In a brand new introduction, Eberstadt explains how the government’s response to Covid-19 inadvertently exacerbated the flight from work in America. From indiscriminate pandemic shutdowns to almost unconditional “unemployment” benefits, Americans were essentially paid not to work. Thus today, despite the vaccine rollouts, inexplicable numbers of working age men and women are sitting on the sidelines while over 11 million jobs go unfilled. Current low rates of unemployment, touted by pundits and politicians, are grievously misleading. The truth is that fewer prime-age American men are looking for readily available work than at any previous juncture in our history.

Nicholas Eberstadt
Men Without Work: Post-Pandemic Edition (2022)

It always shocks people when one says it, but after 6 months out of the workplace for absolutely any reason and in absolutely any circumstances, workers encounter serious difficulties with fitting back in. After 18 months, the difficulties become severe. If we are talking about people who don’t have conscious strategies of keeping themselves in working shape, these difficulties become insurmountable.

Even a freaking radiator stinks and makes weird noises after 6 months out of use. Humans are a bit more complex than that. You can’t put them on a shelf for a year or two and them drag them back and hope to flip a switch that would make them work.

Of course, none of this is news to those who engineered the lockdowns. The current labor shortages were manufactured on purpose. They give a great excuse to bring in migrants who’ll work for low pay and tremble in fear.

So yeah, this is “inexplicable” only to those who haven’t noticed any differences between human beings and kitchen appliances.

I know I’ve been MIA but I made €1,000 doing translation since Friday and it was a lot of work. Things being as they are with our neoliberal administrator, it would be insane to pass up a chance to make some money.

What’s been happening in the world aside from stupid Russia announcing partial draft? What have I missed?

The CNN literally can’t get anything right. Pugacheva never mentioned the word “Ukraine.” She said “our boys are dying” and that was a bad thing. Why they were dying was never addressed. She’s the worst kind of propagandist who expresses the worldview that Ukraine doesn’t exist. It’s precisely this mentality that led to the war. Her statement is right up there with saying that the Holocaust was bad because Germans got too tired manning the concentration camps.

And of course, this moronic statement of hers got a bigger write-up in Western media than the atrocities uncovered in the liberated Ukrainian city of Izyum.

Persistent poverty – not situational but persistent – is closely linked to an incapacity to contain oneself physically and emotionally. Mountains of junk spilling out onto balconies and front yards, public emotional outbursts, noise, odor, violence. This is a glitch in early childhood socialization that infects a whole life.

The people who train us to run around reciting our traumas want us to live in poverty. They tell us trauma is a badge of honor and neurosis is what makes you a good person but they know it’s really a dead weight that will keep us down forever.

The union leadership’s went to the new neoliberal administrator to discuss the yearly cost-of-living salary increase. We all know what happened to the cost of living, so they thought they had a productive conversation ahead of them.

As usual, the union leaders asked the administrator what was the salary increase he was considering. The administrator, who already gave himself a raise and is using university money to build a covered parking spot for the new vehicle he bought with university money amidst our huge budget crisis, said in a nasty voice, “The salary increase I have in mind is zero point zero percent.” Then he left.

The union people are shocked. They thought the “diverse” administrator would be pro-labor. He’s ultra progressive, he says all the right words, he respects everybody’s pronouns. So he can’t possibly be a neoliberal bastard who hates workers, right?

The previous top administrator was not diverse. He was as un-diverse as it gets. But he got us our salary increases punctually. He protected us from lockdowns, from vaccine mandates, from hiring freezes. We let the Board of Trustees get rid of him and welcomed an ultra-progressive diverse dude from California. He immediately proceeded to fire workers, cancelled half of summer classes, created mega complex bureaucratic procedures for everything, and told us we are lazy, overpaid, and too numerous.

Pronouns and budget cuts are one side of the same neoliberal coin. Wokeness (leftism, progressivism) means our standard of living worsens and we are told its our own fault because we are bad. It seems harmless to humor a few “Hate has no home here” posters and a couple of “How to Be Anti-racist” workshops but they always lead to budget cuts, layoffs, and disrespect.

If you’ve never observed a kid discover the concept of a commercial, you are really missing out. It’s hilarious.

“Mommy, that thing you said people make you watch to sell products… the mercial?… I think it got stuck. Can you come and unstick it for me because it’s showing the same thing for the third time.”

Then, in a loud whisper, “Mommy, I don’t want to buy this toothbrush they keep showing but I don’t want to hurt its feelings. What should I do?”

And finally in a loud, triumphant yell, “Mommy, that song my teacher Mr Gabe keeps singing, ‘Red Robin, yummmm!’ It’s from a TV show!”

I discovered that I enjoy book fairs a lot more as a reader than an author. Self-promotion is not my thing. I feel weird and uncomfortable.

The writers were all great. There was a lot of solidarity and mutual help among the authors. There were some really interesting people but I felt out of place. My whole parish turned out in support, including the priest in funny shorts. When I told my mother, she immediately asked me if he’s got nice legs.

The author of children’s books in front of my table at the fair was the mother of a friend of Klara’s friend. This is a really small town.

Now I’m on my way to take out the Russian teacher. She’s clearly miserable, and in spite of everything, I feel bad for her. Nobody was supportive of her coming here. Her parents were very opposed.

Being human is a heavy burden.

P.S. By “taking out the Russian,” I mean I’m taking her out for a ride and dinner.

Russians are so desperate for videos of victorious battles that they organized street fighting in the occupied Kherson and are desperately filming it. There are no Ukrainian troops in Kherson. These are Russians playacting shootouts with other Russians for the cameras. It’s convenient because in a fight where both sides are theirs, they are doomed to win. This is all accompanied with joyful social media posts of “See how we are winning in Kherson.”

This our table at the local book fair. 100% of money we make goes to the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

We are one of two Ukrainian tables at the fair. The other is a book about the 1930s Ukraine. The author is a grandchild of Ukrainian immigrants, so her book about Ukraine is tragic. My Dad was an actual Ukrainian, so his book isn’t.

What’s with the lighting, though? Is it so hard to make him look less…. ripe?