User Profile

Underemployed, politically centrist, partially disabled multiethnic Jewish Mathematician/Engineer stuck in pre-professional employment limbo and enjoying life and tutoring as well as he can, under the circumstances. Much prefer the "crazy quilt" vision of America to the homogenized "melting pot" one, so expect to see little outbursts of ethnicity as I celebrate the parts of my heritage that haven't made a point of making me feel unwelcome. Latin, Mediterranean, and Jewish culture, in the latter case tending to focus more on the Sephardic than on the Ashkenazic.

My livejournal, at present, is primarily being used for the posting of videos from youtube. I'm considering the possibility of making a few of those myself, but my budget being what it is, I'm still not sure if that's possible. The problem is ... you know the question recent graduates ask when they run into that "we don't hire anybody without 2-5 years of experience" brick wall, "what if nobody ever gives me a chance to get those 2-5 years of experience"? In my case, nobody ever did, and I was left hanging, twisting very slowly in the breeze, finding that high marks in school meant absolutely nothing in a job market in which employers felt free to act on their prejudices and that there was nobody that I could turn to for assistance in dealing with simple, blatant job discrimination. One is left with a good sense of what the word "luftmensch" means, and good reason to be annoyed with both the Left and the Right for not seeing why that's immoral.

Even from our supposedly progressive friends on the political left in the United States, there tends to be an unmistakable "let them eat cake" tone to their commentary about the unemployed or underemployed. Consider John Edward's remarks regarding the elimination of poverty, from this page on his campaign site:

"Edwards suggested creating 1 million temporary jobs over five years. The jobs would be reserved for individuals who cannot find other work after six months of looking, pay the minimum wage, and last up to 12 months. In return, workers must show up and work hard, stay off drugs, do not commit any crimes, and pay child support."

And this is from one of the "progressives" in the upcoming campaign! My G-d, how can somebody not see how insulting that is, how ignorant? As if one had to be a drunkard or a criminal to be unemployed. Before Ronald Reagan took office, this would have been considered a political gaffe on a grand scale even by the conservative wing of the Republican party, but now it's considered compassionate and ground breaking, a gift to a backward thinking candidate from the great communicator who gave a willfully gullible nation a few soundbites as he helped it feel good about its growing conviction that the poor must to be to blame for poverty. Amazing. One walks into human resources, hands in an application listing sterling credentials, only to have it ripped to pieces and thrown in one's face by a WASPish looking secretary who is later heard saying "you know what those Spanish guys are like" (or French or Middle Eastern or ...), or runs into a frat boy who is only going to hire other frat boys and the reason for one's hunger must be ...

Oh, yes, it must be one's drinking, and never mind the fact that the hardest thing you've consumed this year has been a glass of iced cinnamon tea. "You're a drunk. Own up to it, boy ... I mean, sir". Awesome, just absolutely awesome. Hold somebody responsible for what is done to him - something over which he has no control - and hold nobody responsible for what they do to others - something which they do have control over. One gets to watch one so-called "nice person" after another push this kind of upside down morality and then wonder why those they're inflicting their passive aggressive attitudes on are starting to get angry.

Years and years later, in something that at the most, should have taken weeks to resolve, the best that I can get out of the so-called progressive people I meet is the question "are you white", as they struggle with the pointless question of which racial category they should place somebody like me into, as if the question didn't basically answer itself. If our liberal onlooker can't look and see whether I'm a "privileged white ethnic" or "an oppressed multiracial Jewish Latino, albeit one lighter skinned than most", then what makes the same onlooker think that anybody else will be able to tell either? Shouldn't that tell somebody that this "protected class" concept is a crock, that injustice is seen from individuals from a variety of backgrounds and not just a few, and so one shouldn't be picking and choosing whose rights one cares about and whose one doesn't based on one's place in a set of categories that are vague to begin with? That, oh horror of horrors, that one might actually break down and start thinking of justice as being something that is the birthright of all and not just a gift to be given to the fashionable few?

But then the American people would have to start caring about each other and treating each other in a civilised way and we can't have that, can we? Take a look at Edward's commentary and the commentary of so many others, so mystifying when viewed with an expectation that rationality will be seen from one's fellow man, in an era in which the IEEE has written about massive unemployment problems facing American engineers, not exactly a group noted for its hard drinking ways. Yet, such regressive attitudes are held onto as an article of faith, against all evidence and reason. This is the reality of the world in which I am stuck and thus get to write about, a fundamentally meaningless place in which the very worst that is to be found in man is celebrated as a matter of course while those who, in any sense, do the work that needs doing or try do it find that they are rewarded for their toil with scorn at best, and open hatred more than infrequently. The world I write about is an impoverished, barbaric place in which the society I dwell in and am not of, is slowly, blindly stumbling toward a collapse it richly deserves. I therefore write of simple pleasures, for those are all I can afford, but if you're looking for some soulful search for personal redemption, you're looking in the wrong place, because I may be robbed of what I am due, but I will d**n well not be broken, and I will certainly not apologise to others for what others should be apologising to me for, and should have started doing so years ago.

Equality of opportunity is a right, not a privilege.



What do I do, when I'm not busy being angry? Making a point of avoiding the people who make me angry in the first place. In other words, looking for activities in which I meet a better class of people. You've seen a few of my interests listed above; for the most part anything creative or scholarly will fit somewhere on that list, so long as the avante garde is avoided.

Friends (2):

Mutual Friends (2):