Clarissa's Blog

Market Humans

People are alienated, they feel the need to connect to others but they don’t know how to do it in the world of neoliberal competitiveness and of seeing humans as consumer goods. The current identity craze is a cry for help on the part of lonely consumers who only know how to declare their humanity through attaching attention-grabbing labels onto themselves. The “oppression Olympics” are, yet again, an attempt to reach out to others in the strictly neoliberal logic of competition as the core human value.

Convalescent

I’m like a convalescent who has been hidden in a facility for several years and is finally out. I don’t know how to explain to people why I’ve only now discovered the local art festival and the hot air balloon festival, why I’ve never been to the local public library, why I have no idea where the most famous local landmarks are, and so on. Everybody is stunned when I say I’ve lived here – “yes, right here, no, really, right here in town” – for over 8 years.

I wonder what they’d say if I revealed that I just learned the concept of folding laundry a year ago. And that’s not because it’s a complex idea to master but because the kind of life where you have the psychological energy to attend cultural events, fold laundry, and brush teeth twice a day seemed very exotic and out of reach.

Negative Capitalism

If you had to name the negative things that capitalism brought to your life, what would you name?

Monday Link Encyclopedia

First-world privilege.

And first-world derangement.

What I don’t get is how they extrapolate from such a ridiculously tiny number with a straight face.

Science confirms Freud was right. Yet again.

The best Siri moment I’ve heard of so far. 

What could have possibly caused the dramatic jump in crime rates in Chicago in 2016? Hmmm, what a mystery. There wasn’t anything out of the ordinary going on in the state throughout that year. Nothing like a lack of a fucking budget that destroyed the already insufficient social services in poor neighborhoods. 

Last Person

Who’s the last person you’d like to see working at your kid’s daycare?

I just can’t catch a break. 

Advanced

Somebody very important says my CV is like that of an advanced Associate Professor even though I only recently got tenure. I’ve been swollen with pride about this comment for days. I constantly feel like I’m not even trying as hard as I could. And hearing this supportive comment helps.  

4 Million

Next month we will hit 4,000,000 blog visits on this platform. Who will be the person to effectuate the 4,000,000th visit? I’ll be tracking and will congratulate the winner if he or she leaves a comment while visiting. (I can’t track non-commenters on this platform). I will be posting announcements as we approach the four million so that people can leave targeted comments and claim the title of the anniversary visitor.

Neoliberal

Neoliberal economy – instead of a career, you will have Facebook.

Neoliberal politics – instead of collective action, you’ll have delightfully provocative tweets.

Neoliberal justice – instead of any tangible gains, you will have symbolic victories you can post on Facebook and Twitter. 

Hepeated

“Since the dawn of time” I’ve been hepeated and I didn’t even notice. But now my eyes have been opened to this tragic victimization.

Readers, have you ever hepeated or shepeated me? Used any of the ideas you found here? If so, please keep doing it. Hesheitthey-peating makes me happy. I’m a freak of nature. 

What a Relief

My students are geniuses. Geniuses, I tell you, because this is what other people have to contend with.

Thank you, Alex, for the link. I’ll be exuberantly happy to see my students tomorrow because whatever they do, it won’t be that. Or maybe it will but I won’t understand it because their Spanish won’t allow them to express it.