Yes, Bauman is dead. But the good news is that I have a new favorite theorist, Jim McGuigan. He writes about the many ways in which neoliberalism seduces by hiding behind the mask of coolness. 

I like McGuigan because he doesn’t schizophrenically refuse to notice the patently obvious, like pretty much all the rest of Marxist (and there is no other kind) theorists do, and recognizes openly that capitalism has delivered for an enormous number of people. 

In the 1st-world countries, young people don’t fight for bare survival. They have needs of a higher order, if we want to go Maslowian for a second. It’s normal for such young people to be attracted by the glamor of Hollywood, Vegas, YouTube and reality TV. 

Artistic professions have always been precarious. 

So how do you get young people to embrace and eagerly seek out precariousness? By investing all jobs they can get with an aura of pseudo-artistic, Hollywoodian creativity. They’ll think the precarious lifestyle is cool and non-conformist, and you’ll be able to milk them cheaply. 

By the way, one after another young chronicler of precarious, part-time job markets reports that there is a great sense of excitement and exhilaration that one gets from this sort of life. There is also fear and anxiety, of course. But the intensity of pleasure is part of it, too. I’ve observed this in Spanish literature of the crisis, and McGuigan confirms, in these very words. 

It is naive to expect that the redistribution of wealth from you and me to the very rich will be stopped on the initiative of the very rich, whether they are called Trump or Obama.

If there is any hope of stopping – or maybe just reducing a bit – this redistribution that’s been going on for 40 years, it will arise from our efforts. We need to build a dam, and it will have to start out by being an emotional dam that will prevent our energy and feelings from flowing towards the very people who are our class enemy. 

Because they have already built such a one-way dam that prevents them from even noticing the humanity of somebody like me and you. 

If you want to avoid disappointment, never attach emotionally to or identify with anybody who is rich. 

Rich people – politicians, movie stars, famous musicians – are not capable of caring about you and your interests. They care about one thing: how to get even richer. (And asking why they need more money if they already have billions is like asking you why you have to eat today if you already ate yesterday).

They will get richer either in ways that will hurt you a lot or in ways that will hurt you a bit less. That’s it, there’s nothing else to it. 

The very structure of emotional life in neoliberal societies fosters emotional attachment to the very rich. The wealth gap is growing, the inequality soars but people don’t notice because, in their imaginary, the wealthy are as close as a bunch of  loving and caring relatives.

Have you, folks, tried the high-fiber diet? Wow, it’s like being on drugs. I haven’t had so much energy since I guzzled 3 Red Bulls in close succession (horrible idea, by the way).

Today I made curried split pea with wild rice, tomatoes and spinach. Even Klara ate it, it was so not horrible. 

We don’t even teach Don Quixote in our program. The horrible old professor who retired to make space for me (a former Francoist priest and a subsequent sexual harasser) taught excerpts from the novel, which is pathetic.

Maybe I should teach it. The problem is that one can only do one part of the novel in a semester, and the second part is better than the first. But still, it’s better than nothing. (I only get to teach a real literature course once every 4 semesters because of the insane proliferation of hated language courses, so there’s no option of teaching both parts in two subsequent semesters.)

I’m on a grading marathon today with over 30 essays I need to grade. Obviously, I won’t do them all in one day, especially since I get upset when I see people not following the clear instructions I give. So I need to take breaks to feel less shitty and annoyed.

Ultimately, there are people who just won’t learn no matter what you do, and that has to be accepted. But God, why is it so darn hard to accept? I keep obsessing over a handful of failures that I know for a fact are not my fault and forget to feel happy about the many students who achieve great progress and learn a lot.

And by the way, I have no doubt that what Obama is telling his audience in his $400,000 speeches is all the crucial stuff about the liquid capital, fluidity, and transformations in statehood that no politician has the gut to tell all of us. Mostly because we don’t want to hear. 

It makes total sense that the emissary from the fading nation-state should brief capital on when said nation-state will remove the last obstacles from the capital’s way. (Answer: now that Americans elected capital to lead the nation-state, irreversibly soon.)

I don’t care if Obama accepts hundreds of thousands or millions in speaking fees from absolutely anybody, including Putin. As long as nobody carrying his last name runs for office, I’m very happy never to think of him again. 

And mind you, I deeply admire and respect Obama. But if the Bush and the Clinton sagas taught us anything, it’s that attempts to create political dynasties are a horrible idea. This is not Latin America, where once you elect somebody, you can’t get shot of them and their useless family ever again. When a politician’s term in office runs out, that politician should forever disappear from politics and take their brood with them. 

I’m very paranoid about having the next generation visited upon us. Imagine after Trump’s term finally runs out having to observe the next five generations of the family trying to get elected. No, the whole practice should be condemned right now. 

Does anybody understand what these idiots at Berkeley are trying to achieve? If they hadn’t freaked out, Stinky Coulter’s visit would have gone unnoticed by anybody but a couple of mental invalids eager to hear the spiel she already delivered through every possible medium. There would be no opportunity for her to inflict herself on the notice of normal people beyond that. 

But no, they had to go and create a situation where she is actually right, for the first time in her stupid life. Is there really no better way to spend their time?

I’m finally going to get an office with a window. The new chair is leaving his office and the outgoing chair said he doesn’t want it. So I said I do. Immediately, a huge drama ensued with people suspecting that the outgoing chair was being martyred (sic). I started feeling bad even though I hadn’t been the one to suggest the swap.

The outgoing chair had to swear he wasn’t being a victim and he really, truly doesn’t want the windowed office. I think he didn’t like the spectacle of people rushing to his defense when he never said he needed it. 

As for me, I’m happy to be working from home for the next 4 months.