[Themaintainers] From Managerial Feudalism to the Revolt of the Caring Classes
Ishi Crew
mediaentropy at gmail.com
Tue Mar 31 10:21:56 EDT 2020
Note: This sortuh long and semi-in/coherent comment (or 'rant') was written
but not sent before the newest comments on the maintainers list
appeared---which sort of cover the same territory as my comment. I'm
sending it anyway.
Part of the reason this is partly a 'rant' is because there is a fair
amount of stress in this area, though much less than in COVID hotspots like
NYC or warzones like Syria and Afghanistan--this area just has 'some'
COVUID cases and usual urban city crime. One reason I bring this up is
because i get alot of my information from the media, and I view in a sense
the media as part of 'maintainers'---- the people who tell us the '(good)
news' are like educators, they maintain or regulate the flow and
dissemination of information in this world, and besides the ones we hear on
the air there is a huge workforce who range from electricians, to
cleaning, security and finance people and more who keep a radio station
together.
The quality of the news I get from NPR, community radio (WPFW-FM), and
private radio (Russia today or Sputnik, christian/catholic/and pro-Trump '
right wing' radio, black talk radio, sports radio etc . ) is so mixed that
to an extent I wouldn't shed a tear if it just dissapeared ---same with the
supermarket---half the stuff on the shelves of local stores is junk food,
expensive wine, expensive beer, cigarettes, etc. . This world is like
walking through an area seeded with landmines. I'm supposed to sympathize
and empathize with the people who are both planting the landmines or taking
them out or treating the victims of people who stupidly stepped on them.
People for example due to storms are busy maintaining the towers that
send the radio signal. Is providing 'fake news' and conspiracy theory an
essential service (whether you are are fixing the radio tower or talking on
the radio) or an inessential disservice?
The same radio towers in my area often serve stations which have very
different accounts of 'the news'.
And behind that there is the buerocracy of the FCC.
'this is what democracy looks like'. (I've contacted some academics who
study these issues mostly via email and they invariably say 'i'm busy
writing a book or article '. Probably an essential book which will be
buried behind a paywall or in a library .
----------------------------------------
While i dont know how long this on-line discussion thread can be maintained
or continued its on one of my main interests. How do you define
'essential' ? (Some say its 'needs' as opposed to 'wants'---eg old slogan
was 'i need my MTV'.)
------------------
In my area 'essential' people are at first order basically police, Fire
Dept, healthcare workers, supermarkets, gas stations ,
infrastructure---electricity, water, building maintenance for extreme
events like trees falling on roofs, broken water lines, etc.
Ones i sort of forget about are jails and prison employees, and trying to
figure out how many of other people involved (layers, judges, etc.) are
essential is unknown.
(I could see some efficiency of just taking people directly to jail
rather than spending alot of time in trials arguing about due process. If
all crimes or arrests (say for littering or jaywalking all the way the
through homicide) received the death penalty this would cut down on some
maintenance needs. I hear in the Phillipines they execute suspected drug
dealers on the spot.) .
----------------
At second order are some government employees , media---which includes the
internet (because almost everything is now involved with WWW) , people who
deal with homeless people (ie emergency services for food and housing),
and education (though that be a first order need)-----its mostly online
now.
(Two local TV stations now have ' elementary school TV' programs
---monday-friday mornings-- grades 1 to 5. each grade gets a day. TYey
figure small kids do not want to sit in front of a computer or may not have
one, but they will sit in front of a TV.)
However there are some academics such as Bryan Caplan of GMU and A Hacker
(maybe was at Queens college NYC ) who say most public education should be
abolished---especially higher education and math. They say nobody or few
people need or use it.
(To an extent one can get free online education from places like MIT,
Coursera, or SFI https://www.complexityexplorer.org )
-----------------------
At 3rd order are things like the 'hospitality industry'---restaurants,
music clubs, galleries and museums.....
There are about 5 beauty salons or barberships within a 15 minute walk of
here----these have been deemed non essential.
Supposedly laundromats have been deemed inessential and closed but the one
nearby is open. Either they changed the rules or they are flaunting the
rules and the police are looking the other way---because that laundromat is
a 'community resource' so its almost essential. (I personally wash my
clothes in my bathtub. I'm too lazy to carry this down to the laundry room
or up the street, and don't want to deal with all these quarters. My rent
covers hot water so i do it that way. )
There is a debate about whether gun stores are essential (there are 1 or 2
within a mile from here but in a different political jurisdication).
(Gun stores are basically impossible to open in this jurisdiction, but guns
are available since 'straw man buyers' buy guns in those stores or
elsewhere and sell them on the street.
Also one of the nearby gun stores was robbed not long ago at night. We
have interesting robberies in this area--- at night people just run a
pickup truck right through the window or wall of a 7-11 or conveniance
store and load up the ATM. Some local teenagers also tried to take a
'money truck' (used to be Brinks trunk but its a different company now) at
the local CVS a few years ago---that ended with one dead, and 3 shot.
That money truck driver wasn't going to give up the money to 3 teens who
lived in the apartment building across from the CVS.)
----------------
(Some of these incidents are caught on video camera; they also caught on
videocam incidents at 2 of these local stores which ended with homicides of
people who were employees or informal (under the table) employees of these
stores who i had seen when i went to them-just the regular store
clerk/owner and the homeless guy guy who kept the parking lot clean. These
are not pleasant videos to watch---police posted them to see if they could
id the people involved. ) I dont think they could.
-------------------
Are people involved in political campaigns 'essential'? With WWW people
could avoid alot of plane or car travel and just hear speeches on line, and
people wouldnt have to travel to 50 states to give same speech over and
over. Of course, people like the spiritual pilgrimage of going to say the
DNC or RNC as a delegate, voter, or protestor--gives them something to
do, and provides jobs for the hospitality, travel industry, and fossil fuel
industries. Not to mention all the people producing political
advertizements for TV, or doing fundraising .
(I get about 2-5 email requests for donations from Bernie Sanders everday
so he can buy TV ads, or now, donate to groups dealing with COVID-19
These charities range from people in homeless shelters, to 'hospitality
workers' who were layed off from their jobs and can barely make their
5000$/monthly rent . They work as 'wine tasters' and 'fashion models' or
'reality TV stars' or sell books discussing their horrific experiences as
part of the 'me2' movement.
(Its far worse making 100's of thousands of $ /yr doing a tv show or
wine tasting when being 'harassed' than it is working up 'on the avenue' in
the 'in'/hospitality industry' for maybe 15$ a day ---'just enough to get
by' (15$ is the going rate for what people use around here for
'self-medication' rather than going to hospital) if you are 'livin for the
city' (famous song by Stevie Wonder) --unless you aren't--and are found
dead in a ditch.
------------------
Academic sociologists can probably write books on what is essential
maintenance work. They might be part of the 'great and inessential books
curriculum' (like one Mortimer Adler had at U Chicago, and there's a
similar one at a college around Annapolis, Maryland. ).
On Mon, Mar 30, 2020 at 7:22 AM Andrew Russell <andy at themaintainers.org>
wrote:
> I’ve been daydreaming about a distributed oral history/interview project,
> consisting of interviews with “essential” workers to document their
> experiences. One could imagine at least 3 categories of interview subjects:
> those deemed essential before COVID19; those who’ve been recategorized
> (like my friends at my school’s IT help desk and our local wine & liquor
> store); and those not deemed essential by the state, but appear so in the
> eyes of the researcher. Non wage domestic labor is one clear example of the
> third category...
>
> Andy
>
>
>
> On Mar 30, 2020, at 3:42 AM, Dorothy Howard <dhoward at ucsd.edu> wrote:
>
>
> I think the concept of "frontlines" workers (COVID-19 + evocation of
> wartime measures) and the legal designation of "essential services" is
> fraught but essentially has to do with the social processes of valuing
> infrastructural labor. In the context of free and open source software and
> other infrastructural labor that involves voluntary processes or volunteer
> work, maintenance workers doing essential things to keep infrastructure
> like software going are excluded from the legal protections and recognition
> of the designation of being "essential", yet are still less visible to
> different publics who are suddenly recognizing "essential labor" and care
> workers as underrecognized occupations or bringing them to the center of
> attention about where care and respect and risk should be allocated in
> society. When we evoke the term essential services as a way of recognizing
> often invisibilized labor, my question is who does this designation still
> exclude and how can resources(ing) follow recognition?
>
> With care,
>
> Dorothy
>
>
> On Sun, Mar 29, 2020 at 11:31 PM Ishi Crew <mediaentropy at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> I've seen this talk (must be alot of work to transcribe it; and i'm sort
>> of writing something on this topic, and am aware of graeber's views )
>>
>> In my area we have something we call the 'virus' (or the V (for victory)
>> I r U.S. --- one for all ).
>>
>> How many 'maintainers' are essential workers and how many are
>> innessential? I have seen some suggestions that some anthropologists,
>> economists, fashion models, wine tasters, McDonald's hamburger cooks and
>> cleaners, musicians and mathematicians and artists, and museum curators and
>> securty guards, and web ad programmers, are inessential. Or perhaps
>> they are the 'rare' essence of the universe.
>>
>> On Sun, Mar 29, 2020 at 1:54 AM Su <su at generis.name> wrote:
>>
>>> Hi, all. Long-time listener, blah blah. Lee et al., I'm @TopLeftBrick
>>> on Twitter *waves* We've had a little contact over the years, I've
>>> been lurking here since pretty much the beginning and uh, have a LOT
>>> of free time to catch up on lists lately because Reasons.
>>>
>>> Anyway, in case anyone was interested or wanted an easier way to grab
>>> a quote I put up a transcript of this talk the other day at
>>>
>>> http://opentranscripts.org/transcript/managerial-feudalism-revolt-caring-classes/
>>> It's…kinda of the moment right now.
>>>
>>> On Fri, Dec 27, 2019 at 10:51 PM Camille E Acey <connect at camilleacey.com>
>>> wrote:
>>> >
>>> > New David Graeber
>>> https://media.ccc.de/v/36c3-11241-from_managerial_feudalism_to_the_revolt_of_the_caring_classes
>>> > --
>>> > Camille E. Acey
>>> > connect at camilleacey.com
>>> > New York, NY - USA (GMT -5)
>>> >
>>> > "Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation,
>>> and that is an act of political warfare." - Audre
>>> Lorde_______________________________________________
>>> > Themaintainers mailing list
>>> > Themaintainers at lists.stevens.edu
>>> > https://lists.stevens.edu/mailman/listinfo/themaintainers
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>
>
> --
> Dorothy Rose Howard
> PhD Student, Communication
> UC San Diego
>
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