As an older Gen Z who has been laid off in the past, I really liked the parts about duplicitous managers and the day-to-day uncertainty of never knowing if today is the end. It does seem the general course for all of us is downward.
"The ranks of troubled professionals are swelling as members of Generation X finish school and rack up a few years in the workforce. Many Xers, having observed the unfulfilling work ethic of their baby boom predecessors, want their own working lives to be fun and meaningful from the get-go. Starting out with priorities that took boomers a decade to figure out, but in no better position to act on those priorities, Xers are simply having career crises at an earlier age."
I'm pessimistic about the long-term prospects of resistance. The only bargaining chip the working class has historically had is our collective labor, but automation since the 1960's has mostly nullified this. (Generative AI is going to be catastrophic.)
"As advancing technology becomes more mature, the window of resistance will soon be forever closed, if it isn’t already. The Internet, supposedly a tool for uniting us, has been the greatest weapon in dividing us thanks to the media filters that only expose us to what we want to hear. Any visit to an online comments section will confirm that. Everyone can indulge their own biases and believe their own facts, tailor-made to order. And the digital tools of our economic liberation really just lead to wealth concentration to a greater extent than ever before, along with a strengthening of elite power and a loss of jobs. Now, the reach of global corporations is infinite, as is the spying power of the states that exclusively serve them . The rest of us will just have to fend for ourselves—under Neoliberalism, governments are just impotent hollow states. You’re on your own. It is a digital boot stamping on the human face forever."
This is great!
As an older Gen Z who has been laid off in the past, I really liked the parts about duplicitous managers and the day-to-day uncertainty of never knowing if today is the end. It does seem the general course for all of us is downward.
You should read Disciplined Minds by Jeff Schmidt ( https://ia800103.us.archive.org/22/items/jeff_schmidt_disciplined_minds/Jeff%20Schmidt%20-%20Disciplined%20Minds%20A%20Critical%20Look%20at%20Salaried%20Professionals%20and%20the%20Soul-battering%20System%20That%20Shapes%20Their%20Lives.pdf ) . Here is a quote you will like -
"The ranks of troubled professionals are swelling as members of Generation X finish school and rack up a few years in the workforce. Many Xers, having observed the unfulfilling work ethic of their baby boom predecessors, want their own working lives to be fun and meaningful from the get-go. Starting out with priorities that took boomers a decade to figure out, but in no better position to act on those priorities, Xers are simply having career crises at an earlier age."
I'm pessimistic about the long-term prospects of resistance. The only bargaining chip the working class has historically had is our collective labor, but automation since the 1960's has mostly nullified this. (Generative AI is going to be catastrophic.)
The HipCrime Vocab (one of those writers whom I follow obsessively with a mild sense of guilty curiosity) puts it well in "The White Ghost Dance" ( https://web.archive.org/web/20230422142306/http://hipcrimevocab.com/2016/09/08/the-dying-americans-2/#main ) -
"As advancing technology becomes more mature, the window of resistance will soon be forever closed, if it isn’t already. The Internet, supposedly a tool for uniting us, has been the greatest weapon in dividing us thanks to the media filters that only expose us to what we want to hear. Any visit to an online comments section will confirm that. Everyone can indulge their own biases and believe their own facts, tailor-made to order. And the digital tools of our economic liberation really just lead to wealth concentration to a greater extent than ever before, along with a strengthening of elite power and a loss of jobs. Now, the reach of global corporations is infinite, as is the spying power of the states that exclusively serve them . The rest of us will just have to fend for ourselves—under Neoliberalism, governments are just impotent hollow states. You’re on your own. It is a digital boot stamping on the human face forever."