Workplace Survival 101
I’m always amused by the business press “tips” on survival in the workplace. They usually include a few obvious common sense ideas that only the most oblivious worker would miss. They then mix this into a toxic swill of subservient demeaning behavior that only makes American workplaces more stressful. Read more
John McCain: Throwing the Working Class Under a Bus
The Straight Talk Express is arguably the most famous bus in America right now. Riding around in the conveyance favored by everyday working class people is a nice touch really. It makes McCain seem like one of us. It’s true that McCain now flies around in a Boeing 737 of the same name, equipped with first class seats for himself and his entourage, but it’s the bus that people see and remember. Read more
Lord of the Rings and the Persistence of Hope
1968 was not a good year. War, assassination, political violence and creeping fascism fell over the land like a gloomy shadow. It was however, a very good year to read J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings for the first time.
I had first come across the epic trilogy in 1965 as a high school senior when I saw it listed as a favorite of 60′s college students. Later some of my pals formed a band called Middle Earth and passed out business cards with the word “Hobbit” displayed prominently.
The bassplayer in the band had a hippie-style VW bus named “The Traveling Slum”. On the windshield visor was a button that read “Frodo Lives”.
But despite my travels with the Middle Earth band members in the Traveling Slum, I still had not read the book that had given birth to their name— until the summer of 1968. Read more