The Well-Armed Lamb:The Bleat Goes On!: Barbara Ehrenreich: On Immigrants and Other Low-Status Workers

Friday, June 15, 2007

Barbara Ehrenreich: On Immigrants and Other Low-Status Workers

Barbara Ehrenreich | They Came Here to Work
(From The Nation, via TruthOut.Org)

"Rush Limbaugh has been expecting liberals to start 'whining' about the $5,000 fine undocumented immigrants will have to pay to gain citizenship under the new immigration bill, but most liberals have been too busy chortling about the immigration-induced split in the GOP to make their own case against the bill. So let a mighty whine rise over the land: Undocumented workers shouldn't be fined; they should get a hefty bonus!"

Read her, and at the same time LISTEN to this presentation from the NPR program, Human Kind, drawn from her research and experiences writing "Nickled & Dimed." She's very persuasive, especially on the "totalitarian aspects' of the low-wage work-place.

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"Tweet" and "Twitter": Last gasps of cultural canaries in this hyper-mediated "coal-mine."
A 'gentleman' should be known by the quality of his intoxicants and his generosity with them.
A 9-letter word meaning "Thinking 'Everyone's out to get me.'" 'Paranoiac? "No,"Observant."
A MINIMUM wage that is NOT also a LIVING wage is makes a mockery of "working for a living."
A burning flag never hurt anybody who wasn't wrapped in it.
Age inflicts the subtlest injuries.
Agnosticism: A conviction that arguing over the 'existence' of 'gods' is only idol speculation...
Allowing White people to "define" racism in Murka is like letting priests define pederasty.
Atheism is a "religion" the same way "Off" is a TV channel.
Causation in human affairs is ALWAYS retrospective.
Celebrities are known for BEING known, not for WHAT they know.
Civility is the shit-soaked ball-gag the powerful force onto the People to silence their rage.
Class war only occurs when the workers fight back
Correlation is not causality, but it is close enough for schadenfreude,
Credit cards are nothing so much as renewable instruments of indenture.
Depressions are only really bad for 98-99% of folks. The rest do okay.
Do not automatically impute to 'stupidity' what can equally well be explained by 'malice.'
Do you have the sense that it's already been as good as it's gonna get?
Don't expect to be treated nicely by people to whose faith you are a living rebuke.
Economics is the scientific application of high-level maths to the job of making the Rulers look good.
Everybody's got 'baggage'. What matters is how and what you pack.
Faith is NOT an automatic dispensation from the requirementrs of reason and logic.
Free will (#1) is a handy myth by which the Owners can blame the Losers for their own fate and make the Losers accept the verdict.
Free will (#2) is a metaphorical trap by which the Oners/Owners persuade the powerless to blame themselves for their own oppression.
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Grown-ups don't expect "credit" for doing the right thing, or for NOT doing the wrong one.
Hope is emotional morphine. It doesn't relieve pain, it anulls anxiety about it.
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I always scored "high" on drug tests...
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Law functions best to insulate the Rulers from the insolence of the unruly.
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Life's an existential tautology: It's only purpose is to "be."
Life's too short to drink cheap Scotch,
Men seldom realize they're in the shit til it closes over them.
Men who weep at tragedy are "compassionate"; a weeping woman is "weak."
Metaphor: The art of calling something what it is not, and being understood.
NOTHING of which humans are capable has NOT at some time been both a sin and a sacrament.
No 'quiet desperation.' Not here; here, the despair is LOUD and RUDE.
No language is either "inferior" or "superior." None is "better" nor "worse." Each one uniquely conveys the conditions its speakers require it to describe.
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Nobody's ever too old to be an orphan.
One may be honestly mistaken; but upon learning what is true, one must thereafter cease to be either 1) mistaken or 2) honest.
One may safely ignore those who loudly or proudly proclaim their own sanctity or enlightenment.
One seldom mutters imprecations when drunk that one does NOT think when sober.
One thing "faith" makes possible: ENDLESS self-deception!
One thing about being a solipsist is, you're never really alone.
Optimism is the secular equivalent of "faith."
People who mock lawyers mostly have never been defendants.
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Sex is just sex. All the rest is adjectives.
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Television: Electronic thorazine for an irritable polis.
That I am not surprised does not mean I am not outraged.
The "positive thinking" and "self-reliance" rhetoric is a tool the Bosses use to blame the proles for failing to overcome the hurdles, pitfalls, and obstacles the Owners set before them.
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The Bosses don't have to control what you think as long as they control what you think about, and how you think about it."
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The person who says money can't buy happiness probably doesn't know where to shop.
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You can't sell your soul and then pretend you still have one.
You do not "know" what you cannot "say."
You don't have be very smart to confuse the truly stupid.
You get what you'll settle for.

The Well-Armed Lamb:
The Bleat Goes On!

Friday, June 15, 2007

Barbara Ehrenreich: On Immigrants and Other Low-Status Workers

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