The C Word

Accusations of class warfare are popular these days. Many commentators agree that questioning the size of Wall Street bonuses is Marxist and thus very bad. The logical end result of such class warfare rhetoric—these breathless pundits will tell you—is standing in bread lines. Scowl at billionaires one day, they say, and the next day you’ll be reenacting the Terror.

The National Review likened class warfare to the “politics of personal destruction.” World magazine suggested that the “preaching of class conflict, envy, and resentment” was the undiluted legacy of Stalin, Mao, and Castro. Their writers expressed tremendous concern that the economy would tank because of all this counterproductive talking. Say “soak the rich” enough times and the poor, the bitter and twisted lower classes, would decide to just take a seat and wait for their welfare checks. At the same time, the demoralized rich would feel unappreciated, sulk, and go Galt.

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screwball comedy = class, [no] sex, incomplete information x Barbara Stanwyck

Via Matthew Guerrieri, a better than usual analysis:

Hypothesis: the most appropriate narrative format to describe the history of American culture is that of the screwball comedy. The archetypal screwball comedy, a Hollywood creation, flourished for only a short time — the early 30s until the early 40s, roughly — although aspects of it still persist. But it originated out of a time and circumstance marked by, I think, a relatively rich confluence of the sorts of ideas that American culture is consistently obsessed with: the importance of money, the permeability (and fragility) of status.

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Alternative Workspaces

Cribbed

“It’s very hard to reconcile yourself to the reality of being dependent on people who don’t really like you.” –from Ta-Nehisi Coates

True.

And this is surely the ghost of my publishing past typing, but somehow this belongs in the same post: analysts admit it’s the beginning of the end for Barnes and Noble stores. The codependent relationship between book publishers and B&N has been tense and unsatisfying for years. The love is long gone. So…consider it a good break-up.

Next up are 1) publishers selling direct to consumers, 2) digital delivery, and 3) revived independents.

As long as I’m keeping a running list, cont.

Maestronet forums:

“This is a personal thing. Fortunately my food, clothing, shelter and basic violin making needs are covered. I would starve if I had to make violins for a living. I would enjoy making a contribution to knowledge in the field. Folksinger Pete Seeger (90) recently said “I just want to be useful.” I agree with that. My grandchildren will better remember me if I teach them how to be useful.”

Quoting Howard Rheingold:

Just participating isn’t enough. You must have something of value to others.”, “Need to feed (people) what’s valuable to them. To participate you have to learn how not to be boring and how to be useful.”

Character advancement in gaming:

…they adopted a girl from a primitive world, and set about to start teaching her how to be useful aboard ship.

Gamers — saucy. Earlier: Here and here and here.

Marketing

Why not put “Life explorer, multimedia storyteller, experience architect” on your business card? Lucy Kellaway explains.