Episode 11: Bullshit Jobs

Our Socialist Book Club

This week, we read Bullshit Jobs by David Graeber, a book that dissects the social, historical, and cultural theories implicit in our acceptance of the bullshitization of labor! Truly one of the most elegant and accessible approaches to this topic out there. Thanks to our honored guest and friend Larry for suggesting this one! Read it here on Anarchist Library: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/david-graeber-bullshit-jobs Read his shorter article that preceded the book here: https://strikemag.org/bullshit-jobs/ We structured this episode roughly around the five types of bullshit work defined by Graeber as: 11:00 duct tapers 12:25 flunkies 15:50 goons 23:45 box tickers 58:50 taskmasters Other Topics: 40:55 the cultural consensus around projects and policies benefiting the ruling class 1:00:00 Universal Basic Income 1:09:05 Moral envy and the systemic under-compensation of the caring professions 1:13:00 Caring, coercion, and the status quo Other Works Mentioned: 51:28 Theranos, Elizabeth Holmes, and the rituals around data visualizations and 'predictive' data under capitalism. We reference the HBO documentary "The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtDaP18OGfw 1:08:00 "baseball article" refers to this interview in Jacobin: https://jacobinmag.com/2019/03/minor-league-baseball-pay-labor 1:20:00 Loic Wacquant's article, "Territorial Stigmatization in the Age of Advanced Marginality" https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0725513607082003 1:21:15 Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States" https://www.historyisaweapon.com/zinnapeopleshistory.html 1:22:40 "Freedom Is an Endless Meeting: Democracy in American Social Movements" by Francesca Polletta, who argues in favor of a practical and participatory democracy based in bottom-up decision making.