What do you do for a living?

[Inconuucl]

Naw, after WWII the general consensus was to put the entirety of the event behind them and concentrate on rebuilding, moving forward to avoid looking at the horror. For many years most publications would skirt around the Holocaust and it faded, as most horrible genocides of the magnitude tend to do. However, when Eichmann was captured and forcibly extradited to Israel it opened up a huge theater for all these events to be presented towards the masses. Then arendt's take on him as a non evil entity based solely on the fact that he appeared as a meek old man sparked what can basically be described as an academic civil war. Arendt was accused of being the worst kind of jew for thinking that anyone even remotely involved with the nazis was anything other than a spawn of Satan. All of this theater led to our cultural view of the Holocaust. Stopping it from fading out like say the Congo, or Japanese interment camps, or Armenia, or in a smaller way Rwanda (the movie did help to provide a theater for that.) One of my professors would call this a trauma drama. Altough the term always sounded way too silly for what it described.

[Inconuucl]

Also, I'm (prematurely) going to apologize for killing the thread with a wall of text.

[hbombgraphics]

Thanks for the response, very interesting.
Now I want to do some more research on the subject.

[D.o.S.]

I quite like Trauma Drama as a phrase, and I think that the relationship between the USA and Israel is one that leads to a lot of (arguably unnecessary) political friction for us internationally.

There are, of course, people who are quite vocal that think differently.

[Invisible Man]

Sorry for the derail with the link. Somehow failed to realize that bringing in some Holocaust scholarship references might bring this down a notch.

Seems like trauma drama has as much to do with narrativizing conflict and loss as it does with any 'real' politics. There's really no other violent clash where we've had such an easy time forming a kind of binary relation between heroes/villains, so we really trump up the villain stuff. Video games are a good example of the way we culturally sanction violence against two populations with no real limits (Nazis and zombies--sometimes the two get combined, just to make sure you don't feel bad about explosive headshots).



Again, my bad. Let's talk about the banality of our jobs...I'm reviewing a course waiver to see if a guy can test out of an English course. First sentence: "The year is 2175 and the planet is Earth." Pretty rad, but you're probably still gonna need to take this class.

[Inconuucl]

Seems like trauma drama has as much to do with narrativizing conflict and loss as it does with any 'real' politics. There's really no other violent clash where we've had such an easy time forming a kind of binary relation between heroes/villains, so we really trump up the villain stuff. Video games are a good example of the way we culturally sanction violence against two populations with no real limits (Nazis and zombies--sometimes the two get combined, just to make sure you don't feel bad about explosive headshots).

Dude, this is (in part) MY job, so I'm technically not out of subject.

Trauma Drama IS politics. The entire Eichmann trial was more of a way for the Israeli government to rally their population behind a cause (thus cultivating patriotism) than any real attempt at justice. It was never a trial, the rule was decided long before Eichmann set foot onto the glass box in which he was displayed.

My professor would always say that he wonders what the US would be like if we taught the wars we lost as well as those we won.

But yeah, lets get back at the job business.

[hbombgraphics]

On the subject of jobs
Sometimes I still get to wind coils at work,
It was never really my job to wind coils (started in shipping)
but I like to do it and there are a few machines I still run when orders come in

Working a toroid winder a bit this week, it was pretty trashed when I started but it is cruising along now

[dubkitty]

i write web copy and do incidental editing for a major internet retailer. i really miss my old work, which was doing layout in InDesign, but during the years i was at my last job i got too far behind on the software revisions and ain't marketable any more. it was writing or homelessness, with a side order of moving across the country.

[Invisible Man]

Dude, this is (in part) MY job, so I'm technically not out of subject.

Trauma Drama IS politics. The entire Eichmann trial was more of a way for the Israeli government to rally their population behind a cause (thus cultivating patriotism) than any real attempt at justice. It was never a trial, the rule was decided long before Eichmann set foot onto the glass box in which he was displayed.

My professor would always say that he wonders what the US would be like if we taught the wars we lost as well as those we won.

But yeah, lets get back at the job business.

This is the beauty of academic work--any time you're 'engaged' in a conversation, you're working. The downside is that it gets really hard to disengage, hence...you are always working...makes it hard to turn off for the night, or just hang with the family.

The thing about teaching losing efforts is spot-on. There are courses out there like that, but they are few and far between. There was one when I was in grad school that worked on civil rights problems, but from perspectives that are never taught, and that were part of 'invisible' grassroots campaigns. Not a mention of MLK or X in the class. Monolithic history doesn't really serve us well (hence my comment on narrativization).

[snipelfritz]

Again, my bad. Let's talk about the banality of our jobs...I'm reviewing a course waiver to see if a guy can test out of an English course. First sentence: "The year is 2175 and the planet is Earth." Pretty rad, but you're probably still gonna need to take this class.

Was that supposed to be a writing sample or was that what he wrote on the form's "date" line?

[Hyphen Nation]

i write web copy and do incidental editing for a major internet retailer. i really miss my old work, which was doing layout in InDesign, but during the years i was at my last job i got too far behind on the software revisions and ain't marketable any more. it was writing or homelessness, with a side order of moving across the country.

You could get up to speed with InDesign in about three days. Nothing has evolved so far that you won't be able to pick it up. If you are good at layouts, INDD is just a tool to execute on a good layout. If you are organized and can deliver a clean file, and enjoy doing layout and production with out drama, the world could be your oyster.

[imJonWain]

I'm a Technician/Engineer's assistant at a small (~10 people) R&D lab owned by a huge electronics company. With so few people we all do a mix of everything, so it's a nice mix of electrical, mechanical, software design and hands on production along with a lot of other paperwork type stuff. It's not my dream job but I really can't complain as we are treated super well, I listen to college radio all day, and I work with ridiculously brilliant people who teach me a lot.

[psychic vampire.]

Dude, this is (in part) MY job, so I'm technically not out of subject.

Trauma Drama IS politics. The entire Eichmann trial was more of a way for the Israeli government to rally their population behind a cause (thus cultivating patriotism) than any real attempt at justice. It was never a trial, the rule was decided long before Eichmann set foot onto the glass box in which he was displayed.

My professor would always say that he wonders what the US would be like if we taught the wars we lost as well as those we won.

But yeah, lets get back at the job business.

This is the beauty of academic work--any time you're 'engaged' in a conversation, you're working. The downside is that it gets really hard to disengage, hence...you are always working...makes it hard to turn off for the night, or just hang with the family.

The thing about teaching losing efforts is spot-on. There are courses out there like that, but they are few and far between. There was one when I was in grad school that worked on civil rights problems, but from perspectives that are never taught, and that were part of 'invisible' grassroots campaigns. Not a mention of MLK or X in the class. Monolithic history doesn't really serve us well (hence my comment on narrativization).

Isn't this just the longer leashes, bigger cages logic of modern capitalism? Through technology, capital has been able to inject itself into basically all human modes of (inter)action? Now your job basically consists of talking and thinking, so you are never not engaged in work. It's what social media does without so many people realizing it. Capital makes amd needs more capital and in the 21st century the people have become the makers of our commodified selves ajdjdififirjfnfueRJJFJFJFJFIDIDOEOED!!!!!¡!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Also I cannot even start on history right now. LIES! LIES!

[PanicProne]

As of today, I am unemployed.

[D.o.S.]

in a good way or not?