Wednesday, February 25, 2015

I suppose that there are principles of psychology which are universal.
Say, certain principles discovered by Gestalt psychologists lead us to see
unity where there are only potential pieces of a thing visible.
Or, alternatively put, on the basis of less than perfect and complete information,
we can attempt to draw a picture, or formulate a theory about something not observed.

This applies very much to what I've heard from Czechs and Slovaks over the years.
"Oh, in America it must be different...."
Or, "In the United States, it couldn't be like that....."

"Not in America....."

And I hear these protests precisely in cases where I happen to know that in the USA or the USA's part of North America, it precisely is like that.....

Now, I shouldn't take this personally, but in a way I do.
I do read the English-language press, including independent sources.  And I do even occasionally manage to read a book that's relevant.

So, I am actually in a position to know that the USA precisely is what I am being told it could not possibly be.....

There are days when this leads me to say:  most of what Czechs and Slovaks believe about the USA, my home country, is pure fantasy.

That's not quite right.  Some part of what they believe is a sort of projection of how things should be.  Sometimes, one assumes that things over there are like things here--unless one has been, somehow, informed otherwise. But I don't see that there is, what there could be, a sincere effort to arrive at an accurate picture of the place.  

Which shouldn't matter, except the place still has more nuclear weapons than anyone else.


Tuesday, February 24, 2015

clever too late...again

OH dear.  blogger will no longer allow explicit sexual content.  What have I been missing?

The other day, the policeman (private security) at the nearby German-owned grocery store
complained to me that in Greece people retire at the age of fifty!

I don't see a problem here.  We should all have that option.

In fact, there are many professions which shouldn't exist at all--advertising, e.g.

But, I do believe that there are only certain professions which are allowed (or have been allowed previously) to retire at 50 even in Greece.

After all, the problem is work.  What is it?  Who really does it?  Most work is not productive in any real sense.  Most work perpetuates things that need changing. 

Sunday, February 22, 2015

Robbed of intimacy (again)

My mother is now a widow.  In the past five weeks, I have written her four or five, maybe six, times.
She has, thus far, not received a single of those letters.
This is very upsetting.
I take for granted that governments are able to read mail, but to confiscate letters?
Do they do that, too?

I wonder how many people understand the intimacy of a genuine letter.  Not something with the speed of an email.  Something which is a private conversation, performed at a slower pace.

Every day, I ask my mother:  have you gotten one of my letters?  And every day, she answers that there was no letter from me.

Is someone stealing my letters?  For what purpose?

Has someone destroyed them?  Why?

I've also sent my mother pictures and poems.  Perhaps someone is laughing at them.

Is this merely an accidental tyranny?  
I don't know if that would be better or worse than if someone had specifically targeted me.

I sit down, and in my imagination, I am having a private conversation with my elderly mother.
I hope thereby to bring her some comfort, to make her feel less alone, to feel that life has possibilities, that things can be funny, interesting, whatever.

And that has been taken from me.  Why?

Saturday, February 21, 2015

update

Thursday some of the students, and their instructor (that's me) were fooled by the inaccurate information posted on the university's webpage.  The page had the wrong textbook.  This is very confusing.  But, I am not surprised.  A colleague came to the rescue, but that's another story.

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Today I'll be teaching Nurses.  On the whole, they are a good group.  They have other more demanding subjects, and so maybe my subject is not their first priority, but they seem serious enough about their education.  (My "Economics" students, by contrast, have not got any clear ideas about their lives--and, those who do tend to be frightening.  They are, in the deepest sense, victims of capitalism.)

I'll be teaching four classes in a row.  This is an interesting development.  Last term I made a little fuss within my department when they suggested I teach three classes in a row.  To their credit, they listened to me, and they gave me a break between the first and second class.  That was not exactly what I had in mind, as the Nursing School is in a terrible location, distant from everything except a factory and an airport which serves military planes. (I have seen and heard large transport planes.  Just the sound of them is unpleasant.)  And there is no privacy at the school.  But the students and staff are generally friendly, so it was bearable.

I don't know how I'll do today with four classes.  (There are short gaps between them.)  But it represents a significant climb-down from my side.  Due to my new status as a teacher paid per-hour, aka, an Adjunct, I am in no position to refuse work.  (On the other hand, it is clear that educational values are taking a backseat here.  Everyone must recognize that teaching four classes in a row is not an ideal situation for teacher or students.)

But what I mostly wanted to say today is this:  Yesterday I mentioned to my mother that there is a brutal contrast between the young nurses (also Radiologists, Midwives, and Social Workers) and the workers at the nearby factory.  One group is tired, wears less fashionable clothes, and may possibly smoke more. (Unfortunately smoking is altogether too common among the young in the Czech Republic.  Another case where Czechs have been victims of capitalism.)  yet, they are so obviously two different classes, dwelling in two different worlds.  It is so sad to see.

In fact, I feel as though I am an oddball when I ride the bus to school.  The adults on the bus are not especially lively or excited.  Some are older adults on the way to the hospital.  Generally, the adults who take the bus do not look healthy. In addition to the factory near the school, the bus stops in a so-called business zone, where the notorious Foxconn is located. (About Foxconn, see http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/26/business/ieconomy-apples-ipad-and-the-human-costs-for-workers-in-china.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
 In the morning I can be animated, talking about news or complaining about politics or the poor quality of public transportation.  And I feel as though I stand out.

Even if I don't actually stand out, I feel as though everyone must know that I am going to the Nursing School, as I often enough talk to one of my students.  And I can't help but feel that this is all so unfair.

The only good thing is that education is still free in the Czech Republic--though, of course, there are those who would like to change that.

I want to put a link to David Ruccio's thoughtful remarks about how poverty and inequality affects us all.  It is very nice for me to see a Marxist who cares about the psychology of inequality.  I generally find that reading his blog is one of the best parts of my day.
https://anticap.wordpress.com/

now an adjunct in the Czech Republic.........or maybe not (19.2)

Update:  (19.2)  I'm not sure if "adjunct" is totally correct.  My contract is short term, but I do have Health Insurance through my job.  An Adjunct in the States wouldn't get that; and that's a big difference.  On the other hand, I am not working 40 hours a week, and my pay has diminished.
Otherwise, what I say below about the Internet, the University's computer system, and the bureaucracy still applies....

I was talking to a friend in Prague, complaining really about the bad organization at the university where I currently work.

Once again, they managed to change my schedule at the last minute.  It seems to be a regular phenomenon.  I only learned I am teaching tomorrow today, at 2pm.  The beauty of email, you say.

I told my friend that I have worked at several other universities (in the USA and Slovakia) and this university is the most poorly organized place I've ever worked at.  

My friend quickly agreed.  She had heard that Slovak universities were better organized.

Part of the problem, I think, is not unique to the Czech Republic.  Someone in administration can make an announcement in an unobvious place and then be surprised that no one knows about it.

Or, someone can send a not obviously relevant email, only to find no one has read it.

As I am now paid per-teaching hour, I no longer feel obligated to read any emails.  I regard reading emails from my employer as unpaid work.

The internet has now reached such a level of visual complexity that it is less and less useful.
this applies especially to everything to do with my employer's homepage.

Obviously, (or not), the opinions expressed here are exclusively those of the author, and need not represent the opinion of his employer or other employees of that institution.

Internet Hell

I just want to note in passing that it is my experience that lazy and unimaginative types overworked individuals who are employed at universities are increasingly prone to throw up any information anywhere on the internet (or the University's web site) and then leave it to the audience to somehow find it, and find it in a timely manner.

Of course, since that is impossible, the result is that emails have to be sent to communicate what was obscurely indicated.

This is very much a "Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy" sort of scenario:  where the plans for a by-pass leading to the destruction of Arthur Dent's home had been "made public" in a file cabinet in the basement of an office somewhere.

The Internet is Hell.

Footnote/supplement:
One should combine this observation with the wise recommendation that I lie on a job application form---because the electronic form had been badly designed, and to prevent my being classed as unqualified it was necessary to do so. So much of my experience with my university's computer system has just that character.  One must constantly work to get around to the format provided by some unknown person who actually doesn't have a clue about what people at the other end are actually doing. 

Monday, February 16, 2015

University of Pardubice Housing

This morning the friendly repairman took away a non-functioning hotplate.
He was going to replace it with a newer one, when (thanks to the cleaning lady) he found out that
the newer one had a short, and all the lights had gone out.
He took away both hotplates and never returned.
Tonight I can't cook a proper meal.
Tomorrow morning I won't be able to have coffee before leaving my apartment.
I am not surprised, but I am not happy either.

After-thought:  Isn't this just another version of Capitalist austerity?  After all, the reigning ideology is capitalism.  The university's mission is unclear, and profit motives dominate.  (Grotesque advertising--billboards--to earn money.)  After all Czechoslovakia never had a chance in competition
with other countries, and still doesn't.  Czechs (in general) are not getting richer.  Capitalism promises wealth for all, but does not deliver.  Why should so mundane a thing as a hotplate be any different than anything else?

My students tell me how great the Hapsburg empire was because they put "their" industry in Czechoslovakia.  Well, what does that mean?  Czechs and Slovaks got jobs, and the profits went to Austria.  Is that great?  I think not.

POST-SCRIPT/UPDATE
After I wrote a complaining email, the next day when I was out, the hotplate reappeared.
It had been scrubbed clean too.  And I thought:  here was a man who took pride in his work.
I felt bad about complaining, and wrote another email thanking the man.
He probably intended to come back the day before, but was too busy.  At any rate,
I was embarrassed by the cleanliness of the returned hotplate.  I'd never gotten it to such
a shiny state.  On the other hand, when I moved into this small flat, it was obvious that the previous residents had done nothing by way of cleaning before I moved in.  and the local management was not about to clean in here since they'd made an issue of the idea that I alone was responsible for the inner sanctum---but not the bathroom.  And I did scrub that hotplate, and it was cleaner when the repairman took it than it had been when I first moved in.
 I enjoy the privilege of having someone else clean my bathroom.  But I do not think anyone should have that job.  I can clean my own toilet.  However, I wouldn't want the lady to be unemployed either.  Or the repairman who fixed my hotplate.  Or me.  

Thursday, February 12, 2015

know-nothings winning in the publicity game

According to today's Guardian, the Pope says it's selfish not to have children.

This is a man who's never had a real job. 

I don't regard being a Pope or being Priest as jobs.  They have unbelievable job
security and comfort, privilege.  It's hard to get these people fired even if they
are child abusers.

 He doesn't seem to know that there are things as unemployment and economic crises.   Not just the current crisis. Capitalism is unstable, and the post-war boomed ended in the 1970's.

In the article, he faults a culture of "well-being"--Oh dear!  Would that it were so!  Someone should explain to him that there's a difference between propaganda about the economy and reality....

I put his remark in the same league as the Dalai Lama's puzzlement at why people are so stressed out.

Another no-brainer from someone who's never had a job.

Tuesday, February 10, 2015

The latest in the series..............







A Poem for The Parasites To Whom I am not Grateful

From the series: Poems for My Mother


They drain the life out of us,
and they want us to be grateful.

Look! We made computers just for you!
And the Ipad and the Iphone!
Wow!
I'm sure they're even working on  a Me-Toilet!
I can hardly wait.

We want something to eat,
a decent place to live,
friendship, family,
a little amusement,
but work too,
--something that lets us say,
at the end of the day,
that the day was not wasted.

Their conveniences just get in the way,
and ride on our backs for free,
--Or,
no, that's not right,
We pay for Them,
and They get all the loot,
and all their conveniences are only a higher form of inconvenience.

Holy Moley!
How dare I complain!
Aren't I ungrateful!
--If you play the game right,
you may even get,
a free trip to Jersey City.

10 February 2015

Something is rotten in.....

Something is rotten in the Czech Republic, or...
Or, maybe the USA.

I've been back from the States for more than a month, and I've sent home letters at regular intervals.  Thus far, not one has arrived.

Now, I know that around the holiday time letters slowed down, and it might have taken a month for a letter to get from CR to USA, but it is no longer holiday time.

Has someone stolen my letters?  Maybe they are reading the poetry I have written for my mother.
Are they foolish enough to be looking for money?  Or are the thought police collecting my private mail for use in a future trial?

Maybe I should start posting my poems here, beginning a new series of "Poems for My Mother"....
maybe...

Incidentally, I would like to, once again, complain that the Internet and Computers in general are offering less and less freedom.  Everything has had its acceptable format determined in advance.

We have to squeeze our words into small boxes, amidst a cacophony of ugliness.  And this is progress?  Freedom?  Just as much as every conversation seems to have been written in advance..... Every conversation scripted in advance (you call it "polite") and we speak through a thick bullet-and-sound-proof glass--if we're lucky---OR, you speak to someone through electronic means, and they are situated at the opposite end of the globe, where they must follow the script or else..........

Monday, February 9, 2015

When?

When will democracy come to the USA?

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/08/greece-prime-minister-alexis-tsipras-unveil-anti-austerity-plan-parliament

That is my way of saying that I admire the courage of the new Greek government.
For an astute analysis of what's really going on, I recommend

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2015/02/michael-pettis-syriza-french-indemnity-1871-73.html

I'm not being original here; but I agree with those that there is no conflict between "the Greeks" and "the Germans".  Working people everywhere are getting screwed because the super-rich want us to pay their gambling debts.

Sunday, February 8, 2015

Saturday, February 7, 2015

miscellaneous notes

WAtched the first two episodes of the BBC's "The Rich and the Rest of Us"--courtesy of Occasional Links and Commentary.

Well, I supposed I didn't want to do anything serious anyway.

It was interesting in bits, mostly when non-experts were talking.  And an anthropologist was identified as an economist--an anthropologist who, I gather, knows less about Marx than economists who read the bearded one....

What can I say that is positive?  They talked about inequality. (That's a positive, I guess.) But they did not talk about justice.  (That is not a positive comment.)

The sound-bites from famous people were not especially informative.

It was depressing to think about the precarious nature of my own existence, though I hasten to add I've not yet reached the heights (depths) of precariousness.

On a different note....

I recall having an odd exchange at Robert Paul Wolff''s blog a while back....
about what possibly is in the minds of the super-rich.....

In the BBC show, a few of the rich were interviewed.  They have nothing interesting to say by  way of justifying their wealth.  ("You don't realize how hard I work", e.g., won't do it.)  It was, in fact,
irritating to hear the trite justifications they trotted out.  I am always amazed that reporters do not know how to attack a comment, to break it into parts and go at the thing bit by bit.  This seems to be a feature of casual conversation that is widespread.  Someone says ":A, B, C,D and that shows F. " And the audience/interviewer offers ignores A or C or D, or even B too, and then explains why F is not true.  Why?  Is it supposed to be boring to go slow and actually go through the details of what the person just said?  Is the interviewer unable to see that the conversation has parts?

But I wanted (a while back) to say that there's a real question of what the super-rich are thinking.
Do they know or care about the consequences of their wealth?  Something by way of an answer here is provided (or at least attempted) by Paul Paff and Dacher Keltner.  I've not read everything they've written on the subject,  However I recall that one tool they use is the fact that we all tend to over-estimate our own ability to control the world. And the wealthiest do this as well, thereby reaching the conclusion that they really deserve all of their wealth. (It was all produced by their work and luck was no part of it.) But, when they say that, they are simply indulging themselves.  

So, I conclude that the question I wanted to ask was a real one, capable of serious consideration.  At any rate, Paff and Keltner seem to think so.

Link to Paul K. Piff's homepage:  http://paulpiff.wix.com/paulpiff

Footnote:  I have the feeling that I wanted to say this before.  Maybe Í've already blogged it, or maybe I only intended to.  At any rate, in the context of the BBC show, it may have new meaning.

 


Friday, February 6, 2015

Superstition among a nation of proud atheists

I find myself frequently perturbed by the nuisance of meeting students to write in their little books--their "indexes".  They are a passport sized book recording their coursework.  And, I confess that recently I failed to show up at a pre-arranged meeting.  (Originally I was to give a test at that time, but as no one signed up for the test, I erroneously concluded that there was no reason for me to show up.  I forgot about the student I'd agreed to meet, operating on the assumption that other students would show up to take a test.)

It's a nuisance to arrange a time to meet (see note), and it is a waste of time to write in one.  The grade has already been recorded in the University computer system, and it is, in fact, also a nuisance to be sure that the date of examination recorded in the little book matches what's been entered into the university computer.  (Note:  Yes, office hours/ or a scheduled hour should avoid the need to arrange a time.)

Pointless.  The persistence of a nineteenth century bit of technology when a perfectly acceptable 21st century replacement exists.

I have, in less charitable moments, imagined there might be a sad room filled with people who have no other job in life than to monitor these little books.  And I have even gone so far as to contemplate the mean thought that they have been so affected by this redundant expenditure of energy that they are no longer able to do anything useful.  But, I think that is unrealistically cynical.

However, it is a mystery why Czechs persist in this particular waste of time, energy, ink, and paper.

Especially as I've know Czechs who imagined that their mere atheism somehow guaranteed them access to higher standards of human reasoning than religiously minded individuals. As if mere denial of the existence of god or gods sufficed to guarantee clarity of thought. 

If nothing else, the continuing existence of these annoying little books proves that atheism alone does not guarantee clarity of thought, or the choice of reasonable institutional policies.  (I do not find it convincing to suggest, as someone once did, that in the event of a nuclear war or other disaster, these little books would survive.  Any disaster that wiped out the university's computers would equally deprive us of these lovely little books.)

Nor, for that matter, need atheism automatically free anyone from a variety of erroneous thoughts and prejudices.  Contemporary psychology catalogues various forms of irrationality from an exaggerated tendency to believe one is in control (the illusion of control) to various errors involving statistics such as failing to consider the sample size.  Mere atheism does not guarantee anything except, I suppose, freedom from some of the errors made by some theists.  The persistence of this particular institutional peculiarity --the "index"--strikes me as little more than an absurd piece of irrationality or superstition, as silly as the silliest of religious rituals, and wholly unworthy of existence, and something which should make any self-proclaimed fan of rationality blush with embarrassment.

The unhappiness of others

For those who are more-or-less satisfied with their lot, the unhappiness of others seems to be an offense.

I haven't got in mind the excesses of the wealthy.

I am thinking about relatively ordinary people who notice that the system isn't working for everyone, and rush to find a quick explanation to move the problem out of sight.

In the USA, I often noted a related trend--the conviction that others were getting hand-outs that they didn't deserve.  In those cases, I always wanted to ask about the hand-outs that were invisible, such as taxbreaks and other benefits for the wealthiest.  

In the case of the discomfort at the unhappiness of others, I am thinking of a young woman who recently told me that Czechs have enough money, but spend it foolishly--on alcohol or cigarettes or fashion.

Plainly, alcohol can be an addiction, but I'm more inclined to suggest an analysis along the lines of what I once read in a book about poverty by an American sociologist.  The question is why people turn to drugs, of whatever sort.  And, the answer is that there's something their society doesn't provide them.  As for fashion, I'd want to remind the complainer that huge sums of money are spent promoting fashion. 

But, most of all I'd like to challenge the individualist perspective on social problems which unrealistically insists that people have more power than they really do.  There are powerful forces (including the mainstream of economics) which encourages people to ignore the very fact of social classes.

I have to say, however, that the breathtaking swiftness with which the relatively well-off attack the character of the relatively less well-off bothers me.  It's too fast and too easy, and it always leaves me a little sad and disappointed whenever I see this  thought disease.

Wednesday, February 4, 2015

toward a broader perspective

Having difficulties with my accommodation and those who provide it,
it is helpful to recall that:
I started the academic year signing a rent contract contract which specified that rent was due on the same day as (according to my employment contract) my pay was issued.  But, then, in the course of the year, the authorities decided to change the date when pay was issued. (Which I suppose means they violated the contract.) It was moved to be a couple days later than originally specified.  So, rent and pay were no longer in harmony.

Yet, the lady who receives my pay did one day remark, as if it were a strange and bizarre curiosity, that I typically don't pay her on the day that the rent is due.  That is, I don't pay on the due day since the time when I am paid later.

All the more bizarre is the fact that I actually rent an accommodation from my employer.......

Of course the change in pay date was unnegotiated and not discussed.  So, that tells you something....

fighting for survival

I had gotten myself settled down to read some philosophy.
But I've just learned that the Authorities at University Housing
will not allow me to register my accommodation as the mailing
address for a Business License.
To teach English (and thereby to make extra money to supplement my
now diminished University pay) I have to have a Business License.
The denial was off putting as it came with no explanation,
and the suggestion that some higher power prevented the
person from granting my request.
I have tried to explain that my ability to eat depends upon this.
I am afraid I am upset.
There was no explanation or reason offered, only the rather hollow
suggestion that they couldn't do anything about this......as if they deserved
my sympathy....

Germany's debt

Germany's debt after World War Two was forgiven......

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SJhDl1z7RY

To be accurate, one has to recall that American firms have been accused of benefiting from slave labor.  One American company helped the Nazis set up a primitive computer system to keep track of prisoners.  Prior to the war, Churchill was enthusiastic about Hitler and Mussolini....

Here a link to Tariq Ali discussing the subject:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SJhDl1z7RY

In the Czech Republic recently, the President has created a certain amount of controversy by pointing out that a celebrated journalist had written a story about Hitler, calling him a "gentleman".  If this is true, it would seem that the famous Czech journalist was following Churchill's lead....

Sunday, February 1, 2015

rude and stupid

As a sort of follow-up to yesterday's post....

Below a link:  A  journalist at the BBC interviews Yanis Varoufakis, the new Greek Minister of Finance.

She interrupts him, and insists on reducing everything to stupid dichotomies. I also detested the very pictorial and imagistic lead-in.  It reminds me of the crap that The Guardian has chosen as a format.  --As if we need to constantly be bombarded with pictures without which headlines would not make sense.

This is also something of a counterbalance to Varoufakis' absence on a recent Czech TV spot during which the European representative's remarks at a news conference were fully featured--and Varoufakis' words were not heard. (Here I indulge the fantasy that someone is reading this blog.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?x-yt-cl=85114404&x-yt-ts=1422579428&v=BiIO4YciewU#t=860