As a society, we’re forcing millions of people to go to offices five days a week, eight hours a day, and do nothing
If someone had designed a work regime perfectly suited to maintaining the power of finance capital, it’s hard to see how they could have done a better job. Real, productive workers are relentlessly squeezed and exploited. The remainder are divided between a terrorized stratum of the, universally reviled, unemployed and a larger stratum who are basically paid to do nothing, in positions designed to make them identify with the perspectives and sensibilities of the ruling class (managers, administrators, etc.) — and particularly its financial avatars — but, at the same time, foster a simmering resentment against anyone whose work has…
After completely deleting two drafts, I’m taking a different approach.
The third time’s the charm. I’m realizing that writing about myself is significantly harder than I thought. Well, writing about myself is relatively easy but making it worth reading seems to be an insurmountable challenge for me at the moment.
The first two drafts were dreadful. Here’s a quick synopsis: I swear I’m cool and interesting and smart and look at how much I know about writing and how much I’ve read.
Getting anything onto the page these days has been hesitant, painful, and unnatural. Writing has basically become pulling out my own teeth. …
TRAVEL. EUROPE
I don’t know what criminal activity was taking place, but there’s no way it was legit
In any major city, I love going on a slow walk through the busy streets in the center with no destination in mind and admiring the unique architecture and vibe of the place. I also look at the high-priced real estate and wonder how some of the establishments stay in business, especially restaurants.
When I see an empty phone accessory or children’s clothing store, I assume they’re selling things online to get by. With empty restaurants, I get an empathic, sinking feeling in my stomach.
I worked in restaurants and bars through most of high school and college, and I…
Democrats and the media made him a pariah for warning about the corporate takeover of America; he was right all along
The ‘democracy gap’ in our politics and elections spells a deep sense of powerlessness by people who drop out, do not vote, or listlessly vote for the ‘least worst’ every four years and then wonder why after every cycle the ‘least worst’ gets worse. -Ralph Nader
Growing up I wasn’t very political, and when I heard the name Ralph Nader, like many, I thought, “he’s that weirdo who ran for president as an independent or something.”
I have since come to find out that not only was his political platform basically spot-on and profoundly prophetic, the image I had of…
Handouts, evil, and how “Amazon’s freedom from taxes” is the foundation of America
I recently had an exchange on social media that is representative of a conversation I often see between Americans of different political ideologies. I posted about the appalling state of wages for most American workers and wrote, “we have the wealth to take care of everyone.” A follower responded with, “or they can take care of themselves.”
I was left having that difficult debate about whether or not to engage in the topic. I didn’t know her that well but knew she was a nice person and a religious Republican.
I also knew these conversations never go anywhere, and long…
The definitive list of the best of the best from his #1 fan
Increasingly the show became about the world around him and the frame outside of where he was standing. And I think he really understood the real power in his position was getting the cameras to the place in the first place so that he could turn them around, so that he could put the people, who otherwise would never be on camera, on camera. So he could put the cultures and the traditions that have never been seen before on camera. So he could show us something, not just show us him seeing something. -Andy Greenwald
Narrowing it down to…
For starters, instead of giving the world’s richest man Jeff Bezos $10,000,000,000 to go to space, let’s make him pay his taxes
I have good news, in the 21st century, with our wealth and technology, we have the ability to end poverty in America — and the world for that matter. We could quite easily provide a comfortable and stable life for all humans.
The reason we don’t is much more ideological than it is material or logistics.
While migrant children are dying from thirst in the desert or washing ashore on Greek beaches, our governments give hundreds of billions of dollars to weapons manufacturers and corporations that extract resources and perpetuate conflict and forever wars.
While millions of Americans lost their…
Steven Donzinger beat the oil giant in court, but they’ve paid zero in damages, and he’s been under house arrest for two years
We know corporations run America. We know they fund politicians and get whatever political favors they want. We know all of that, but what I never knew was how completely a corporation could co-opt the American judicial system to prosecute a citizen.
This case involves the Chevron oil company, the Lago Agrio region of Ecuador, and an American environmental lawyer. Texaco — who Chevron bought out — had left billions of gallons of toxic waste in the Amazon that was wreaking havoc on the environment.
Steven Donzinger traveled to Ecuador hundreds of times, gathering testimonials and evidence on how the…
The facts say that is isn’t… Why can’t we?
Even slight criticism of our economic system immediately devolves into name-calling, so I have to first say, “dude, chill.” I’m not saying Stalin is my hero. I’m not saying communism would be better. I wouldn’t even use the word ‘socialism’ once, but I know you want to dive into my comments right now and bandy that term about.
Why does it always have to be so binary? I know America has a long history of red-baiting, but it is 2021, the Cold War is over. We can tone it down and have a conversation. …
And the voter has no say
The root of most problems in modern America can be traced to the fact that it is no longer really a democracy. The will of the people has little to no bearing on what legislation is passed. And it is becoming less and less relevant.
In politics, the two-party duopoly effectively controls the parameters of debate and decides what are the important issues and the framing of those issues. They speak to different demographics on cultural concerns, but in essence, there’s very little difference between them.
They’re gatekeepers ensuring that nobody opposed to the corporate state gets into a powerful…
Mitchell Peterson
Anthony Bourdain super-fan on my seventh year outside of the US, currently in Prague reading, writing, and teaching. Instagram: @mitchellglenn
