, and I can’t seem to come up with an answer. Thanks to the internet, we’ve seen the most depraved porn there is to watch, rampant drug abuse, violence, etc. Some asshole sheriff in Arizona utters a racist statement and Gawker has a post on it the very next day.
There are things that will annoy or offend me, but nothing ever shocks me anymore. Do others feel the same? My generation sort of shocked my parents generation with our thoughts on sex, homosexuality, race, etc.
I’m sure the next generation will do the same to us, but I can’t imagine how. Like, how much progressive than me can my children be, haha?
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с сегодняшнего дня трудами нашей Госдуры все блогеры, которых иногда читает более трех тысяч людей в день, приравнены к СМИ , обязаны развиртуализироваться и подчиниться целому списку правил, по большей части дурацких, в том числе – полному запрету на мат.
http://tataole.livejournal.com/82464.html
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