Bribing companies into keeping surplus people in fake jobs isn’t that different from expanding governmental bureaucracy to keep people in fake jobs. Both strategies are definitely better than guaranteed basic income because fake jobs allow people not to be marginalized. These workers aren’t pushed into an underclass, their children aren’t forever robbed of an opportunity to be part of productive society, people are occupied and less likely to turn to addiction to cope with the shame of uselessness.

Of course, a much better strategy would be to try to integrate the surplus people into the new economy and help them stop being surplus. But that’s impossible in a consumerist society where everybody expects to be babied and pandered to.

OK, grammar buffs, is it “seventy euro” or “seventy euros”?

If you are planning to watch that super depressing Gilmore Girls sequel, I need to warn you that it will drive you to graveyard talk, too.

God, the thing is miserable. And there are two endless and horrible singing and dancing interludes that one can’t rewind fast enough. Brrr.

In Ukraine graves are separated by fences so that people can get some boundaries around them at least in death. Of course, they still have family members crowding them inside the enclosures but at least the strangers stay out.

In North America, graves are not separated. This brings people out of isolation at least in death.

Actually, I really REALLY wish English departments did give grammar tests and make passing their courses contingent on having good grammar. I’m seeing a bizarre situation where our students have a better grasp of the Spanish grammar than they do of their native English.

I understand that it’s humiliating to have to explain first-grade basics to college students but you can’t award degrees to people who go “Ah! Interesting!” when you inform them of the difference between its and it’s to them in their senior year.

The road back to reality will be long for climate activists. 

And the road to getting some shame and not being such entitled drama queens will be even longer for some.

A good solution for surplus people: drug them up with legal ecstasy and they won’t bother you.

A great post on the bankruptcy of hypocrisy charges.

An unexpectedly good post on diversity at Inside Higher Ed.No, really.

This is the absolute worst thing in higher ed. I have absolutely no idea how to teach when so many people are convinced that mentioning something equals celebrating its existence.

Back in the USSR, there was always a shortage of everything. Finding clothes to wear, just any clothes, was always an adventure. The city of Donetsk where my aunts used to live once somehow got a batch of imported lingerie. The concept of lingerie was, of course, not familiar to Soviet people. Beautiful red, pink, and white lacy babydolls and matching chemises were something that poor Soviet women from the mining region had never seen. It could not have possibly occurred to them that such stunning, sexy pieces of clothing were to be worn inside. As a result, they decided these were regular outfits.

It became the height of fashion in Donetsk to don your babydoll and your chemise, get into stiletto heels, do your makeup and hair, and go downtown to parade your new outfit where everybody could see you.

My aunt decided to share the joy with her sister and got her a coveted babydoll.

“I’m sending you this beautiful imported gown,” she told my mother over the phone. “They are almost impossible to get because everybody wants one but I got one just for you.”

When the package arrived, my mother was perplexed. 

“I thought your aunt was sending me a gown,” she said. “But this is sleepwear. The gown must have been stolen by the postal workers.” (Soviet postal workers always went through packages and took whatever they fancied.)

A similar thing happened with Soviet women and imported bathrobes. Poor women couldn’t conceive of such wonderful, beautiful things being worn inside. So they wore the bathrobes as coats. Imagine crowds of women prancing around in babydolls and bathrobes, convinced these are regular outside clothes.

I bought Klara this Adidas sports outfit as a joke but unless you are from my country (or, apparently, Argentina), you won’t get why it’s hilarious.

N concealed from me for years that he used to wear one of these to go outside  (not to work out but just to go about). It’s only when he was very secure in our relationship that he confessed this dark secret.

I wrote this in August of 2015 and it’s as relevant as ever. More so, if anything.

Several years ago, Putin tried to abolish welfare assistance for about 1,2 million people in the Greater Moscow area (where cost of living is higher than wherever it is that you live). People got angry, took to the streets, protested, and Putin had to cave. The welfare assistance was left in place.

Two weeks ago, Putin once again abolished the same welfare measures. Not a single person protested.

Moral of the story: if you fire up people’s diseased patriotism and allow them to feel no shame for hating their neighbors, you can easily take away all of their welfare protections.

And what it is that Trump is doing right now? Exactly.

Keep this in mind in the next couple of years.

People keep saying that the greatest danger comes from those who are left behind by fluidity. The fear is that they will get too desperate and turn to fascism, violence, etc. What we are forgetting, however, is that the price paid for fluidity by those who aim to be part of exterritorial elites is much higher than the price paid by those who refuse.

An embrace of fluidity leads to loneliness, fear, confusion and a sense of meaninglessness. What is the goal of a person who chases fluidity? He abandons every attachment, changes himself over and over again, dissolves every stable marker of identity, picks up and leaves and then leaves and leaves and leaves again, adapts to every new circumstance, empties himself of all content – and all for what? To be able to buy more stuff? 

Since there is nothing that fluidity can offer people, it positions itself as being the actual reward in itself. You are not supposed to ask what the goal of all this dissolution of self is. The “freedom” to dissolve is supposed to be your most cherished entitlement. Plus, of course, the expanded list of shit one should buy in order to manifest this crucial entitlement to the world.

But not even the most shallow of human beings can truly feel fulfilled by such a life. The phenomenon is new but just wait until the poor fluid freaks catch on to the enormous joke that has been played on them. Once they figure out that all they get in return for swallowing the bitter pill of fluidity is the right to swallow a lot more of it, that’s when we will see some really unhappy and confused people.