The Baffler Magazine Issue No. 26

No.
26
RUTH MARTEN
NO FUTURE HAS ARRIVED
Eye-opening and irascible, hopeful but not optimistic,
this collection offeres a clear-eyed perspective on post-
recession America and pays readers the ultimate
compliment of being able to think for themselves.
Publishers Weekly
A powerful summation
of the systemic
challenges we face as
a nation, and a welcome
reminder that we need
strong, dissenting voices
like The Baffler more
than ever.
Boston Globe
The writers possess a contagious enthusiasm for

showing how todays profiteers have caked so much
lipstick on the pig that you can hardly see its face.
Washington Post
t he ba f f ler.com
No. 26 The jour nal that blunts the cutting edge
The journal that blunts the cutting edge
No. 26
E DI T OR I N C H I E F
John Summers
9
F OU N DI N G E DI T OR
Thomas Frank
S E N IOR E DI T OR
Chris Lehmann
9
DE SIG N A N D A R T DI R E C T ION
Kind thanks to comrades-in-baffling
The Flynstitute Cassandra de Alba, Kelly Burdick, Emily
Carroll, Brendan Ciecko, Zachary Davis,
9
M A N AGI N G E DI T OR
Dave Denison, Bill Fleming, Laura Hanna,
Lindsey Gilbert Sarah Kafatou, Liam Meyer, Melissa
W E B E DI T OR
Newman-Evans, Carolyn Oliver, David
Lauren Kirchner Rose, Emma Rosenberg, and Ida Rothschild
L I T E R A RY E DI T OR
for hanging around the shop talking smack
Anna Summers and pretending to do things.
S PE C I A L PROJ E C T S
Extra special thanks to our coworkers
of Industry Lab, where an affinity group
Noah McCormack
apparently has formed to engineer a virtual
C ON T R I B U T I N G E DI T OR S
version of The Baffler office as an imperial
Barbara Ehrenreich
Susan Faludi Roman amphitheater; instead of statues,
David Graeber our gods are hologrammed visages of our
Evgeny Morozov donors and benefactors, with clouds of
Rick Perlstein advice tripping off their tongues in perfect
George Scialabba sentences, while combat rages and splashes
Astra Taylor up to you, reader, in the cheap seats.
Catherine Tumber The word pelf, incidentally, means dirty
Eugenia Williamson moneyas in Edwin Muirs No pride but
9 pride of pelf, which isnt even the bitterest
OF F IC E M A N AG E R line from his great poem about industrial
Susan Hagner culture, Scotland 1941. Lets bring back
9 pelf. Were pretty sure you can find your
F OU N DE R S own usage.
Thomas Frank
Keith White
PA S T P U B L I S H E R The Baffler, P.O. Box 390049, Cambridge,
Greg Lane, 19932007 Massachusetts 02139 USA | thebaff ler.com
9 2014 The Baffler Foundation, Inc.

No part of this magazine may be republished in print or
electronically without the written permission of The Baffler
No interns were used in the making of this Baffler.
Foundation. That means you!
2 1 The Baffler [no.26]

E x h i bi t A 5 Brad Holland
The Baffler [no.26] ! 3

Con t e n t s : The Baffler, no. 26
Complications
All in Yer Head . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
John Summers
Star-Spangled Spam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Andrew J. Bacevich
Blips for Brains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Steven Poole
VICTOR KERLOW
Pills: Your Personal Pamphlet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Lisa Dierbeck
This Brats for You . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
William Gir aldi
Possibility of Infection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Jerome K. Jerome
Sickness and Pelf

MICHAEL DUFF Y Americas Long Holiday . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
When narcissism attacks
Suzy Hansen
The Endlessly Examined Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
A most chronic depression
George Scialabba
Terror Cells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Aint no cure for dystopian biology
Barbar a Ehrenreich
STUART GOLDENBERG
Able-Bodied Until It Kills Us . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
June Thunderstor m
Degrees of Danger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
In the United Arab Emirates
Andrew Ross
Soul Searching
The Worst Industrial Disaster
in the History of the World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
Siddhartha Deb
BR AD HOLL AND
The Dollar Debauch

The Christ Nexus
and Professor David Brat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Chris Lehmann
JORDIN ISIP

Sickness and Pelf
Stories
Story of an Illness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Mikhail Zoshchenko
For Yama Is the Lord of Death . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Paul Maliszewski and J. Wagner
Poems
J.D. KING
Instructions in the Art
of Filming Atomic Bombs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Mario Alejandro Ariza
American Mammal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Debor a Kuan
Do What You Love . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Jill McDonough
The Invisible Mans Electric Bill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
after Ralph Ellison
Afa a Michael Weaver STEVE BRODNER
Futuroids
The Crowdsourcing Scam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Why do you deceive yourself?
J acob Silver man
The Dads of Tech . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Astr a Taylor and Joanne McNeil
The Acquisitive Self, Minus the Self . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Natasha Vargas-Cooper LISA HANE Y
Ancestors
Pull It Like You Mean It . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
A note on masturbation
Paul Goodman
Exhibitions
3
Exhibit A: Br ad Holland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Exhibit B: R alph Steadman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 LILY PADUL A
Exhibit C: Mark Dancey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Exhibit D: Shawn Huckins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Exhibit E: Stephen Kroninger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
Baff lomathy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
AMANDA KONISHI

Co m p l i c a t i o n s
LET IT BLEED
All in Yer Head

Hello from HQ, where condition of our countrys beat cancer by maintaining a
we are happy/sad to present incarcerated persons. positive attitude. (No, you
number 26, Sickness and Pelf, Of course everyone is cant.) You shouldnt get your
on the culture of medicine keen to make our health care children vaccinated. (Yes,
and certain undiagnosed psy- system more efficient, afford- you must.) At this late stage
chopathologies of everyday able, and enlightened. That of culture collapse, holistic
life in America. The opera- may not make us feel better, treatment alternatives may
tive method, wielded with a however, since innovative seem attractive next to the
scalpel throughout this body thinking about health policy life-science capitalism await-
of salvos, stories, poems, seems to gravitate mainly ing us in our Potemkin village
put-downs, and fake advice, to the profitable end of the hospitals and turnkey clinics.
keeps the illness distinct from equation. But if the choice is between
the treatment. As the deadline for this mainstream and alternative
In the legal system, after issue bore down on us, for medicine, a neither-nor at-
all, the punishment does example, we turned up one titude will do for us just fine.
not fit the crime so much as thought leader in Forbes
it manufactures reasons to magazine brandishing a Sickness and Pelf features the
acquiesce to it; likewise, in striking portfolio of market- perspectives of those stuck in
medicine, treatment op- based healthcare solutions. the waiting-forever room of
tions that reach out of the Cutting-edge research, we medical culture, dogged by
wound are someone elses learned, has proven that symptoms unassimilable to
ideas about the nature of the placebos elicit the same diagnostic manuals or public
illness. responses from patients as policy prescriptions. Read
To get into the diagnostic real medicines do. My solu- here of an uxorious young
frame of mind, just call up a tion: substitute placebos and father who receives paternity
few gauzy scenes from your placebo surgeries. Theyre leave, only to turn this gift of
last visit to a U.S. hospi- cheaper. For the false posi- time into alcoholism. Follow
tal. Or consider that, next tive that is business civilian ordinary woman as shes
to prisons, barracks, and zation, you really cant do induced to swallow handfuls
churches, hospitals are the better. of hip new painkillers like
institutions most prone to Is bringing treatment back clockworkmainly to blunt
enforce our submission to home safer than submitting the stress of dealing with the
absolute authority. All those ourselves, body and soul, to men who prescribe them.
masks, Latinate insignia, and medical authorities? Lord Stumble along with a clerk
robesthey front a veritable knows, this country has never through a lifetime of therapy
epidemic of errors, unneces- run short of black-market for chronic depression. Mar-
sary surgeries, addictive med- curatives, diets, exercises, vi- vel at the man who opens a
ications, failing devices, and, tamins, or mental adjustments medical encyclopedia and
oh yes, infections. Falling to encourage us to partake of catches hypochondria, or the
mentally ill is itself virtually a our bodys natural wisdom, in- vanguard of acronym-drunk
crime now, judging from the tuition, and harmony. You can disability-rights activists who

HENRIK DRESCHER
sport the latest stylings in on the long littleness of life in by the real-life attempt to
class privilege. Theyre all, Bhopal, India. The worst in- commemorate that particular
to one degree or another, the dustrial disaster in the history massacre on a cream-colored
stigmata of the beleaguered of the world struck a pesticide cheese platter in the shape of
self, cut down and in retreat, factory there thirty years ago the continental United States.
living out a minimal existence this December. How we wish we could
in a society running rampant But patriotic Americans in pull a prescription pad from
with narcissism. Ohio, Maryland, and Indiana our back pocket to help our
As for undigested col- have more important an- country come out of its coma,
lective traumas, both those niversaries to celebrate, like but our therapy license has
America has inflicted and the bicentennial of the final, been revoked for demonstrat-
those it has suffered, we have pointless battles of the War ing persistent negativity.
them covered too. Heres a of 1812. Even new traumas Apart from recommending
field report on occupational visited on our collective self a course of self-medicating,
health and safety among cant escape the souvenirs of we can offer some nonexpert
workers at New York Univer- cynicism. The 9 /11 Memori- advice: dont get sick, if you
sitys campus in the United al Museum Store printed on can help it.t
Arab Emirates, and another pages 20 and 21 was inspired John Summers

SNIDE EFFECTS
Star-Spangled
Spam
M ust remembering
mean venerating? Sure, the
past deserves our respect, as
we all know. But does it also
require spectacle? Some an-
niversariesWarren Hard-
ings birthday or ratification
of the Eighteenth Amend-
ment come to mindcall for
silence or the averted gaze.
The less said the better.
Which brings us to the
War of 1812, that inglorious,
two-and-a-half-year conflict
between Great Britain and a VICTOR KERLOW
fledgling United States. The
bicentennial celebration of ambitions of General Andrew give up the ship!even if the
the war is approaching its Jackson. Royal Navy had rendered the
denouement, after all. And that was the wars U.S. battle fleet hors de combat
Here, indeed, is an episode high point. Low points long before hostilities ended.
of history that we may safely included abysmally unsuc- The wars outcome was
say produced next to noth- cessful U.S. attempts to peel inconclusive, with neither of
ing of value, with a 1959 hit away Canada from the British the principal belligerents able
record by Johnny Horton Empire (Canadians resisted to claim victory or obliged to
being a possible exception. their liberation with, um, admit defeat. The real losers,
Horton memorably sang of unexpected vigor) and the as you may suspect, were the
the Battle of New Orleans, torching of Washington, D.C., doomed Native Americans
known to every schoolkid in by marauding British troops caught squarely between
my day as a famous victory (President Madison and mem- warring whites. Even so, two
won after the war itself had bers of his cabinet had fled). centuries on, various jurisdic-
basically already endeda To be fair, the conflict did tions in these United States
gold standard for meaning- inspire the lyrics that subse- have found in this undistin-
less military mayhem. The quently became the national guished chronicle much to
doughty Americans who sent anthemsomething of a commemorate. Go figure.
the attacking redcoats fleeing mixed literary blessing. And,
through briars, brambles, yes, the war provided oppor- At the federal level, the
and bushes where a rabbit tunities for American naval National Park Service sees
couldnt go succeeded mostly officers to make dramatic the wars bicentennial as a
in advancing the political pronouncementsDont singular opportunity to

connect Americans with Even the worst known as America, but in
the stories and people of a these desperate days, it seems
moments in our
momentous yet neglected and that even the worst moments
misunderstood conflict. By collective psyche in our collective psyche are
exploring the full diversity of disinterred and marketed as
are disinterred
America, increasing lifelong heritage ka-ching.
learning, embracing new and marketed
collaborative models, and
as heritage
F orgive the bias of someone
invigorating stewardship, who grew up a Hoosier, but
the Park Service plan leaves ka-ching. to my mind, Indiana takes
no platitudinous buzzword the prize. In mid-October, as
untouched. Unmentioned is 9 they have for years, the good
any thought of apologizing people of Marion, Indiana,
to the Shawnee, Potawatomi, in our present-day age of will be reenacting the Battle
Ojibwe, and other groups terrorism, they also excel of the Mississinewa.
displaced by the conflict. at executing sound plans to Described by organizers
Ohio has formed its own ensure the security of the with commendable candor as
bicentennial commission to state and nation. Let that a search and destroy mis-
honor Americans who served sink in. You can take solace in sion, Mississinewa was a
in Ohio in the War of 1812, knowing that the state where modest affair as battles go, in-
while also fostering a lasting Francis Scott Key penned his volving no more than six hun-
legacy grounded in sound paean to the defense of Fort dred U.S. troops and an even
scholarship, thoughtful McHenry today hosts the Na- smaller number of Miami and
discussion, and the inclu- tional Security Agency, which Delaware warriors. Even so, it
sion of diverse peoples and reads your email without now ranks as the largest War
perspectives. Ohio is intent regard to your creed, color, or of 1812 living history event in
on compiling an inventory of sexual orientation. the United States. (Tickets
existing War of 1812 markers, But there is more to the available online: six bucks for
monuments, museums, and urge to commemorate than adults; four for kids.) Along
ties to the Buckeye State. No flag-waving. The architects with these grandiose helpings
doubt generations of visitors of Star-Spangled 200 are of living history, there will
from out of state and around promoting their program as be plenty of dead meat; the
the world will put the inven- a way of ensuring increased menu includes bratwurst,
tory to good use. tourism investments and barbecue pork chops, chicken
Still, with all due respect expenditures from which all and ribs, tasty stews, and buf-
to Ohio, Marylands Star- Marylanders have opportuni- falo burgers.
Spangled 200 bicenten- ty to benefit. Here, they be- In the case of this slice of
nial bash, with its three-year lieve, is a one-time chance to Americana pie, we should
calendar of events, is shaped elevate Maryland globally as a probably update Marxs cel-
by input from stakeholders premier location to live, work ebrated aphorism about Na-
across the state. Maryland- and visit, and to increase poleon IIIs 18th Brumaire:
ers, the Star-Spangled 200 economic opportunities for history repeats itself, the first
website emphasizes, have Marylanders. History blend- time as farce, the second time
always been an especially ing with commerce is nothing as lunch.t
diverse people. Better still, new in the great salesroom A ndrew J. Bacevich

STUPID TECH TRICKS
Blips Think hard

for Brains about a complicated
topic while wearing
I am wearing a weird, Muse, and the device
rubbery headband that not
only makes me look like an punishes you
escapee from some techno-
with a storm.
hippie cult, but also uses
flexible electrodes to peer
inside my brain and relay the
9
M A R K S . FI S H E R
data over Bluetooth to my
smartphone, which at the thoughts aside as I adjust your face and head are electri-
same time plays a repetitive, the Muse to sit across the cally much noisier than brain
New Age piano loop over middle of my forehead, with signals, so you must be utterly
beach sound effects into my the ends of its arms rest- still and relaxed while using
ears. Wait, this is supposed ing behind my ears. Over it. If you are able to be that
to help me relax? my earphones, I hear the relaxed and still for several
For $299 you can now gentle lapping of waves on minutes, you probably dont
buy a consumer electroen- a beach and the occasional need Muse to calm you down
cephalograph (EEG) device gust of wind. I am sup- in the first place.
called Muse. It comes with posed to concentrate on my
premium-styled, Apple-like breathing, counting every There are as of yet no peer-
packaging and a very hard breath. If my mind wanders reviewed studies confirming
sell. Muse will help you do from this meaningless task, Muses effectiveness. But I
more with your mind, by the headband will notice a do get better at whatever
teaching you how to calm it. crescendo in brain activity, the headband is measuring,
Because, the box explains, and the wind will get noisier. according to the stats on my
once your mind is calm, your In a faintly threatening tone, phone. Just a few days in, and
focus can become clear. Your a womans voice promises, I spend 60 percent of one
perception can sharpen. Your Muse WILL sense if you three-minute session being
ideas can flow more readily lose focus. When that hap- calm, and only 11 percent
and with greater purpose. pens, I must return focus of it active. (The rest is
Just reading this dreck to my breathing to make the neutral.) Of course, I was
annoys me. Was Nietzsche wind quiet down again. already pretty relaxed, as Id
calm when he wrote Twilight But when the beach just had sex.
of the Idols? Was Dostoyevsky sounds are very quiet, I start Muse HQ probably knew
calm when writing The Broth- to notice the quietness, which that, because its smartphone
ers Karamazov? Do ideas flow in turn induces a howling app sends your data to its
best from beatific drones gale. And sometimes the servers, where who knows
with maximally placid brain- winds come when Im defi- what NSA-style algorithms
waves? nitely not distracted. Muse crunch it. Muse could easily
I try to put such unquiet warns you that muscles in be collecting more informa-

tion than it tells the user per, fashion-accessory version
about. I didnt test the device of white Apple earbuds, its
while wearing a tinfoil hat: it not clear that the lookthink
probably wouldnt work. And hi-tech 1970s tennis player:
cutting off the personal data Bjrn cyBorgwill catch
flow might make the project on. Maybe it eventually will,
less attractive to the kind sometime in the made-up
of venture-capital investors future that Muses inventors
who gave the development prefer to talk about, when you
company, InteraXon, $6 mil- will be able to use brain-con-
lion in 2013. (It had originally M A R K S . FI S H E R
trol technology to operate
been crowdfunded through toys or even, they claim, to
Indiegogo.) Perhaps the (Muse promises more brain match wits with your perfect
investor class is excited by fitness tools in the future; mate. But only the most
Muses potential user base of they are as yet vaporware.) socially dysfunctional nerd
exceedingly calm, compliant, Despite the friendly-seem- would require a brain-sensing
and suggestible consumers. ing geeks in Muses promo- headband for that. I mean,
The assumptions behind tional videos doing their best I can do that already just by
Muses approach to mood to make a white brain-sensing talking to her.t
engineering are, after all, headband into the newer, hip- Steven Poole
questionable. While its con-
venient to be able to quiet the
mind on demand, Muses use
of negative feedback (wind
noise) puts it at odds with
meditative traditions that
warn against striving toward
any particular condition.
More importantly, focus in
the form of zombie-like tran-
quility is not the kind of focus
I need. Think hard about
a complicated topic while
wearing Muse, and the device
punishes you with a storm.
But thats the sort of brain
activity that gets ideas going.
Muse may think the perfect
mental state is monolithic
focus on a topic of indivis-
ible simplicity, but to aspire
always to placid mindfulness
is to be an intellectual hermit. MICHAEL DUFF Y

FROM THE ARCHIVE | The Baffler no. 10 (1997)
Pills
Your personal pamphlet
1. How can I get some pills?
Getting pills is a breeze. Just select a psychiatrist
from the Yellow Pagesand make an appoint-
ment! Mental health professionals will hand over a
prescription without any fuss or bother. They like
pills as much as you do!
Have you, at any point in your life, been a drug
addict? Well, you might not want to mention that
to your doctor. It may cause you both unneces-
sary worryand who needs that? You dont want
to worry. Thats why youre taking the pills in the
first place, right?
If something unpleasant about your past does
slip outdont sweat it. Most mental health profes-
sionals will overlook little things ... such as your
history of substance abuse. After all, prescription
pills arent illegal drugs, like the ones you took in
college. Theyre the real thing: medication.
2. I read somewhere that pills are pre- Stuck? Cant think of a thing? Here are just a
scribed more often to women than to men. few ideas, to get you started:
Should I let that disturb me? 9:00 a.m. Monday
Some people say its easier for women to get pills Right before that PRIVATE MEETING with
from their doctors. Some people say this is bad. But your BOSS, a seventy-year-old alcoholic who runs
the truth is, women need pills today. I know I do, one of the countrys top pharmaceutical compa-
and Im a woman. You probably need them, too. nies. Lately, hes been beefing up the advertising
3. By the way, why should I take pills? department ... and that means hes paying lots of
Cool people are taking pills. Hollywood actors. attention to YOU. The companys losing money
Supermodels. Artists on the cutting edge. Wild, fast! He needs to find markets for unnecessary
up-and-coming rock stars. Pale people who wear products! Youre under pressure! Youve got to
black are taking them ... and becoming vibrant radiate self-confidence and sang-froid!
and upbeat. Buttoned-down corporate drones Skip the watery coffee and take a pill instead.
are popping them ... and relaxing. Pills are the This time, when he winks and slips you his home
ultimate fashion accessory: Theyre even making phone number, you wont miss a beat! Who has
winners out of losers. But, hey, no pressure. The time to go through the legal departments six-
choice is up to you! volume report on sexual harassment? Just keep
your wits about you. Treat him to some HOT
4. When do I need to take them? IDEAS ... about product development and in-
Youre not the type who reads instructions or novative marketing. Keep smiling! Brush his hand
follows orders, are you? Youre creative. And reck- off your thigh and show him your passion is for
less. And impulsive. You decide. BUSINESS.

Youre not the type who reads instructions or follows orders, are you?
Youre creative. And reckless. And impulsive. You decide.
9
1:10 p.m. Monday one of your friends has already DIED of AIDS by
Almost time for that LUNCH DATE. Dont get now. No need to get unhinged, though. Confront
NERVOUS and blow it! Take a pill instead. Stay mortalityWITHOUT PAIN!
poised! Be friendly, open, and available. Act aloof.
Play hard to get.
10:10 p.m. Monday
You take the SUBWAY to your apartment.
Feel like youre juggling a bunch of awkward,
Worried about that guy carrying a GUN? Or the
contradictory FEMININE ROLES? Are you
lunatic whos exposing his GENITALS to you?
cast as a powerful AMAZON in the morning, a
Relax. You can deal. It happens every day, right?
BITCH in the afternoon, and a HELPLESS VIC-
You know what to do.
TIM the next day? Dont even try to figure it out.
Youve come a long way, baby. Hang in there! Pop 11:30 p.m. Monday
an extra one! Just be yourself. Your ATTRACTIVE, MARRIED COL-
LEAGUE shows up unexpectedly, right on your
3:11 p.m. Monday
doorstep! Hes feeling AMOROUS. Dont be ill at
Youve just designed a witty, tongue-in-cheek
ease! Invite him upstairs. Or, tell him to get lost.
brochure about PILLS. Its a work of advertising
Make the first move. Or, take a CLASSIC strategy
genius. But your older, more experienced, and
and BE REAL PASSIVE ... just WAIT AND
better-paid COMPETITOR takes credit for it
SEE what he does! Anyway, why be hung up about
just like he did the last time, and the time before
it? Its all the same to you! Youre on medication!
that. Dont get so ANGRY that you start to shake
And, when things get down to brass tacks, youll
all over! Get revenge.
handle that sticky conversation about AIDS and
Why not change the copy on the brochure,
SAFE SEXno problem!
ever so slightly? Now, something is SERIOUSLY
ASKEW. Send it off to the printer, and send a hun- 9:00 a.m. Tuesday
dred thousand copies through the mail. Distribute Your attractive colleague turned out to have
your PERSONAL PAMPHLET to the WORLD! a VIOLENT streak. Luckily, youre SUPER
HIP, and you know how to PLAY IT ROUGH.
9:00 p.m. Monday
You dont mind a little PHYSICAL BRUTAL-
You stop at the all-night supermarket and bring a
ITY or SADISM now and then! Just cover those
bag of groceries to your aging, sickly, housebound
BRUISES with the perfect foundation to match
FATHER who REPEATEDLY MOLESTED
your skin tone! Put your pills in your pocket and
you when you were a child! Theres no reason to
head out for that SUBWAY. Another shooting on
hold grudges, is there? And what have you got to
the subway platform? Ambulance and police cars
be afraid of? Youre invulnerable, as long as youve
gonna make you late for work? Go on, admit it.
got those pills! Dont forget ... hes slowly dying
You dont give a shit! Its a brand new day! Youre
of CANCER! Hes got one year to live. Uh-oh.
sedatedheavilyand, girl, youre READY FOR
Time to overcome your AMBIVALENCE and tell
ANYTHING that comes!
him that you LOVE him before its TOO LATE.
Lisa Dierbeck
And even though death and ILLNESS are REAL
BAD NEWS, you can handle them. Youve done This brochure courtesy of
it before, havent you? If you live in New York the Munroe Drug Company.
or Chicago or L.A. ... any place, really ... at least

BOTTOMS UP
This Brats
for You
Sometime in 2011, before the
gestation of my second son,
my employer, Boston Univer-
sity, implemented paternity
leave for its male professors.
A colleague informed me of
this news with much envy and
astonishment: his four young
children had been born before
BU joined the twenty-first
century by electing to give
to fathers the same benefits
it had been giving all along
to mothers. Im not certain
how this enlightened advance
came about, but I instantly GR AHAM ROUMIEU
pictured a phalanx of ultra- When Pascal suggested pared for the realization that
modern men parading down that humanitys strife stems I required a job other than
Commonwealth Avenue, from our inability to sit writing to provide me with
jabbing placards that read Its quietly in a room by our- some psychic equilibrium. I
My Seed, So Give Me Leave, selves, he neglected to specify am not alone in this regard:
or some such slogan. what happens when one rolls think of the tremendous
BU doesnt actually adver- a few barrels of alcohol in ennui and the earthquakes
tise this lofty development for company. I cannot say of personhood that can oc-
as paternity leave; after all, precisely why my workload cur when men are laid off or
some of the men I know there reduction coincided with my retire. After my grandfather
might begin impregnating drinking problem, except quit working in his sixties,
people just to earn a semester suddenly I had so much time. Id often catch him standing
off with pay. Instead, and in Okay, the university made me in the basement, staring at a
typical bureaucratic form, sign a document that swore cinder-block wall.
school administrators call Id be incurring more than
it workload reduction. 50 percent of parental duties. My son was born in
Maybe it was the euphemism But lets be honest: even in March, and my sabbati-
that misdirected me, for my self-consciously progressive cal went from early May to
workload reduction led to my households, its a rare new mid-January, which, in a
being loaded, and reduced, father who does as much baby tidy coincidence, is nearly
in quite a different way from work as a new mother. nine months. But since his
what paternity leave would I was bushwhacked by this care was taken care of by his
have intended. surfeit of free time, unpre- motherwhose apparent

All day long, while not-writing my novel and not-feeding
my newborn son, I looked forward to drinking.
9
willingness and capacity to A first-name basis with the someone yanks you out of
do almost everything for him Visigoth at the liquor store. the way before it descends.
flooded me with aweI spent A propensity to click send I tried several times to quit,
those nine months trying not without reading what Id writ- but found that I didnt really
to be bored while not writing ten. Friends just itching for an want to, and not because I
a novel that was coming due. intervention. I kept waiting needed wine talons, Hart
(No novelist who recognizes for a knock on the door from Cranes term for those alco-
the unholy hardship of writ- the university officials who holic claws that let a writer
ing a novel ever wants to write had so generously granted me clasp the Muse. No, drinking
a novel.) Hey, the proper dose a workload reduction. But simply made me happy before
of lager seemed to slacken they never came for me. it didnt. It ended when my
my body without sapping my paternity leave ended, when
mind, and all day long, while Youve no doubt heard a life my surfeit of time was no
I was not-writing my novel with spirits described as a more. Ive never been so
and not-feeding my newborn love affairCaroline Knapps pleased to see the inside of a
son, I looked forward to famous memoir, Drinking, is classroom.
those drinks with a religious subtitled A Love Storybut My wife wants another
panting. all one-sided love affairs wind child now. People like to ask
Yes, I know: the proper dose up in calamity. What starts if we have the income for
is the entire problem. My as a blessing often ends as that. I tell them its not my
intake increased until I was a blight, and the trick is to income Im worried about.t
imbibing amounts that once dodge that blight, or hope Willia m Gir aldi
would have pickled my in-
nards. One summer weekend
I finished an entire case of
Heineken. My wife and I
couldnt figure out where the
beer had gone until we real-
ized that Id drunk it all.
There came, of course,
the medieval hangovers that
vanquished entire days. Sleep
interrupted by migraines and
dehydration that felt down-
right malarial. Iffy decisions
involving the diaperless infant
on an antique couch. Puffy
face and puffier physique.
Aches in the liver region,
nights in the living room. HENRIK DRESCHER

VERY SHORT FICTION
Story of an Illness
To tell you the truth, I much the washroom and tells me to learned later, to dress un-
prefer to be sick at home. At undress. dersized patients in huge
a hospital, no question, the I unbutton my pants with pajamas and vice versa. But
light bulbs are stronger and shaky fingers and suddenly my fever continues to grow,
things are more scientific in observe a head sticking out of and I choose not to squabble
general. But at home, as they the tub. What are you devils over this.
say, even straw tastes better. doing to me? This is the So they find me a bed in
Judge for yourselves. My womens washroom! a smallish room of maybe
family brings me to the hos- The nurse hushes me. thirty people. Some are
pital with typhoid fever, in Never mind the hagshes pretty far gone; others seem
hopes of easing my suffering, running a bad fever, even to be on the mend; some
and immediately my eyes fall worse than yours; uncon- whistle; others play checkers;
on a poster: Corpses for pick scious. Undress freely; well those who can read shuffle
up between three and four. drag her out. from bed to bed, examining
I dont know about The hag may be uncon- peoples charts. I say to the
other patients, but my knees scious, but Im not, I object. nurse, If I came to a mad-
frankly buckle. Look, Com- And it gives me no pleasure house by mistake, please tell
rade, I address the orderly to observe what you have me now. In all other hospitals
whos writing me up, why did floating in there. its peace and quiet. Here its
you have to post such a vulgar The orderly arrives to the like a flea market.
poster? People here feel weak- commotion. First time, he Just listen to him! Maybe
ened as it is. declares, Ive seen such a you want a private room? And
Boy, is he scandalized. picky patient. A dying woman a special nurse with a flyswat-
Just look at him, ready is taking her last bath, and he ter?
to croak, yet he too must makes a face. No matter she I begin to shout for the
criticize! First get better, cant see a thing. And in any chief physician, but instead
dear Comrade, though thats case, its not like the sight of the same orderly arrives. On
highly unlikely. Or else youll your naked body will delay seeing him, my weakened
be picked up between three her in this world. No, I much system blows its fuses, and I
and four! prefer them when they arrive pass out.
Here a nurse hops over unconscious, without a taste When I come to, three
to take me to the hosing for scientific discussions. or four days later, the nurse
station. A hosing station? Now the crone in the tub greets me: Well, well. We
What am I, a horse? Cant pipes up. Lift me out, you have a real tough cookie
you call it something more beasts, or Ill pull your scurvy here, havent we? We put you
poeticala bath? joints apart! next to an open windowby
Now the nurse is miffed. So they drag her out, stick mistakeand still you made
Really, patient, such subtle- me in, and after the bath, it. Now, if you dont pick
ties you notice; I dont see issue me a set of pajamas four something up from your
how such a nosey one can sizes too big. It was a special neighbors, well soon be wish-
recover. So she takes me to torture in that hospital, I ing you a happy recovery.

PAU L A S E A R I N G
I didnt pick up anything, discharge me. One day they hospital: On receiving this,
this time, except for whoop- forgot; another, my chart was kindly come to retrieve your
ing coughthere was a chil- missing. Or they had a wave of husbands body.
drens division in the back. As new patientsthe wives of the It turned out a patient had
the nurse explained, I must patients already hospitalized died, and they had decided it
have been fed from a sick and all the staff was busy. The was me, for some reason. I was
childs plateby mistake. But orderly comforted me that about to run there and raise
all in all, as they say, nature it had only been eight days; hell, but remembered how it
persevered, and again I began some wait for three weeks. was, and didnt. Stayed home.
to recover. In the end, I was dis- And now if Im sick, I stay
Later, true, I developed charged and sent home. home. Seems safer that way.t
a nervous rash all over my You know, Petia, my Mikhail Zoshchenko, 1936
body. The doctor told me to wife told me, last week we
stop fretting, but I couldnt, thought you were no more. Translated from the Russian by
because they wouldnt We received a note from the Anna Summers.

X- CE R P T
Possibility of
Infection
I remember going to the
British museum one day to
read up the treatment for
some slight ailment of which
I had a touchhay fever, I
fancy it was. I got down the
book, and read all I came to
read; and then, in an unthink-
ing moment, I idly turned the
leaves, and began to indolent-
ly study diseases, generally. I
forget which was the first dis- V I C TO R K E R LOW
temper I plunged intosome in about another fortnight. its most malignant stage, it
fearful, devastating scourge, Brights disease, I was re- would appear, had seized me
I knowand, before I had lieved to find, I had only in a without my being aware of it;
glanced half down the list of modified form, and, so far as and zymosis I had evidently
premonitory symptoms, it that was concerned, I might been suffering with from boy-
was borne in upon me that I live for years. Cholera I had, hood. There were no more
had fairly got it. with severe complications; diseases after zymosis, so I
and diphtheria I seemed to concluded there was nothing
I sat for a while frozen have been born with. I plod- else the matter with me.
with horror; and then in the ded conscientiously through
listlessness of despair, I again the twenty-six letters, and the I sat and pondered. I
turned over the pages. I came only malady I could conclude thought what an interesting
to typhoid feverread the I had not got was housemaids case I must be from a medi-
symptomsdiscovered that I knee. cal point of view, what an
had typhoid fever, must have I felt rather hurt about this acquisition I should be to a
had it for months without at first; it seemed somehow class! Students would have no
knowing itwondered what to be a sort of slight. Why need to walk the hospitals,
else I had got; turned up St. hadnt I got housemaids if they had me. I was a hos-
Vituss Dancefound, as knee? Why this invidious pital in myself. All they need
I expected, that I had that reservation? After a while, do would be to walk round
toobegan to get interested however, less grasping feel- me, and, after that, take their
in my case, and determined ings prevailed. I reflected diploma.
to sift it to the bottom, and so that I had every other known Then I wondered how long
started alphabeticallyread malady in the pharmacology, I had to live.t
up ague, and learnt that I was and I grew less selfish, and from Jerome K. Jerome,
sickening for it, and that the determined to do without Three Men in a Boat ( To Say
acute stage would commence housemaids knee. Gout, in Nothing of the Dog ) (1889)

E x h i bi t B 5 Ralph Steadman

The 9 Eleven Memorial Museum is an educational and historical institution
continued global significance. All net proceeds from our sales are dedicated to
Museum and the salaries of our executives. Thank you for helping to build a
preventing the terrorists from winning.
Fireman I $ NY Outrageous First
Suspenders T-shirt Conspiracy Responders
Theories T-shirt
The twin towers We are proud to T-shirt
may have fallen, offer this I $ NY Show your
but your pants T-shirt, featuring Sport the support with
need not, once the iconic $ in red. presidents this Made-In-
youve donned words on this the-USA shirt.
these genuine 100% cotton
FDNY suspenders. shirt. T
Price: $45 Price: $22 Price: $22 Price: $22

ADD TO CART ADD TO CART ADD TO CART ADD TO CART
Never Forget Department of 9 Eleven Flag

Temporary Homeland Lapel Pin
Neck Tattoo Security
Blankie Demonstrate your
Say it like you mean loyalty with this
it with distinctive Feel snug in this essential fashion
wearable velour accessory.
body art.
blanket emblazoned
with the emblem
of the Department of
Homeland Security.
Price: $15 Price: $30 Price: $10

ADD TO CART ADD TO CART ADD TO CART
Commemorative
Magic 9 Eleven Carry-On
Flight Bag
Commission Ball Travel in solemnity
and style with this
Questions about the handsome piece
of commemorative
events of 9 Eleven can luggage.
be answered by
consulting the Magic
Price: $90
9 Eleven Commission
ADD TO CART
Ball, whose responses
are drawn from the
Commissions Final Ground Zero Remembrance
Spirit Statuette Earrings
Report of the National
This image of the Also made of WTC
Commission on Terrorist indomitable steel, these
Attacks Upon the American spirit
is cast from
miniature replicas of
Flights 11 and 175
United States. actual repurposed allow them to
World Trade Center live in memory.
steel.
Price: $22
Price: $35 Price: $45

Larry Silverstein
Bobblehead Bank
World Trade Center
honoring the victims and examining 9 Eleven and its landlord Larry
developing and sustaining the 9 Eleven Memorial Silverstein suffered
lasting place for remembrance and learning and for a loss of property on
9 Eleven, but he
persevered and
OSHA-Approved World Trade secured the substantial
Respirator Center Building 7 insurance payment
Jigsaw Puzzle
that made him whole
Work safe with
the protective A 500-piece puzzle once more.
equipment that featuring an image
Ground Zero of the building that
cleanup workers fell down on
were assured they 9 Eleven without
did not need. ever being hit by
a plane. Price: $25
Price: $30 Price: $30
Rudolph Giuliani Plush NYPD 9 Eleven

9 Eleven Forget Me Knot
Auto Decal
Search and
Rescue Dog
Memorial
Auto Banner
Memorial New York mayor and Celebrate the canine Drive patriotically
Cheese Platter presidential hopeful
Rudolph Giuliani has
heroes of 9 Eleven
with this soft plush
with the official
9 Eleven Memorial
labored long to German Shepherd. window-mount
Add class and ensure that neither car flag.
9 Eleven nor he
poignance to your himself be
next gathering unremembered.
with this ceramic ADD TO CART ADD TO CART ADD TO CART
cheese serving platter
in the shape of our
Official NORAD Commemorative Ground Zero
nation, with inlaid Air Mattress Mugs Set Snow Globe
hearts to mark the
Decorated with the A set of six eight- This diorama of
locations where the emblem of the ounce coffee cups the scene at the
North American bearing the mug epicenter of
planes went down Aerospace Defense shots of the Ground Zero is
on 9 Eleven. Command, who
were napping on
still-living 9 Eleven
hijacking suspects.
complete with
actual shredded
9 Eleven. SEC documents.
Price: $75
Twin Towers Twin Towers Hallowed Ground TSA Box

Collapsible Scented Candle Memorial Cutter
Event Coaster Capsule
Infused with the The official
Raise a fragrance of Lower This vial of utility knife of the
well-insulated Manhattan in late authentic Ground Transportation
toast to NYCs summer, this Zero debris may Security
late landmarks commemorative contain dirt, Administration.
with this candle is perfect asbestos, nano-
attractive for moments of thermite and
beverage coaster. quiet reflection. cremains.
Price: $10 Price: $25 Price: $45 Price: $15

MARK DANCE Y

Instructions in the Art
of Filming Atomic Bombs
3 M a r io A l eja n dro A r i z a
1. Take the lens cap off the camera, doofus.

2. This is a manual detailing methods
for the capture of a-tomic explosions
on celluloid film from a distance, and on the ground.
Note that this manual will at no point try to determine
what the SAFE distance from said a-tomical explosion is,
nor will it try to instruct you in the capture
of the image of the essence of the sun
from a plane, or while otherwise in flight.
Those instructions are detailed
in a different manual, written by
a different author, at a different time.
3. Use a mirror.
4. Dig a hole. The hole is not for you.
5. Obtain a notebook and a writing utensil.
Draw a table. Upon this table place a treasured object.
I dont really fucking care what object you choose;
it can be your grandmothers wedding ring, which
you plan to give to your beloved, or the bible that kept a bullet
from piercing your heart.
6. Attempt to make the drawing of the object within the notebook placed upon the
table as lifelike as possible.
7. P
urchase a camera and film (Really, this should have been step 2. Step 1 should have
been obtain an atomic bomb.)
8. Throw the ring into water. Rip out the pages of the bible and wail.
9. Under no circumstances are you allowed to quote the Bhagavadgita.
10. Practice closing and opening your eyes 32 times a second.
Meditate upon the violence inherent in the capture of images.
Come to an understanding with light; dont go towards The Light.

Sickness and Pelf
JONATHON ROSEN

Sic k n e s s a n d Pe l f
Americas Long Holiday

When narcissism attacks
3 Suzy Hansen
BOOK R EVIEWED your world, as one subtitle puts ityou should

Elizabeth Lunbeck, shield your heart and keep your distance.
The Americanization of Narcissism And then theres Elizabeth Lunbecks The
Harvard University Press, $35 Americanization of Narcissism, an exhaustive
T
history of the subject that acknowledges that
he twenty-first century, already rich narcissism is everywhere but insists that its
with apocalyptic glimpses of Americas been unfairly maligned. A professor of the
decline, has been a productive era for narcis- history of psychiatry at Vanderbilt University,
sism. The condition, originally diagnosed Lunbeck suggests that what weve come to
by psychologists as a blocked developmental call narcissism is, more often than not, a nor-
phase in the psyche, has since been singled out mal, self-sustaining part of human existence,
as the cause of nearly every worrisome trend the -ism that nurtures ones fragile inner be-
on the American scene: the financial crisis, ing, like a fur sleeping bag for the soul. In
John Edwardss love affair, Barack Obamas
decision to reduce troops in Afghanistan, Every American has been
Lena Dunham, the misuse of phone cameras,
immersed since birth in the
the popularity of the Internet. Narcissist
has replaced commitment-phobe as the reassurance that he or she is the
worst thing you can say about the boyfriend
most superior citizen on earth.
who didnt love you. The pope once accused
Vatican leaders of being Narcissus, flattered
and sickeningly excited by their courtiers.
9
Everyone has an eye on the self. Lunbecks view, narcissism is a useful adaptive
Given this state of near ubiquity, its no behavior, provided that its cultivated in mod-
surprise that narcissism has spawned a cot- eration. Among its documented benefits,
tage industry of books with accusatory titles: she writes, quoting several recent newspaper
The Narcissism Epidemic, Generation Me, The articles, are that it makes you attractive,
Mirror Effect, Why Is It Always About You? and successful, lovable and good in bed. ... Nar-
The Narcissist Next Door, to name a few. Most cissism is necessary to feeling that ones life
of these are in the pop-psych or self-help vein; has meaning and importance as well as to sus-
they inform us, among other things, that he- taining all forms of public life. Sure, theres
licopter parenting has made our children pathological narcissism, or bad narcissism,
vainer and more insufferable than ever before, but the diagnosis of that, Lunbeck suggests,
that scores on the Narcissistic Personality belongs on the shrinks couch rather than in
Inventory are at all-time highs, and that if the wider ambit of cultural debate.
and when you spot a narcissistthe monster Admirers of The Americanization of Narcis-
in your family, in your office, in your bed, in sism have readily seconded such sentiments.

MICHAEL DUFFY
The truth is that nobody knows how many personality traits are, as Lunbeck has it, more
people suffer from the disorder, Joan Acocella necessary than terrifying. According to this
writes in her New Yorker review of Lunbecks view, luminaries in the Steve Jobs mold may
book, or whether, indeed, the supposedly di- well have to enter analysis to overcome some
agnostic features listed in the DSM add up to a of their character flaws, but ultimately their
disorder, as opposed to just a loud, self-impor- bold egocentrism is vital to advancing the
tant personality that has been recognized for American knowledge sectors tortured odys-
millennia. Narcissism isnt, apparently, the sey through the new global economic order.
scourge it was cracked up to be, New York As Lunbeck casts the narcissistic impulse
Times writer Anna North notes with palpable as an indispensable entry in the toolkit of the
relief. It is time to stop invoking poor Nar- entrepreneurial American self, she capitu-
cissus, concludes The Economist. Further, now lates to what feels like an inevitable Ameri-
that Lunbeck has given the go-ahead, pundits can intellectual trajectoryone that proceeds
are free to revel in a favorite pastime: exalting from radical to conservative, from bohemian
our most grandiose titans of business, whose to yuppieas if any youthful rejection of the

materialistic life must always evolve into a fellow-feeling. Kohut enjoyed the Age of
rational embrace of our nations excess. Nar- Aquarius, the 60s, the hippies. He was up-
cissism, formerly a potent means of reckoning beat about the future. His moody colleague
with a unique and potentially dangerous na- Kernberg was not. Kernberg focused on nar-
tional character, has become another deft U- cissists destructiveness, rage, and aggression
turn on the American road to self-acceptance as well as the masterful ways they exploited
and self-love. and enslaved their hapless victims.
The pioneering accomplishments of Kohut
Crisis? What Crisis? and Kernberg both normalized and patholo-
In reducing narcissism to its narrowest defini- gized narcissism, which, in Lunbecks view,
tion of interpersonal relations, Lunbeck and was a good resultand by our own time, al-
her supporters dismiss the provocative ideas though Lunbeck might disagree, an uncontro-
that popularized narcissism in the first place. versial and widely understood one. Most of us
Forty years ago, narcissism captured the now can discern which people have a healthy
imaginations of writers such as Daniel Bell, sense of self (they run their own race), which
Richard Sennett, and Christopher Lasch not have a weak sense of self (they dont know how
because they were eager to debate the science to stand up for themselves), and which have a
of personality disorders, but because America weak sense of self but hide their self-loathing
itself seemed to be in crisis. In their view, eco- and fragility behind a charismatic, needy fa-
nomic and cultural forces specific to Ameri- cade of deception, arrogance, envy-fueled
can history had created a civilization that ambition, overblown entitlement to fame and
despite its unprecedented wealth and power fortune, and the view that other people exist
in the worldwas too stunted by self-concern almost exclusively for their own benefit (i.e.,
to sustain its economic health, behave respon- bankers).
sibly in foreign relations, or confront the pros- But Lunbeck thinks that Kohut and Kern-
pect of its own demise. Theirs was ultimately berg have yet to receive their due. According
a critique of the country rather than a critique to her, the sour social critics of the late twen-
of the citizen. tieth century, unable to understand complex
By contrast, Lunbecks psychoanalytic he- psychiatric theory, impoverished the contri-
roes, Sigmund Freud, Heinz Kohut, and Otto butions of Kohut and Kernberg by slighting
Kernberg, rejected the notion that society healthy narcissism and reveling in narcissisms
could produce narcissism. In the 1930s Freud ugly side, shap[ing] it into a distinctively
described narcissism in terms of libidinal American malady associated with affluence
development. He recognized both a normal and abundance. Lunbecks particular ad-
narcissism, observable in infants and certain versary is the historian Christopher Lasch,
healthy personality types, and a pathologi- whose book The Culture of Narcissism was a
cal narcissism, which could be a hallmark runaway bestseller in 1979. Lasch and others,
of schizophrenia or hypochondria. Thirty Lunbeck suggests, seized upon the upheaval
years later, Kohut and Kernberg took Freuds of the 1960sincluding all movements black,
teachings in divergent directions. Kohut antiwar, feminist, and gayto collectively
boldly reframed narcissism as a desirable, warn of the unraveling of Western society and
even healthy, dimension of mature selfhood, the undermining of its most cherished ideals.
according to Lunbeck, and underscored nar- This is at best a caricature of Lasch and
cissisms positive aspects, arguing that it fu- at worst a distortion more misleading than
eled individuals ambitions, creativity, and Laschs alleged misappropriation of clinical

Lasch attacked psychic self- day considered perfectly acceptable. He at-
tacked consciousness-raising groups, psychic
improvement and the quest for
self-improvement, and the quest for peace of
peace of mind; these were mind; these were, he wrote, the faith of those
without faith. He attacked confessional con-
the faith of those without faith.
versation, certain modes of confessional writ-
9 ing, sex without feeling, pseudo self-insight,
calculating seductiveness, nervous, self-dep-
narcissism. Lasch, a regular contributor to recatory humor, and the society of specta-
the New York Review of Books, formulated a cle. He attacked the shifting emphasis from
captivating, often infuriating, theory of what capitalist production to consumption, the in-
had gone wrong in the American promised creasingly dangerous and warlike conditions
land. For Lasch as for Freud, narcissism was of social life, and the competitive measure-
a telltale weakening of the self and its basic ment of sexual performance and technique.
coordinates. Only where Freud had detected He even attacked smiling. Americans need
the condition chiefly in developmental block- no reminder to smile, he wrote. A smile is
age arising from family traumas, Lasch saw permanently graven on our features, and we
it as the distressingly common side effect of already know from which of several angles it
the sensory onslaught of consumer capital- photographs to best advantage. Most contro-
ism, finding characteristic expression in ev- versially, he lamented the plight of the family,
erything from our image-obsessed media, the which, had it been at full strength, might have
burgeoning therapeutic industry in human served to combat the paternalism of the bu-
potential and self-help cures, and the frac- reaucratic corporate state.
tured course of family life. Laschs most fervent and articulate critics
Lasch wrote of psychologists suddenly behave always been women, among them the
fuddled by the incurable thousands shuttling second-wave feminist writers Vivian Gor-
through their office doors, complaining of a nick and Ellen Willis, who contended that his
hollowness of spirit, a deep self-hatred, an in- defense of the family was nothing more than
ability to love, and most disturbingly, a loss of an assault on feminism. In her recent Boston
memories and connection to the past. These Review essay on Lunbecks book, Gornick
people, the American people, were those for points out that the subtitle of Laschs The Cul-
whom to live for the moment is the prevailing ture of NarcissismAmerican Life in an Age
passion and who were fast losing the sense of Diminishing Expectationswas the way
of historical continuity, the sense of belonging the world looked to a white, middle-class man
to a succession of generations originating in without the gift of empathy who found all the
the past and stretching into the future. Most social tumult depressing rather than stimu-
of all, Lasch, invoking Hobbes, argued that lating.
Americas increasingly consumerist society Willis was no less fierce, but more nuanced.
in its decadence has carried the logic of indi- In 1997 she articulated a succinct rebuttal to
vidualism to the extreme of war of all against Laschs ideas of self-sacrifice: To experience
all, the pursuit of happiness to the dead end of selflessness you first have to feel entitled to a
a narcissistic preoccupation with the self. self that is yours to lose. And in 1979s The
In the process, Lasch condemned a wide Family: Love It or Leave It, she identified
battery of then-novel therapies, techniques, Lasch as the leader of a conservative back-
and informal cultural practices that are to- lash against the 60s revolutionariesa re-

surgence of family chauvinism, flanked by its rights in the United States would be futile as
close relatives, antifeminism and homopho- long as the marketplace ruled basic social
bia. She went on: relations. Under the weight of the markets
monolithic influence, people would be re-
The new consensus is that the family is
duced to caring about themselves alone in
our last refuge against universal predatory
order to get by. They wouldnt feel implicated
selfishness. ... It defines the pursuit of indi-
in or responsible for a larger social order be-
vidual freedom as selfish and irresponsible
cause they wouldnt have the slightest chance
(narcissistic in the current jargon), the sub-
of effecting change. The emerging ethos of an
ordination of personal happiness to domestic
increasingly exhausted consumer capitalism
obligations as the hallmark of adulthood and
was a chastened, pared-down survivalism
the basis of morals.
the condition that Lasch diagnosed in bleak
Willis agreed with Lasch that certain cata- and unsparing detail in The Minimal Self, his
clysmic events had diminished expectations 1984 follow-up to The Culture of Narcissism.
among people in America: its shameful war in This depopulation of the public sphere was
Vietnam, the perceived decline of its global the main preoccupation of Laschs workand
influence, and the corporate worlds ravenous an awareness of it is whats glaringly absent
drive for profits, which depressed wages and from Lunbecks book. Lasch may have been
raised prices (an indictment that seems down- stodgily critiquing certain aspects of the he-
right mild in todays debt-ravaged, job-starved, donistic counterculture and lambasting the
overleveraged economy). But unlike him, Wil- New Ageism that followed, but his complaint
lis believed that the family was part of the prob- was less with the political movements them-
lem, potentially as narcissistic an entity as the selves (many of which he had common cause
individual. These days my family first is only with) than it was with the way they evolved
a slightly less insular version of the me first psy- into showmanship, were co-opted for person-
chology the insecurity of capitalism provokes, al self-improvement projects, or were aban-
she wrote. Both are based on the dismaying doned entirely. In The Culture of Narcissism
knowledge that if you and your family are not he singled out for derision not the ages more
first, they are all too likely to be last. Accord- principled and serious political advocates, like
ing to Willis, the overreliance on the family Gloria Steinem and Stokely Carmichael, but
and presumably fathersprevented Americans the self-dramatizing acolytes of the libera-
from asking for more from the system. tionist counterculture: Jerry Rubin, Bernar-
Willis remains one of Laschs best critics dine Dohrn, and Susan Stern. He urged other
because she engaged Laschs critique of Amer- thinkers to distinguish between the corrup-
ican society on the level it was intendedboth tion of radical politics in the late 1960s by
writers assailed the political and economic the irrational elements in American culture
system that was alienating and draining its and the validity of many radical goals. Lasch
families, its individuals, its intimate life, its wasnt an Agnew-esque backlash critic of the
everything. Yet Lasch was suggesting that the New Lefts political agenda; he was, rather, a
decimation of the self by capitalism, and the harsh detractor of the recursively consumer-
protective turn inward toward extreme indi- ist style that undermined it. The attempt
vidualism, would lead not only to a withdrawal to dramatize official repression, he wrote,
from domestic life, but also to a gradual (and imprisoned the left in a politics of theater,
equally ruinous) retreat from national life. In of dramatic gestures, of style without sub-
his view, the fight for individual or minority stancea mirror-image of the politics of un-

MICHAEL DUFFY
reality which it should have been the purpose the excesses of consumer gratification were
of the left to unmask. Even Willis, as Emily elevated into positive virtues during the con-
Greenhouse notes in an excellent essay in Dis- spicuously happy 80s and 90s. Ronald Rea-
sent, lamented feminisms half-benign turn to gan cruised into office in 1980 by campaigning
a reformist politics, a countercultural com- aggressively against the Carter administra-
munity, and a network of self-help projects tions pusillanimous courtship of a national
rather than a true liberation movement. malaisea phrase that Jimmy Carter himself
Lasch and Willis, it should be obvious by never employed. (Carter drafted the malaise
now, were writing about an era that strikingly speech, as its come to be known, after exten-
prefigured our own. The 1970s were marked sive consultation with Lasch, which means
by fiscal ruin, ecological catastrophe, and in- that the actual conservative backlash in our
ternational defeat. Such conditions might national politics came to life via an assault on
have provoked a measure of introspection, Lasch.) The new market-obsessed sensibility
even some national soul-searching. Instead, on the American right found its apotheosis in

George W. Bushs infamous call, just after the the Americans believe that misery, hunger,
September 11 terrorist attacks, for Americans pain and everything else can be combated,
to demonstrate their core devotion to free- that men can recover from misery, hunger
dom and liberal democracy with a redoubled and pain, that there is a remedy for all evil.
bout of shopping.
This three-decades-and-counting vaca- And James Baldwin, exiled in Paris, wrote in
tion from history is very much in line with Giovannis Room (1956) that to Americans
the analysis Lasch offered up in The Culture
time always sounds like a parade chez vousa
of Narcissism. By the late 70s, Lasch observed,
triumphant parade, like armies with banners
Americans seem[ed] to wish to forget not
entering a town ... as though with enough
only the sixties, the riots, the new left, the dis-
time and all that fearful energy and virtue
ruptions on college campuses, Vietnam, Wa-
you people have, everything will be settled,
tergate, and the Nixon presidency, but their
solved, put in its place. ... I mean all the seri-
entire collective past. The detachment from
ous, dreadful things, like pain and death and
history was to Lasch one of the most impor-
love, in which you Americans do not believe.
tant symptoms of the cultural crisis. Ameri-
cans believed they alone among the people of Far from nostalgically pining for the old pa-
the world could escape the entangling influ- triarchy and its unquestioned reign, American
ence of the past. From the nations first co- writers like Lasch could see that as America
lonial settlement, Americans had enjoyed an extended itself across the oceans in the post-
unprecedented opportunity for rebirth; their war years, its people were themselves turn-
offspring constantly reenacted this experi- ing inward. Lasch and others voiced a shared,
ence by breaking from the past and starting gnawing fear that this particular American
anew. The immigrant experience enshrined detachment and self-regard would disas-
a nearly ritual form of social amnesia among trously unite with the nations ravenously ex-
exiles from the Old Worldone that pivoted pansionist economic policies and its paranoia
on the regeneration of a perennially innocent about economic and physical security to un-
(i.e., narcissistic) self. leash terrible energies on the rest of the world.
European writers, who are drowning in Their so-called happiness, in fact, depended
the past, and oppressed writers, who dont on it. In his 2009 study of the Progressive Era,
have the privilege of forgetting it, have been Rebirth of a Nation, historian Jackson Lears
forever remarking on how weird this is. In argued that the power that undergirded
1840 Alexis de Tocqueville wrote that the [Americans] dreams of personal and national
prototypical American was regeneration was their dependence on em-
pire for their prosperity, for their racial, so-
withdrawn into himself ... almost unaware
cial, and even moral identity as a people.
of the fate of the rest. Mankind, for him, con-
Rarely do we connect the two, the self to
sists in his children and his personal friends.
the empire. With American social thinkers
As for the rest of his fellow citizens, they are
once more easing back into the warm bath
near enough, but he does not notice them. He
of narcissism, we must again rely on foreign
touches them but feels nothing. He exists in
writers to supply the sharpest illustrations
and for himself.
of just how we fail to apprehend the connec-
Curzio Malaparte, after watching the Al- tionwhile also bringing home the disastrous
lied invasion of Naples, wrote in his nightmar- consequences of that failure for the rest of
ish 1952 novel The Skin that the world. In an extraordinary 2012 essay in

Narcissism, formerly a potent staple act of market canonization in todays
business advice genreLunbeck hails the
means of reckoning with
bulk of todays CEO class as model narcis-
a dangerous national character, sists, while also singling out for special praise
the jingoist social criticism of New York
has become another deft U-turn
Times columnist David Brooks. Its worth
on the American road to self-love. pausing here to note the broader costs of such
faux-contrarian acquiescence within the tra-
9 dition of American social criticism. Every
American has been immersed since birth in
Guernica, Pakistani writer Kamila Shamsie the propagandistic reassurance that he or she
remembers the moment she noticed that no is the most superior citizen on earth, simply
American novelists of the postCold War era, by virtue of coming of age in this model capi-
who started writing after the 1980s when Is- talist democracy, the endpoint, in our eyes,
lam replaced Communism as the terrifying of national and human evolution. This pro-
Other, had included the imperial experience paganda has produced a kind of nationalism
in their Great American novels. But that so pervasive and misguided that most Ameri-
would change, I told myself, she writes. The cans wouldnt even know to call it national-
nation that had intervened militarily with ismit is, for us, simply the proper order of
more nations than any other in the latter half things. So, as is the case with other undiag-
of the twentieth century but had itself come nosed neurotic disorders, we lie to ourselves
under attack infrequently would now see its to sustain it, whether about the poverty of
stories bound up with the stories of other millions of our stateside neighbors, or the
places. Instead, she observes, historic crimes committed against Native
Americans and black Americans at home, or
the American novel continued to look
the casual mayhem weve visited upon Iraqis,
inward even as the American government
Afghans, and everyone else abroad.
looked increasingly outward. September 11
Whats more, that delusion ensures well
did nothing to change that. So in an America
never have to consider what our history has
where fiction writers are so caught up in the
to do with our selvesthat well remain in the
Idea of America in a way that perhaps has no
condition of chronic pastlessness that was, for
parallel with any other national fiction . . .
Lasch, the most troubling and foundational
why is it that the fiction writers of my genera-
indicator of our national narcissism. When I
tion are so little concerned with the history
moved abroad seven years ago, it wasnt some
of their own nation once that history exits
new, bright beginning; instead, my relation-
the fifty states?
ship to the world felt suffused with a kind
This dogged refusal of history seems like the of melancholic amnesia, as if I should have
logical outcome of the uniquely solipsistic known and recognized and understood the
American character Lasch struggled to iden- place, as if I, or someone like me, had been
tify. there before. Americans, expat and home-
Im not sure what is gained by exonerating bound alike, never really know how to make
Americans of their worst traits or, for that these connections between our imperial
matter, by celebrating them, which is what selves and the carelessly tended ruins kicked
Lunbeck does at the end of her book. In ad- up in their wake. Its what makes us, as they
dition to her adoring gloss on Steve Jobsa say, special.t

BR AD HOLL AND

The Endlessly
Examined Life
A most chronic depression
3 George Scialabba
M y mental health file whirs to life in 1969 in Cambridge,

Massachusetts. Id recently left Opus Dei, the Catholic
religious order to which Id committed my young soul, and a major
depression had followed. The records printed below are out of the
mouths of my many caretakers; they chronicle my treatment at vari-
ous medical offices and psychiatric clinics in the Boston area, from
then until 2012.
How did I come by them? As I headed into a depression two years
ago, a friend who was helping out thought it would be useful to see
my records, so I asked for them. Why publish them now? Certainly
not because I think these extracts from my treatment notes display
any special literary facility or reveal an exceptionally interesting
psyche, nor because I intend the slightest scandal to be visited on my
therapists, employers, or insurance company. All proper names have
been altered.
Our distractible human intelligence needs as many ways of talking
about depression as can be providedthats all. Plus, given the lon-
gevity of this particular demon, it seems important to try to squeeze
some insight from the mass of words and array of prescription drugs
applied against its havoc. Even the most comprehensively bureaucra-
tized medical knowledge can be made to speak, if only we are willing
to listen closely to the blank spaces, the paraphrases. Even acronyms
have feelings.
A note on medications: Fifty-plus years into the Antidepressant
Age, its still not clear that drugs are better than placebos. There
arent many long-term studies of efficacy or side effects, and the FDA
requires surprisingly few trials before approval. Each of the drugs
comes with a more or less plausible scientific explanation for why
it should work. But all we know is that some people get better after
taking them, some people dont, and some people get better without
taking them.
STUART GOLDENBERG
Of course, from a patients point of view, this is all moot. If youre

jumping out of your skin and the doctor says to take some pills, you
take them. In my case, none of them worked spectacularly well. But
only a couple had intolerable side effects or made the depression
worse.

The following records August 16, 1969

have been lightly edited. Trigg Clifton, MD/MB
Spelling errors have been Harvard University Health Services, Psychiatric Clinic
corrected, abbreviations Cambridge, Massachusetts
standardized, and doctors
names changed. Patient is seen as a courtesy visit because he is no longer actually
The Editors eligible for consultation here, as he graduated here from the col-
lege [Harvard] in June of this year. He has plans to attend Columbia
Graduate School.
He comes with very intense questions regarding Catholicism. In
the last several months he has begun to question increasingly whether
he can support a body of thought which stresses orthodoxy and lack
of investigation. He approaches the problem with me and with him-
self quite intellectually, but he is indeed, in spite of intellect, feeling in
much emotional turmoil over this. Support was given to him to move
towards a middle ground, which, in his style, is very hard for him.

In the last
several months
he has begun
to question
increasingly
whether he
can support a
body of thought
which stresses
orthodoxy
and lack of
investigation.
BR AD HOLL AND 9
He has felt frightened of the loss of the church, and, therefore, it
was clarified that he need not give up the church, or an organization
to which he belongs in the church, to pursue his questioning, and that
he would not be able to be content in any position he took until he
opened up the questions with himself and others. He was also con-
cerned that some of his actions have been inappropriate, and I did not
feel that they were inappropriate save that they were indicative of a
young man in considerable turmoil over some very important ques-
tions in life, and this was stated to the patient.
He will be talking with several priests and may indeed, when he
gets to Columbia, seek psychiatric help for the personality problem
of a semi-crippling obsessive-compulsive personality, i.e., he is often
paralyzed by self-doubts and inability to be decisive.
At the end of the interview he questioned whether his difficulties
would make him draft deferrable, and I stated that I did not think so.
DI AGN O SE S :Adjustment Reaction of Adolescence in an obsessive-
compulsive personality.

Patient reports
symptoms
September 30, 1970
of severe Trigg Clifton, MD/MB
Harvard University Health Services, Psychiatric Clinic
anxiety and
Cambridge, Massachusetts
obsessionality.
The patient has been in New York City in the graduate school at Co-
He reports
lumbia, but really had a severe obsessive breakdown in functioning,
being unable to necessitating his dropping out of school. He was in treatment about
eight months in New York City at the clinic, but left treatment for
make a decision
reasons that are not clear approximately two months ago. He is now
about anything, up here, hoping to pull himself together, and plans to take six courses
through the Extension [School].
even whether
He came to see me to reestablish contact, and to question if he
to continue could get into treatment. I am aware that his treatment has been
difficult for him, but see him as a very troubled man, and I would
therapy or not.
venture to say probably sicker than an adjustment reaction of adoles-
9 cencemore likely borderline personality with obsessive-compulsive
features. Obviously he could not be treated at this clinic, and he is
uncertain whether he wants to get into treatment at all. I told him
that if he did, he should feel free to get in touch with me and I would
find him a clinic in the area.
He is not suicidal, and there are no signs of acute decompensation.
August 17, 1981

Jennifer R. Hor nstein, MD/MB
This was the first Mental Health Service visit for this 33-year-old
young man who is currently working as a receptionist for the Center
for International Studies. He presents with the chief complaint, I
am worried about my medical condition. I tried to go to the clinic but
wasnt sure whether I should go. I think these symptoms are getting
worse.
The patient is a neatly groomed, articulate, extremely anxious
young man who presents with a history of anxiety for the past four
months. He states that since April, when he became 33, he has been
increasingly anxious with difficulty falling asleep, midnight awak-
ening and early morning awakening. He says that over the past few
weeks he has only been able to sleep approximately five hours per

night. He describes compulsive eating and heavy intake of junk
foods. He says that he has gained about eight pounds since April. He
reports a loss of energy, anhedonia, and a decrease in sexual interest
as well as a difficulty in obtaining erections. He denies suicidal or
homicidal ideation. He denies history of hallucinations or delusions.
He denies confused episodes. Furthermore he denies drug or alcohol
intake.
Over the past four months, he has become increasingly fatigued
and unable to cope with his current situation. He says that he is
reminded of a period when he was 21, when he decided to leave the
Catholic religious order which he had committed himself to.
Since leaving the Order, an Order for laymen who dedicated them-
selves to chastity and poverty, he has not been able to commit himself
to any pursuits. Over the past several months, he has gone from one
therapist to another and has recently been involved with primal ther-
apy. His involvement with primal therapy has lasted six months, but
he now says that he would like to pursue other avenues, and is unable
to explain why. He also saw several therapists, including a therapist at
the Harvard Community Health Plan who prescribed some Valium
for him, which he takes at a dose of 2.5 to 5 mg by mouth as needed to
a maximum of 5 mg at night. He says that this occasionally helps him
sleep but it has not relieved his anxiety in the long term.
He also states that approximately a month ago, he saw a therapist
who prescribed Sinequan for him. He took several doses of this but
says that it did not help and he discontinued this medication and has
not seen the therapist since.
Patient reports symptoms of severe anxiety and obsessionality. He
reports being unable to make a decision about anything, even whether
he will be able to continue therapy or not. He is worried that there
might be something medically wrong with him, and has made an
appointment to see Dr. Shepard for Wednesday. He is not sure what
he would like from me at this time, other than some instant relief, or
reassurance that his symptoms will not get much worse. He is worried
he will become so tired that he will not be able to return to the clinic
or even walk across the campus to see me for our next appointment.
I suggested that he come in again for further evaluation. I will see
STUART GOLDENBERG
him Friday and then refer him for the two weeks that I am on vaca-
tion. He says that he does have friends who will visit him so that he
is not entirely isolated. We also discussed the possibility that he may
come in to Walk-In at any time during this week, or that he may call
the Emergency Room if he feels the need.
My initial impression is that this young man presents with an Desipramine: Tricyclic
agitated depression or anxiety attacks. He denies hyperventilation antidepressant. Stealthy,
or palpitations. However, he does describe some phobic symptoms slow-moving. I felt better,
in that he is worried that he will stay in his house and not be able to very gradually.

leave. I did not think that acute hospitalization was necessary at this
time. I discussed the possibility of beginning antidepressants, which
may be helpful in treatment of both the depression and the panic
attack symptoms. However, I also advised him that we would need
further work up before beginning medication.
This patient appears to have difficulty in following through with
appointments in the past, and I discussed the necessity of continued
evaluations and appointments in order that the evaluation be com-
pleted. My plan is to see him Friday and refer him for continued evalu-
ation during the next two weeks.
August 26, 1981

Jeffrey F. Parsnip, MD/MB
As arranged by Dr. Jennifer R. Hornstein, I met with Mr. Scialabba

today. My assessment, which is in agreement with Dr. Hornsteins,
is that this man suffers from a rather severe endogenous depression
superimposed on a schizoid personality.
Symptoms of major depression that he admits to, which have been
present for two to four months, include frequent early morning awak-
ening; constipation; absent interest in sex; diurnal variations, with the
early morning the worst; increased appetite with eight pounds weight
gain; and profoundly decreased energy. I do not think that he suffers
from true panic attacks, but rather somatic symptoms of anxiety.
The only family history of emotional illness is a first cousin,
mothers brothers son, who committed suicide at age 21. There is no
STUART GOLDENBERG
family history of alcohol abuse.

Certainly the chronic decline in functioning from his levels of a de-
cade ago is disturbing. After graduating Harvard in 1969 with a group
2 average, he flunked out of Columbia, where he was studying history.
Since then, he has spent a number of years working as a social worker
Valium (diazepam): in a local welfare department, but he says that this job was largely
Just as air fresheners paper work. He has been working as a receptionist at Harvard for
dont disperse the smell the last year. He has no close friends and although he has had sexual
but cover it over with an intercourse he has not had close or enduring relationships.
even stronger one (but less He describes his mother as having been dominating, although very
unpleasant), benzodiaz- nervous, and his father as a timid, weak man. Father held an office job
epines dont cure your and mother was a stitcher. There is one brother who is taking night
anxiety; they make you school courses at Suffolk Community College and works in the Public
less able to feel it. Works Department. Thus, the patient greatly exceeded the level of the

BR AD HOLL AND
success of his family, simply by going to Harvard and doing well there. Within the
I wonder whether part of his subsequent decline is attributable
last 24 hours,
to oedipal fears which his success represented. He now has multiple
fears of losing control, which he fantasizes would result in his be- the agony is a
coming passive, being unable to hold a job, going on welfare or into
bit less, but he
a hospital and not being able to take care of himself. This may be a
regression prompted by his earlier successes. doesnt trust the
He describes having wanted to be a priest from second or third
feeling. He still
grade, and such a role was highly respected within his community. He
currently has fears that his turning away from religion may have been has a worms eye
a mistake and that he could be damned to hell for this. He also fears
view of his life.
punishment for compulsive masturbation, which he says he engaged in
daily for ten years prior to his loss of sexual urges these last few months.
Given the chronic schizoid adaptation, the apparent decline in
9
function over a ten-year period, and his albeit culturally sanctioned
interest in religion and philosophy, I looked hard for a thought
disorder but was unable to satisfy myself of the presence of one. His
functioning within the last four months is clearly discontinuous with
his chronic level of functioning over the last ten years. During these
four months he has classic signs of an endogenous depression of severe
degree, with agitation.
Physical examination has been performed and is normal. CBS,
SGOT, urinalysis, and thyroid function tests are normal. BUN is

Patient will marginally elevated. Dexamethasone suppression test is negative.
It is my assessment that he will likely benefit with a course of tri-
understand
cyclic antidepressant therapy. I began discussing this with him today
more about and will meet with him for further discussion tomorrow, and probably
start him on desipramine at that time.
the connection
between his
behavior and
his depression.
Patient will feel
July 6, 1987
less despair and Melinda R. Maron
McLean Hospital, A mbulatory Care Services
guilt about his
Belmont, Massachusetts
choices.
I N TA K E R E P OR T
9 Chief Complaint: Patient saw Dr. Mason once, and he referred
him here because of financial concerns. Generally feels emotionally
fragile. Is high-strung and unable to make life decisions. Feels hes
drifting professionally. Ridiculously over-qualified for what he does!
History of Present Problem: Early traumatic break from religious
tradition, Catholicism, at age 21 and feels that hes never really
recovered.
Family Information/Current Living Situation: Lives alone. Par-
ents and one brother live in the area.
Medical History/Current Medications: Physically in good health
not bursting with energy. No meds. No alcohol or drugs.
Previous Outpatient Treatment: Yesfew times in the 70s.
Previous Hospitalizations: None.
Additional Psychiatric History: No. One cousin had psych prob-
lems and suicide at age 22.
Insurance Coverage: HVHP
Impression at Intake: Patient found it very difficult to talk, seemed
very constricted and upset.

December 30, 1987
Melinda R. Maron
McLean Hospital, A mbulatory Care Services
Belmont, Massachusetts
T R E AT M E N T PL A N
Problem No. 1: Depression as shown by social isolation, inability to

make career decisions, and overwhelming feelings of guilt.
Goal (long term): Reduce feelings of guilt, paralysis about decision,
and social isolation.
Objectives (short term): Patient will understand more about the
connection between his behavior and his depression. Patient will feel
less despair and guilt about his choices.
Expected Achievement Dates: Long term6/90. Short term9/88.
Specific Plans: Individual psychotherapy, once per week.
Psychopharmacology with behavior therapy, once per month.
Problem No. 2: Personality disorder with obsessive-compulsive style
and depression that contribute to his paralysis and lack of intimate
relationships.
Goal (long term): Modification of obsessive-compulsive defenses.
Objectives (short term): Patient will become more flexible and toler-
ant of himself and his affects.
Expected Achievement Dates: Long term6/90. Short term9/88.
Termination Criteria: Reduce depression. Modification of rigidity
of obsessive-compulsive personality disorder.
STUART GOLDENBERG
DI AGN O SI S S U M M A RY
Identifying Data: Mr. Scialabba is a 39-year-old white single male

who works full time in a clerical position at Harvard University. He
graduated from Harvard in 1969. Mr. Scialabba described himself as
growing up a devout Catholic, but he left the church after graduat-
Parnate (tranylcypro-
ing from Harvard. He was referred by Dr. David Mason, attending
mine): Monoamine oxi-
psychiatrist at McLean.
dase inhibitor. You cant
Data Source: Mr. Scialabba has been seen by Roberta Tate, LICSW, have red wine, sausage,
in once-a-week psychotherapy since 8/87. The patient was assessed on cheese, chocolate, or fava
7/23/87, by Dr. Juan Durendal, and some of the data in this report has beans, or you may have a
been taken from that assessment. stroke.

Chief Complaint: Mr. Scialabba described himself as emotionally

fragile, high-strung, and unable to make life decisions. I am ridicu-
lously over-qualified for what I do; I feel stalled in my life and want to
know if there is a medication that could help me.
History of Presenting Problem: Mr. Scialabba dates his psychiatric
symptoms back to age 17 when he developed incapacitating anxiety
when he had any sexual impulse and he would have guilty ruminations
that disrupted his usual activities. He went to a priest who told him
he would be responsible to God for the patients sexual impulses, and
the anxiety episodes stopped. Mr. Scialabba also joined a very devout
all-male Catholic organization called Opus Dei, and he became very
involved in that organization during his undergraduate years at Har-
vard. He felt a missionary zeal about converting others and involv-
ing them in Opus Dei. Mr. Scialabba describes his commitment as
intense, demanding, and lifelong. After four years of college he lost
all belief in Catholicism.
Mr. Scialabba describes his leaving the church and Opus Dei as
extremely difficult, and he described an episode of confusion and
perhaps of depersonalization in which he didnt know what he was
going to do, but he went into a meeting of Opus Dei and tried to speak
about his loss of faith. Instead he became agitated and had to be led
from the room. Mr. Scialabba feels he has never recovered from this
emotional upset. He describes the time leading up to his departure
from Opus Dei as the most intensely meaningful, exciting time in
his life, when he felt that all of life and intellectual and philosophical
pursuits were open to him.
He attempted graduate school at Columbia in European intel-
lectual history as well as Harvard Law School, but he dropped out of
STUART GOLDENBERG
both because whenever he attempted to do serious work in philosophy

or intellectual history, he would become unbearably agitated and have
to stop. He returned to Cambridge after one year at Columbia and has
remained here ever since.
Mr. Scialabba has had a series of undemanding and unrewarding
Prozac (fluoxetine):
jobs such as substitute teaching, welfare social worker, and currently
The first of the SSRIs;
is a receptionist/staff assistant at Harvards Center for International
the grandparent of them
Studies. Mr. Scialabba, during the last 5 years, has done a fair amount
all. In Listening to Prozac,
of freelance book reviewing for the Village Voice and a journal called
Peter Kramer popular-
Grand Street.
ized the phrase better
than well to describe
how Prozac makes you
feel. But when it induces
akathisiarestlessness,
intense agitationits
worse than bad.

BR AD HOLL AND

When he
tried to read
May 28, 1996
philosophy Bert Milliner, PhD, MPH
or political
history, he was
Mr. Scialabba is 48, born in Boston and grew up in East Boston. His
unable to focus,
parents are living, married, and live in East Boston. He is the second
felt a certain of two with an older brother. He is single, never married, in a relation-
ship with Janice at 45 or 46, and she is an editor at an academic press
background
and writing her dissertation. The relationship has been ongoing for
tension. 2.5 years, and Mr. Scialabba has no children. He does not have a lot of
friends but has a few. He has a masters degree in history, is a building
9 manager at the International Studies Center, but spends much time in
freelance book reviews. He has been at the International Studies Cen-
ter for 16 years. He lives in Cambridge alone, does not smoke, does
not drink, does not use any drugs, has no history of these, no family
history, and in terms of psychiatric history, he had a first cousin who
committed suicide at 20. He notes his mother is a severely dysthymic
and severely obsessional person, diagnoses which have been applied
to him by an eminent psychiatrist and which seem right to him. He
has no physical problems and takes Zoloft, up to 250 mg at this time,
although he was on a maintenance dose for three years of 50 mg. He
does not get very regular exercise, jogs once a week, and does 510
minutes of calisthenics each morning. In terms of psychological treat-
ment, he has been in psychotherapy a number of times, he would say
unsuccessfully, only once for more than a year. He has had two clini-
cal depressions in the last 15 years, both for several months, but pretty
awful. He has seen Dr. Woodcourt for about five years.
He presents today noting that he was a little shaken by the episode
six weeks ago. He does not know what brought it on, noting he wound
up in psychodynamic therapy three years ago after five years. It was
someone he liked but it didnt seem to help. He thinks his concerns
are partly biochemical and he is grateful for Zoloft.
He has come across a number of articles that say cognitive therapy
has the highest success rate, he has read Feeling Good and one or two
books by Aaron Beck, although he was rather scornful of these and
still is. He is sympathetic to psychoanalytic ideas, but he has been
humbled by these depressions.
The overall problem he notes was that he was a very devout Catho-
lic, part of a religious order, which he left at 21 during the summer be-
tween college and graduate school. He was so agitated he had to drop
out of graduate school. Seemingly, the pieces of his life never came
back together. He did not feel able to do any intellectual work, never

resumed his life again. When he tried to read philosophy or political
history, he was unable to focus, felt a certain background tension. For
the past 15 years, he has been in literary criticism, written about 150
book reviews, won a national award. However, it is not the same as
having a career, and he still feels kind of disabled. On a micro-level, he
has always been very obsessive, fretful, replaying decisions, defen-
sive, and feeling he has to defend himself against imagined threats,
although he has never been delusional or psychotic.
I explained our more focused and briefer time frame and noted if
he was going to begin something that would be longer term, hed want
to actually change his basic affect. He never went back to graduate
school because he didnt think he could handle it, and although he
would not choose to do so now, he would want to feel he could. He
seemingly had felt that if he pulled out all the stops, he would freeze
up. If we had only a few sessions, he would want me to convince him
to decide on whether to go on in terms of therapy and what kinds of
therapy it would be or what realistic goals he might set.
I briefly explained my view of cognitive therapy as involving the
belief system of both the therapist and the patient and involving the
belief that ones cognitions could affect ones experience and ones
feelings. He said this sounded reasonable to him and that he was
ready to try anything. We set a follow up for June 17, at 10 a.m.
May 16, 2005

Allan Woodcourt, MD
Harvard University Mental Health Services
In the past three days hes sunk into a severe agitated depression again.
He feels worse than hes ever felt. He feels like pacing all day, and has
trouble sleeping, though he feels exhausted. Its getting harder and
STUART GOLDENBERG
harder to eat. He thinks of death, but would not kill himself, and
hasnt been making plans. He wants to go to a rest house. We agreed
that hospitalization would not help because of the environment. He
has nobody he can turn to. His girlfriend is too busy to take time off.
He hasnt called her and told her what hes going through, but I encour-
aged him to. He doesnt have faith in the Effexor, but it worked for Ativan (lorazepam):
years, and hes relapsed at least partly because he lowered the dose. We Habit-forming, sleep-
agreed hed increase to 150 mg immediately. Hell also use lorazepam inducing, respite-bringing
during the day, which has helped before, and olanzapine at night, for benzodiazepine. Helped
its antidepressant-augmenting possibility. Hell be back to me tomor- me calm down after
row, late in the day, and knows about the availability of urgent care. Prozac.

June 9, 2005
Allan Woodcourt, MD
He says that, within the last 24 hours, the agony is a bit less, but he
doesnt trust the feeling. He still has a worms eye view of himself and
his life. It turns out that he wont have to be housed in a corner of his
bosss office in the new building, but will have a very small office of
his own, which is a huge relief. Hell have to come to work on time (11
a.m.) in the new location. Hes not used to that. In his old job, he was
able to get the little which needed to be done accomplished on a very
flexible schedule. He chides himself for his immaturity in that he
has a menial job, etc. But at this point, hes still not in touch with what
new freedom he might like which more maturity would give him.
Hell continue to see Dr. Pingloss in June and, when Im back in July,
well work on another referral for him. Hell see Ms. Lewis next week
( June 15) for monitoring.
He found his consultation with Dr. Morrell helpful, partly because
the appointment was longer, and I was able to tell my whole story.
September 21, 2005

Luke Honeythunder, MD
Beth Isr ael Deaconess Medical Center
Boston, Massachusetts
Electroconvulsive Therapy, Treatment #1

I. Subjective/Objective
Clinical Assessment: I met with him & brother as outpatient. I
again discussed with him the ECT benefits & risks, with the latter
including death, cognitive problems, cardio-pulmonary problems, &
STUART GOLDENBERG
others. He understood and agreed.

Suicidal Assessment: He denies suicidal or destructive ideas, intent,
plan.
Memory Assessment: Cognition intact.
Lithium: Used for II. ECT

bipolar disease more than Observations: He tolerated the procedure well.
depression; it made me
feel like a slug. III. Post ECT

BR AD HOLL AND
Observations: By 65 minutes after ECT, he was recovering well,

cognitively and physically.
September 23, 2005

Luke Honeythunder, MD
Beth Isr ael Deaconess Medical Center
Boston, Massachusetts
Electroconvulsive Therapy, Treatment #2

I. Subjective/Objective
Clinical Assessment: Depressed mood with dysphoric affect.

I again Asked about when to expect improvement in mood. Psychomotor
retardation.
discussed with
Suicidal Assessment: No SI voiced.
him the ECT Memory Assessment: Grossly intact for recent events.
benefits & II. ECT
risks, with the Observations: Patient tolerated ECT well.
latter including III. Post ECT

Observations: Within 30 minutes after ECT, patient was recover-
death.
ing well physically (with nausea) but continued to have difficulty with
9 orientation. He notes he is still depressed.
October 18, 2005

Allan Woodcourt, MD
Hes now had about eight ECT treatments. Hes having significant
short-term memory problems, and forgot his appointment with Ms.
Trone, and forgot that he had any appointments scheduled with me. His
brother called me and we straightened that out. He says the agony is
gone, but that he feels numb and unmotivated. Hes not working now,
and spends much of his time in bed. He is beginning to read a bit, and
we talked about something in the New York Review of Books. He says he
has little appetite. Hes seeing friends, a bit, but finds it hard with his
memory problems. Hes not been seeing Dr. Gusstav during the series
of ECT, and thinks he may not be a good match for him anyway.
November 3, 2005
Allan Woodcourt, MD
He says, for the first time in at least six months, Im alright. His
mood is definitely better. Hes dressed better, and even smiles a bit.
He still has decreased concentration and motivation, but hes eating
better, and is doing some socializing. He went to a friends birthday
party last weekend, and is going to a concert this weekend. Hell be
continuing the ECT treatments, twice weekly, for now.

=================================
February 16, 2007, 7:33 p.m.
From: George Scialabba
To: Allan Woodcourt, MD
Subject: zoloft
Ive started to see someone and Im a little concerned about the effect
of Zoloft on my libido. Do you think it would be all right to go down
gradually to 100 mg? George
=================================
February 18, 2007, 11:05 a.m.
From: Allan Woodcourt, MD
To: George Scialabba
Im extremely reluctant to see you taper the Zoloft, but I can well
understand your frustration with the current situation. When I get
back to work on Tuesday, maybe we can set up an appointment to
brainstorm about what to do. Al Woodcourt
=================================
February 20, 2007, 1:38 p.m.
From: George Scialabba
OK, maybe youre right. I suppose I shouldnt take any unnecessary

risks. Do you feel the same way about 150 mg? George
=================================
February 20, 2007 5:02 p.m.
To: George Scialabba
STUART GOLDENBERG
I doubt that going down to 150 mg would improve your sexual func-
tion very much if at all, and it would increase the risk of a relapse, so I
wouldnt be in favor of that either. Al Woodcourt
================================= Zoloft (sertraline):

February 20, 2007, 5:19 p.m. An SSRI; my pill for two
From: George Scialabba decades. At first it seemed
To: Allan Woodcourt, MD to have no side effects.
Now its known that most
Ok, better safe than sorry. Ill stay at 200 mg. George people who take it find
their sexual functioning
impaired.

=================================
August 1, 2008, 9:30 a.m.
To: Debor ah Simmons, MD
Subject: George S.
We share George Scialabba, who has a history of devastating depres-

sions. Hes been well for the past two years, but before that he was
nearly dead, and was only rescued by ECT, which he had at the Beth
Israel Deaconess Medical Center. He has a therapist whom he sees ev-
ery other week, and I see him only every 46 months. He does well on
his sertraline 200 mg [Zoloft], but hes always tempted to cut it back.
My role is to point out to him what a big mistake that would be.
Hes relied on me for many years at University Health Services,
but his relationship to me is ambivalent. He felt very attached to Dr.
Cindy Shepard and feels very comfortable with you. I am wondering
if you would take over monitoring his sertraline after I retire? If his
depression returns, youd have to refer him out, and my own thought
would be that he should go back to ECT early rather than after
many drug trials. Id be happy to be available to consult about him
by email or by phone.
If you dont feel comfortable with this plan, please dont hesitate
to say so, and Ill hook him up with someone down here before I go.
Thanks for considering. Al
=================================
August 1, 2008, 9:33 a.m.
From: Debor ah Simmons, MD
STUART GOLDENBERG
I think I have an open and thoughtful relationship with him and

would be happy to monitor his meds. He is having a sleep study soon
since he has a sleep disorder that is not entirely clear to me.
Deborah
Effexor (venlafaxine):
Serotonin-norepineph-
rine reuptake inhibitor.
A double-barreled threat. July 6, 2012, 11:15 p.m.
Hopes were high. But I Lenor a Giles, LICSW
fell into a severe depres- Harvard University Health Services
sion, and blamed it on the After Hours Urgent Care Clinic
drug. Apart from Prozac, Cambridge, Massachusetts
the only drug thats made
me feel worse. Reason for Call: Patient called the After Hours Urgent Care Clinic

BR AD HOLL AND
at 11:15 p.m. Friday evening requesting help for an emergency. He

reports being seriously depressed and suffering, in a tremendous
amount of pain. When asked if he felt safe, he replied, this is an
emergency, I dont think I would do that but it cant get much worse.
Patient of mental health for over twenty years with history and
treatment of major depression, including ECT. Had recently foolish-
ly (his report) began tapering his medication. In the last few days he
has felt significantly worse, not sleeping, not eating, in acute pain and
suffering. Denies any ETOH use. His initial request was for medica-
tion. Based on what he was reporting, my recommendation was that
he go to Cambridge Hospital, saving the step of a visit to University
Health Services. I suggested to him that would be the most efficient

Currently, way for him to be evaluated for medication and potentially inpatient.
He agreed and was relieved. He asked me to speak with his girlfriend
patient reports
who was with him. She had come over to support him and found
low energy, him curled up on the bed, crying.
They will go together to Cambridge ER, she will stay with him and
poor sleep,
present her observations to the evaluating clinician. They will ask the
agitation, hospital to call and report the disposition to AHUC.
as well as a
tightness in
his chest and
July 23, 2012
a flaming Joanne Levy, MD
sensation
within me.
Chief Complaint: I have been feeling very depressed.
9 History of the Present Illness: Mr. Scialabba is a 64-year-old self-
described writer and academic coordinator at Harvard who has a 30-
year history of major depression. He has had at least 56 major depres-
sive episodes in his life, the most recent of which started in the spring
of this year following a taper of his Zoloft medication from 200 mg
to 100 mg daily. He described feeling very irritable a few weeks after
starting the taper (which was started by his PCP after patient voiced
concern over decreased libido), but that the onset has been somewhat
gradual and insidious in general. Mr. Scialabba began seeing Dr. Filep
in Behavioral Health in January of 2012 and tapered his Zoloft slowly.
By June of 2012 he began feeling increasingly depressed. The Zoloft
was restarted, but the decline continued. Was hospitalized about 2
weeks ago in Everett (went to Cambridge Health Alliance ER) for 3
days, where Ativan was started with some effect on sleep and Zoloft
was increased further to 100 mg daily. Continues to have anxiety.
Last saw Dr. Filep on July 10, 2012, and, at that time, the Zoloft was
increased from 100 mg to 200 mg daily. Patient came in today with
a close male friend, John, who feels strongly that the patient cannot
wait for his symptoms to improve and was concerned that the patient
would be headed towards a severe depression if there was not an ur-
gent intervention. Currently, patient endorses low energy, depressed
mood, difficult focusing, poor sleep, agitation, as well as a tightness
in his chest and a flaming sensation within me (which is reportedly
characteristic of his past episodes). Does not have suicidal thoughts
currently, but has wished in the recent past that he would be able to go
to sleep and not wake up. Has many friends and supports here in Bos-
ton, who reportedly give him hope for the future. Discussed options

for immediate intervention, as well as longer-term medication/treat-
ment options. Patient does not feel that he needs to be hospitalized at
this time. Suggested increasing the Ativan for agitation and continu-
ing to give some time for the increased dosage of Zoloft to take effect.
Also discussed ECT, as that has worked in the past, though this
clinician feels it is premature to discuss this as patient was maintained
on Zoloft for more than 5 years with no reoccurance of his depression
in the past and he is still in the middle of an upwards titration.
Past Psychiatric History: At least 5 major depressive episodes in the
past with very chronic symptoms (per past notes, symptoms resistant
to a multitude of treatment at times), one prior inpatient hospitaliza-
tion just this month (July 2012), no prior suicide attempts, history of
ECT in 2005 which was very effective. Past medications have includ-
ed: Parnate, desipramine, nortriptyline, Effexor XR, Wellbutrin, Ad-
derall, Strattera. Saw Dr. Woodcourt at Harvard University Health
Services for many years (at least since 19932008). States that he has
an outside therapist who is an analyst that he sees every 2 weeks for
the past 5 years, but that the therapist is on vacation for a month and
that he has not seen the treater in quite some time. No history of a
prior manic episode or psychotic symptoms.
Past Medical History: (Per chart) sleep apnea, benign prostatic
hyperplasia, impotence, and sexual dysfunction.
Social History: Works as a coordinator at Center for Government
and International Studies at Harvard. Has been able to work recently,
but in the past has missed many months of work due to depression.
Lives alone in Cambridge. Is very close to his brother and notes that
he has two other close friends who check in on him regularly (one of
whom is present today with him). Denies having access to any weap-
ons in the home or otherwise. Likes to write and has several published
pieces.
STUART GOLDENBERG
Family History: Both of patients parents were reportedly dysthy-

mic, maternal grandmother had ECT, first cousin suicided at age 21.
Detailed Mental Status Exam: Decently groomed, thin, frail man.
Discusses his symptoms and suffering openly.
Treatment Review: Discussed a goal of decreasing patients mood Ritalin (methylpheni-
symptoms and anxiety from a 8/10 to at least a 5/10 over the next week. date): Not an antidepres-
sant, but a stimulant.
Current Plan:
Given for ADHD or (sub
1. Add a second dose of Ativan in a.m. when anxiety is at its worst
rosa) to help students stay
(0.5 mg)
up all night writing pa-
2. Follow up again this week ( July 27, 2012) to assess if the symptoms pers. The doctor thought
have improved due to medication compliance with Zoloft and addi- it might give me a boost.

tion of Ativan dosage. Was instructed to call (during business hours)

or go to the nearest emergency room for help if he feels actively sui-
cidal or unsafe at home.
3. Will consider ECT consult if symptoms worsen or if no better in
12 weeks.
4. Patient will resume care with assigned clinician Dr. Filep when she
returns from vacation.
[ADDENDUM]
I am as puzzled and frustrated by the above records, and by the rest

of my psychiatric file, as any casual reader could be. So much ear-
nest effort, so much expert knowledge, so little success. The worlds
most common disease is still this opaque.
Having read half a dozen compelling depression memoirsSty-
ron, Jamison, Millett, Solomon, Kaysen, McMurtryI was skeptical,
when The Baffler proposed publishing extracts from my file, that there
was much more to say. Maybe there isnt, at least not in that register.
But maybe its enough just to keep talking.
Let me bring this melancholy chronicle up to date. The last record
printed here is dated July 2012. Things remained bad through August
and September. In early October I began a three-month medical
leave of absence, with pay; I had taken a similar leave in 2005, when
the depression was at its worst. Harvard has a generous provision for
medical leave, perhaps because of the presence of a strong union, the
Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers (HUCTW). Once
again, the medical leave made possible a course of electroconvulsive
therapy, this one only about half as long as before.
STUART GOLDENBERG
What would have happened if I had not received those medical

leaves is something Id rather not think about. At the least, a psycho-
logical ordeal would have eventuated in a financial calamity. The com-
bination of an enlightened employer and a strong union is one that
ever fewer Americans enjoy. Universal financial security is probably
Wellbutrin (bupro- the single best countermeasure to the depression epidemic. It would
pion): An idiosyncratic certainly be more effective and more humaneand even, perhaps,
antidepressant, not well cheaperthan providing antidepressants and ECT.
understood. When used Since early 2013, Ive been depression-free. A good therapist has
with SSRIs, can counter helped, as well as a few sweet professional successes. A doctor once
the sexual side effects. cautioned me that after three major depressions the probability of a
Alas, I seem to be allergic; recurrence approaches 100 percent. She didnt say how soon, though.
I broke out in a rash both Hope springs eternal.t
times. George Scialabba

BR AD HOLL AND

E x h i bi t D 5 Shawn Huckins

Terror Cells
Aint no cure for dystopian biology
3 Barbar a Ehrenreich
A t around the turn of the millennium,

some disturbing findings surfaced
in the biomedical literature. Macrophages
cancerwithout ever once mentioning that
certain types of immune cells have a tendency
to go over to the other side.
immune cells whose function is to attack and But the evidence for immune cell collusion
kill microbes and other threats to the body with cancer keeps piling up. Macrophages sup-
do not gather at tumor sites to destroy cancer ply cancer cells with chemical growth factors
cells, as had been optimistically imagined. In- and help build the new blood vessels required
stead, they encourage the cancer cells to con- by a growing tumor. So intimately are they
tinue their mad reproductive rampage. Frances involved with the deadly progress of cancer
Balkwill, the British cell biologist who per- that they can account for up to 50 percent of
formed some of the key studies of treasonous a tumors mass. Macrophages also appear to
immune cell behavior, described her colleagues be necessary if the cancer is to progress to its
in the field as being horrified. deadliest phase, metastasis. When cancerous
By and large, medical science continues to mice were treated to eliminate all their macro-
present a happy face to the public. Self-help phages, their tumors stopped metastasizing.
books and websites go right on advising can- A May 2014 paper in the journal Cancer
cer patients to boost their immune systems in Cell offers a chilling account of the macro-
order to combat the disease; patients should phagecancer cell interaction. Macrophages
eat right and cultivate a supposedly immune- are among the most mobile cells in the body,
boosting positive attitude. Better yet, they capable of moving through the bloodstream
are urged to visualize the successful de- or creeping, like amoebae, by extending pseu-
struction of cancer cells by the bodys immune dopods and pulling themselves along. When
cells, following guidelines such as: macrophages encounter breast cancer cells,
they do not do what we would like them to
Cancer cells are weak and confused, and
do, which is to attack and engulf the enemy.
should be imagined as something that can
Instead, the Cancer Cell article suggests, the
fall apart like ground hamburger.
macrophages release a growth factor that en-
There is an army of different kinds of white courages the cancer cells to elongate them-
blood cells that can overwhelm the cancer selves into a mobile, invasive form poised
cells. for metastasis. These elongated cancer cells,
in turn, release a chemical that further acti-
W hite blood cells are aggressive and want to
vates the macrophagesleading to the release
seek out and attack the cancer cells.
of more growth factor, and so on. A positive
At a more respectable level of discourse, Har- feedback loop is established. Or, to put it
vard physician Jerome Groopman wrote an more colorfully, the macrophages and cancer
entire 2012 New Yorker article on scientific cells seem to excite one another to the point
attempts to enlist the immune system against where the cancer cells are pumped up and

ready to set out from the breast in search of Part of the appeal of molecules over cells is
fresh lebensraumin the lungs, for example, that molecules can be collected in test tubes
or the liver or brain. like any nonliving chemical, stored in a re-
You will find little of this drama in the frigerator, and analyzed at leisure by the usual
article itself, and not only because it is a sci- chemical methods. Cells can be pulverized and
entific paper that happens to have seventeen fractionated into their constituent molecules,
coauthors. Their data focuses entirely on the of course, but living cells have to be observed
chemical exchange between the two types with the patience of an ethnologist studying
of cellswhich is a little like describing a hu- chimpanzee behavior in the wild. After months
man flirtation entirely in terms of hormones of biochemical studies of macrophages, I once
and pheromones. But what goes on among the had a chance to see a living one under a phase
living cells in the body? How many cells (mac- contrast microscope and was surprised, in
rophages and cancer cells) are required before my navet, to find that it was moving, its sur-
the positive feedback loop can take off? Do face rippling and corrugating like that of a sea
the macrophages and cancer cells actually anemone. The cells of our body are analogs of,
touch one another, perhaps briefly fusing cell and evolutionary descendants of, the unicel-
membranes, or do the chemical messages they lular creatures that preceded multicellular life
exchange travel through the intercellular ma- and, in a sense, are tiny animals themselves.
trix? And then there are the deeper, perhaps
unanswerable, questions, like whats in this The cells of our body are,
for the macrophages, which by enabling me-
in a sense, tiny animals
tastasis seal their own doom? Or for that mat-
ter, whats in it for the cancer cells, which will themselves.
die along with the organism they destroy?
9
Kill, Eat, Repeat
If science seems to balk at the behavior of in- Only very recently, new techniques in mi-
dividual cells (and small groups of cells), this croscopy have made it possible to track the be-
is because twentieth-century biology, in its havior of individual cells in living tissue, and
reductionist zeal, tended to zip right past cells the resulting images reveal striking degrees of
to get to the more glamorous molecular level. individuality. If you calculate the bulk average
Cancer research came to focus on the DNA of movements within a sample group of cells,
mutations that predispose cells to a career most cells turn out to be going their own way,
of selfish reproduction. Immunology down- on paths far from the average. Cancer cells
played macrophages in favor of an obsession within a tumor exhibit extreme diversity.
with antibodiesthe protein molecules that NK, or natural killer, cells, which, like mac-
can mark a foreign cell, like a microbe, for rophages, attack targets like microbes, do not
destructionalthough it is chiefly macro- always kill. A 2013 article reports that about
phages that do the destroying. My first thesis half of the NK cells sit out the fight, leaving
advisor at Rockefeller University won a Nobel a minority of them to become what their hu-
Prize for elucidating the structure of antibody man observers call serial killers.
molecules. My second thesis advisor got far Individual cells have no mental lifeno
less recognition, and a much smaller lab, for thoughts or feelingsat least none that we
his work on how macrophages kill and digest can imagine, if only because they lack nervous
their prey. systems. But macrophages and NK cells are

JORDIN ISIP

The wisdom of the body does not always apply at the microscopic level.
An individual cell can sabotage the entire operation.
9
capable of memory, or different responses to are made. As for macrophages, collusion with
stimuli they have encountered before. Risking cancer cells is only one of the ways they can
anthropomorphism, scientists now speak of undermine the organism. Overly ambitious
decision-making by individual cells such as macrophages play a central role in autoim-
macrophages. The cells sniff the chemicals in mune diseases and the many inflammatory
their microenvironment, seem to weigh their ailments, like arthritis, that plague the elder-
options, and then decide whether to attack or ly. In coronary artery disease, macrophages
withdraw, move forward or remain where they pile up on the arterial walls, where they fatten
are. As one science news site put it: themselves on lipids until there is no space
in the artery for blood to flow through. The
Cells are constantly making decisions about
macrophages are doing what comes naturally
what to do, where to go or when to divide.
to them: eating. Unfortunately, there is no
Many of these decisions are hard-wired in
central authority to tell them to desist lest the
our DNA or strictly controlled by external
whole multicellular contraption that is the
signals and stimuli. Others, though, seem to
body come to grief.
be made autonomously by individual cells.
As an analogy to the erratic immune system
Just a decade ago, any talk about cellular (which includes macrophages, NK cells, and a
decision-making would have been taken host of other cell types, including antibody-
for whimsy. Cells, as we knew them then, producing lymphocytes), biology teachers of-
were programmed both genetically and epi- ten invoke the military. Any human society
genetically (through chemical modifications within a spears throw of potential enemies
to DNA occurring during development) to needs some kind of defensive forcemini-
perform their functions in the body. Heart mally, an armed group who can defend against
cells beat, intestinal cells secrete digestive en- invaders. But there are risks to maintaining a
zymes, nerve cells conduct electrical signals, garrison: the warriors may get greedy and turn
etc.and those that falter at their tasks oblig- against their own people, demanding ever
ingly commit suicide through a process called more food and other resources. Similarly, in
apoptosis. Furthermore, most body cells, the case of the body, without immune cells we
most of the time, are fixed in place by glue-like would be helpless in the face of invading mi-
attachments to other cells. Individual cells crobes. With them, we face the possibility of
have no decisions to make, we used to think, insurrection and self-inflicted death.
because they have no choice but to serve the
organism by tirelessly carrying out their as- Dystopian Biology
signed roles. It is disconcerting to think of the biological
But that old deterministic model of cell self, or body, as a collection of tiny selves. The
behavior offered little insight into cellular image that comes to mind is the grotesque
rebellions such as cancer. Many cells may be portrait of a super-sized king in the frontis-
exposed to a carcinogen, but only some turn piece of Hobbess Leviathan: on close inspec-
into cancer cells, and of those, only a fraction tion, the king turns out to be composed of
go on to a career of metastasis. Decisions hundreds of little people crowded into his

arms and torso. Hobbess point was that hu- body unified as a single sustainable organism,
man societies need autocratic leaders; oth- does not always apply at the microscopic level,
erwise they risk degenerating into a war of where an individual cell can sabotage the en-
all against all. But no king rules the body. tire operation.
Despite, or sometimes because of, all the com- Natural selection should weed out cellular
municationschemical and electricalthat traitors, you might think, since people who
connect the tissues and cells of the body, cha- are vulnerable to cancer, autoimmune diseas-
os can always break out. es, and pathological inflammationat least at
It would be nice to think that the brain, early agesare less likely to reproduce. The
with which we do our thinking, is a more tight- truth is, though, that we do not know for sure
ly disciplined place, set off as it is from the tur- what natural selection means at the cellular
moil of the body by the bloodbrain barrier, level. Often, when a person with cancer is sub-
like a computer kept in a dust-free, air-con- jected to chemotherapy, some of the cancer
ditioned room. But living brain cells are not cells survive through what can only be called
entirely predictable. The glial cells that sup- natural selection. A victory at the cellular lev-
port and nourish neurons can become cancer- el may mean defeat for the organism.
ous (as, more rarely, can neurons themselves). This is madness, of course. But then, who
Then too, the brain has its own army of mac- are we, as human beings, to be appalled by the
rophages, or microglia as they are called, and irresponsible decisions of our bodys cells?
overactive microglia can, like macrophages We too are biological organisms, supposedly
in other parts of the body, create damaging doing our best to survive and promote the sur-
inflammations, leading to neurodegenerative vival of our kin. And we too, like rogue cells
diseases. Bizarrely enough, new research this in our bodies, can be murderous, suicidal, and
year shows that breast cancer cells sometimes systematically destructive of our physical hab-
disguise themselves as neurons, penetrate itats. We, of all creatures, should appreciate
the bloodbrain barrier, and start fresh tu- the perversity, as well as the clockwork preci-
mors in the brain. If individual cells have func- sion, of biology.t
tions, they do not always seem to know it.
It took science until 2012 to officially ac-
knowledge that nonhuman animals possess
feelings and consciousness. It may take a bit
longer for biology to admit that the cells in
our bodies are not simply automata, that they
possess, if not consciousness, at least some
sort of agency. As recently as 2008, an article
on the confusing taxonomy of macrophages
proposed that a new, more informative clas-
sification should be based on the fundamen-
tal macrophage functions, which are defined
as host defence, wound healing and immune
regulation. What about macrophages role in
abetting canceror in instigating life-threat-
ening inflammatory diseases? What func-
tions do these activities represent? The wis-
dom of the body, which supposedly keeps the P. S . MUELLER

Able-Bodied Until It Kills Us

Trigger warning: People who feel its their right to
never lift a finger may experience pain or discomfort
3 June Thunderstorm
M y first white-collar job was co-

ordinator at my colleges chap-
ter of the Public Interest Research Group
my graduate school. There must have been at
least six empathy-inducing acronyms for writ-
ing is hard, so I refresh my Facebook page all day
yes, PIRG, mother ship of pie-eyed campus instead. Meanwhile, every time I walked up
activists. It turned out to be manual labor the stairs to my new office and passed by the
after all. Nearly all the anticapitalist staff, ZAPPY ELECTRIC sticker on the breaker
board members, and volunteers had one or box, I remembered a former lover of minean
another malady, allergy, or disability that electrician who had rewired the building a few
prevented them from fixing the ceiling, run- years backcoughing bitterly and complain-
ning the computer cables, moving the boxes, ing about the walls and floors being full of as-
vacuuming, or cleaning anything. I remember bestos, which hed been expected to inhale on
one board member explaining to me how she a daily basis for eight months.
couldnt touch the ceiling tiles because she Installed there as a graduate student, I
was allergic to fiberglassit made her itch. heard other students in the building complain,
Fiberglass makes everyone itch. But with that whenever workers came in to polish floors, fix
magic word, allergy, she was off the hook. radiators, or do electrical work, about the mi-
We endlessly criticized corporate agricul- nor amount of dust that they themselves had to
ture at the PIRG, but I couldnt talk about my inhaleand how the lobby smelled of indus-
gardening contracts with my coworkers be- trial cleaners. I interrupted one such conver-
cause images of crawling around in sheep ma- sation to say, This building is full of asbestos;
nure, worms, and caterpillars triggered their did you know? Just imagine how the guy drill-
phobias. So did my stories about plumbing ing in the ceiling feels! Every student in the
and any carpentry that involved a saw. When lobby perked up. They have us working in a
I mentioned that I had to drink from garden building full of asbestos?! Ew!
hoses, a colleague squealed, Ew! Thats so And now, with ten years of graduate school
gross! She had a hose phobia. Allergies ex- under my belt, its become my job to guess how
empted this cadre of activists from physical to grade papers that come with special slips
labor. Phobias meant they would never have marked dyslexia; those slips mean, basically,
to hear about it. that Im not supposed to judge the writing on
As I scrambled up the rungs of the meri- the basis of syntax, grammar, or coherence.
tocracy, with my supererogatory privilege of Of course, the dyslexic papers are always di-
four able limbs and all, I noticed ever-newer versesome have syntactic mix-ups that are
stylings in the lingo that heavily creden- clearly symptomatic of the disorder, some do
tialed people devise to shirk routine labor. It not, some appear simply to be bad papers writ-
wasnt only allergies and phobias; it was ADD, ten by someone who did not read the book,
ADHD, and PTSD, all of them rampant at and some are as good as the best papers in

NOL AN PELLETIER
Only those who can imagine escaping their pain

bother to complain about it.
9
the non-dyslexic category. The non-dyslexic health services that it doesnt even occur to
category involves a similar spreada certain ordinary people to ask for. Disability then
proportion have the syntactic mishaps that turns into class power misrecognized. The
are the classic signature of dyslexia, most do rebranding of social and cultural capital via a
not, some are terribly bad, and some are great. class-encoded discourse of health allows the
What divides students with the special slip privileged student to get ahead with even less
from everyone else is not always or only dys- merit than before. After all, it is only when
lexia. Some students work the systemi.e., pain is the exception rather than the rule that
have parents who bestow on them a sense of it is noticed; only those who can imagine es-
entitlement and access to expensive special caping their pain bother to complain about it,

If the concept of disability is to benefit the poor as well as
the prosperous, then the word class must make a comeback.
9
and only those who know the system can have in the office who sneezed during the vacuum-
the strength to manipulate it. ing simply didnt understand that vacuuming
makes most of us sneeze. Even if they had un-
Dont Tell Us Where It Smarts derstood, it would have been immaterial to
At the politically correct PIRG, I was said them, since they feel entitled to a life without
to have able-bodied privilege because I did unnecessary sneezing.
not flinch at the sight of itchy fiberglass. The To what are the able-bodied entitled? The
correlate of such privilege is, of course, able- privilege of lifting heavy objects and inhaling
ism, a moral disorder akin to racism and sex- toxic dust? In point of fact, Windex makes
ism that is now a target of efforts to weed out everyone dizzy and nauseous, and the PIRGs
triggering language and expand the definition rotting ceiling tiles made my lungs burn and
of trauma on campus. Triggers are not only my entire body itch. But all this is normal for
relevant to sexual misconduct but also to any- the able-bodied worker. For years, when I
thing that might cause trauma, says Oberlin drilled over my head, my shoulder seared with
College in guidelines issued to its community. pain, and I would drop my drill from the lad-
Be aware of racism, classism, sexism, hetero- der yelling, Fuckin shoulder! And then pick
sexism, cissexism, ableism and other issues it up again. And keep drilling. Bad knees and
of privilege and oppression. Realize that all shoulders were never an excuse to not work; in-
forms of violence are traumatic. stead of using words like pain, we were stuck
A doctors note that documents a health with euphemisms like knees are acting up
issue, preferably one with a trendy acronym, again and shoulders not cooperating today.
will save your typically heavily credentialed Does the gardener complain to her employ-
member of the North American elite from er that raking leaves blisters her hand? Does
the fatal imputation of harboring a personal the house painter point out that the job ranks
failing. Like a World Cup striker feigning in the top five professions for incidence of alco-
injuries for competitive advantage, the upper- holism? The job is so goddamned boring, not
class disability grifter shamelessly exploits to mention dehydrating (the drying agent in
the ideals of fair play for personal gain. This the paint gets into your system), that drinking
is how all the great games are played at the or smoking something with a kick all day is the
top. Access to a doctor and willingness to ask only way to avoid hanging yourself from a scaf-
for a diagnosis secures for the feint-minded fold. Who has encountered a special acronym
upper-class student the right to stop work- for the tendonitis that afflicts janitors who
ing (or thinking) when it hurts too much. The empty the cardboard coffee cups out of grad
sap student who takes the field at face value, students trash cans every day? If the janitors
meanwhile, will just say fuck it, and drop out. do get time off to see a doctor, they are likely to
Such are the privileges of the protected few, be told they have a bad case of tennis elbow.
hidden even to themselves. My rich colleague You see, the assumption behind efforts to
at the PIRG thought she had an allergy to eradicate ableism seems to be that only some
fiberglass only because she didnt know any- peoplepeople with recognized disabilities,
body who works with it. The benevolent souls and not, for example, workers routinely in

harms waydeserve protection from dust, hurts and to attribute shortcomings and mis-
paint, and lifting boxes. Only some people takes to health issues (as opposed to person-
dont like seeing themselves bleed. Only some al failures) has constituted class privilege for a
people are damaged by inhaling trisodium very long time. Meanwhile, the majority of the
phosphate. And only some people should get to worlds people continue to suffer the unhealth-
have their papers graded easy. ful consequences of building, cleaning, scrap-
If ability is now cast as an unfair advan- ing, assembling chipboards, painting, and rak-
tage, then what is the qualification for aca- ing leaves, while the university-minted elites
demic and professional employment beyond sit around pushing paper, organizing anti-op-
a background of wealth and privilege? When pression workshops, and refreshing their Face-
rewarding students on the basis of ability is book pages as they complain about the patho-
reconceived as a form of oppression, then the logical conditions of their own lives. So long as
only mechanism that prevents the academy window-cleaners, maids, plumbers, janitors,
from being purely an instrument of class re- food-servers, and others on the lower rungs
production is made taboo. of the occupational hierarchy are expected to
I saw a health professional for my bad perform the tasks required in their jobs, they
shoulder for the first time this year, twelve will be in pain, and so long as they are paid as
years and four months from the moment I little as they are, theres no escaping it.
first dropped my drill in agony. I filled out the Once upon a time, the fragile sensibilities
osteopaths questionnaire, ticking no for of the rich were lampooned, as in Hans Chris-
every single questionno, I hadnt had any tian Andersens famous fairy tale The Prin-
skiing accidents, for example. The osteopath cess and the Peano one except the royal,
looked over the intake and wondered, Where tremblingly attuned to discomfort, can feel
did you get the injury, then? the pea under twenty mattresses. Today, these
I explained that I was a manual laborer for shrinking violets present themselves as a van-
ten years and asked why there were no ques- guard in the struggle against oppression. They
tions eliciting such information. Are you sure get away with itthere arent enough manual
you havent been in a car accident? he replied. laborers in their midst to give them a swift
No, I said, gardening and painting will do kick in the behind.t
this to anyone. He seemed astounded. Most
people with a body this damaged would come
in much sooner! As a matter of fact, most
people with such damage never come in at all.
Acronyms for Everyone

It would be a mistake to throw away the con-
cept of disabled (or differently abled), and
with it decades of struggle on the part of dis-
ability rights activistsespecially now, when
differently abled people of all sorts are increas-
ingly marginalized by the dismantling of wel-
fare states. But if the concept of disability is
to benefit the poor as well as the prosperous,
then the word class must make a comeback.
After all, the license to stop working when it P. S . MUELLER

Degrees of Danger
In the United Arab Emirates
3 Andrew Ross
E ither the driver of the car behind us was

incompetent, or else he wanted us to
know we were being followed. It was 3 a.m. on
Since such amenities seem calculated to
mollify foreign would-be critics of working
conditions for migrants in the United Arab
the mostly deserted highway between Dubai Emirateshow could anyone be exploited
and Abu Dhabinot a good time or place to if theyre just a stroll away from the cricket
be attracting the attention of Emirati authori- green?our team decided to go off-script.
tiesand an unknown sedan was tailing our Over the course of several days, wed been in-
late-night movements. For the past several terviewing workers in much less shipshape ac-
hours, we had been trying to shake him off, commodations, far from the gleaming boom-
taking cues from movies we had seen, but town towers of Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
the car just kept popping up in the rearview Unannounced visits to migrant labor camps
mirror. It would be another day till we could are guaranteed to attract suspicion pretty
piece together the obvious-in-hindsight sur- much anywhere you go. But in the UAE, the
veillance trick: our whereabouts were being authorities are particularly sensitive to unoffi-
tracked via a cellphone. cial inspections of this sort. The international
What lay behind all this cloak and dagger press has scrutinized neighboring Qatar for
intrigue? I was traveling with fellow members labor conditions that in 2012 and 2013 led to
of the Gulf Labor coalition, an international the deaths of nearly a thousand migrant work-
network of activists protesting labor practices ers, many of them on construction sites for the
at the Guggenheims latest building: a new mu- 2022 World Cup facilities. Meanwhile, in the
seum on Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabis up-and- UAE, human rights groups have reported ex-
coming cultural zone. Saadiyat is under de- tensive exploitation of migrant workers from
velopment, and at seventeen square miles and India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nepal, who
$27 billion, its a giant construction project are sucked into the Gulf Dream by the prom-
one staffed almost entirely by migrant workers. ise of lucrative wages.
In March of this year, we had accepted an of- These guest workers arrive in the UAE
ficial invitation to tour the islands showpiece bound to an employer by the kafala (sponsor-
migrant labor camp, or accommodation vil- ship) system. By the time they report for their
lage. That visit yielded equivocal findings, at first day on the job, they are already heavily
best, about the treatment of migrant workers indebted from paying steep recruitment and
recruited from South Asia to build the islands transit fees that cumulatively run from $1,500
luxury villas, five-star hotels, and top brand to $2,000. In most cases, the sponsoring em-
museums. But it afforded us a close-up view of ployer confiscates their passports, assigns
the careful techniques used to promote the fa- them to substandard housing, pays much less
cility itself, which boasts ping-pong tables and than they had been promised, and extracts
a well-manicured cricket pitch and is built to long and punishing hours in extreme tempera-
house twenty thousand construction workers. tures. A common joke among workers here is

J.D. KING
that the official temperature in the UAE never ers caught in this debt trap were the logos on
exceeds 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahr- two of the Saadiyat Island buildings they were
enheit)even though it sometimes doesbe- helping to constructNew York University
cause no one is supposed to work when the and the Louvre. Over the course of the last
mercury hits that threshold. And its not ex- decade, Western high-culture institutions
actly easy for workers to pursue grievances have been following in the path of corpora-
against their sponsorsindeed, in some cases, tions that went offshore twenty years before.
the sponsor is simply a private citizen on the The underlying motiveto beef up their bal-
take, who never actually meets the worker. ance sheetis more or less the same, but the
The workers we interviewed estimated rationale for operating overseas has to be pre-
that paying off their recruitment debts takes sented as more than a fiscal exercise. More
two years on average, which also happens to often than not, it is couched in rhetoric about
be the duration of a standard work visa for spreading the virtues of Western-style liberal
migrant laborers. At that point, remittances arts, which, at times, can sound little different
flow more readilyprovided, that is, the visas from the nineteenth-century credo of the mis-
can be renewed. Far from being an incidental sion civilisatrice. When quizzed about the ap-
by-product of the recruitment system (from pearance of being in bed with authoritarian
which rapacious middle men extract their rulersthe preferred destinations are China
cut), these debts are key to the entire labor re- and the Persian Gulf statesadministrators
gime. No one can get to the Gulf without in- will insist that their presence will allow them
curring debts, and no one would work for such to lead by example. And institutions with
low wages and under such poor conditions un- reputations as leaders do not expect to have
less they were under the gun to pay them off. their decisions challenged. Yale University
What distinguished our interviewees administrators, for example, were surprised
from the multitude of other migrant work- to field criticism from faculty members fol-

The primary utility of the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi is to help sell
luxury real estate on Saadiyat Island, where a resource enclave
is being built for the 1 percent.
9
lowing Yales agreement to a joint venture museums are answerable to public ethics up-
with the National University of Singapore; held by the more conscientious factions of the
the faculty cited Singapores history of lack art world.
of respect for civil and political rights.
But the rhetoric of the civilizing West also All Quiet in the Walled Garden
creates an opening to challenge the basic terms The Guggenheim and NYU have been in
of debt peonage that underwrite workers con- the forefront of the race to go offshore, and
tracts in the UAE. Prominent, PR-sensitive so they invite particular scrutiny. How could
brands like NYU, the Guggenheim, and the they operate in an authoritarian society like
Louvre, along with an allied project sponsored the UAE? As window-dressing, to showcase
by the British Museum, have attracted the at- that free speech is tolerated, if only within the
tention of watchdog groups such as Human bubble around them? Or would they flourish
Rights Watch, Gulf Labor, and NYUs facul- as hothouses for independent student thought
ty-student Coalition for Fair Labor, which are and action in the region? The histories of the
demanding improved treatment of the UAEs American University of Beirut (founded 1866)
migrant workforce, together with sweeping and the American University in Cairo (founded
changes to the entire sponsorship system. 1919) are an instructive case study: planned by
Fifteen years ago, anti-sweatshop activists their missionary founders as vehicles for West-
used the same tactic of shaming global brands ern Christian ideology, they came, in time, to
like Nike and the Gap to publicize labor abuses serve as crucibles of secular Arab nationalism.
in the offshore factories of the apparel indus- For New York University Abu Dhabi
try. Just as the garment brands tried to deflect (NYUAD), its too early to say whether similar
responsibility further down the subcontract- reversals may lie in storethough the decision
ing chain, so too have these high-profile edu- to recruit its student body from an interna-
cational and cultural institutions. Across the tional pool, rather than from the region itself,
board, their alibi boils down to a simple claim: came around the time of the Arab Spring, and
We have little control over what the subcontractors most probably with the fear of local insurgen-
do or pay. It took many years of campaigning cy in mind. So far, at least, the evidence is that
and legal pressure to force the apparel brands students and teachers are chafing at the per-
to accept some liability for abuses that occur ception of being inside a walled gardenen-
all the way down the chain. Unlike garment joying speech freedoms that appear to end the
factories, however, which can be moved over- moment they step off campus. For their part,
night to more obscure locations, the museums administrators have advanced their own cher-
and the NYU campus are there to stay, offer- ry-picked understanding of academic freedom
ing long-term leverage to activists. And while in order to paper over the compromises that
apparel manufacturers have little internal ac- are obvious to everyone else. NYU Abu Dha-
countability to their users, universities have bi enjoys full academic freedom, commented
obligations to their faculty and students, and one NYUAD administrator. It is also worth

J.D. KING
noting that academic freedom is different trouble distinguishing between rights of aca-
than freedom of expression. As an example, it demic freedom and rights of political expres-
should not be assumed that academic freedom sion, he declared. These are two different
would protect tweets or Facebook posts. things. But in reality, the distinction doesnt
As an internationally recognized human fly for most academics, or reflect how they
right, academic freedom pertains to fac- understand their speech protections. And it
ulty and students everywhere they go and in runs counter to the American Association of
whatever medium they express themselves. University Professors gold standard guide-
It is not confined to speech about a narrow lines, which have proved crucial in monitor-
scholarly area of expertise, nor is it location- ing the spread of meaningful dissent along-
or media-specific. Moreover, academics, like side the expansion of prestige educational
all professionals, have an obligation to share institutions overseas.
their knowledge with the public, and so their The name-brand Western museums have
capacity to speak publicly on a range of top- yet to directly confront the contradictions
ics is not a form of overreach, but a kind of involved in displaying the products of free aes-
professional duty. In the Emirates, where the thetic expression in unfree societies, though
right to free speech is nonexistent and where the stormy track record of censorship at the
any criticism of the royal family is illegal, Sharjah Biennial, the UAEs premier art event,
this understanding of public commitment is an indication that local elites are likely to
is less tenable. It is hardly surprising that insist on certain strictures governing what
NYUs president, John Sexton, has found it sorts of material can be exhibited, spoken,
more convenient to promote a restricted ver- and performed. In the meantime, artists with
sion of academic freedom when speaking of precarious livelihoodslike underpaid aca-
Abu Dhabi and of China, where NYU has demicsare prone to a more familiar form of
built a second branch campus. I have no censorship: the market lure of being bought

off. After all, the money of Gulf elites has pur- withdrawn its UNESCO membership). We
chased everything elseincluding some of the agreed that citing the terms and language of
most prized real estate in the worlds financial an international accord was the most effective
capitals. way of heading off criticism that the AAUP
was advocating the imposition of American or
Nonrelative Fairness Western standards regarding academic free-
Speech and expression are easier to buy, and dom and, by extension, labor rights. Despite
much cheaper, than chunks of Mayfair or these precautions, the AAUP and UNESCO
Central Park South. Yet the persistence of guidelines, and others like them, are routinely
those willing to resist has been exemplary. waved aside by administrators in deference to
When the Gulf Labor Coalition launched its the need to be sensitive to different cultural
boycott of the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi three norms.
years ago, the first batch of signatures was Cross-cultural sensitivity has to be learned,
drawn from prominent artists who came from on the ground or in the classroom. But the ex-
the region. These were also, not coinciden- pectation of a fair wage to be paid on time is
tally, the artists whose works were the most not something that reduces neatly to relative
likely to be acquired as building blocks for the norms of cultural preference. It is, rather, a
museums collection. pretty universal demand on the part of ag-
Artists and scholars are often negligent in grieved workers, regardless of the language
connecting their own speech rights to those they or their bosses speak or the cultural pref-
of others, especially people who happen not erences they may or may not share.
to traffic in the image or the word. But four How did this expectation play out in the
years ago, the AAUP formulated a policy case of NYUAD? As soon as NYUs plans to
statement on the rights of academic employ- build in Abu Dhabi were announced, activists
ees at overseas branches of American univer- and advocates in organizations like Human
sities. The statement (which I helped to draft) Rights Watch urged the schools administra-
was issued jointly with the Canadian Associa- tors to wield the prestige of the universitys
tion of University Teachers, and it committed name in order to ensure fair labor standards
both organizations, for the first time, to the on site. Activists also argued that this prece-
support of offshore faculty. In another first, dent might, in turn, help to advance the cause
it addressed the rights of noninstructional of better working conditions throughout the
staffin particular, construction and main- region. NYUs faculty-student Coalition
tenance workers. Faculty and students, the for Fair Labor (Im a member) brought ad-
policy implied, should not be asked to teach ditional pressure on the administration, and
or study in classrooms built on the backs of won some results: NYU adopted an adequate
abused workers. code of labor values, and the UAEs TDIC,
One of the goals of our policy committee the state-owned master developer of Saadiyat
was to prevent universities from lowering their Island and planner for the museum projects,
employment standards as they rushed into followed suit with its own upgraded set of em-
partnerships with foreign governments. As ployment policies.
we drew up our guidelines, we referred back Implementation and enforcement was an-
to UNESCOs Recommendation Concern- other matter. NYU officials and their UAE
ing the Status of Higher Education Teaching partners disregarded the Coalition for Fair
Personnel, adopted in November 1997 (dur- Labors advice to commission an independent
ing the period when the United States had labor monitor and instead brought on, as the

J.D. KING
lead compliance monitor, Mott MacDonald, a when it emerged that Khaldoon Al Mubarak,
firm heavily reliant on large state contracts for the CEO of Mubadala, the development cor-
its business in the region. Even the most jaded poration behind the new campus, actually sits
corporate onlooker would have viewed the on NYUs Board of Trustees. The second re-
companys preexisting lucrative contract to sponse was to issue an apology and promise a
oversee infrastructural development for utili- full investigation of the violations.
ties on Saadiyat Island, awarded in 2006, as a This initial apology is welcome, but the
blatant conflict of interest. Since beginning its Coalition for Fair Labor has pressed NYU
monitoring work in 2010, Mott MacDonalds to take the necessary next step: to devote re-
annual reports have been thin, to say the least. sources to system-level solutions that would
PricewaterhouseCoopers, the monitor cho- terminate the abuses altogether. A research
sen by TDIC, has done a slightly better job, but university is well positioned to advise on
has also fallen short in many areas of oversight. policy changes to the kafala systemeven or
Every team of independent investigators especially if that institution has been impli-
from Human Rights Watch and Gulf Labor to cated in abuses associated with it. NYU could
the Guardian and the Independenthas found help take the lead in the long-overdue reform
it easy to uncover violations in off-island la- of the system by working in conjunction with
bor camps that these monitors were unable to the UAEs Ministry of Labour and NGOs
catch. like the ILO and the ITUC that have focused
If theres anything that gets the attention of on migrants rights in the region. Instead of
top administrators and their boards, its high- turning a blind eye now that its own building
profile press exposure. And so the landscape is complete, the university could emerge as a
shifted quite abruptly with the May publi- creditworthy agent of change.
cation of a front-page New York Times story
about abuses endured by NYUAD workers. Beyond the Cultural Zone
The first response on the part of NYU ad- No one can doubt that the funds are available
ministration was to distance the university to implement these necessary changes. Money
from the builder of the campus by describing abounds in the UAE; the real obstacle here is
the facility as a turn-key project, a term used power. In Gulf societies, a small elite draws
in the real estate industry to describe a build- on a vast servant class (in the UAE, up to 90
ing delivered without any oversight or input percent of the population) for all of its needs.
from the client. This strategy came undone Under those conditions, any improvements in

pay and conditions of employment threaten These cultural bodies are also not quite
to unravel the tight web of controls and stric- like corporations, bent on repatriating their
tures that keeps the system in place. Conced- offshore profits as quickly as possible. Lavish
ing that such improvements are eminently rewards are dangled to lure university admin-
affordable might set in motion a revolution istrators who are hungry for revenue, but the
in rising expectations. That is why even the spoils cannot be readily converted into cash,
smallest and most isolated displays of worker at least not without some spillage in the form
insurgency in the UAE call down such draco- of teaching, research, and symposia that raise
nian crackdowns. Strikes, as our Gulf Labor uncomfortable questions about the nexus of
team discovered, are already quite common money, power, and public interest. At home,
at some of the major contractors. In the in- NYU students, groaning under one of the
stances we investigated, the leaders of work worst debt burdens in the country, find good
stoppagesor anyone branded a leader by the reason to wonder why their counterparts in
policewere summarily beaten and deported. Abu Dhabi enjoy a free ride. And departments
Our team also found that few of the promised that do not serve the teaching needs of the
employer concessions arising from the actions Gulf campus are neglected while others, more
had yet to materialize. fully committed to Abu Dhabi service, are re-
How should prestigious educational and warded with treasuries of a million dollars or
cultural institutions fit into this kind of rig- more for their cooperation.
idly maintained power structure? Are they As for museums like the Louvre and Gug-
bound to comply with it, once they have ac- genheim Abu Dhabi, their primary utility is to
cepted a host governments offer to bankroll help sell luxury real estate on Saadiyat Island,
the operations? And when reports of labor and where a resource enclave is being built for the
human rights abuses surface, do they bear any 1 percent, complete with well-stocked cultural
responsibility greater than the immediate PR repositories. Yet it is unlikely that these mu-
directive of containing the damage to their seums will function like the deluxe swimming
image and clearing their name? The answer is pools and golf courses offered by an upscale
far from simple, but the minimum guidelines master-planned community. If they are to
are clear enough. profit from the cooperation of regional artists
Nouveau riche elites often acquire top- at the top of their game, then we can expect
brand cultural assets as part of a philanthropic more than a few speed bumps.
exercise in nation-building. The best examples Guaranteeing a full umbrella of speech
are the roomfuls of European art bought up by protections to professionals employed at the
Gilded Age tycoons, which are now part of the overseas branches of universities and contem-
cultural patrimony of the United States. But porary museums will almost certainly result
unlike paintings and sculptures, whose voices in some conflicts with the host authorities in
and bodies are frozen on canvas and in marble, authoritarian societies. Professors, students,
museums and universities are not inert goods, artists, and curators risk being caught in the
to be possessed as trophy exhibits. If we ex- crossfire of a moral panic or a state emergency.
pect museums and universities to be engines To assume otherwise is to court insincerity.
of inquiry and social progress, their activities But upholding the rights of manual laborers
cannot easily be confined within four walls, let should be just as important. Otherwise, the
alone a cultural zone in which speech permis- freedoms claimed by academics and artists are
sions are quarantined from the narrower range more likely to be perceived as privileges, en-
of rights enjoyed by the general population. joyed only through the exclusion of others.t

American Mammal
3 D eb or a Kua n
Who is there?
This is your Iranian plastic surgeon.
What have you done with my nose?

Stopped up the offending holes.
What have done with the holes?

Applied them to your eyes. Look how wide they are now!
Now all the clouds look like beefcakes.

The clouds were a veritable calendar of beefcakes to those
who were paying attention.
What is inside this magnificent fruit cup?

The white swan song of Hollywood.
Can you still see my father in my cheekbones?

Yes, in certain dark alleys, definitely.
Can you still see my mother in my jawline?

N/A
How long will it take for love to find me?

An instant.
How long will love last?

About 1824 months.
What else can your people do for me?

We can rub this cold lambchop against you all day long.

Sou l S e a r c h i n g
The Worst Industrial Disaster

in the History of the World
3 Siddhartha Deb
A caption: some kind of meteorite or alien (but regularly breached), abandoned site, a
visitation has led to the creation of a miracle: place where anything could have happened
the Zone. Troops were sent in and never and maybe did happen.
returned. It was surrounded by barbed wire For the people of Old Bhopal who woke up
and a police cordon. on the night of December 2, finding it difficult
Zona, Geoff Dyer to breathe, their eyes burning, it was as if some
T
great, unknown evil had taken place. They did
he ruins of the Union Carbide pesticide not think of the factory as the source of their
factory lie in the very center of India, distress, not unless they had worked there and
in the state of Madhya Pradesh, which means knew of its troubles or had been among those
Middle State. There, in the capital city of Bho- active in protesting its location in their midst.
pal, inside the old city that sits across a lake Most people thought there was a fire in a chili
from the new city, inside the crumbling but warehouse somewhere, sending clouds of toxic
imposing fortress gates and beyond the twist- fumes their wayand because burning chilies
ing medieval alleyways and public squares, are sometimes used to chase off evil spirits, this
past makeshift shacks, scrubland, and slime- seemed to be a case of an exorcism gone out of
filled canals, surrounded by a boundary wall control, the protecting magic indistinguish-
and guarded by a contingent of policemen, is able from the possessing evil.
the site of the worst industrial disaster in the But the source of this particular evil was,
history of the world. But for all that, the fac- in fact, the factory. An accident there had
tory is not inaccessible. It can be visited, with sent forty metric tons of methyl isocyanate
the correct permit. The walls surrounding (MIC), a lethal chemical, into a runaway re-
it are full of breaches. There are slums right action that released a toxic gas. The gas filled
outside the factory site, from which children the night air of Old Bhopal and entered into
sneak in to play cricket. Cattle wander in to peoples bloodstreams, where it then dissolved
graze, making their way around discarded into hydrocyanic acid, attacking the lungs, re-
white sacks of pesticide, twisted pipes, and spiratory tracts, kidneys, liver, and brain. In
rusting metal parts. The blackened towers are order to get away from the choking, burning
visible from a distance. air, people abandoned their houses and tene-
There was a proposal, once, to turn the ments. They ran away from the slums, out of
site into something else, into a national park Old Bhopal, across the lake and the hills that
that would include a memorial, a tourist cen- divide New Bhopal from Old Bhopal and
ter, a craft village, a technology park, and that would keep the citys wealthier residents
an amusement park. But three decades have relatively safe even as the poor choked on the
passed since the disaster that began late at fumes. They poured into the new city, into the
night on December 2, 1984, and the guarded, railway station, some dying in the stampede,
abandoned factory site is just that, a guarded others succumbing to the fumes. So many

L E W I S KO C H
Neighborhood residents (father and son) stand in front of a twenty-fifth anniversary protest mural
outside the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India, in 2010.
people died that mass cremations and burials died in Bhopal from the MIC leak. The Indian
took place, bodies piled one on top of another. government initially claimed extremely mod-
Corpses were loaded onto trucks and hastily est figures for deaths and injuries, but there
driven out of the city. are estimates, based partly on the number of
It is possible to say, in the case of the 1986 funeral shrouds sold the day after the accident,
Chernobyl disaster, that three people died im- that at least 3,000 people died within the first
mediately at the site of the explosions and that twenty-four hours. After that, the assessment
twenty-eight more died from acute radiation of fatalities fluctuates wildly, but its likely that
syndrome within the year. It is also possible to more than 20,000 people have died in the past
say, with regard to the accident at Fukushima thirty years from effects of the gas.*
in 2011, that so far there have been no radia- The fallout of the leak extends well beyond
tion-related deaths. But it is not possible to say, even that, with perhaps half a million survi-
in spite of all those corpses and the many years vors impaired with breathing difficulties, vi-
that have passed, exactly how many people sion problems, spells of unconsciousness, and
* The usual range quoted is 3,000 to 4,000 within the first twenty-four hours; I have cited the lower end. According to
Amnesty International, 7,000 people died within days, a total that climbed to 22,000 in the following years, with another
100,000 people subject to chronic and debilitating illnesses. The Bhopal Memorial Hospital and Research Centre, run by
a trust established in the aftermath of the accident, estimates that 500,000 people suffered agonizing injuries. A report
in the Guardian noted that the office of Bhopals medical commissioner registered 22,149 directly related deaths up to
December 1999.

For the people of Old Bhopal who woke up on the night of December 2,
their eyes burning, it was as if some great, unknown evil had taken place.
9
psychological disorders. Women suffer a high and senior positions at UCIL were filled on
rate of miscarriages, and children are prone to instructions from Hong Kong or New York.
birth defects. The abandoned factory overruns Although UCILs most profitable group was
its boundary walls even if it appears to be se- the battery division, with a virtual monopoly
questered; chemicals stored on site or dumped in India, the factory in Bhopal was set up to
into pits seep into the groundwater and make manufacture a product aimed at farmers
their way into the tube wells and taps of sur- rather than urban households. This was the
rounding slums. Today, thirty years after the pesticide carbaryl, marketed under the brand
events of December 2 and 3, 1984, the factory name Sevin. Another pesticide, Temik, was
continues to pulsate with its evil magic. also made at the factory, in smaller quantities,
but Union Carbides promise of food for the
Safety Last masses was carried largely by Sevin, a white
Union Carbide, founded in 1917 and since powder sold in paper bags of 25 kilos each.
2001 a wholly owned subsidiary of the Dow Sevin came from an industry with a ma-
Chemical Company, set up its Bhopal factory cabre past. Pesticides originated in chemical
in 1969. But it had established its presence in weapons, and German firms, with their exper-
India long before then. Although the Indian tise in poisoning British and French soldiers
economy was driven at the time by autarkic during World War I, dominated the business
principles that limited foreign control of Indi- in the beginning. One such firm was BASF,
an companies, Union Carbide had found a way part of World War IIs notorious IG Farben
of operating freely and profitably within such group; the group ran a unit called IG Aus-
notional restrictions. Like Nestl and Unile- chwitz and produced Zyklon B, a gas pumped
ver,* other giant multinationals, it concentrat- into the chambers at the death camps.** Two
ed on the kinds of things needed by a develop- decades later, the Dow Chemical Company
ing country, packed its board of directors and manufactured napalm so that the Vietnam-
senior management with Indian industrialists ese could be killed cheaply and easily in large
and the relatives of important politicians, and numbers. And agricultural pesticides them-
emphasized its own, somewhat spurious, In- selves had unintended consequences. Rachel
dianness. Carsons book Silent Spring, published in 1962,
In reality, it was one of the largest chemical showed how DDT, at the time a popular pes-
companies in the United States, with corpo- ticideand one still widely used in Indiais a
rate headquarters in New York (later moved nonbiodegradable toxin that remains present
to Danbury, Connecticut) and an Asia head in fish and wildlife and even works its way into
office in Hong Kong. The 50.9 percent stock it human breast milk.
held in Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL), Maybe this history has little to do with
its Indian subsidiary, was a controlling stake, the coming of Union Carbide to Bhopal. No
* Unilever, an Anglo-Dutch company, has its own toxic history in India; in 2001 it was caught dumping mercury in Kodai-
kanal, Tamil Nadu.
** BASF is still in business, and a leading union-buster; in the 1980s protests over conditions at one of its U.S. plants (in Loui-
sianas cancer alley) ended in a five-year lockout.

L E W I S KO C H
A display at the Sambhavna Clinic includes photos of nonviolent actions protesting

the Union Carbide/Dow Chemical presence in India.
doubt, there was some Indian demand for pes- Union Carbide, in any case, promoted
ticides, which, along with chemical fertilizers, Sevin as a safer alternative to DDT: less dan-
were considered to be the key ingredients in gerous for humans, biodegradable, and effec-
Indias so-called Green Revolution, allowing tive against a wide range of pests. It did not
food production to keep pace with a grow- publicize the fact that its process for manu-
ing population. That technology has since facturing Sevin required a number of lethal
been called into question as unsafe and un- chemicals, including phosgene (one of the
sustainable for both the land and the people gases used during the trench warfare of World
who farm it, but the Indian government in the War I, along with mustard gas and chlorine)*
sixties would have had few doubts about the and MIC. Made by combining phosgene and
seemingly advanced Western science repre- monomethylamine, MIC is a highly volatile
sented by Sevin. chemical; it reacts with water and other sub-
* The poem Dulce Et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen describes a WWI poison gas attack: Gas! Gas! Quick, boys!an
ecstasy of fumbling,/Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;/But someone still was yelling out and stumbling,/And
floundring like a man in fire or lime . . . /Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,/As under a green sea, I saw
him drowning. A woman I met in 2004 named Ghazala, who was twelve at the time of the Bhopal disaster and was blinded
by it, described her experience of the fumes to me in a metaphor that was the obverse of Owens, of feeling like a fish out of
water. But the experience, in essence, was the samethat of being unable to breathe.

stances and needs to be kept cool to prevent

unwanted reactions. The only other Union
Carbide factory that produced MIC was locat-
ed in Institute, West Virginiamost chemi-
cal companies avoided MIC and preferred a
different, more expensive, way of producing
pesticides similar to Sevinand Institute had
had its share of accidents, especially leaks in
the MIC unit.
The Bhopal factory started small, with a
formulation unit that mixed already pre-
pared chemicals to produce Sevin. The mix-
ing procedure was fairly basic, and there were
many such formulation factories in India. But
the idea, from the very beginning, had been
for Union Carbide to create a technical unit,
one in which advanced proprietary technolo-
gies would be used to manufacture the pesti-
cides from scratch. The Indian government,
according to Union Carbide, wanted the tech-
nology to be imported into the country, which
is probably true. Government leaders would demand for Sevin, had an annual production
have seen it as a step toward becoming a devel- capacity of 5,000 metric tons. But the market
oped economy, boosting both agriculture and for Sevin turned out to be far smaller than ex-
industry. Union Carbide, too, was interested pected, with Indian farmers unable to afford
in manufacturing locally. It had been export- it and preferring indigenous products, and so,
ing Sevin to India for some years; now it could through the early 1980s, the Bhopal factory
eliminate international shipping expenses, operated at half its production capacity.
take advantage of lower labor costs, and be
centrally located in a market it perceived as The Contamination
the largest in the world after China, with 550 of Everything
million acres under cultivation and a popula- There had always been shortcuts in safety pro-
tion of 560 million. cedures.* Union Carbide built the factory in
After initially importing MIC directly a densely populated urban area over protests
from the West Virginia factory, the Bhopal from local people and legislators, and chose
factory installed its own MIC unit in 1979. to store large quantities of MIC there even
The completed setup, in anticipation of heavy though electricity in the area was undepend-
* According to researcher Bridget Hanna, the Bhopal factory was, from the beginning, less safe than the factory Union
Carbide operated in West Virginia. In Bhopal: Unending Disaster, Enduring Resistance, Hanna writes: Although UCC
claims that its plant in Bhopal was built to the same safety specifications as its American facilities, when it was finally
constructed there were at least eleven significant differences in safety and maintenance policies between the Bhopal factory
and its sister facility in Institute, West Virginia. For example, the West Virginia plant had an emergency plan, computer
monitoring, and used inert chloroform for cooling their MIC tanks. Bhopal had no emergency plan, no computer monitor-
ing, and used brine, a substance that may dangerously react with MIC, for its cooling system. The Union Carbide Karam-
chari Sangh (Workers Union), a union of Bhopal workers that formed in the early 1980s, recognized the dangers at the
factory but their agitation for safer conditions produced no changes.

ization. A supervisor and one of the operators
got injured the same year during a chemical
spill. Some of the technicians skilled in chem-
istry, hearing rumors that the factory would
be closed down, left for other jobs; a number
of them went to Iraq, then fighting a war with
Iran. Management staff began leaving too, re-
placed by people from UCILs profitable and
influential battery division, who, it was said,
had little knowledge of pesticide factories. By
1983 the World Agricultural Business Team at
Union Carbides headquarters in New York
had decided to sell the Bhopal factory. If the
company was unable to dispose of it by the
end of the next fiscal year, the factory would
be closed down and the costs written off.
This meant that most of the safety devices
at the factory, especially those intended to
contain MIC, were inoperative by the time
of the disaster. The production of MIC had
L E W I S KO C H
halted, but large amounts of the chemical
Above left, protest signs hang near were stored in three underground tanks. The
the former Union Carbide factory site cooling system, which could slow down un-
shortly before President Obamas visit expected reactions, had been shut off to cut
to India in 2010. Activists invited Obama costs; the scrubber unit that neutralized es-
to visit Bhopal; he declined. Above, toxic caping chemicals wasnt functioning; the flare
materials remain at the abandoned site. tower at the very top, meant to burn off toxic
vapors if all else failed, had been dismantled
able and temperatures regularly crossed 110 for repairs. All that was left was a windsock,
Fahrenheit in the summer. When there were which allowed the workers on the night of
mechanical failures, as in the alpha-naphthol the disaster to see the direction of the wind,
unit, the company directed poorly paid con- heading southeast toward the crowded, poor
tract workers to crush the alpha-naphthol quarters of Chola, J.P. Nagar, and the railway
with hammers and carry it to the reactor; the station.
workers were unaware throughout of their ex- Some of this can still be seen when one
posure to toxic vapors. And once the market visits the factory, as I did ten years ago. Time
failed to match production capacity, other seems half-suspended, the night of the ac-
safety measures were eliminated, seemingly cident preserved in the fashion of some per-
to save costs in a factory that was nowhere as manently stopped Hiroshima clock. The fac-
profitable as had been originally envisioned. tory sprawls on its sixty-two-acre grounds, the
An inspection team visiting from the Unit- blackened pipes and rusting metal parts evok-
ed States in 1982 noted several safety prob- ing something that could be either the rem-
lems, and one of the visiting inspectors sent a nants of a nineteenth-century industrialism
telex stating that they had to destroy 1.8 MT or an utterly alien technology. The shelves and
of MIC due to water contamination/trimer- racks in the quality control building still hold

The cooling system, which could slow down unexpected reactions,
had been shut off to cut costs.
9
bottles of chemicals, the labels faded and cov- of rubbish, with white Sevin sacks strewn on
ered in thick layers of dust. There are broken, the ground. In the concrete tanks where liquid
small-scale models of the alpha-naphthol, waste was dumped, a dark crust has formed on
MIC, and Sevin units in the control room, the surface, shot through with yellow streaks
eerie echoes of the looming structures visible like frozen fat in a meat curry.
through the dense vegetation. The damage, of course, extends well be-
At the Sevin unit, light reflects off the sil- yond the boundary walls. Samples tested
ver gleam of strings of mercury drops, and the separately by Greenpeace, the Boston-based
blackish-brown dirt around a collapsed chute Citizens Environmental Laboratory, and the
has a thick, sweet, chemical odor with just a Peoples Science Institute, an independent In-
hint of putrefying animal flesh. In the MIC dian organization, have shown the presence of
unit, lengths of a black hose are visible, per- toxins in the drinking water of nearby slums,
haps left over from the night of the accident, and farmland in the area remains unusable.
when a hose was apparently used to flush out
solid impurities choking a set of pipes. The The Butchers Bill
washing was a routine operation, and the wa- Those affected by the poisons make do the
ter should have come out through some vents; best they can. Protesters have caused the
instead, it was blocked by the impurities and water pumps in slums like Atal-Ayub Nagar
flowed in the direction of 610, one of three to be painted red and marked as dangerous.
underground tanks used to store MIC. When Municipal tankers deliver water at irregular
water entered 610, it reacted with the MIC, intervals to a few black plastic drums placed
building up a flow of gases that retraced the in the slums by the government. There is a
route to the MIC unit. With the cooling sys- hospital for the afflicted, an expensive auto-
tem shut down, the reaction in 610 was fast, rickshaw ride away from the old city, and a
and without the scrubber and flare tower, the cheap, shabby housing estate known as the
journey of the gases was unimpeded. Gas Widows Rehabilitation Colony. Within
The tank itself, a giant black cylinder with this grudging setup, people go on: the woman
a spout, lies on the ground, long removed from with the twisted limbs, the man who lost his
its underground housing. Around it, it can family, the boy who turned schizophrenic, the
sometimes seem as if a cycle of renewal is in girl with the unusually large head. For those
progress: creepers and shrubs making their who are part of the dwindling original group
way back into the buildings; red, orange, and affected directly by the MIC leak, their ac-
purple bursts of flowers; bird eggs in the rubble counts are composed of memory fragments
of the administrative office; perhaps a snake and body parts, yellowed paper and shabby
lurking near the formulation shed. But the surroundings, eagerness and hopelessness.
flowers and snakes exist not in paradise but in If there is any sustenance, it is provided
a modern wasteland, where the sheds contain by the victims themselves and the two local
sacks and drums stuffed with Sevin and naph- activist organizations that have struggled in
thol residue. Along the northern wall, next to their cause. In the immediate aftermath of
the slum of Atal-Ayub Nagar, there are piles the accident, concerned citizens and activist

L E W I S KO C H
At the abandoned factory grounds in Bhopal, vegetation has overtaken the MIC unit.
groups banded together in a loose coalition ises of compensation money. In hindsight, its
called the Morcha to provide help to the af- hard not to think they might have been bet-
flicted. When the Morcha broke up, two printer off as clients of those pinstriped hucksters
cipal organizations emerged, the Bhopal Gas than as neglected wards of a callous state.
Peedit Mahila Udyog Sangathan, led by Ab- The Indian government, unilaterally rep-
dul Jabbar, and the Bhopal Group for Infor- resenting the victims in its suit against Union
mation and Action, run by Satinath Sarangi. Carbide, tried to have a trial in the United
Without these two organizations, the first a States, where there were no upper limits to
feisty trade-union-style outfit with deep lo- compensation. Union Carbide asked for the
cal roots, the other excellent at disseminat- case to be heard in India, pleading the excel-
ing information on the Internet and liaising lence of Indian courts. It won the argument,
with foreign activists and groups, the victims and the case went to trial in India, where in
would have been entirely at the mercy of the 1989, five years after the accident, the govern-
Indian government and Union Carbide. ment decided to accept an out-of-court settle-
The government quickly declared all the ment of $470 million in compensation from
victims wards of the Indian state. This was Union Carbide. For Union Carbide, and for
done, it was said, to protect them from the the Dow Chemical Corporation, which later
predatory American lawyers hanging around acquired Union Carbide, this settled the mat-
Bhopal, asking people to place their thumb- ter in perpetuity.
prints on documents in exchange for prom- Dow has insisted that it has no connection

to Bhopal at all, a position that has not, how- stake in UCIL and put $17 million of the pro-
ever, stopped it from buying up the domain ceeds into a trust aimed at building a hospital
bhopal.com to present its one-sided story. It for accident survivors. A few days after this
insists that the average victim should have re- announcement, the chief judicial magistrate
ceived $500, which, as one of its PR flacks ar- of Bhopal ordered the confiscation of the
gued in 2002, is plenty good for an Indian.* companys remaining assets in India. In April
The Indian government distributed that 1994 the Supreme Court allowed Union Car-
plenty-good money at a glacial pace, claiming bide to go ahead with the sale, and in Novem-
in 2006 that it had finally finished the pay- ber of that year the majority stake in UCIL
outs. was bought up by McLeod Russel India Lim-
But the leak also prompted a criminal case, ited, an Indian company owned by the B.M.
and that case has yet to be resolved. Union Khaitan group. The Bhopal factory, in effect,
Carbide, which at first described MIC as belonged to the new owners, although it was
no more dangerous than tear gas, began its technically still in possession of the CBI and
search for a scapegoat by blaming Sikh terror- the state government.
ists (there was a Sikh secessionist movement What all this corporate maneuvering real-
in India at the time). It then changed course ly means is impossible to tell. In October 1997,
to argue, based on a study authored by an Indi- when the Madhya Pradesh Pollution Control
an engineer working for the management firm Board commissioned a report on toxins at
Arthur D. Little, that the factory was sabo- the site, the factory still belonged to McLeod
taged by an unidentified, disgruntled worker. Russel (which had, since acquiring UCIL,
This study was based on the argument that changed the name to Eveready Industries
there is a reflexive tendency among workers India Limited). But in July 1998 EIIL turned
to lie, on the year-old testimony of a single en- over the lease to the government of Madhya
gineer at the factory, and on a statement by a Pradesh. The site remains, according to most
twelve-year-old canteen boy that the workers accounts, contaminated.
had looked tense that night. Meanwhile, in spite of his professed faith
In India, the Central Bureau of Investi- in the excellence of Indian law, Union Car-
gation took charge of the factory after the bide CEO Warren Anderson, who had flown
accident, considering it material evidence to Bhopal after the accident, decided not to
in the ongoing criminal case. But the legal stay around for the criminal trial. A brief ar-
ownership of the factory is another matter. rest, a bail of $2,000, and he was back in the
In 1991 the Indian Supreme Court, review- United States, where he now lives a retired life
ing the original settlement of 1989, upheld in the Hamptons, playing golf. His status as a
the compensation amount of $470 million, wanted man in India amounts to nothing, al-
although it struck down the clause guarantee- though Greenpeace activists or foreign jour-
ing Union Carbide and UCIL immunity from nalists sometimes show up at his doorstep and
criminal proceedings. In 1992 Union Carbide try to elicit a response to the disaster.
announced that it would sell its 50.9 percent Anderson isnt Eichmann. In Hunting
* Two years later, Dow representatives stated in a press release that they wishe[d] to retract the remark, the poor phrasing
of which had often come back to haunt them. In the same release, Dow made it clear that while it has no plan to offer repa-
rations to the Bhopal victims and cannot and will not take responsibility for the disaster (because Dows sole and unique
responsibility is to its shareholders), a different public relations strategy is in place when it comes to its dealings with
Americans. Dow settled Union Carbides asbestos liabilities in the U.S. and paid U.S. $10 million to one family poisoned
by a Dow pesticide, according to the statement. This is a mark of Dows corporate responsibility.

L E W I S KO C H
Janet Braun-Reinitzs We Shall Overcome memorial mural was installed across the road
from the former Union Carbide plant.
Warren Anderson, an investigative segment that of the states great indifference toward
directed by John Firth and aired on Austra- the victims and even complicity with Union
lias SBS TV, Anderson looks like just anoth- Carbide and its successors. That has now giv-
er aging corporate official. When the crew en way to the attitude among the upper classes
traces him to his house, he is merely a shadow that the victims and their supporters are hold-
glimpsed through a window, a tall man, per- ing back Indias inexorable progress. Basking
haps leaning over a kitchen counter. Anderson in the profitable embrace of neoliberalism,
doesnt come out of the house in the film. In- the elite that loves to love U.S. corporations
stead, its Mrs. Anderson who does the talk- and loves to hate its poor has made significant
ing, an elderly woman at the wheel of a large efforts to make sure that Dow feels welcome
car. They have a family party later that night, and fully at home in India.
and it is uncatered. Her voice quivers in out- Led by Dow partners like Ratan Tata, a
rage as she tells the reporters standing in her group of Indian industrialists, many of them
driveway, Get off his back. luminaries of something called the India-U.S.
CEO Forum, offered in 2007 to clean up the
Come Back Now, Dow Bhopal factory if only the government would
Mrs. Andersons outrage is shared by many agree to let Dow operate in India without
members of the Indian elite, who seem to feel legal liability. This was meant to be a small
that this business of talking about the dead footnote to the U.S.-India Civil Nuclear
and dying of Bhopal has gone on for far too Agreement, but the Indian government, after
long. The first decade of Indian response was a public outcry, eventually backed off from

L E W I S KO C H
The Chingari Rehabilitation Centre offers care to the many children in Bhopal born
with disabilities.
providing legal cover. Dows Indian dealings, raised on a small plinth, hastily erected while
meanwhile, remain mired in scandals, includ- slum dwellers held back the police sent in to
ing bribes paid to Indian officials. In 2008 pro- prevent it from going up. On the wall of the
testors successfully blocked construction of a slum, talking back to the statue, is a scrawled
Dow R&D plant in Chakhan, near Mumbai. slogan, black on plain brick, that says, Hang
But the machinations of Dow and its Indian Anderson.
compradors are part of a larger story. In India But truth be told, no one really wants to,
these days, there are fantasies of a hundred should they get the chance, place a noose
more Bhopals in the form of secrecy-shroud- around the neck of a former CEO. The Ander-
ed nuclear plants and river-damming projects, son they want to hang is Union Carbide, Dow,
of pharaonic, Ozymandian monuments rising the Indian government, the India-U.S. CEO
from the valleys and the mountains. Against Forum. The Anderson they want to hang is
this, there are the small acts of resistance by Ravana, the demon king sent up in flames
a multitude that understands what the elites when the festival of Navratri culminates in
repeatedly get wrong: the evil of technologies Dussehra. The Anderson they want to hang
meant to bring profits and power only to a is the djinn who wafted across the rooftops of
few. Bhopal that night, shrouded in toxic smoke.
In front of the J.P. Nagar slum, there is a The Anderson they want to hang is Uncle
sculpture by the Dutch artist and Holocaust Sam, the imperialist and plutocrat in his
survivor Ruth Waterman. It has its back to striped trousers and top hat. The Anderson
the factory and faces the slum, a statue of a they want to hang is an evil thing, a meteorite,
mother and a child made of plain concrete and an alien visitation.t

Do What You Love
3 Jil l Mc D onough
Do what you love, they said. The money

will follow, they said. They didnt say what
the money should follow, or who. Poor money, lost
money: money must have been so much confuse!
One money, twice, eleven monies, four: money trying
to keep it together, ragged flock of non-native stragglers,
lollygaggers, each losing their buddy, special follow-time
friend. Money talks, but not like I do. Poor monies, mute
ESL-speaking lost souls. Do what you love and the money
will follow. Until it gets distracted, follows somebody else!
Until love doubles back, shrugs money off its trail. Money
follows love like good money after bad. Bad money!
Mad money, bad habits, dying hard. Do what you love,
they said, but what if what you love is watching Die Hard
for the dozenth time? When maybe you cant sleep?
Look at poor Bruce Williss poor bloody feet: pause
it there, make popcorn with nutritional yeast,
talk about how there must be some sneakers
somewhere in that building. But no. Alas! There wasnt
any time. No time for shoes? Baby needs a new pair
of shoes; mama dont work for free, Sandra says. Time
is money, they said, and you are profligate, spendthrift,
a lazy-ass wastrel, leaning in doorways, on bars, leaning back
on Wrights hammock, again and again. Again. Lolling,
lollygagging, shrugging when they I know you must be
very busy, grinning when they sigh how busy they are.
Busy! Not so much! Because you do you, baby; keep
doing what you love: nothing. Nothing that is not there
and the nothing that is oh, nothing. Nothing much.

v Th e D oll a r Deb auch
The Christ Nexus

and Professor David Brat
3 Chris Lehmann
T he Tea Partys marquee 2014 success

storythe dramatic unseating of House
majority leader Eric Cantor by an obscure
Yet nearly all of the familiar associa-
tions that the Brat victory called to mind
for the punditocracy were misleading at
downstate Virginia economics professor best. Yes, Brat received warm endorsements
named David Bratprovided maximum sym- from the rights talk-radio power elite, from
bolic value during its summer tour through Laura Ingraham to Mark Levin, but he got
the mediasphere. The pundits had never no financial support from any of the well-
heard of Brat, who suddenly seemed a perfect heeled national Tea Party organizations and
avatar of the main impulses that convulse the in 2006 had been appointed to serve on a
Tea Party right. On the one hand, hes a fer- state economic council by then-governor
vent Christian believer who routinely name- Tim Kainea Democrat. Yes, he inveighed
checks Calvinism in his academic work and against the majority leaders decision to cave
who proclaimed his stunning June primary on the debt ceiling vote, but he also excori-
victory an act of God. On the other hand, hes ated Cantors crony capitalist track record
an equally ardent market fundamentalist who and repeatedly assailed his Wall Street
paid homage to the atheist novelist Ayn Rand connections on the stump. (Cantor, indeed,
during his campaign and who has published wasted little time in giving lurid confirma-
many essays on the intersection of capital- tion to this critique, resigning his leader-
ism and religious faith. Reporters unearthed ship post early and landing a seven-figure
one such piece, in the conservative religious sinecure at the Wall Street investment
journal Interpretation, and found it culminates bank Moelis & Company.) And yes, Brat is a
in a call to arms that rests on a lazy historical hardline Christianist, but hes also gone on
analogy: We appear to be a bit passive. Hitler the record assailing the social rights fond-
came along, and he did not meet with unified ness for state-administered crackdowns on
resistance. I have the sinking feeling that abortion and gay marriage. (Both issues, of
it could all happen again, quite easily. The course, that candidate Brat affirmed good
church should rise up. evangelical probity on during his cam-
And there you had it: a juicy slab of red paignthis was a Virginia congressional
meat for the culture-war narrative. David race, after all.)
Brat was equating liberalism with Nazism, One could go further and observe that the
and the free-market apostolate with the satraps of Third Way Democratic governance
French Resistance! Cue up persecution have long endorsed a fast-and-loose sort of
fantasies of the coming progressive Kristall- market-minded spirituality thats every bit as
nacht! Hell, drag out the 2010 clips of opportunistic as Brats was held to beand
Delawares great, half-baked, recovering Tea one that, by comparison, loses considerable
Party pagan, Christine ODonnell! Crazy points on intellectual rigor. Just think of the
shit is under way! bloated Renaissance weekends and sad psy-

STEVE BRODNER
David Brat is an unusual economist. Unlike most

contemporary practitioners, he approaches his discipline
as a philosophical pursuit, not as an Olympian science.
9
chic consultations that marked the Boomer to specific policy choices) as the chief deter-
spiritual odysseys of Bill and Hillary Clin- minants of prosperity and poverty, the rote
tonor, for that matter, Barack Obamas on- demonization of government and the public
again, off-again communions with suburban sphere as morale-sapping and revenue-drain-
megapastor Rick Warren. Is there any sound ing sinkholes of moral wickedness. You know.
basis for dismissing Brats economic thought
as mere ideological boilerplate after soberly Instrumental Piety
considering the track record of the other side? Brat, unfortunately, is a cheerleader for
In yet another surprise, Brats published religion as a blunt force that reliably produces
scholarshipeasily brushed aside by Beltway prosperity across the conventional divides of
know-it-alls on the grounds of its appearance culture and history, and for Protestant piety
in such lesser-known periodicals as the Vir- in particular as the taproot of all virtues. In a
ginia Economic Journalis actually quite lively 2004 paper on the Protestant ethics legacy,
and interesting. Sure, there are some wonky Brat draws on the research of liberal Keynes-
forays into the methodology informing the ian economist Brad DeLong to highlight the
regression analysis of student test scores, but weakness of purely schematic, neoclassical
Brat is an unusual economist. Unlike most accounts of market development. DeLong
contemporary practitioners, Brat approaches found that in most rich Western economies,
his discipline as a philosophical pursuit, not a countrys [Protestant] religious establish-
as an Olympian science. Most of all, he rec- ment has been a surprisingly good proxy for
ognizes that his disciplines stalwart claims the social capability to assimilate modern
to transcendent, multidisciplinary omnicom- technology. DeLong doesnt go much beyond
petencewhich neoliberals in the field sum stating the correlation between an eventful
up with the ominous, aspirational apposi- Protestant past and a later capitalist boom.
tive the imperial scienceare founded on But Brat exuberantly fills out the picture in
extremely shaky philosophical ground. line with his own strong cultural preferences.
Brat does say that his broad understand- Even in prosperous non-Western economies
ing of the dismal science flows from his own that fall outside the traditional institutional
Christian faithbut this allegiance isnt any modes of Protestant worship, a pronounced
sort of intellectual deal-breaker, any more European influence has yielded strong
than, say, Al Gores divinity school stint, or patterns of market growth, and he supposes
Hillary Clintons penchant for Bible-thump- further that the channel by which [this influ-
ing. We miss a great deal about the common ence] traveled may be the institution called
presumptions about economic prosperity Protestant religious establishment. In a
and divine providence that have long shaped rousing conclusion redolent of a good Calvin-
American political life if we officiously se- ist sermon, Brat enthuses that economics is
quester religion and economics into separate, finally starting to acknowledge perhaps the
inviolate private and public spheres. most powerful institution in Western civiliza-
Whats more, any time we have a chance tion, religion and that the data arising from
to note the specifically religious character this revolution are indeed glorious:
of modern capitalism, were reminded of the
Give me a country in 1600 that had a Prot-
magical thinking that attaches to our free-
estant-led contest for religious and political
market dogmasthe theology of the hero-
power and I will show you a country that is
ically striving entrepreneur, the folklore of
rich today. ... Give me that country again and
undifferentiated cultural forces (as opposed

v
I predict that it is a democracy, has high hu- face of it, Brats essay is an impressionistic
man capital endowments, a Parliament that is effort to defend the historic Protestant aboli-
independent, an insulated Judicial branch, a tion of the old Catholic strictures on usury.
fairly independent Central Bank, high marks But Brats argument about usury is largely
in political liberty and civil rights, high pro forma; he contends that adjudicating
investment in womens human capital, high financial morality is best left to the individual
levels of innovation and productivity, and a conscience on a case-by-case basis, as the Cal-
mature system of property rights protection. vinist tradition preaches. Instead, Brat has a
far more ambitious project in mind: recon-
There are, of course, a fleet of significant figuring the morality that informs economic
objections to this confidently sweeping vision behavior on a more explicitly Christian basis.
of a benign and market-friendly wave of Prot- Usury by itself is a small piece of this puz-
estant faith buoyantly lifting all boats in its zle, he writes. The chief dilemma of a polis
path. The apartheid republic of South Africa aiming to regulate a market order, he argues,
and the feudal white supremacist economy of is one of moral coercion: Are you willing to
the antebellum American South, to take just force someone you know to pay for the ben-
two prominent examples, were both deeply efits for one of your neighbors? According to
Protestant polities, but they were hardly Brat, while most Christians whove examined
textbook studies in political liberty and their conscience are reluctant to assent to
civil rights; nor did they harbor an indepen- such a scheme, they dont bring those qualms
dent judicial branch or parliament remotely to the ballot box. We as Christians think
inclined to promote such values. The same nothing of voting for policies that do precise-
objections all too plainly hold for the latter- ly this, he writes. We vote for justice. It has
day Asian tiger economies that Brat seems become easy. We vote to force others to act as
keen to brand as Protestant offspring, from we want them to act. ... I have not ever heard
Singapore to Indonesia and South Korea. a good theological answer to these questions.
But its chiefly the decentralized charac-
ter of this high-concept vision of Protestant
economic dominion, and Brats bedrock
belief in the capacity of the one true faith
to travel equally well across all cultures and
market regimes, that showcases the apos-
tolic cast of Brats market worship. Brat can
sense that his field is on the verge of its own
dramatic conversion moment on the road to
Damascus, and when it finally comes, he will
be ministering to the new colonies of believ-
ers, gradually but confidently remaking the
empire in their own pious image.
Love Thy Neighbors Tax Cut

Such is the message of God and Advanced
Mammon, the essay that launched a thou-
sand frenzied think pieces about its rhetori-
cal invocation of the rise of Nazism. On the R ANDALL ENOS

Brat clearly wants a theological answer in is the effect of our sin to make us look upon
the negativeone that vindicates a maximum ourselves as the centres of the universe; and
exercise of individual liberty and a minimal then to look on the perverse and miserable
quotient of government coercionbut unlike accidents of our condition as determining
other libertarian theorists, hes quite candid what we ourselves are.
in avowing that theres no clear moral or This is something very close to a Chris-
theological basis for his position. And his tianized gloss on the Marxian view of a
efforts to generate such a basis, while sketchy historically conditioned human naturebut
and tentative, point in some unexpected more to the point here, it is at least a universe
directions. Indeed, for a model for further removed from David Brats own vision of how
exploration of the Christian purpose within the faithful should approach the economic
capitalist society, Brat settles on a very un- sphere. The real test for liberal Christian
likely figureH. Richard Niebuhrs portrait types is whether they will reach out to
of Christ the Transformer of Culture. capitalists! Brat exhorts. Whereas thinkers
Niebuhrthe historically minded younger like Niebuhr and Maurice took great care
brother of the neoorthodox theologian Rein- to infuse the individualist Protestant out-
hold Niebuhrwas all but a socialist, and his look with an overriding sense of reciprocal
famous survey of American denominational economic obligation, Brat cheerily insists
movements sought to unite the fractious that if we are ever going to be transformers
American religious scene behind a popular- of culture, we need to get our story straight
front-style version of the radical social gospel. on capitalism and faith. The two can go
Likewise, Niebuhrs evocation of Christ as a together and they had better go together, or
culture savior is a far cry from the evangelical we will not transform anything. Just as major
rights long-familiar rendition of Christian figures such as Augustine, Thomas Aquinas,
faith as an endlessly renewable agenda of Fox and John Calvin produced indispensable new
News talking points. Niebuhrs extended theological syntheses to impel Christianity
discussion of Christ the Transformer of into new social worlds and historical epochs,
Culture, in his landmark study Christ and so must todays market-minded theologians
Culture, concludes with an appreciation of the synthesize Christianity and capitalism. Brat
uncompromising thought of the nineteenth- signs off with a prophecy: There is a book in
century English Christian Socialist F. D. here somewhere for the next Calvin.
Maurice, who insisted that humans are not Never mind that the first Calvin never
animals plus a soul, but rather spirits with wrote a book on the capitalist-Christian
an animal nature; ... the bond of their union symbiosishe merely presided over a rear-
is not a commercial one. guard benediction of the money dogmas and
Maurices conception of human sin and landgrabs that had already convulsed the
corruption was dead set against the secular- early phase of the Reformation. Whats tell-
capitalist worlds competing metaphysics of ing here is Brats reconfiguration of American
possessive individualism; in Maurices view, religious thought. His glib conflation of or-
as Niebuhr explains, man goes astray from thodox Christian faith with the free-market
the scheme of redemption when he seeks to kind speaks volumes about the intellectual
possess within or by himself, whether in the odyssey of American religion since Niebuhrs
form of physical or spiritual goods, what he Christ and Culture was published in 1951.
can have only in the community of receiving But Brats openly Christianist benediction
and giving. As Maurice himself put it, It of capitalism (or, if you prefer, his openly

v
If any orthodoxy is overdue for a vertiginous encounter with

the claims of radical contingency, its neoliberal economics.
9
capitalist benediction of the Christian faith) ing out the formal statement of an economic
performs a paradoxical public service in his hypothesise.g., that an increase in the
home discipline of economics. By so forth- money supply always creates inflationfrom
rightly owning up to his own spiritual rooting the observable facts that may confirm it is an
interests, Brat also grants his readers the illusory exercise, Friedman argues. Instead,
considerable hermeneutic gain of allowing us all economic formulations will proceed via
to see the central dogmas of modern econom- broader assumptions that may or may
ics as a very wishful sort of religious faith in not be acknowledged in the formal course
their own right. of research. Hence Friedman arrives at a
deliberately provocative axiom, seemingly
Positively Wall Street designed to confine economic inquiry within
It helps as well that Brat appears to be (at certain tightly circumscribed bounds: Truly
most) a very equivocal sort of neoclassical important and significant hypotheses will be
economist. His most impressively reasoned found to have assumptions that are wildly
paper is a critique of a revered Milton Fried- inaccurate descriptive representations of re-
man journal article published in 1953, The ality, and, in general, the more significant the
Methodology of Positive Economics. Brat theory, the more unrealistic the assumptions
builds out his litany of the contradictory (in this sense). In other words, for example,
claims and assertions within Friedmans typi- conditions of perfect competition may never
cally deft but evasive argument into a more obtain in any actually existing economy, but
broad-ranging brief against positivism itself. according to Friedman, the assumption of
The positivist fallacy, by Brats account, is such conditions should hold regardless, since
to insist that all truth claims can be con- the main task of any economic inquiry is to
firmed only by the immediate evidence of predict certain outcomes under certain speci-
the sensesand to consign any other kind fied conditions. If the outcome materializes
of contention to the derisive dustbin of a as surmised, the organizing assumptions of
mere language game. All the while, however, the test are irrelevant.
positivisms own philosophical posturing This was the sort of puckish, propagan-
cant stand up to positivist criteria. Under distic performance that helped catapult
the strict canons of positivism, what would Friedman to academic celebritybut Brat
scientists do about theoretical terms such correctly calls it out as nonsense. Friedman is
as rationality or indifference or magnetic ingenious in philosophical argumentation,
fields or atoms etc.[?] Brat asks. No one had Brat concedes, but he is trying to defend
ever seen these. Or what about the theory the indefensible and I think he knows it.
of verifiability itself? ... Using this strict After all, if conclusions or predictions flow
rule of verifiability would force the logical from wildly inaccurate assumptions, are we
positivists to claim that their own theory was really doing logical analysis? Similarly, the
metaphysical or meaningless. conceit of positivisms predictive powerthe
In Friedmans case, the positivist dodge main idea upon which Friedmans argument
becomes particularly disingenuous. Separat- turnshas extremely limited value in terms

of advancing knowledge; as Brat points out, hardly a natural fit for the diehard culture
it is not required that we understand the warriors ready embrace of state-enforced
behavior in question, logically and positively, behavioral strictures for the bedroom, the
only that we best predict it. Friedmans marriage altar, and the womens health clinic.
vaunted positivismarguably the detached And Brats critique of Friedmans ca-
pseudoscientific posture that set neoliberal sual pragmatism is an even deeper and more
economics on the path to its latter-day apo- destabilizing blow, delivered at the heart of
theosis as the imperial scienceturns out the conservative movements intellectual
on closer inspection to be a far more provi- vanityand its all the more devastating for
sional and equivocal appeal to pragmatism, a its fraternal origins within the faith-based
set of truth claims that hinge chiefly on their sanctum of conservative economic thought.
utility and the value of their results rather In his own flourish of political pragmatism,
than the coherence of their method. So once Brat, of course, is keen to advertise his close
more, the platonic ideal of perfect competi- affinity with Friedmans market-libertarian
tion isnt a predictive axiom for Friedman so shibboleths, in much the same fashion that he
much as a handily exploitable one: Concepts spoke warmly of the Tea Partys atheist den
such as perfect competition are useful, to mother Ayn Rand on the campaign stump.
him, in well specified problems. However, But its clearly no small thing in the neoliberal
if Friedman goes with Pragmatism, then he academy to proclaim that Milton Friedman
must give up the strengths of Empiricism is trying to defend the indefensible.
and much of the scientific method he has Here again, Brats candor is welcome and
sketched out so far. illuminatingas a convicted Calvinist, he
Here Brat himself has tiptoed up to the cant begin to give quarter to either positiv-
brink of a truth no less inconvenient for his ism or pragmatism, since both movements
colleagues than leaky positivism proved to are hothouses of secular skepticism. Never
be for Friedman: the economics professions mind that Brats case for the exceptionalist
pretensions of pure and impartial scientific economic value of Protestantism is itself the
inquiry are founded on a handful of contra- very essence of results-based and instrumen-
dictory and wishful assertions about how the tal pragmatismthe larger point, so far as
discipline operates scientifically almost in hes concerned, is to rescue the discipline of
spite of itself. And once you deny the neolib- economics from its own corrosive scientism.
eral movement comforting superstitions like The true faith is simply too valuable to be left
perfect competition, theres just not much in the hands of messengers who distort its
descriptive or explanatory power left in the cultural mission.
whole enterprise.
More fundamentally, Brats candid The Postmodern Pulpit
appraisal of Friedmans misleading meth- Brats critique echoes another notorious
odology lays bare a yawning contradiction academic assault on positivismthe post-
within the ranks of the American right. The modern turn in cultural studies that con-
Reagan-era alliance of religious cultural servatives made such lurid and enthusiastic
conservatives with the GOPs traditional sport of during the 1990s. These cultural
pro-business establishment has always been insurgents, too, pointedly insisted that
a shotgun marriage of convenience. As Brat conventional truth claims collapsed under
himself acknowledges, the small-government the weight of their unstated presumptions;
dictates of free-market libertarianism are they too professed a profound liberation-

v
ist distrust of Enlightenment reason as a of neoliberal economics. It is, however, to

subterfuge of self-interested power. And in remind us that theres nothing inherently
reams of philosophical debate, they proudly progressive about the hermeneutics of
worked out the consequences of an all-con- suspicion, which can be readily modified to
suming commitment to radical contingency. advance any agenda of the moment, from
This worldview was neatly summed up as a any opportunistic vantage. The proposi-
hermeneutics of suspicion, and in its broad tions that would make such short work of
outlines, it connected up with both libertar- the pitiable conceit of truth and its atten-
ian and fundamentalist critiques of secular dant master narratives are, no less than the
rationality and state-enabled social engi- leaden pronouncements of positivism, prone
neering. All these intellectual movements to tripping over their own feet of clay and
strikingly asserted, in wildly different con- pitching into the abyss.
texts, that appeals to an impersonal, disin- And thats why were now on the verge of
terested public sphere were simply not to be a great new chapter in our post-pragmatist
trusted. The postmodern lefts philosophical political history: unseating a senior congres-
affinity with the post-Enlightenment right is sional leader and elevating in his place a
truly the love that dare not speak its name. crusading, academic knight of faith. David
Still, Brats assault on Friedmans positiv- Brat may not hold fast to the methods of
ism is not ill foundedfar from it. If any his academic mentors, but from his perch
orthodoxy is overdue for a vertiginous en- in the 114th Congress, hes all but certain to
counter with the claims of radical contingency, find strange new ways to make their dogmas
its the serenely world-conquering dogma come to powerful life in the real world.t
R ANDALL ENOS

wS T O R Y
For Yama Is the Lord of Death

3 Paul Maliszewski and J. Wagner
A : Because I guess my overall num-

bers are not where they should be?
Thats what Rhimst said. He had the num-
car for hours, or b) blame external circum-
stances. Im better at the practical stuff? Like
if my fingernails are long, I just clip them
bers all printed out. Numbers for the month, already.
the quarter, the year, and then the projec-
tions. The projections, I think, did not look B: Let me put it to you in another way, per-
good. At least that was the feeling I got from haps in a way that you will more easily under-
Rhimst. stand, where the mists of the vapor blinding
you will disperse. Not that I consider you
B: Do you ever feel like you are more of a soft in the head. I do not. I am aware of the
human doing than a human being? I think we various modalities of instructionwe are all
might start there. Get to the bottom of your teachers, teachers to one another, and back
numbers. Because you have the numbers to ourselves. Some of us are also self-taught. I
within you. We just need to release them, get might point to myself, in this regard. Never-
the right ones out. I bring up the doing/being theless, at some point, we must ask ourselves,
breakdown, because my therapist has been Do I have perfect information? That is what
discussing this with me. I go three times a I put to you, Do you think you have perfect
week. We really break down the trauma of information? That is, information that fully
sales in there. I dont speak about my mommy takes into consideration all of the possibili-
and daddy, even against my shrinks wishes, ties of why you are not performing to the
because I want to focus on how best to ap- satisfaction of Rhimst, but more assuredly,
proach the business at hand, units moved, not more importantly, to you yourself? Can we
something that may or may not have hap- assume you do? Are we walking multiple
pened at an invite-only birthday party when I planes of existence? If I shout my name into
was five. Are you with me? my hand and close it up, catch it, do I think
I know what may come out of that hand?
A: I think so, yes. Well, I dont know. May- It reminds me very much of a story I once
be? Im definitely with you in part. The part heard, and which bears repeating here to you.
about having the numbers within me is very Perhaps you will take comfort in it. Perhaps it
encouraging. Nobody has ever said that to me will be the key to that golden unknown open-
before. The being and doing stuff confuses ing inside of youI sometimes use the term
me, though. Im not good at abstract think- inknownand you will henceforth proceed
ing. My mind doesnt work that way. Person- from the unfragrant axis of your dribbling
ality tests bear this out. Im happiest when life onto more adventurous roads. The story
working alone, they say. I like hand tools and goes that a man was in a boat and he was
freshly cut lumber. Im goal-oriented but only angry at another boat, because it kept getting
up to a point. I need to see an immediate con- into his way, kept knocking against the hull
nection between my efforts and the result. If and causing him trouble on the path he was
I dont get what I want, I tend to a) sit in my setting for himself. He screamed with rage

ANA BENAROYA
at times. He wanted to kill, so great was his problem boat from the get-go? No use getting
anger. Finally, the boat that knocked on his worked up. Just board the vessel and search
boat came to rest at the side, and the angry it from stem to stern, if those are the right
man jumped off of his own boat and stomped words. I never learned nautical terminology.
onto the boat of the one causing him so much There was little need for it where I grew up.
distress. He shouted and stormed, calling My family has been landlocked going back
out for the boats owner to show himself. But several generations. Nobody ever taught
no one came. Eventually, the man came to us about the black sun that I recall. In the
see that there was no one on the boat, and summers, we vacationed in the mountains.
the boat was not doing anything to him on Hiking, biking, sometimes Frisbee. I didnt
purpose, and that it was just listing. His anger see the ocean until I wasgod, in my early
was misplaced, was based on nothing. It was a twenties maybe? At least. One thing about
misperception of reality. Do you see the point your story confuses me, incidentally. In the
here? Are you causing your own agony, your beginning, I pictured two simple boats. Like
own misfortune? Are we looking in the right rowboats or canoes. So I felt some surprise
direction? Should we look in all directions at when the boat became more elaborate, and
once? We know from our schoolwork that it the man had to look around and call to the
was the black sun that gave birth to us, and owner. It was as if suddenly the boat in my
so we must go in search of this black light mind had rooms, and all along the man had
always. In the black light, the answers will be. been on a yacht or a racing clipper and he
But they may need deciphering. was getting tormented by another yacht or
racing clipper. But again, my terminology
A: I like that story. And I think I do see the may be way off here, and I do take your main
point of it. Well, I mean, is one of your points point, which maybe is, if I were going to boil
that the man shouldve seized control of the it down, something like, Dont take any guff,

w
not from anybody. Speaking of this, where I was standing in the doorway of the john
do you stand on self-talk? Have you ever and he didnt see me? The purchasing agent
employed it in your sales? Reason I ask is I waited awhile. I could see him looking at his
recently met with a purchasing agent repre- phone and whatnot. Then he just paid up and
senting the government of Pakistan. Every- left. Later that afternoon, I shot him an email
thing was going fine. Lunch was fine, though I to finalize things and tell him what Id learned
hadnt touched my grouper fillet, I was talking from talking to legal, but I never heard back.
so much. The purchasing agent was very inter- Its been several days.
ested in obtaining several hundred large units.
I dont need to tell you how great a sale this B: As you were speaking of the voices in your
would have been, not just for me but for the head, I happened to look over your shoulder
company. The only potential hang-up being I no, your other oneand take another good
wasnt one-hundred-percent positive we could look at my bullish Yama mask, in the style of
sell the large units to Pakistan under current the Janjin Choir Monastery, as it were. I cre-
laws, but I was telling the purchasing agent ated it myself, using papier-mch and some
not to worry, there is always a way. They could insect-based dyes. Carmine, principally. In
form domestic shell companies, for instance. any event, why I drifted to the mask, apart
Have nested leasing agreements. So I men- from my satisfaction and my memories of
tioned all this and then I said, using my quiet being on the big island of Hawaii when I cre-
voice, Focus, Gerald. Now its time to close. ated it, was the sense that it is possibly a good
I should explain that when I self-talk, I em- omen for you: for Yama is the Lord of Death
ploy a quiet voice rather than my head voice, to the Mongol people, the god who dances
because Ive found the head voice is too easy after the comics have left the stage. He is the
to ignore. My head voiceI dont know about one who can removenay, destroymental
yours, but mine is always blabbing on about obstacles on the road to enlightenment. I see
something. Often its incidental or contradic- you nodding along, patiently. Like you under-
tory to my purposes, too. My quiet voice spurs stand. It will take more than simple decency,
me on. Also, when I self-talk, I do use the social customs of civility, to get you out of
name Gerald. That is my intrapersonal name. your rut. I am not here to coddle you, lets be
No one but my self-talk voice uses it. Anyhow, clear, nor to speak directly to your Jerry or
the purchasing agent put down his fork then Gerald, or whatever it was. You must speak to
and looked at his dish. Who is Gerald? he him yourself, and get him to take your lead.
said. I tried to play it off with a little shrug, my I am here in front of you, like Yama behind
best smile, but the purchasing agent wouldnt you, to get you to investigate your plan, your
let up. Youve been talking to Gerald all purpose. I mean, your real plan. How are
through lunch, he said. I asked if maybe he you going to move forward in our company,
hadnt overheard someone at the table beside in our sales force, if you havent defined the
us. A large party was seated there, and they problems, analyzed the problems, established
had been carrying on. Someones secretary criteria for solutions? Will we need you to
was having a birthday, I think. Or a baby. The don a moon mask? Will we need to talk about
purchasing agent shook his head. I wasnt pantheons, of snake meals, of why the Bud-
sure at first, he said, but that last time, you dha wasnt originally a figure, but depicted
clearly said Gerald. I excused myself then as an empty throne? Do we really need to go
and went to the mens room. I tried to flag through all of this, or are you on a path now?
our waiter down, to get the check, but I guess I still hear my father thundering over the

Turn around and see Yamas crown of skulls, the wild red hair,
the flaring nostrils, the bulging eyes.
9
dinner table: Lets try something different television, yet everyone watches? I used to
this time! Lets try doing it the right way! We collect rocks, but that was when I was a kid. I
all shook in our seats. My mother may have liked this chunk of tourmaline. I liked saying
taken to seeing less threatening men on the tourmaline. I think it must have been the big-
side, out of her own cowardice, but I can tell gest word I knew. Its a pretty rock too. Pinks
you that he was right. My father was right. and blues all mixed together. Sort of like ice
You dont get through this life without a plan, cream maybe, in a way. Then for a while I was
without a constant set of plans, perhaps ne- into coins, but I got tired of them pretty fast.
gating the others in the process, but no mat- Never could get into stamps. Too many of
ter. The point is to simply make them. You them, I guess, and too small. Why not collect
said you are a bachelor, or were a bachelor, or scraps of paper? I mean, thats what they are.
are again, or never were. I forget, but this too Am I right? You seem to know a lot of stuff.
doesnt matter. You are all of these things. Different stuff, too. I bet you have a lot of
Visions, mistakes, misperceptions. We are books in your house. I kind of like knowing
mirages, advancing and retreating. Turn things. Like what you said about Buddha?
around and see Yamas crown of skulls, the How he was just a throne and then somehow
wild red hair, the flaring nostrils, the bulging he became that big guy weve all seen. The
eyes. Can you meet that gaze? Can you look jolly guy. Is that right? Thats interesting to
through him? me. Reading makes me sleepy, though. There
was a guy in college, this real hippie dude. He
A: Does this stuff really help with sales? used to stay up all night in the common area,
The masks, Yama there, these journeys just talking to whoever passed by, and wed all
were on, that black sun. Which you never come back from some party, stinking drunk,
did tell me what that was, by the way. And you know, and this hippie dude would be
then the planning, too? Does it help you? In sitting there, and hed always have some new
terms of your numbers, I mean. You can see thought to lay on us, and I remember once he
this reflected in the numbers? Because what said to usto me, I think, because I was alone
I need, I think, are results. Rhimst wants that particular night, now that I think about
to see real results out of me. You seem to ithe said, What if when Jesus was arrested
have a lot of masks. That Yama one is pretty by the Romans, when he was in prison and
intense. Are the skullswhat are those? Like waiting to go before Pontius Pilate, what if
dead children or something? I cant believe he took his own life then? And he left a letter
you look at that every day. I guess its your to the apostles saying that every day felt hol-
hobby, though. Maybe I need a hobby. Is that low, pointless, and false to him and this had
what youre saying? I like to watch TV. I like all been a long while in coming but hed had
the reality shows. I got a lot of programs right some time to think in here and hed decided
now. But I suppose that doesnt count, right? he didnt want to go on living. They could
Or does it? Nobody gives TV its due. Have do what they like, but he was done. I think
you noticed that? How nobody says they like about that. I dont know what to make of it,

w
so I just repeat it to myself. Ill be driving and Im not grown-up or not grown-up enough
just start thinking of Jesus in his cell, hurting, anyway. I know its not true. I know how old
and trying to hang himself. If thats what he I am. I can check my license for verification.
would do, I mean. Thats what I picture him Its like, do you ever parallel park your car?
doing, I dont know why. Hanging himself Sometimes Im in the zone, right? And I can
with his clothes, wrapping them around his park just about anywhere. Like with my eyes
neck and then tightening them until he can closed? Its like Im being guided in by some
no longer breathe. Id want to save him if I advanced instinct. An uncanny feel for space
could. If I were a guard, say. If I were on duty and motion. But other times I get it into my
that night. Id try anyway. I guess I dont re- head that my car is larger than it is, that I
ally know much about saving people, though. cant possibly fit in between the black SUV
What youre supposed to do and all. Or what and that Honda Odyssey or whatever. I get
youre supposed to say and not say to someone flustered, you know? And Im taking too long.
who is depressed. I wonder whatever hap- Turning the wheel back and forth. Backing
pened to that hippie guy. What hes doing up, inching forward. And then all these cars
now. He was onto something, I think. Wasnt are behind me, honking. Or it feels like they
he? I mean, sometimes deaths are complicat- are anyway. I get that sense. And I cant do it,
ed. I have trouble picturing them. But maybe I cant park. Except I know I should be able
it wouldnt have mattered how Jesus died. to park. Any other day, I could park, no prob-
Maybe church would just be church still. lem, but not today. I dont know why that is.
The same basically. Right? Everything how Its like my car is, you know, different.
it is? Things have a way of evening out over
time, or maybe they only seem to. But what if B: We are all Buddhas, so we all die in dif-
instead Jesus had died in a freeway pileup? A ferent ways, and yet the different ways are all
random accident. Nobodys fault, just one of the same. You see? It is an important thing
those freaky things. Cars strewn across the to think of when doing sales: death, I mean.
road. Overturned, on fire. Some jack-knifed Is my death noticeable to others? Do I use
tractor trailer there. Sometimes I feel like Im a facial scrub, mints, foot deodorizer? Will
still in college. I know Im not, but I feel like the client sense that I am dying? Is this why
that same person. On the inside, I mean. All he or she turns from me, or turns toward
confused, like Im back there trying to figure me? We are selling death, to be sure, dying
it all out. Im nine credits shy of my degree, things, while we ourselves are dying. We do
and I dont know what Im taking in the not like to discuss this, do we? That every-
spring. Do you know any good classes for me? one around us is dying, a little bit every day,
Id ask people that. Friends, strangers, girls or some suddenly. I see my customers come
I couldnt otherwise talk to. Im that person in, and my coworkers, my wife, and they are
now, I think. Still. But Im also trying to ap- all dying. Were dying just looking at each
pear as if Im not confused, you know what other. But as Yama informs us, you must be
I mean? Because I did that too, back then, accepting of death. You must look death in
pretending. I pretended all the time. I dont the face and say, I knew you were coming. I
know if this is of any use to you, hearing this am beyond you already. I was on a vacation
stuff. To know about me. Anyhow, I think in the Midwest with my son, who is not as
when people see me, they see that college kid. gifted as Id like, but who I feel will prove to
Im talking like at meetings? That customers be a valuable asset to this country. I told him
maybe get the impression Im not like them. to look me in the face and smell my death.

ANA BENAROYA
He looked taken aback, and a bit scared at her two choices to choose from. Both of
first, but I got right in his face like any man which are suitable to you. Without speaking
should do to a young male, and I yelled at to Rhimst, I am certain that this is what he
him, put him down as a young male, and by wants to hear from you. To take charge like
so doing, I emboldened him. I brought out this. To stop this mewling. Do you see? All
his intact manhood. He gritted his teeth, this said, yes, Jesus was a born salesman. You
and I gritted mine back, and he said, Fuck know well enough that story of the fishes and
your death, Dad! Fuck your smelling death. loaves. Of how he fed five hundred people
I truly beamed. I was so proud of him in with a couple of fish and a couple pieces of
that moment. I hugged him. Do you see the bread. He had inventory control. He had
lesson? We must walk toward the thing that figured out ingredient loss. Do you think you
frightens us. We must not cower, we must not can find apostles, and tell them your stories,
flinch. You were talking about your problems and get them hooked on your jazz? I may
with women briefly. Have you ever tried the have lost you. Let me go back. The apostles
direct approach? Have you ever just told a are your clients, who youre selling to. Think
woman you were interested in that she will of them as your sheep. We need the sheep to
be your girlfriend? You dont ask her like all start fucking. We need more sheep, in other
of the other schmucks out there, these nut- words. More sheep, more money. I think you
less Aldas, if she would like to go out. That follow me.
puts things too much in her court. Thats an
unmanly position to be in. No, you just tell A: These parables of yours are very exciting
her straight out, that this is your decision, to me. I dont know if you call them parables,
and that there is no reason for her to disagree. I was just thinking they are. Though I some-
You just remove her options from the table. times like them better than whatever theyre
Or, if you want to be a gentleman, you give supposed to refer to. Does that ever happen

w
to you? Like with the sheep, I felt myself we were in love or whatever, you know? And
wanting to hear more about themand more the sofa did pull the living room together,
about Jesus too. But then its just over, and design-wise, she was right about that. But
the sheep arent sheep anymore, they are then after New Years, we broke up and she
clients wearing sheep masks, and were back moved out and that was that. I got to keep
to talking about sales again. Sorry. I think the sofa, though. She said I could. Anyway, I
Im maybe not cut out for this or something. I dont think that sort of premature ejaculating
mean, you say I need to go out and find some is so unusual. Is it? Sometimes it happens sev-
apostles to sell stuff to. Except the apostles eral hours before my date arrives. It does still
were salesmen too. Right? Werent they? happen from time to time, I guess. I dont
Because didnt they actually work with Jesus know. Its not like I keep track of this stuff.
as his regional sales team in a way? And so Other times its right when my date is due
that would make Jesus like the head sales- to get there, which does create a little panic,
man or maybe senior VP of sales. But either but its fine, no big deal, just clean it up later.
way, if Im supposed to be looking for these Or it can be the night before my date, and
apostles, that would mean I have to be Jesus, Ill be lying in bed, watching TV or maybe
and I cant be Jesus here. Im not even sure paying some bills. It did happen once that I
Im apostle material, or anything really. I premature ejaculated while I was paying bills,
mean, did Rhimst tell you about my depres- but that was just that one time, or maybe one
sion I guess youd maybe call it? The thoughts other time in addition to that time, I cant
Ive been having. I assume you dont get like remember. Anyhow, Ill just be lying there
this. Why would you, right? Everything you and Ill feel myself start to go off. I dont want
got here. As for my love life, not sure what to to be gross, but its like Ive sprung a leak.
say there. I appreciate your advice on how to First time it happened, I thought something
take charge in that realm. I really do. Are you was really seriously wrong with me. I called
positive we have to delve into all this right this emergency number. Where you can talk
now, though? Rhimst warned me you would to a nurse? Any time of the day or night, you
range freely, that you take a multidisciplinary can call and a nurse talks back to you. Theyre
approach, I believe he said. And thats fine, if very helpful there? And soothing. Have got
thats what works for you. I suppose it must. me out of quite a few scrapes over the years. I
Rhimst said it does. But I guess I just dont mean, I must call them up, I dont know, ev-
see why it matters if I premature ejaculate, ery other week? Maybe more. So anyhow, this
you know? Ive done it for years, all right? Off nice woman on the other end just asked me
and on, I mean. It depends. But it started long some questions and eventually said I would
before I came to work here, I want to be clear be okay if I rested and drank a lot of water.
about that. And long before I even got into Also, I got used to the premature ejaculating.
sales, okay? I went through a periodthis And what I found? It just depends on how
was a few years agowhere I was premature much Im thinking about the date before-
ejaculating before my date arrived to pick hand. All that anticipation, you know. For
me up. I didnt have a car then, because the me, I mean. Looking forward to hearing her
woman Id moved in with, my ex-, said what knocking at the door and wondering what
we should do is sell my car, which was the shell be wearing and trying to guess will it be
newer of our two cars, in order to buy a silk- a dress or some cute jeans or what. That sort
covered sofa, and I did that, sure, without any of thing. I also kind of told myself a long time
question or hesitation or anything, because ago that it was okay, to premature ejaculate,

My son said, Fuck your death, Dad! Fuck your smelling death.
I truly beamed. I was so proud of him in that moment.
9
I mean, because at least Id gotten that part, Mary Magdalene. Its been suggested that he
the sex part, out of the way. So then I could may have had previous dealings with her, of
just change my pants and my undershorts the debauched but needed variety, and that
and, you know, enjoy the date or whatever. this is why she showed up at the end. The
And not stress about the whole would-we-or- story then continues that there are descen-
wouldnt-we of it so much, which terrifies me dants of Jesus and Mary today, through that
a little, or can, if I let it. I suppose the only line. I personally dont believe this, because
time I dont premature ejaculateIm talking I believe its been proven authoritatively that
during the sex act itself nowis when we do Jesus was a prematurer as well. From this we
the lovemaking at my desk, with me sitting in can easily deduce that nothing happened
my office chair and my date or whoever kind in the realms of penetration, and that his
of on top of me, you know. Like straddling story should remain as it is, though we also
me? I dont know why that is. Just one thing know that the stories are certainly specious.
Ive noticed is all. However, though they are almost certainly
falsified, we understand them to be the truth,
B: Rhimst is basically a mired wreck, a and so we treat them this way. The truth is
pulsating annoyance. My practice is not born from the false. Ergo sum. Do you see?
scattershot, as he said, but bricolage. From This is why sales is the noblest profession. It
the French, which means ... oh never mind. is directly a consequence of biblical history.
I dont expect him to understand. Its a West You know how they always say, The truth
Coast idea, where play is treated seriously. shall set you free. Well, thats just it, when
It may seem like play, but it isnt. We must you tell the truth, which is a combination
trust the process. Play will get us to the path. of falsifications, you are removing the outer
My therapist agrees with this process; many lie, which is that truth, and so the bottom-
in the field of information science, particu- dwelling falsity can shine more fully through.
larly, agree with this process. Rhimst cannot People want the falsity. They believe in that.
handle me. He cannot follow my brain pat- The unvarnished, truth-erased falsity. Again,
terns. Its always been a source of frustration this is why sales is so noble. It is all falsity.
for him, and so, not being talented enough to People know this going in, and they like it.
focus or to ask questions, or to develop some Why do you think people like buying all of
sort of self-starter ability, he mocks. This this crap that they have? Because they like it,
is a well-grooved pattern of his. Everyone is they enjoy living in the falseness, or moments
aware of his personal deficiencies, and we of it at least. I met my wife at a convention
work around them, him. In my early years in Dallas, a national sales meeting, and we
here, I did do some undercover internal inves- both saw that we had understood that the
tigation into seeing how he might be ousted, falseness was in us, and that this is what drew
but he is related to the bosss wife, so theres us to one another. We fell, of course, easily
nothing to be done. Your untimely emitting, in love, and were later married. On Marthas
la petite mort, does, however, conjoin with the Vineyard, as I had arranged. The great ocean,
secret history of Jesus, and his dealings with the renewer, near to us. So, you see how Jesus

w
foretold this in his teachings, transmogrified Im sure you know, is a focusing tool. You
by church elders, and which come to us in the make like a pair of glasses out of your fingers.
Bible. The Bible is our sales book. Learn to Like this. No, with your index finger. Thats
become more false. Thats the advice I give to right. And then your thumb. You dont have
everyone. Please take this to heart. to if you dont want to. Thats fine. Ill just
show you, okay? The other fingers kind of
A: Rhimst wasnt mocking you, I dont come in behind them and make like a hood.
think. He just wanted to let me know that Like binoculars, you know? And then what
when it came to your teachings, I should you do is you fit them over your eyes. Like
expect the unexpected maybe? But I really so. With your glasses, youd have to put the
didnt get the impression he was in any way attentoscope on over them, but it still works.
mocking you. I think he has a lot of respect Ive tried it with sunglasses, and it even works
for you actually? And he reveres your num- with them. The thing to do is just get the
bers. He told me that himself. I mean, if any- attentoscope in place, okay? And let it focus
thing, hes just thrown up his hands over what your attention. Imagine what you want to
to do with me. I guess he thinks you can help? achieve. Thats what Rhimst always says.
Rhimst has a bit of a different approach to Name what you want to do. Describe your
sales. Youve heard. Or know. You probably dream. And then all you do is you sit like
know. His approach is more, I think, based that, real still, for a good minute or two, with
on teaching children? He told me he used to the attentoscope in position, and you try not
work at a summer camp for difficult kids. He to blink. Because I think blinking is like a
didnt call them that. I dont think youre sup- break in your concentration? And you have
posed to call them difficult. But theyre like, to start over then? Rhimst says you should
you know, the fighters or whatever. Perpetu- control your blinking and your heart rate if
ally in trouble and so forth? Kids that call in you can, but thosere advanced attentoscope
bomb threats because they dont want to take techniques, which we only just touched on a
some algebra test or they bring their gun to little before he suggested maybe I ought to
school or bite some teachers finger off for come see you. Anyhow, after youre focused,
no good reason. Anyhow, Rhimst was like a you can put your attentoscope down. Slowly,
camp counselor at this place. Which I think Rhimst says to do it slowly. Im probably do-
is in the Pacific Northwest maybe? Then ing it too fast still. The point is just you take
he became this big advisor at the camp and your fingers away from your face, but you
taught the other counselors mediation and keep them in that attentoscope formation.
conflict resolution. Or something like that. Like you dont want to break the attento-
When he was working on me, on helping me, scope, right? And then you just set it down
hed always be taking some of that stuff for in your lap. Gently, as gently as can be. At
kids and applying it to my problems. The idea this point, you should have your heightened
was, I guess, theres these few simple lessons focus. If youve done everything correctly.
and they can really be like your guide through My focus isI dont have it right now. Its
life in a way? And help in the workplace too, just, you know, normal or whatever? Because
I think he would say. Does that sound right of the talking. I shouldnt have been talk-
to you? I mean, from what you know? Thats ing. If I was doing it for real, I mean. But so
where his idea for the attentoscope comes the idea, I guess, is when you got your focus,
in. Which he uses every day, he says, and hes you can march into that big meeting and
got me using now as well. The attentoscope, achieve what it is you want to achieve. The

ANA BENAROYA
heightened focusll last for a good hour or still had my attentoscope on, looking at him
so, or until you blink. Thats the one catch. through the window. So I rolled the window
Rhimst says even after you put the attento- down using my elbow on the window button,
scope down, you cant blink. Between us, Im and the client said if I wanted to meet inside,
finding the no-blinking thing hard, but Im hed go in and, you know, grab us a table? If I
just getting started really? Rhimst says his was ready, that is? He looked at me then, and
heightened focus lasts five or six hours and I put my attentoscope down nice and slow,
thats on the conservative side. If he does it at because it was time and because I had my
night, sometimes he wakes up the next morn- focus on full-power, I could feel it, and I said,
ing and still has his heightened focus. But hes Super, Ill be right in. Later, I told Rhimst
been using the attentoscope for years. So hes all this and he said it sounded like I did
much further along with it? Ive only done everything just perfect? Except I should have
it this one time in the field. I was meeting a parked down the street or done what he does,
client at my fish place, and I got there early which is always park around back, where the
and so I was sitting in the car with my at- dumpster is and everybody smokes, and then
tentoscope on and I was just trying to focus it you do your attentoscope work there, and
out the windshield, looking at the restaurant he knew he should have mentioned this but
but not really thinking about the restaurant it slipped his mind is all, so this was on him,
or what I wanted to eat or whatever, because definitely his bad, he said.
the other thing is youre not really supposed
to think about anything, Rhimst says, except B: It seems you think highly of Rhimst.
your focus itself, and so I was trying to do Rhimst says, Rhimst says, Rhimst says.
that part, when there was a tap at my window, If I wanted to hear what Rhimst said, Id
and I looked, you know, and it was my client bring him in here. I want to know what you
standing there. He was early too, I guess? I think, not Rhimst. Youre not going to get

w
anywhere following someone elses path. we dreaming each others presence? Those
For christs sake, nut up. Did you ever ask voices in your head you mentionedare
yourself why you believe Rhimst is right and these vestiges of your Coyote spirit coming
youre not? I bet you havent. Let me see your through? Or babble? And which one is the
tongue for a second. Yes, I mean it. Stick it babble, really: your outward speech, like
out. Okay, all right. There, you see. Any per- what were doing here, or your inner Jerry,
son with any Qi training will tell you from as I believe you called it? But this is putzing
the coloring of your tongue that your liver around the issue. We must act. Times a-
system is all shot to shit. Theres a bland- wastin. Do not waste your time, as the Thai
ness to it, like youre stuck. Its like a milky forest monks will tell you. Well, theyll prob-
film on it. This is the sign of disorganization. ably say it in Thai or Pali, but you know what
I mention it to people like you, who seem I mean. Its all I can do to not get out of my
adrift, or easily duped by others, others like chair here and just hit you. I dont have this
Rhimst. Do you know the Coyote figure from impulse often, but its like you need your ears
Indian lore? The trickster, the shape-shifter boxed. To wake up. I know this isnt the cur-
in other cultures. Thats what Im talking rent way of doing things, but I go to a group
about. Hard to pin down. A sort of anthro- my therapist recommended, a group for men
pomorphic representation of breaking the only, where we get down to the basics. Ill
binary mind. I can speak this way to you, I bring you next time. This isnt some place
believe. You had some schooling. We need to where we sob about our daddies not loving
break you out of thinking up is up and that us. Fuck our fathers. No, we try to bring
this table is solid, or that its even here. Are forth that dark male essence, that root of the
bruise, and to gird ourselves in our natural
stoic strength. Ours is a private group. There
is a fee, sure. Lights cost money, someone
has to bring food, toiletries. But we have a
wide array of courses and functions, includ-
ing things like How to field dress deer to
appreciate opera. This is a transformative
class. We have men who dont know the right
end of a knife. Others have never heard of
Osipova. They come together there, these
brave men. In the class. The brain just con-
nects us in a million ways, like what were
doing here, talking about attentoscopes and
Yama. We are not ourselves, is what I want
to impress upon you. We are more than our-
selves. Who we think of as ourselves. Do you
follow me? Some people think if we are just
jolted with a little electricity we may start
weaving Kashan hunting carpets or speak-
ing a dialect of an extinct language. Now you
might ask, Why would I want to speak an
extinct language, though? And I would say to
P. S . MUELLER that, Why not?t

The Invisible Mans Electric Bill
after Ralph Ellison
3 A fa a M ic h a el We av er
Old and figured over from a life in the basement,

he sat under the judge, deaf to paper shuffling, jabs
from the jury, the thousand flashes of cameras,
holding his figurine, a dancing Sambo he made

in the long hours after he forgot what day meant to night,
how the evening sounds of street life became the swirl
and slosh of puddles in a city under the metropolis,

a summary of his dreams of shuffling about from glad
hand to glad hand until he fell down the looking glass
into surrender. The day they came to tear down his

shack of books and marked spaces in reason, he asked
if he could see these things he had heard so much about
from those who went up on the streets from time

to time, these machines that did everything, that had
made keyboards an entry into a dream of the mind,
and they showed him a laptop with a bright apple

on the cover, he in turn gave them a figurine,
a favorite one of a watermelon he had made, as big
as his hand, with Go down Moses carved in cursive

the way they used to do in grade school with practice paper.
Old and figured over from a life in the basement,
he had taken time to study gratitude, smiling when he

handed them the fruit, breaking the perfection of this space
made from the invisible energy, the light that made light,
and he was led off to face years of stealing from ConEd,

to pay his bill finally, to make the accounts balanced,
found out as he was by these little machines, these
minds inside the mind made real by the imprint of an apple

meant to say paradise had been made violate for greater
good, for the lost trumpet sounds of feet in rivers below,
rivers above, glad moments in wires crisscrossing the heart.

Fu t u r o i d s
The Crowdsourcing Scam

Why do you deceive yourself?
3 Jacob Silverman
I n 1968 a Norwegian science fiction writer

named Tor ge Bringsvrd published a
peculiar short story called Codemus. The
the scrim of technological sophistication and
awesome computing power. To disobey ones
little brother is to violate a central directive of
story has achieved the kind of retrospectively this efficient society.
prophetic quality that makes sci-fi such a use- Codemus always follows his little brothers
ful imaginative map for navigating our rela- commands, but one day, the gadget decides to
tionship with technology. (It also happens to rebel. Little Brother (Codemus refers to his af-
be a good story, clever and light on its feet in fectionately, affording him the dignity of capi-
its portrayal of a looming techno-fascism.) tal letters) fails to wake up Codemus for work.
Bringsvrds tale is about a thirty-eight-year- Little Brother later decides to take Codemus,
old man named Codemus who lives in a thor- who is still under the spell of his machine, out
oughly automated society. In the efficient to the park. Not much happens; they bask in
society everything goes as planned, goes one the sun and try to start up a conversation with
of the storys mantras. In the efficient society a park employee, who is immediately spooked.
everything goes the way it should. This mild encounter represents a grave of-
Codemus is set sometime in the fifth defense on a day when park visits arent sched-
cade of the twenty-first century, and its mani- uled. Soon Codemus is a fugitive, pursued by
cally efficient society displays the kind of ster- police and bloodhounds through the citys
ilized exactitude that we might associate with monorail system. Shadowed by the authorities
sci-fis New Wave period, when writers were at every stop, Little Brother demands that Co-
less focused on space travel and ray guns than demus leave him behind. Theyve got a fix on
on questions of politics and personal freedom. me, naturally, Little Brother says, presaging
A worldwide computer network, much like an era when communication and surveillance
the Internet, provides information freely, al- would become synchronized processes. Im
though people have access only to end-user leaving a regular wake of radio waves behind
terminals (here Bringsvrd seems to have us.
envisioned a version of the cloud). Everyone Codemus doesnt want to abandon his
has been equipped with a little brothera gadget-cum-companion, but eventually he ac-
digital assistant that we might recognize as a quiesces and dumps Little Brother. Soon fear,
smartphone, right down to its sinister double- confusion, and emptiness take hold. Codemus
duty as a tracking device. Little brothers wake has no idea who he is or what hes supposed to
their owners up, tell them when to go to work, do. A human is a social entity, goes another
guide them on their commutes, and bring of the storys aphoristic mantras, and Code-
them home. They are at once companions, mus is now alone. He is utterly, metaphysically
fonts of information, communication tools lost. He decides to give himself up and falls
(everyone talks on them while walking in pub- into the arms of his pursuers. The story ends
lic), and draconian taskmasters hiding behind with Codemus led back to the flock, given

The greatest deception
of crowdsourcing is the notion
that there is a crowd at all.
9
a new little brother, and returned to the cool
embrace of the efficient society. His purpose,
such as it is, is restored.
We may not live in the dystopian society
forecast by Bringsvrd, but many of its ele-
ments are recognizable in ours. The smart-
phone has become the universal prosthetic.
Its widespread adoption has helped create
a surveillance climate in which everyone is
his own little brother and everyone may be
tracked at all times. Indeed, Codemuss world
resembles nothing so much as the handiwork
of the visionary engineers at Google. Theres
the same trademark ethos of all-consuming
paternalism, the same seamless use of cloud
computing and data collection as a bastion of
social order, the same embrace of efficiency as
a supreme value. Theres even the same pro-
motion of automated transport free of human
interference. Little Brother is like a hopped-
up version of Google Now, the search giants
personal assistant that spends all day rifling
through your data, reminding you when you
have meetings, when you should leave for your
next appointment, how you should get there,
what news might interest you, and so on ad in-
finitum.
Lets step back for a momentor rather,
float upward a bit, and imagine a birds-eye
view of this society, one in which harried
workers are sent to and fro by way of com-
mands conveyed to them through personal
computing devices. They dont know why they
are doing these things, nor what sort of calcu-
lus informs all their data-charged activity. But
still they follow the commands, which come
LISA HANE Y with the computers imprimatur of math-

ematical precision and authority. They move porary workers or subdivided into smaller
between tasks with all the attention and care and smaller units of work, which are then
of worker bees; accomplishing the job without widely distributed through a cloud-based la-
hesitation is all that matters. They live and bor market. The result is an extreme form of
work in conditions of closely choreographed Taylorism: in boom conditions, workers have
banality. more tiny tasks than they can say yes to, but
From this vantage, the efficient society they acquire no skills, they learn nothing
that terrorizes and comforts Codemus, and about the product or service to which they
enfolds him in the straitjacket of a diffused, are contributing, they have no contact with
technologized fascism, resembles the experi- other workers, and they have no chance to
ence of many workers today. Increasing num- advance or unionize. They simply do the task
bers of people receive their instructions from, offered to them, for a very low fee, and move
and report back to, software and smartphones. on as quickly as possible. Imagine a factory in
Whether operating a bin selector in an Ama- which each employee wears blinders and can
zon warehouse or freelancing from a coffee see only the thing in front of him on the con-
shop, many Americans work long days with- veyor belt. An algorithm acts as the overseer,
out having contact with other human beings and this boss doesnt miss a thing. (If you work
neither coworkers nor supervisors. (There are for Gigwalk, for example, and dont respond
no subordinates for this class of workers.) to a message within thirty minutes, the app
Everything they do is tracked, because effi- may lower your rating in its system, decreas-
ciency is the sine qua non. Some of them work ing your chances of getting more work.)
for online labor markets like Elance, oDesk, The software facilitating this transaction
and Amazons Mechanical Turk, which offer acts as the ultimate mediator; the employee
micro-jobs that can be done remotely, with and the employer never have to deal with one
little to no training. They complete surveys, another directly. Payment can be unreliable
tag photos, and transcribe interviews, for pay and is wholly contingent on the employer ac-
of a few dollars per hour or at a piecework rate cepting the laborers product. If the former
of little more than a few cents per task. Occa- doesnt like what he receives, he can simply
sionally, a job requires someone to go out into reject it and not pay the worker for his time.
the physical world to confirm that a restaurant Contract employees have no chance, in this
is still open or to photograph a store display so setup, to appeal or to revise their work.
that the multinational company paying for it Silicon Valley calls this arrangement
knows that it (and thousands of other displays crowdsourcing, a label thats been extend-
like it, scattered around the country or the ed to include contests, online volunteerism,
world) is set up properly. fundraising, and more. Crowdsourced work
These labor markets depend on a kind of is supposed to be a new, more casual, and
internalized offshoring. By fine-tuning an in- more liberating form of work, but it is any-
creasingly unstable employment regimepart thing but. When companies use the word
of a countrywide jobless recoverycompa- crowdsourcinga coinage that suggests
nies can focus on retaining and fairly com- voluntary democratic participationthey are
pensating highly skilled (and highly sought performing a neat ideological inversion. The
after) employees, such as engineers, lawyers, kind of tentative employment that we might
programmers, doctors, and scientists. Mean- have scoffed at a decade or two ago, in which
while, less complicated work can be either individuals provide intellectual labor to a cor-
farmed out to low-wage freelance and tem- poration for free or for sub-market wages, has

Imagine a factory in which each employee wears blinders
and can see only the thing in front of him.
An algorithm acts as the overseer, and this boss doesnt miss a thing.
9
been gussied up with the trappings of techno- highly paid and skilled human beings, they are
logical sophistication, populist appeal, and, in still treated like vestigial parts of a machine.
rare cases, the possibility of viral fame. But in As a driver for UberXa vast, imperious ex-
reality, this labor regime is just another varia- periment in crowdsourcing amateur drivers to
tion on the age-old practice of exploiting or- replace cabbies, with their thorny regulations
dinary workers and restructuring industrial and job securitytold Re/code as part of a com-
relations to benefit large corporations and plaint about Ubers company policies, We
owners of the platforms serving them. The have become the functional end of the app.
lies and rhetorical obfuscations of crowd- And thats the ugly, dystopian truth at
sourcing have helped tech companies devalue the heart of the networked digital economy:
work, and a long-term, reasonably secure, de- crowdsourced workers are expected to work
cently paying job has increasingly become a seamlessly with software, following its com-
MacGuffinsomething we ardently chase af- mands. Software has replaced corporate bu-
ter but will likely never capture, since its there reaucracy as the inscrutable taskmaster. Its
only to distract us from the main action of the become practically a legal entity unto itself.
script. Millions of dollars in potential tort awards
now depend on if and how Uber drivers are in-
Brother, Can You Spare a Cycle? teracting with the app when they get into traf-
No bad big idea achieves its full cultural po- fic accidents, run over pedestrians, or assault
tential without first being sacralized by Wired passengers. In March Uber announced new
magazine. Crowdsourcing is no different. In limited insurance coverage for UberX driv-
June 2006 the tech industrys bible ran a sto- ers, but the company continues to downplay
ry called The Rise of Crowdsourcing (the its liabilities. After all, its not even a transpor-
cover headline was more typically hyperbolic: tation or taxi firm but a transportation net-
A Billion Amateurs Want Your Job). The work company or, as its also been referred
new pool of cheap labor, the articles writer, to, a peer-to-peer ride-sharing service. Uber
Jeff Howe, explained, is everyday people us- engineers just make the app; what happens to
ing their spare cycles to create content, solve people using it is of little concern to them.
problems, even do corporate R&D. This combination of treating humans like
The casual characterization of human be- machines and recasting work as something
ings as something like modular computer differentsomething casual, informal, and
components, complete with their spare cy- frivolously funis a perennial selling point
cles, was a revealing tic, one that has gone on for the digital worlds army of crowdsourcing
to mark much of the subsequent popular liter- consultants. At the same time, its an all-too-
ature on crowdsourcing. In this field, humans obvious horror show for anyone still clinging
are required only so long as they complete to any critical detachment from the booster-
the minimum amount of work that cannot be mad tech scene. Distributed labor networks
done by software. Even if they are replacing are using the Internet to exploit the spare pro-

Fu t u r o i d s
cessing power of millions of human brains, spend on research and development. In the
Howe explained, as if people are just waiting process, a few garage tinkerers might make
for corporations to call up and ask if they have off pretty well, while Boeing or Procter &
any extra neurons available. The corollary is Gamble can slash its R&D department and
that people shouldnt expect much for donat- harvest ideas from people who will never be
ing these spare cycles, but corporations can in a position to sue them for infringement of
profit tremendously. intellectual property rights or to go work for
What emerges from Howes articlewhich, a competitor.
perhaps inevitably, resulted in a book-length These benefits havent been lost on the For-
treatment, Crowdsourcing: Why the Power of the tune 500, which has taken to crowdsourcing
Crowd Is Driving the Future of Businessis the and similar efforts in the same way it has to
sense that crowdsourcing is indeed a good way social media. Both technological platforms
to extract labor from masses of people at very allow companies to interact directly with cus-
low cost. Whether that labor will be done ethi- tomers and to offer the impression that they
cally or produce good work are other matters. are something other than impersonal, profit-
Crowdsourcing sites are not communities driven monoliths beholden only to their share-
from which good ideas and products spring, holders. By running contests soliciting ads for
scholar Daren C. Brabham wrote in a study of major media events, brands like Doritos and
iStockphoto, the micropayment platform that Dove can save on their advertising budgets
decimated the market for many professional while also earning good press for appearing to
photographers by offering up user-submitted be open to contributions from the public. The
stock photography at bottom-of-the-barrel winning entries then are cast as meritocratic
rates. This is likely true, but companies that victories of amateur creativity rather than
turn to crowdsourcing benefit from high mar- low-cost replacements for the professional ad
ginsTV shows that make use of clips submit- campaigns for which agencies (their question-
ted by viewers, from Americas Funniest Home able taste aside) charge millions.
Videos to more recent programs on VH1 and One might, in jaundiced fashion, nonethe-
Comedy Central, are incredibly cheap to pro- less regard the crowdsourced life as yet an-
duceand highly advantageous economies of other flourish of self-inflicted market idolatry
scale. If thousands of people are submitting on the part of the digeratiif not a natural-
ideas to you for free, some of them are bound selection mechanism for the guileless ama-
to be good, or at the very least useful. And its teurs who would have rolled over in similar
much cheaper to have a couple of interns sort- fashion if theyd been graced with a cubicle
ing through submissions for T-shirt ideas than in a Silicon Valley coding farm. But thats just
it is to pay professional artists to do the design. the problem: crowdsourcing has burrowed its
Thats why corporate America has also way into all realms of life, most notably into
used crowdsourcing for more rarified work. government, philanthropy, higher education,
Take InnoCentive, a platform on which com- and other sectors from which one might, in
panies like Eli Lilly and DuPont post com- more confident chapters in our political econ-
plex problems for the public to solvehow omys development, expect some countervail-
to improve art restoration, say, or to inject ing force against the land rush for free labor
fluoride into toothpaste tubes. Winning so- and opportunistic pseudo-populism. Instead,
lutions may earn tens of thousands of dollars throughout the public sector as well as in the
in rewardsa hefty amount, sure, but pennies corporatized sanctums of the market, work-
compared to what these companies usually ers are urged to collaborate in their own sys-

tematic casualization and deskilling, all in the
name of libertarian emancipation.
Uber Alles
A confluence of conditions has allowed
crowdsourcing to thrive: the advent of highly
distributed, mobile computing; the steadily
blurring distinctions between work and play;
an efficiency fetish in which all possible work
must be captured and put towards productive
ends; and a sense that technology is inherently
empowering and beneficent.
The field also couldnt exist without a gen-
eralized sense that liberal institutions are ei-
ther in disarray or not up to tackling twenty-
first century problems. In the crowdsourcing
world, these challenges are inevitably cast
as confusing, complicated, and amenable
to technological fixes that politics or social
movements cant provide. And yet every
crowdsourced appeal on GoFundMe or Give-
Forward for someones medical carewheth-
er an impoverished artist or a victim of a mass
shootingis itself an outrage. These appeals
are much more than the online equivalent of
a charity bake sale. Spontaneous and virtuous
outbursts of public generosity, for all the genu-
ine good they can achieve for individual peti-
tioners, are nonetheless powerful indictments
of the publics myopia, for no one should ever
have to start a fundraiser to afford medical
care. Were willing to click donate to give
$20 to someone in a time of dramatized suf-
feringit makes us feel good; we can share our
involvement on social media; we feel a genu-
ine longing to help someone in needbut are
unable to mount the kind of sustained cam-
paign needed to procure healthcare for every-
one. And with every heartwarming story of a
crowdfunding goal achieved (complete with
the platform taking its cut), the case for sys-
temic reform suffers.*
From healthcare to defense, the call for the
private sector to usurp the responsibilities
LISA HANE Y of government always beckons. Take the ex-

ample of the increasingly militarized United was reCAPTCHA, a version of the now-ubiq-
StatesMexico border. After pouring a billion uitous online tests used to verify that a person
dollars into SBInet, the so-called virtual is not a spambot. This program, bought up by
border fence designed by Boeing, the Depart- Google in 2009, shows two words, barely leg-
ment of Homeland Security abandoned the ible and contorted into loopy shapes, to a user,
project in 2011. Steve Smith, a member of the who types them in a box. When she types
Arizona State Legislature, shepherded into them correctly, she verifies that shes a human
law a bill to crowdfund the fence, along with being, but in the process, she also transcribes
a state-sanctioned website, buildtheborder- a word or two from Googles massive book-
fence.com. Three years later Smiths project scanning projectand she provides a service
was dead, having raised only $264,000far that the companys optical character recogni-
less than the federal governments $2.8 mil- tion software cant. If one accepts the legiti-
lion estimated price tag for one mile of fenc- macy of CAPTCHAs and similar verification
ing. Even with Smiths plan to use convict schemes, then the harvesting of the users
labor, the $264k haul was not enough to do labor is incidentalwhich is precisely what
anything, and the funds, which were report- makes it so ethically confounding.
edly solicited from corporations and private Eggers also lauds another von Ahn inven-
citizens alike, remain stuck in a state account. tion: Duolingo, which, the writer explains,
The irony of this debacle is practically recur- allows people to learn a foreign language
sive: here was a failed campaign to make up for while simultaneously translating huge chunks
the failure of the government to build a fence of the Internet. These pieces of the Inter-
that, even if it had worked, represented a solu- netwhich fortunately remain (for now any-
tion to a nonproblemthat of dangerous ille- way) comparatively smallare mostly for-
gals taking away American jobs and bringing profit websites with which Duolingo partners.
drugs and terrorism in their wake. Companies like BuzzFeed and CNN submit
Yet the libertarian excitement for crowd- articles to Duolingo, which duly parcels them
sourcing endures, founded in the misguided out to its online battery of students, who work
belief that once power is arrogated away from through them as translation exercises. A fully
doddering governmental institutions, it will translated article is then aggregated from var-
somehow find itself in the hands of ordinary ious students contributions, and voil: a major
people. In one typical effusion of libertarian media organization has a complete translation
magical thinking, William D. Eggers, writ- of its material, without the expense of hiring a
ing earlier this year in Reason, marveled over professional translator or a local journalist to
the casual poaching of work via the miracle of re-report the story.
software. He began by praising Luis von Ahn, One might counter that the students use
who has made a career out of crafting fiend- Duolingo for free and that this is a way of re-
ishly inventive technologies that manage to paying that debt. But most students partici-
extract labor out of web users without their pate in this arrangement unwittingly. Whats
knowledge. Von Ahns breakthrough project more, and far more troubling, Duolingo us-
* Would-be fundraisers must also submit to the onerous rules and service terms of crowdfunding platformsand the pretense
that these rules are the imperatives of an entirely impartial technology. GiveForwards payment service, WePay, canceled a
crowdfunding campaign for a severely ill woman who was a sex worker. Meanwhile, George Zimmerman raised hundreds of
thousands of dollars via PayPal. When supporters of Darren Wilson raised half a million dollars on GoFundMe, the company
issued a statement saying that it was a neutral technology platform. GoFundMe did find fault with one pro-Wilson appeal:
This campaign no longer meets GoFundMes stated requirement of having a valid Facebook account connected.

Workers are urged to collaborate in their own systematic casualization
and deskilling, all in the name of libertarian emancipation.
9
ers are contributing to the erosion of the so- one hundred thousand people. The reason
cietal and market value of once-expert skills for that, he says, is that before the Internet,
like translation. (Theyre also translating for coordinating more than one hundred thou-
some pretty crummy media organizations.) sand people, let alone paying them, was es-
One is left with a tough bargain: Do we accept sentially impossible. Now, with the Internet,
Duolingo, for all of its subterfuges, as part of everything is different, because everything is
the inevitable drift of digitization within the always different with the Internet.
working worldand as a lesser evil than, say, What von Ahn and his proxy, Eggers, ne-
Googles translation service, which has auto- glect to note is that the pyramids were built
mated the process of translation and cut out with slave labor; that tens of thousands of
human beings entirely? workers died building the Panama Canal; that
Another option is to overlook these issues landing on the moon was one of this coun-
altogether, which is what Eggers chooses. He trys shining achievements but also a specific
does say that the genius of reCAPTCHA product of a decades-long Cold War that gave
and Duolingo is that they divide labor into birth to a military-industrial complex that
small increments, performed for free, often by continues to chew through our treasury and
people who are unaware of the project theyre civil liberties alike. In the same register of un-
helping to complete. Its disturbing that this critical and ahistorical gadget-enthrallment,
arrangement excites him without reservation. they likewise fail to stipulate that the CAPT-
Then again, that is the market worshippers CHA-driven digitization of human knowl-
creed: greater entanglement within the matri- edge they celebrate is merely a scaffolding on
ces of capitalist exchange is always, by sheer which Google can hang more ads (having be-
dogmatic definition, freedom. Thus, Eggers gun the project without bothering to consult
observes, ridesharing companies like Uber any of the authors or publishers who owned
let us form de facto taxi service[s] and build the original work).*
two-sided marketsalbeit ones in which, Small wonder, then, that the apostles of
Eggers neglects to say, we are always buying the crowdsourcing gospel casually annex the
and selling the basic components of our lives. traditional functions of the public sector into
Unruffled, Eggers hops from glory to glory, their grand digital bargain. Despite their die-
next citing that other wellspring of techno- hard libertarian animus against the public
utopian pabulum: TED. In a TED Talk titled sector, they hew to the cartoonishly techno-
Massive-Scale Online Collaboration, von cratic faith that government can wipe away
Ahn enthuses about humanitys large-scale most stubborn social complexitiesprovided
achievements. The most impressive of these, that it does so with suitably robust measures
such as building the pyramids and the Panama of crowdsourcing. Volunteers will walk
Canal or landing on the moon, involved about through Kenyan slums and use GPS units
* Its also worth noting that the TED series is itself a model of uncompensated digital labor; TED organizers rely on amateur
contributors to translate and subtitle the breathless PR talks that conference organizers send caroming through the smart-
phones of the digerati. Hey, it worked for the pyramids!

Fu t u r o i d s
to tag landmarks. Finlands national library knowledge economy, Eggers is showcasing the
is perpetually short of fundsit shouldnt colossal market failure of citizen journalism.
be, but no one bothers to consider thatso it A longtime consultant on government reform,
will crowdsource volunteers to digitize docu- he churns out online PR boilerplate that vir-
ments. Health, online education, and work tually doubles as an infomercial for the kind
will be gamified and our data turned over to of services provided by his current employer,
the owners of the platforms that will parse it the neoliberal consultancy colossus Deloitte.
for us, allowing us to live better. (These benev-
olent market actors surely wont sell our pre- We Live as We Dream, Alone
cious data elsewhereor if they do, they will at The greatest deception of crowdsourcing is
least once more fail to notify the originators of the notion that there is a crowd at all. Sure,
all this content that its been strategically re- there may be thousands of people participat-
purposed.) Citizens will comment on laws di- ing in the T-shirt design contest, driving cars
rectly, perhaps even writing them. We might for Lyft, filling out paid surveys, or helping a
sign up for a U.S. Patent Office trial program police force identify looters in CCTV footage,
in which each patent application runs past but they are not assembled as a crowd. They
the eyes of several citizens, often with science are not in communication with one another,
backgrounds, rather than distracting a lone much less occupying one physical space. Each
bureaucrat. Often with science backgrounds, submission is handled individually, likely by a
you say! And yes, a moment of thought for the piece of software; as far as the system is con-
lone bureaucrat, who is now, like the rest of us, cerned, each submitter is a data profile. There
an artisan creating folk art in his spare time; is no group of people organizing, conferring
he too turns to crowdsourcing, but only when with one another, leveraging their power as
he needs to fill up the tip jar. a group, and finally submitting their work to
In this idealized type of digital exchange, someone else. This is a crowd only in name.
the impermanence of these relationships, the In Crowds and Power, his landmark study
ad hoc nature of it all, is a recipe for stability, of crowds and the political and social forces
not anxiety and disorder. Here there are no surrounding them, Elias Canetti emphasizes
technological or economic divides. Everyone that the crowd is a place of unification. There,
can afford the same gadgets and is able to put distinctions are thrown off: Only together
in time performing services, tracking person- can men free themselves from their burdens of
al data, and making suggestions that others distance; and this, precisely, is what happens
paid, professional, competent peoplewould in a crowd. During the discharge distinctions
have once made instead. The participants are are thrown off and all feel equal. This equal-
diversecontrary to academic studies show- ity matters but is also based on an illusion,
ing that crowdsourcing projects tend to be Canetti explains. Once the crowd disperses,
white, male, and prosperousand so the data its members return to their atomized lives
is, too. Power accruesthough never to ex- as individuals in their own homes, with their
cessto those with the right blend of moxie own families and concerns; they dont abandon
and good ideas. The burden of basic services these relationships for the sake of the crowd.
gets shifted from credentialed professionals But for at least a moment, they close that dis-
to individuals empowered with technology, tance and unify for a common cause. Another
Eggers says. Of course, in failing to exercise word for this phenomenon might be politics.
even the most basic critical faculties in this The contemporary practice of crowdsourc-
Pollyannaish account of the crowdsourced ing employs this illusionthat everyone is

equal, united in a shared goalwhile combin-
ing it with another popular deceit, that of mer-
itocracy. Under the regime of crowdsourcing,
everyone is actually competing with one an-
other, ostensibly under protocols that are im-
partial and fair. But in reality, those contribut-
ing to a crowdsourced project control nothing
about the terms of their participation. Sure,
it may be up to them whether they want to
participate at all, but under the clever labor-
extracting end runs and subterfuges of many
crowdsourced projects, contributors are com-
monly denied that most basic of democratic
rights: consent of the governed (or in this case,
the subcontracted). At its most manipulative,
crowdsourcing produces projects along the
lines of Twitch, an Android app that takes
over your phones lock screen and, rather than
having you enter an unlock code or pattern,
asks you to answer a quick question or rate
photosmicrowork that benefits whichever
patron may pay to place a task there. While
apps like these arent yet the default, the next
step is dismally clearparticipation in crowd-
sourced work could soon be the condition of
unlocking the devices we need to perform all
our other crowdsourced tasks.
When they do have a choice, users dont
typically crowdsource their labor for the sheer
giddy pleasure of selfless amateur participa-
tion. They tend, rather, to do it under false
pretenses or simply because they have few
other options for earning money or for gain-
ing the attention of the sort of people who,
they hope, might one day hire them for genu-
ine wage labor.
In this way, crowdsourcing depoliticizes
the crowd. It prevents crowd members from
communicating with one another and from
organizing. Those activities, after all, might
upset whoever is running the design contest
or controlling the transportation app that
nominally employs them. Uber, for example,
has responded to drivers protesting mass fir-
LISA HANE Y ings by claiming that these drivers received

poor ratings through the app and that their ware. How do you picketmuch less launch a
accounts were merely deactivated. On Me- work stoppageagainst a faceless app?
chanical Turk forums, workers vociferously You can see where all this is going, pulled
oppose unions, often claiming that MTurk toward the death spiral of diminishing expec-
work is individualistic and that a union would tations. As governments continue to practice
get between a worker and the person offering austerity, making lifetime employment and
him a few cents or dollars to complete a menial pension benefits a thing of the past, Ameri-
task. (On the other hand, its rarely suggested can corporations, despite a booming stock
in such forums that Mechanical Turk itself is market and record cash reserves, follow suit.
getting between workers and those assigning Stable employment, benefits, and retirement
tasks, or that workers might require some pro- funds become anachronistic perks of a pre-
tections and would benefit from organizing.) digital workforce. Companies begin to think
Constantly rated and assessed, these work- in terms of short-term spending rather than
ers appear to have internalized the sense of long-term investment, as borrowing and hir-
competition imposed on them from above. ing both atrophy. More and more of us are
They know that the communitarian rhetoric forced to be contingent laborers, freelancers,
surrounding crowdsourcing is but a pretense crowdsourced volunteers, or permalancers
and that fellow workers represent competi- always on the lookout for more opportunities,
tors for the few decently paying jobs available. always advertising ourselves through social
And yet if crowdsourced laborers were able to media and public networks, knowingwith a
come together and organize, they might find sense of generalized suspicionthat our pub-
that their lot would improve in the long run. lic utterances on social media may influence
It is at the very moment that workers strike, our future job prospects. Risk assessment
as Canetti says, that their fictitious equality algorithms may already be parsing our social
. . . has suddenly become a real equality: media profiles, pooling information to be
used in a future background check. Obliged to
As long as they were working they had very
work constantly to pay off household debt or
varied things to do, and everything they did
school loans, we dont have the time to learn
was prescribed. But, when they stop work,
the skills that would, we are told, allow us to
they all do the same thing. ... Stopping work
succeed in the knowledge economy.
makes the workers equals. Their concrete
Large corporations, meanwhile, start to re-
demands are actually of less importance than
alize that they can not only build on existing
the effect of this moment.
outsourcingwhich has seen human resourc-
In the harried, covertly competitive environ- es, IT, customer service, and a range of other
ment of crowdsourcing, this kind of stop- support staff shunted overseasbut also prac-
page seems impossible. There is no strength tice a pro tem outsourcing at home, summon-
to be won from these weak ties. But its only ing pliable, cheap workers whenever theyre
through some kind of strike or organization needed. Managers get plaudits for being
that crowdsourced laborers could improve technologically progressive and nimbleand
their working conditions. Unfortunately, the of course, for cutting budgets in the process.
process by which that might be achieved is un- Stock markets reward companies operating
clear. Whereas workers once hoped to unite on high margins, so more employees are fired
to fight the edicts of management, crowd- from already profitable companies. More
sourced workers would have to transcend power is granted to software engineers, execu-
algorithmic barriers and the dictates of soft- tives, high-level managers, and those control-

ling the algorithms and the networks; these dont respond immediately, we might not get
men (and they are mostly men) are plied with such an opportunity again? When we cant
spectacular working conditions and stock op- even talk to another human being about the
tions to keep them happy and supportive of task at hand and we must work nonstop just to
the status quo. make minimum wage?
Workers, in turn, have more mobility and a Here is where Tor ge Bringsvrds story
semblance of greater control over their work- deviates from reality. Yes, Codemus lived in a
ing lives. But is any of it worth it when we cant fully administered society where surveillance
afford health insurance or dont know how technology, automation, and the iron god of
much the next gig might pay, or when it might efficiency had coalesced into something irre-
come? When an apps terms of service agree- proachable and frightening. But there was one
ment is the closest thing we have to an em- aspect of his life that today seems too strange
ployment contract? When work orders come for fiction: he had a job that provided for all of
through a smartphone and we know that if we his needs.t
P. S . MUELLER

Fu t u r o i d s
The Dads of Tech

3 Astr a Taylor and Joanne McNeil
T he masters tools will never dismantle

the masters house, Audre Lorde fa-
mously said, but let Clay Shirky mansplain. It
cation with an undercurrent of sexism. There
are plenty of woman academics and research-
ers who study technology and social change,
always struck me as a strange observation but we are a long way from the forefront of
even the metaphor isnt true, the tech con- stage-managed gobbledygook. Instead of
sultant and bestselling author said at the New getting regaled with nods and winks for in-
Yorker Festival last autumn in a debate with venting the Internet, women in the tech
the novelist Jonathan Franzen. Get ahold of world typically have to overcome the bigoted
the masters hammer, and you can dismantle suspicions of an intensively male geek cul-
anything. Just consider all the people flipping turewhen, that is, they dont face outright
on the Im gay light on Facebook to signal harassment in the course of pursuing industry
their support for marriage equalitythere, careers.
Shirky declared, is a prime example of the A woman interested in the digital trans-
masters tools put to good use. formation simply cannot inhabit the role of
Shirky invented the Internet and Fran- an avuncular, all-knowing figure ready to
zen wants to shut it down, panel moderator declare, definitively, whether technology is
Henry Finder mused with an air of sophisti- good or not. A female speaker is more like-
cated hyperbole. Finder said he was merely ly to be asked if she knows how to code, the
paraphrasing a festival attendee hed over- question implying she lacks the authority to
heard outsideand joked that for once in his comment on something as allegedly complex
New Yorker editing career, he didnt need fact- as the Internet. Small wonder, then, that as-
checkers to determine whether the story was piring female leaders in the field are expected,
true. He then announced with a wink that it like Sheryl Sandberg, to adopt a body of savvy
was maybe a little true. Heh. solutions designed to retool their images so as
Shirky studied fine art in school, worked to pose minimal threats to the boys clubto
as a lighting designer for theater and dance lean in to the unfair expectations of a cor-
companies; he was a partner at investment porate culture thats often barely distinguish-
firm The Accelerator Group before turning able from a frat party.
to tech punditry. Now he teaches at NYU and You need not be a mechanic or the designer
publishes gung-ho cyberliberation tracts such of a highway system to comment insightfully
as Here Comes Everybody and Cognitive Surplus on the impact of automobiles or problems
while plying a consulting sideline for a diverse with urban policy, of course. But where tech-
corps of well-paying clients such as Nokia, the nology is concerned, guys like Clay Shirky get
BBC, and the U.S. Navyas well as high-pro- ahead on their looksthey look like authori-
file speaking gigs like the New Yorker forum, ties, like the kind of people who know how to
which was convened under the stupifyingly build an iPhone app, though they themselves
dualistic heading Is Technology Good for often dont have programming chops. Most
Culture? prominent technology commenters are not
And thats tech punditry for you: simplifi- codersfor the record, tech-god Steve Jobs

LILY PADUL A
Thats tech punditry for you: simplification with

an undercurrent of sexism.
9
himself did not codebut that doesnt mat- services out of the gate. While women are be-
ter. They are men, so their competence upon littled for (supposedly) not knowing how to use
opening their mouths is assumed. The mas- new tools, men are allowed to remain ignorant
ters tools are theirs. about the social context in which those tools
are put to use and the fact that some people,
Manning Up the Networks and not only women, are prevented from us-
Its so easy even your Mom can use it! goes ing them. The result is an Internet so simple even
the common tech-marketing refrain. Dads your Dad can understand it, and it is this vision
masculinity, the messaging implies, automati- of the Internet that dominates today; indeed,
cally ensures his grasp of all new products and it is the vision presented by most men who

Fu t u r o i d s
make their livelihoods pontificating about professional associations and by portraying

technology. Complicated power dynamics do computer work as an analytical pursuit, more
not fit neatly into an Internet simple enough in the vein of chess than, say, plumbing. Ens-
for Dad to understand. Instead, these unsub- menger also found personality tests identify-
tle patriarchs believe the Internet is a neu- ing the ideal programming type as someone
tral device, open to any and all. Dads sim- with disinterest in people. The image of the
plified Internet is a meritocracy, a place where computer hacker as an antisocial, misunder-
the best rise to the top and competition makes stood geniusand almost invariably a dude
regulation unnecessary. It is a realm where he- emerged from these recruitment efforts. And
roic innovators build on the work of their pre- from there it was but a short step to the more
decessors, steadily advancing and bettering benign, familiar, and materially successful
humankind through the incessant upgrading ideal-types of the Silicon Valley boy-genius
of algorithms and apps, insistent that they are and the tech-savvy Dad that have helped mint
making the world more democratic and egali- hundreds of Clay Shirkys across the American
tarian even as they hoard wealth and influence tech-seminar scene.
for themselves. Indeed, the effort to transpose the gender
Remember this: Whatever the cheerlead- profile of the computer industry was tightly
ers of technological progress tell us, history bound up with a bid to enhance its class sta-
does not move in a linear fashion. What feels tus, as had also been the case when professions
like forward motion can suddenly stall out such as medicine were aggressively masculin-
or reverse course, causing the loss of ground ized. (You can chart a corresponding decline
that once seemed securely held. Amid the in class prestige when male-skewing profes-
endless stream of op-eds about how we need sions, such as school teaching and psychother-
to get more girls into the male-dominated apy, are feminized.) The leaders of the postwar
field of computer programming, few recall computer industry took great pains to elevate
that, not long ago, leaders in the tech sector the basic tasks of programming from their
regarded it as a promising career choice for clerical office past and to equate them with
women. Grace Hopper, a legend in comput- rarified fields such as mathematics and logic.
er science, was part of the vanguard: she led This concerted bid to deliver the industry into
the team that invented COBOL, a language the analytical fingers of the computer boys
that remains essential to data processing; re- affords a vivid contrast with the condition of
ceived various honors throughout her career, the telephone girlstens of thousands of
including the Data Processing Management young women entrusted to run the nations
Associations computer sciences man [sic] of communications network a century ago. At
the year award in 1969; and coined the word the outset of the telephonic revolution in
debugging after clearing out a moth in a communications, phone companies employed
machine. Women are naturals at computer young men to operate the switchboards. The
programming, Hopper told a Cosmopolitan work was intellectually demanding, requiring
reporter in 1967. technical knowledge of electricity to complete
Nathan Ensmenger, author of The Comput- regular repairs, and physically exhausting. At
er Boys Take Over, has researched the advertis- some switchboard centers, workers placed an
ing and recruiting efforts that effectively mas- average of three hundred calls per hour.
culinized the industry. Computer companies When women flooded the field, the job
in the late 60s sought to elevate the prestige itself did not changewomen still had to
of programming by creating male-dominated handle and fix mechanical apparatuses. But

Entitled techies are notorious for excluding others only
to justify their cliques with buzzwords like culture fit
which really just means one of the guys.
9
the job descriptions changed; phone work velopment of telephony, envisioning them in-
was associated with softer, stereotypically stead as ignorant and passive beneficiaries of a
feminine interpersonal skills. Phone execu- male-created, male-controlled tool. In reality,
tives (who were exclusively men) considered as Michle Martin and other feminist histo-
women better suited for the task because they rians point out, women not only ran the com-
were less unruly than their male predeces- munications network, operating the switch-
sors. Whereas programming gained esteem as boards as the pliant yet unseen phantoms in
an antisocial task, selecting for lone and far- the machine, but also largely determined how
seeing geniuses, the architects of the legacy the technology came to be used and, in two
technology of telephone switching denigrated important ways, made it profitable.
their brand of service work as the opposite: an At least one Bell Telephone manager went
inherently social undertaking and thus more a on the record crediting female employees
labor of love than the hard job it actually was. with warding off insolvency: if the company
It was, in short, naturally womens work. had kept with the disobedient male opera-
Scholars have described telephone girls as tors, then it would have been virtually facing
domestic machines, even though they were bankruptcy. Womens influence as customers
mostly young, unmarried women. And their was even more profound. Though women had
consignment to the work ghetto of domes- been initially a reviled demographic segment
ticity ensured that theyd be valued far more of a market designed by and for male business
for the human connections they cultivated executives, they persisted in using the tele-
among the phone networks client base than phone for their own ends. Ultimately, they
for any mechanical contributions they made managed to repurpose the phone from a self-
to the technologys advance. Just as the tech- serious mode of business communication to
savvy Dad is now the fallback image for tech- the more casual instrument of sociability it is
nologys operations in the home, the stereo- today. (Among other things, Martin observes,
type of a terminally gadget-challenged Mom the habit of talking on the telephone for so-
is a legacy of this deliberate division of labor cial calls allowed Victorian women to visit
hewed at the outset of the modern communi- one another without having to put on time-
cations age. consuming and constraining clothes.) Yet the
Many official histories have written women ownership structure of the new technology
out of the dominant narratives in both fields ensured that women couldnt claim any share
computers and telephony. Scholars and popu- of the profits they helped generate: they may
lar authors alike tend to forget the earliest have made the phone appealing to the masses
programmers, like Grace Hopper or the six and put it to new use, but it was still the mas-
women who worked at the University of Penn- ters tool. Men owned the network.
sylvania on one of the worlds first electronic When four hundred phone operators
computers. Likewise, the general public has walked off the job, striking over harsh labor
no sense of the impact women had on the de- conditions and low wages in Toronto in 1907,

Vintage templates trap us in a retrograde future:
a full century after the telephone girls appeared,
women still figure as domestic machines.
9
and when, twelve years later, young women in menDads, if you willdominate Silicon
Boston brought New England business to a Valley engineering and executive roles, which
halt by putting down their headsets to picket means they dictate who gets to join the team.
for better treatment and pay, they challenged Like devout upholders of high school hierar-
common gender stereotypes that both their chy, entitled techies are notorious for alienat-
bosses and union leaders perpetuated. The ing and excluding others only to justify their
latter group took umbrage at the idea of mere childish cliques with buzzwords like culture
petticoats supplanting the traditionally fitwhich really just means one of the guys.
male defenders of the working-class family The Dads of the Internet may deny their
wage. (In some cities, women won conces- complacency with structural inequality (Im
sions after shutting down the telephone sys- not sexist, I have a daughter!), but gender dis-
tem, but their victory helped convince own- crimination is as complex as any other lived
ers they had to reduce their dependence on experience. Neither perfect heroes nor villains
operators, who rushed the automatic dial exemplify the problem; hard evidence proves
phone into service in order to render their res- elusive or ambiguous when it comes to docu-
tive female workforces obsolete.) Today, labor menting the tech industrys pattern of dis-
and management alike pay at least lip service crimination. The recent high-profile case of
to the ideal of equal opportunity, and women Julie Ann Horvath, whose story made it all the
are officially welcome in workplaces and labor way to the New York Times, may be emblemat-
locals; still, real gender parity in the house of ic. Her exit from GitHub, a popular website for
labor remains an elusive idealand indeed, a collaborating on code, is not a straightforward
retreating horizon in the tech and communi- narrative of gender bias, and comes across as a
cations sectors. puzzling, Rashomon-like saga to many tech ob-
servers who read about the case.
Coding While Female For one thing, the lines of direct authority
The National Center for Women and Infor- are blurreda not-uncommon occurrence in a
mation Technology has reported that from tech scene dominated by startups committed
2000 to 2012, the proportion of first-year to the paternalist image of the workplace as a
undergraduate women interested in major- family. In GitHubs case, the family talk ap-
ing in computer science plummeted by 64 pears to have been fairly literal, and far from
percent. For those who stick with their stud- benign: much of the harassment and intimida-
ies and find professional work, the attrition tion Horvath reports experiencing came from
rate is just as dismal: 56 percent of women the wife of GitHub cofounder Tom Preston-
quit SET (science, engineering, technology) Werner, who was not an employee on the
jobs by mid-career, a 2008 Harvard Business books but had power, influence, and clout at
School study reported, double the number for the company and appeared to target Horvath
men. Demographic data confirms that eco- because she was one of the firms few female
nomically and educationally privileged white employees. Preston-Werner himself, as the

head of the company, is largely responsible for heavily circulated on tech blogs and Twitter,
this mess, but a month after the story broke, was a mudslinging Medium post from some-
GitHub posted a vague response that an in- one inside GitHub, concluding that this is a
ternal investigation showed no legal wrong- story of the problems that arise when employ-
doing. He stepped down anyway, and the ees date coworkers and cannot separate work
following week his GitHub cofounder Chris and personal life. Obviously the best way to
Wanstrath conceded that Preston-Werner challenge harassment allegations is with slut-
had indeed acted inappropriately. shaming and anonymous cyber-bullying.
Several other GitHubbers were named as The muffled windup of Horvaths case be-
harassers, and Horvath claims her work was speaks a familiar pattern of subtle male mana-
even erased because she turned down a date. gerial bids to undermine the career prospects
In an email interview with TechCrunch, she and sap the confidence of women trying to
described how a coworker, hurt from my re- climb the career ladder. Because she refused
jection, started passive-aggressively ripping to defer to her harassers, Horvath endured
out my code from projects we had worked on regular questioning and scrutiny of her work
together without so much as a ping or a com- product and her qualifications for her job as
ment. I even had to have a few of his commits a developer. On Slashdot and Hacker News,
reverted. I would work on something, go to commenters wondered how she got a job at
bed, and wake up to find my work gone with- GitHub in the first place and whether she
out any explanation. Instead of a traditional could code at all.
PR flack response, the counter to her claims, Horvaths tribulations reminded many
P. S . MUELLER

Fu t u r o i d s
other women of their own experiences in exchange speaks volumes about the fraught
similarly dicey environments. Ellen Chisa, intersection of technology and gender.
then a product manager at Kickstarter, was Women all over the working world face a
among those inspired to speak out, posting disproportionate pushback when they stake
an essay on her personal website entitled Im out vocal positions in such controversies, but
angry because Im afraid. Chisa wrote that as this exchange illustrates, the pushback is
she admired Andreessen Horowitz (A16Z), a exceptionally virulent online (and when race,
venture capital firm that is one of GitHubs gender identity, and sexuality are added to the
major backers. She went on to comment that mix, retaliation can be exponentially more
she was uncomfortable when she saw the malicious). Old bigotries and hierarchies have
eponymous Marc Andreessen expressing sup- carried over to new media with a vengeance.
port for GitHub and Preston-Werner after While early techno-utopians envisioned
news of the investigation broke. Andreessen is cyberspace as a place where Internet users
a billionaire who made a name for himself as could invent new selves, liberated from op-
cocreator of one of the first web browsers and pressive real-world constraints, Internet dis-
who sits on the boards of companies including course routinely, and forcefully, transports
Facebook, eBay, and Hewlett-Packard, and women back into their offline bodies. The
though Chisa didnt couch her reflections as virtual world, after all, is one endless exegesis
personal attacks, he went after her on Twit- of womens appearances (What a hottie! What
ter. In a series of defensive replies he fumed, a cow!). This seemingly harmless chatter de-
I expressed support for a founder, and you tracts from the content of a womans contribu-
turned it into an accusation that I am hostile tion to a conversation by focusing on her form.
to women. Much more alarmingly, such talk is often a
Chisa had not done anything of the sort precursor to far more menacing interactions,
she had made the case that structural discrim- including the airing of rape threats and death
ination is impossible to ignore in the industry, threats over infinitesimal disagreements.
especially when a public figure with respect Like other disadvantaged groups, wom-
& weight in the community like Horvath is en are subjected to dehumanizing attacks;
victim to it. Yet in Andreessens twisted view, theyre also offered unsolicited advice from
he was the one who had been wronged. The concerned gentlemen who instruct victims
most affluent and influential speaker was the not to feed the trolls, convinced that the
true injured party. only proper and ethical way to handle ha-
rassment is to ignore it, no matter how sinis-
Billionaire Boys Club ter or disconcerting it may be. According to
That a woman dared to call out sexism in the this commonly held view, you must simply
tech industry on a barely trafficked corner of tune out tormentors, lest dudes aspiring to
the Internet brought down the public wrath patriarch status find their First Amendment
of one of Silicon Valleys most powerful men freedoms vaguely abridged. As law professor
the kind of man on whom many livelihoods Mary Anne Franks has pointed out, this logic
and fortunes depend. Andreessens Twitter- reveals a telling bias: freedom of speech on-
baiting attack on Chisa might seem, at first line, even if speech is harassing and hateful, is
glance, like an isolated outburst by a thin- really real and must be defended at all costs,
skinned egomaniac; why else would a world- while online harassment is not really real
famous venture capitalist attack another com- and so does not need to be taken seriously.
panys project manager? But in fact, the whole The men who tell women not to feed the

How else could a white dude who didnt know that a bustle
is a butt-enhancing device from the late nineteenth century
raise $6.5 million to start a womens content site under that name?
9
trolls are thinking of an Internet so simple tricks up his sleeve to prevent the disman-
Dad can understand it. Though keenly at- tling of his domain, including planting seeds
tuned to one form of injusticethe potential of self-doubt (If you dont know how to whittle
suppression of free speechthey cannot see and forge a hammer, how can you talk about the ef-
other power dynamics at play, including the fect of nailing things?), contending that women
harms that result from virtual harassment are actually holding the wrong tool (Thats not
(potential victims declining to participate in a hammer, its a hair curler!), or declaring wom-
public forums, passing up speaking engage- ens work inferior even when presented with a
ments and other opportunities for fear violent row of perfectly hammered nails (Let me show
ultimatums may not be empty threats, and so you how hammering is done, little lady!). Even
on). As they see it, women and others just need the masters rhetorical tools are off limits, and
to man up and ignore the haters. this is what Shirky fails to comprehend: that
Analogous advice flows from Clay Shirky a woman who follows his counsel and asserts
in a 2010 blog post titled A Rant About herself or behaves arrogantly will be labeled
Women, in which he blames the professional pushy and punished for being a bitch. Shirky
dominance of men on womens unwillingness can cheekily call his post a rant, but women
to behave like self-promoting narcissists, an- who argue emphatically risk being dismissed
ti-social obsessives, or pompous blowhards . . . as overly emotional, as proven by the perenni-
even when it would be in their best interests to al disparagement of women as hapless, hyster-
do so. The link between self-promotion and ical rantersas unreliable and melodramatic
advancement isnt because of oppression, no matter how accurate and rational they ac-
Shirky insists, its because of freedom. In tually are.
a market society in which we are constantly From the trolls who terrorize minorities,
competing and being ranked against each to billionaires who browbeat subordinates, to
other, assertive people get noticed and oppor- commentators who maintain that the problem
tunities logically follow. As well they should, isnt misogyny but female cowardice, countless
Shirky continues, since self-promotion is men insist that there is no such thing as sexism
tied to other characteristics needed for suc- while upholding systems that exclude women.
cess and since male arrogance correlates with They want to believe in the myth of the Inter-
chang[ing] the world. net as an even playing field, as an ideal and ac-
Shirky believes that its possible to decou- tually existing meritocracy, which means that
ple typically masculine self-aggrandizement if they are on top they deserve to be therea
from sexism, but thats because he assumes gratifying and flattering thought. (The dis-
hubris is a neutral tool women simply lack the graced GitHub cofounder Preston-Werner
will to effectively wield. In reality, the mas- used to work in a replica of the White House
ters tools are kept off limits to women, who, oval office with the words United Meritoc-
in myriad ways, are discouraged and penalized racy of GitHub emblazoned on its rug.) Since
for picking them up. The master has many the Internet is open and there are no gatekeep-

While early techno-utopians envisioned cyberspace as a place
where Internet users could invent new selves, Internet discourse
routinely transports women back into their offline bodies.
9
ers stopping women from going online, it must Mark Zuckerberg created a knockoff of the
be an equal place. See? With that, voil, all Hot or Not genre of frat-boy ogling, to rank
those old pesky social problems are resolved female students by attractiveness.) Lesser
feminism, at long last, can finally be over and lights of the coding boys club tend to devel-
done with, and civil rights can be something op technologies to solve the trivial problems
we celebrate as a historical triumph. The un- that beset their cohortlaundry and meeting
examined corollary of all this crackpot utopia- girlswith apps like Washio and Down (pre-
nism, though, is that if women programmers viously named Bang with Friends).
and executives fail to get ahead in the industry, Venture capitalists love this stuff because
the fault must be entirely their owntheyre they can understand itbecause they are
ill disposed to coding, they dont design or del- Dads. Paul Graham, cofounder of Y Combina-
egate effectively, or they possess some other tor, a startup incubator, sounded more like an
amorphous personal failing thats almost al- Elite Models scout than a seasoned and savvy
ways a coy shorthand for neither white, male, investor as he spelled out his corporate mission
nor one of us. to the New York Times last year. He told the
Think of the vision of an Internet so simple newspaper that founders are over the hill after
even your Dad can understand it as a kind of the age of thirty-two and admitted, I can be
imaginary map that pretends to describe re- tricked by anyone who looks like Mark Zuck-
ality as it instead delimits whats accepted as erberg. Kate Losse, author of The Boy Kings,
the natural and legitimate mode of interaction calls them Manic Pixie Dream Hackers, be-
among male and female users and program- cause VCs like Graham zero in on youth and
mers in the tech world. Vintage templates appearance above talent. Like Internet pun-
trap us in a retrograde future: a full century dits who project authority by virtue of being
after the telephone girls appeared, women pale-skinned, geeky, and middle-aged, these
still figure as domestic machinesas literally young men are also getting by on their looks.
the masters tools. Two recently launched vir- Indeed, data backs this up: a recent study from
tual personal assistant apps, named Dawn Harvard Business School proves that, consis-
and Donna, were inspired by female charac- tently, investors prefer entrepreneurial ven-
ters on television programs: Dawn for Don tures pitched by attractive men.
Drapers secretary on Mad Men and Donna No wonder, then, that investors ignore
for Donna Moss from The West Wing. The lat- coders from marginalized communities who
ter proves herself invaluable by taking care aspire to meet real needs. With an Internet
of things and cleaning up messes before they so simple even your Dad can understand it as
happen, TechCrunch gushed. Blockbuster so- our guiding model, the myriad challenges that
cial networks like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, attend the digital transformation, from ram-
Foursquare, and Snapchat reliably reflect and pant sexism, racism, and homophobia to the
perpetuate the values of the young men who decline of journalism, are impossible to appre-
started them. (Dont forget that an early-stage hend, let alone address. How else could a white

dude who didnt know that a bustle is a butt- planation, because the world is complex and
enhancing device from the late nineteenth journalists often get things wrong, but like
century raise $6.5 million to start a womens Internet punditry before it, these explainer
content site under that name? Or look at in- outlets dont explain, they simplify.
vestors racing to fund the latest fad: explain-
er journalism, a format that epitomizes our Your Fathers Internet
current predicament. Explainer journalism is In the current framework, the question posed
an Internet simple enough for Dad to under- by the New Yorker panel, Is Technology Good
stand made manifest. Nate Silvers FiveThir- for Culture? can be answered only with a yes
tyEight, the New York Times The Upshot, and or noand plotted as it is along the binary
Ezra Kleins Vox (which boasts a Leadership logic of 1s and 0s, it chiefly serves to remind
Team of seventeen men and three women) all culture critics that the Silicon Valley mindset
champion a numbers-driven model that does has already won. Though they appear to stand
not allow for qualification or uncertainty. No on opposite sides of the spectrumunapolo-
doubt, quantification can aid insight, but sta- getic utopian squaring off against wistful pes-
tistics shouldnt be synonymous with a naive, simistthe Shirkys and Franzens of the world
didactic faith that numbers dont lie or that only reinforce this problem: things will get bet-
everything worth knowing can be rendered in ter or worse, pro or con. One reason we need
a series of quickly clickable virtual notecards. to diversify the tech debate is to short-circuit
Plenty of news reports cry out for further ex- this reductive polarity so we can imagine new
P. S . MUELLER

Fu t u r o i d s
questions, answers, and paths forward. For tity online, because you shouldnt have any-
while men are free to adopt the ready-to-wear thing to hide. After all, these Dads dont need
identities of futurist and nostalgist, no woman to worry about being outed since they arent
in her right mind can slip on such shopworn sex workers or undocumented or disabled or
garb. Given the erosion of hard-won victories, vulnerable; nor are they activists or dissidents
especially in the realm of reproductive rights, who need to worry about the NSA.
there is no guarantee the future will be prefer- Most of all, the dominance of the Dads-
able to the present; yet who would pine for a eye-view of the world shores up the Internets
time when making coffee or taking dictation underlying economic operating system. This
for these guys would have been a lucky break? also means a de facto free pass for corporate
Audre Lorde herself pointed out that the surveillance, along with an increasing concen-
masters tools may temporarily beat him at tration of wealth and power in the coffers of
his own game, but they will never enable us a handful of advertising-dependent, privacy-
to bring about genuine change. Contrary to violating info-monopolies and the men who
Shirkys point, people taking to Facebook to run them (namely Google and Facebook,
announce support for equal marriage rights though Amazon and Apple are also addicted
may be one thing, but it isnt the same as Face- to sucking up our personal data). Study af-
book hiring queer technologists or appointing ter study shows that women are more sensi-
queer board members, let alone considering tive to the subject of privacy than men, from
diverse experiences in early product develop- a Pew poll that found that young girls are
ment. (Given that gay teenagers are rightfully more prone than boys are to disabling loca-
scared that algorithms used by social media tion tracking on their devices to another that
sites will inadvertently out them to their fami- showed that while women are equally enthu-
lies, no one should mistake these platforms for siastic about technology in general, theyre
the work of allies.) 2009s hype about an Ira- also more concerned about the implications
nian Twitter Revolution aside, Twitter was of wearable technologies. A more complicated
not designed to promote political change, nor Internet would incorporate these legitimate
was it conceived with concerns about trolls or apprehensions instead of demanding open-
stalkers in mindlike all other popular free ness and transparency from everyone. (It
online services, advertisers are its ultimate would also, we dare to hope, recognize that
constituency. the vacuous sloganeering on behalf of open-
In the end, an Internet built by Dads, for ness only makes us more easily surveilled by
Dads, sells most of us short. The stereotypi- government and big business.) But, of course,
cal Dad, insulated from divergent perspec- imposing privacy protections would involve
tives, lacks the necessary understanding of regulation and impede profittwo bte noires
how social problems and power inequities of tech dudes who are quite sure that Internet
persistand how these problems get ampli- freedom is synonymous with the free market.
fied in a networked society. When we don The masters house might have a new
simple-explainer goggles to survey a stub- shapeit may be sprawling and diffuse, and
bornly unequal digital culture, every problem occupy what is euphemistically referred to as
becomes black and white. Combating harass- the cloudbut it also has become corpora-
ment becomes equivalent to state censorship tized and commercialized, redolent of hierar-
of free speech, and web anonymity becomes chies of yore, and it needs to be dismantled.
naturally a straightforward issue: everyone Unfortunately, in the digital age, like the pre-
should use their real names and have one iden- digital one, men dont want to take it apart.t

Fu t u r o i d s
The Acquisitive Self,

Minus the Self
3 Natasha Vargas-Cooper
L os Angeles isnt exactly the place that

comes to mind when you think of deco-
rous restraint in the display of wealth,
Thanks to the exhibition-friendly
canons of social media, the scions
even in the dregs of the Great Recession. Here of excess are back and flaunting
in my hometown, possibly more than in any
it, babyand its an entirely
other outpost of faux-meritocratic privilege in
our republic of getting and spending, untram- underwhelming display.
meled acquisition is understood as an expres-
sion of individual willand more than that, a 9
matter of taste.
Yet for all the studio money sloshing around self-regard. But ever since the Great Depres-
our bright, stucco world, most of us have never sion, and its attendant booms in Social Real-
encountered the miniscule stratum of humans ist art and Popular Front politics, they staged
that hovers above the rich: the pure, gilt- a quiet but striking mass retreat. So spooked
edged, entrenched, multigenerational wealthy. out were the ber-rich that they became al-
Movie star money is food stamps compared to most discreet. The situation now is very dif-
oil money, hedge fund money, and even some ferent from the one in the 1890s satirized by
of that dank old money that still floats around Thorstein Veblen in The Theory of the Leisure
the haciendas of Pasadena. We might have Class, Fussell wrote in 1983. In [Veblens] day
stood kegside next to Kirsten Dunst once, the rich delighted to exhibit themselves con-
but we dont know the kinds of rich people spicuously. ... Now they hide.
that F. Scott Fitzgerald had in mind when he Thirty years later, this is still mostly true,
wrote that the rich are different from you and but thanks to the exhibition-friendly canons
me: the Vanderbilts, Rothschilds, and Astors. of social media, the scions of excess are back
Hell, our L.A. doesnt even boast a new-money and flaunting it, babyand its an entirely un-
Midwestern poultry heiress. derwhelming display. These arent the out-
We dont see these typeslet alone interact of-sight rich but their twentysomething chil-
with thembecause theyve largely seceded dren, flouting their parents wealth-whispers
from public view. This is the guilt-prone social code of silence. With acres of unproductive
formation that Paul Fussell dubbed the top time on their hands, bored rich kids are us-
out-of-sight class, because you typically cant ing their gold-plated iPhones to post images
see their houses/compounds unless you have of their baubles of privilege, their chemical
access to a helicopter. Prior to the mid-twen- stimulants of preference, and their outlandish
tieth century, the top out-of-sight class had bar tabs on Instagram, the photo-sharing ser-
been very much in sight; Manhattans Fifth vice of the moment. Its a bit as though a Bret
Avenue and Philadelphias Main Line man- Easton Ellis novel has come blandly to life,
sions are still monuments to their Caligulan without the benefit of any irony.

AMANDA KONISHI
Predictably enough, a Tumblr photo-blog friends. They have more money than you do
has stirred vacantly into being, to compile all and this is what they do, goes the tagline.
these outpourings of opulence in one conve- Why should we look? The payoffs for the
nient place. Launched in 2012 by a founder nonrich civilian viewer are oddly perfunc-
who remains anonymous, Rich Kids of In- tory. After all of the social mythologies weve
stagram (RKOI for short) curates and tags lovingly constructed to envelop the delusions
photos posted on Instagram by the likes of of the 1 percent, this is the lurid end-of-the-
Barron Hilton, Tiffany Trump, and other rainbow payoff theyve decided to lord over
funemployed trust-funders. The Tumblr, the rest of usa fistful of watches, car interi-
which slaps a whimsical, intricately scrolled ors, and European spa photos? The content of
frame around each photo but adds little else, Rich Kids of Instagram is less the aftermath of
doesnt come with a explanation or an edito- an imperial Roman bacchanal than the shame-
rial policy, other than that it purports to show faced hangover of an especially inane and
you the lifestyles that the unseen rich had pre- oversexed (though well-appointed!) frat party.
viously shared only with their similarly rich Around about the dozenth selfie featuring a

Rich Kids of Instagram (RKOI) curates photos posted by Barron
Hilton, Tiffany Trump, and other funemployed trust-funders.
9
buff and/or emaciated scion nestled into a pri- is real). But for all that, the kids dont seem es-
vate jet with a bottle of Cristal and a $10,000 pecially power-hungry so much as aimless and
clip of cash (Always make sure to tip your pi- languid. Behind these faux-provocative posts
lot and co-pilot 10k. #rulesofflyingprivate), lurks a desperate clamor for attention that al-
you cant help but wonder, Is that all there is? most verges on a cry for helpsomething that
makes you feel a certain involuntary (and cer-
The Duller Image tainly undeserved) pity for these manically
Indeed, in strictly visual terms, the site is self-documented upper-crusters.
hard to distinguish from a luxe Sharper Im- Nevertheless, the rich kids keep on multi-
age catalogmerchandised out, to be sure, plying their blandified self-inventories, and
but disappointingly clichd. The rich boys of some among the rest of us, presumably, keep
Instagramthe son of fashion mogul Roberto looking. In the beginning, few of the kids knew
Cavalli, for example, and a weak-chinned fel- their Instagram feeds were being monitored
low with the handle Lord_Steinbergpost by RKOI; the security detail for Alexa Dell,
pictures of their IWC Grande Complication for one, wasnt prepared to see some of her pic-
Perpetual watches, multiple Lamborghinis, tures, with recognizable details that could give
and six-figure bar tabs. Here, all the shiny ex- away her whereabouts (usually closely guarded
pensive crap seems to cry out, is what Ive done by her family), show up on the site. Her social
with my life in lieu of becoming an adult. The media presence was quickly scrubbed. But
young rich ladies, such as Alexa Dell (of, you now, many of the kids featured know theyre
know, the Dell computers fortune), mainly getting Tumblrd, and some court the atten-
document how all this pelf looks from the oth- tion by submitting photos for consideration,
er side of the gender divide: they snap pics of tagged with #rkoi. Rich Kids of Instagram has
themselves surrounded by tangerine Herms earned its subjects thousands of followers for
shopping bags, eating sushi sprinkled with their individual feeds, and even momentarily
24K gold flakes, and holding their American catapulted some of the sort-of rich, perhaps
Express Centurion card minimum payment splashing out on a once-a-year chartered yacht
notifications (typically $40,000). to Saint Tropez, into better company than
Theres not even much in the way of the they could ordinarily afford.
makings of righteous socialist outrage. (Swazi American media culture has done its part
Leaks this most definitely is not; that project, by spinning off these social-media maunder-
by contrast, pairs leaked photographs of Swazi- ings into a full complement of incoherent
lands high-rolling absolute monarch with pic- dreck. Last winter, the E! cable network de-
tures of $1-a-day sub-subsistence conditions in buted #RichKids of Beverly Hills, a reality TV
the slums.) Yes, the rich kids seem determined series loosely organized around the premise
to remind us that they have stuff the rest of us (if we can call it that) of the Tumblr account.
will never have. The captions they post with (The show even featureswink, winkan
their photos are, at times, slyly aware of their Instagram-obsessed cast member named
part in inequality (cf. a picture of a private jet Morgan Stewart, who delivers such walk-on
and a luxury car with the caption The struggle anathemas to viewer interest as Ive taken so

Fu t u r o i d s
many selfies on my cell phone today its, like, to you, the reader, in advance, by its ostensible
embarrassing. No, son, whats embarrassing targets or by the medium itself. This means,
is that youre saying this shit out loud, in front in turn, that the proceedings float serenely
of a television camera.) above any semblance of real-world criticism.
So, not surprisingly, the book suffers from
The PG-13 Class War the same thing the actual rich kids of Insta-
If an E! show wasnt enough, this summer saw gram kids do, only at far more tedious length:
the release of a book-like object, also called a depressing lack of imagination. Here, for
The Rich Kids of Instagram, credited to the sites example, is one of the novels rich kids fum-
anonymous founder together with a ghost- ing about her maid while also clumsily name-
writer/collaborator named Maya Sloan. Like its checking her 1,200-thread-count sateen sheet
inspiration, the bookbilled for some reason set: Woven in Italy. For what I paid, I could
as a novelis unrelentingly dumb, though it buy your illegal Guatemalan cousins. That is,
does supply an important clue to the weird de- if you werent from Jersey.
mographic marketing strategy behind the Rich Theres no pulse-pounding social tension
Kids franchise. Its clearly written for kids or, or class resentment on offer hereunless
um, young adults, suggesting that the notion of youre especially aroused by inarticulate dia-
aspirational reading and viewingthe grand logue. The novel doesnt proceed in a mood
media euphemism for the lifestyle-voyeurism of detached anthropological inquiry, the way
genreis ripe for retirement. Instead, this plot- that, say, Louis Auchincloss or John Mar-
less, and nearly character-less, flight of fancy is quands old-money fictions did. Theres no
something far more inert, and less interesting: anger, no weight, no insight. All you have in
an empty vessel of careless adolescent fantasy. the way of a rich-kid call-to-arms is the empty
The books careful observance of PG-13 bravado of the anonymous site creators ac-
canons of teen rebellion is so pronounced as knowledgements at the front of the book: To
to be obtrusive. Theres little in the way of ap- all the RKOI kids, who are unapologetically
palling or casual sex; the cussing and chronic themselves; in a world where so few people
drug use (nothing too hard, mind you: pills, will live out loud, you guys have guts, and for
weed, blow) is there mainly for box-checking that you deserve admiration. (And yes, Rich
shock value. In this, as well, the book is true Kid self-awareness once again stops well short
to the real-life Tumblr; nowhere do you see of the obvious irony involved in an anonymous
anything truly threatening or transgressive, social media impresarios celebration of the
like Jordan Belfort snorting coke out of a overclasss bold capacity to live out loud.)
hookers ass in Martin Scorseses The Wolf of For gutsy exemplars of individual life-
Wall Street. No, all you encounter, in the book style, the kids are distressingly uniform in
as on the Tumblr feed, is the sort of teen spliff their motivation, behavior, and dramatic pur-
smoking youd find at an average Dave Mat- pose. Far from emblazoning their excellent
thews showbut in a jet, bro!! individuality upon our collective prole brain-
In the same way that such scenes beg to be pan, the novels cast of characters merges into
seen as transgressive, the Rich Kids oeuvre an interchangeable ensemble of predictable,
begs to be seen as a populist-baiting vindica- privileged reflexes and half-copped attitude.
tion of privilege for privileges sake: Take that, Each member of this brat pack is outfitted
plebes! But theres a telling sleight of hand with a suffocatingly oversignifying name and
here. The books main gimmick is identical to a ponderous chapter rendered in his or her
the Tumblrs MO: the outrage is all imputed voice. To save time, heres a rundown of the

The children of capital are rendering their innermost selves
their critics-be-damned determination to live out loud
as a random agglomeration of nonsignifying digits.
9
main players in the book (think of it as the lit- But I liked the people for other reasons.
erary equivalent of a bar-tab selfie): Better reasons.
A nnalise Hoff, a high-strung media heiress Desdemona Goldberg, a bipolar singer/actress:

who dotes on her Murdoch/Hearst mashup Wow, I think, that coke was awesomeness.
Daddy: I know: Freud would have a field
You dont say. This novelization rounds out
day with me. I dont take the short bus, after
the Rich Kids trifecta: Tumblr, TV show, and
all. I have a Bentley waiting.
book. The net effect is, fittingly enough, akin
Christian Rixen, a Denmark Royal and jew- to that of another notorious plutocratic foray
elry designer, who employs an oddly clinical into cultural exhibitionisma Damien Hirst
diction suggesting that this is what South- installation. In both, we see our culture lords
ern Californian rich assholes hear when courting outrage in the most safely inert and
Europeans speak to them: The countess vanity-fed forms of display. Both aim to pro-
may have birthed me, but she was far from voke an aesthetic response that is little more
maternal. than a fleeting revulsion, compounded by the
inevitable gawking at the price tag attached to
Miller Crawford, a Mayflower legacy, rifle
the finished product. And both make a huge
heir, and aspiring record producerand
deal of curating predators, whether it be cham-
what passes for a self-starting entrepreneur
pagne-squirting twentysomethings captured
in these circles: I made a promise long ago: I
in photo-blog form (RKOI) or a really big shark
wont be that guy. The kind who orders staff
lifelessly preserved in a bath of acid (Hirst).
to do petty bullshit. Sure, there are emergen-
cies. Scoring coke for an after-hours, buying Binge and Purge
last-minute condoms. As for the rest? I can
For that matter, the Rich Kids franchise out-
get my own double latte, thanks.
does even Hirst, and achieves a further refine-
Todd Evergreen, a Mark Zuckerberg stand- ment of this recursive aesthetic of total con-
in with a suitably generic namean upper- sumption: its a monument to the acquisitive
middle-class kid who became an overnight self minus the actual self. Sometimes the kids
billionaire by captaining an overcapitalized dont even bother to take pictures of items
software startup. We dont hear from Ever- they buy. Instead, they share photos of the
green, who is eventually driven into para- shopping bags from whatever luxury store
noia and Howard Hugheslike seclusion they just blew through. Other times, they dis-
until the novels crashingly unpersuasive, play pictures of receipts, personal check stubs,
life-affirming coda. I liked their things, or their names embossed on credit cards.
Evergreen says of the rich kids, dont get me Capital is always on the verge of dematerial-
wrong. Not for the things themselves, but izing our common world; as Marx and Engels
how excited they got about them. How their famously warned back in the day, under the
faces lit up when they talked about them. height of bourgeois domination, all that is sol-

id melts into the air. Here, however, is a gloss a $560,000 Lamborghini Aventador Roadster,
on that crippling dynamic that the founders and a few hours later someone set it on fire. A
of socialism never could have anticipated: the week after that, three more of his luxury cars,
children of capital are rendering their inner- two Audi R8 Spyder supercars and a Bentley
most selvestheir critics-be-damned deter- Flying Spur, were torched. This was not his
mination to live out loudas a random agglom- understanding of the new social contract at all.
eration of nonsignifying digits. The beauty Instead of a reality TV or book deal, all his self-
they transmit back, what they see, is nothing infatuated Instagram entries had earned him
more than a place-holding string of credit lim- was the smoldering hulks of four plute-mo-
its where a human self, or at least a measure of biles. On his Facebook page, the aggrieved teen
use value, might once have been. called the campaign of high-end vandalism a
Still, there are evidently some young self- vile act of jealously towards my business.
starters who are gleaning a different aspira- Maybe so; it could be like George Orwell
tional message from the whole enterprise. said, and there really are only two classes, the
When frequent RKOI contributor Aleem rich and the haters. On the other hand, a fol-
Iqbal, a nineteen-year-old whose dad owns a lower of some RKOI property might have
luxury car leasing service in England, went on a thought it was high time to perform a salutary
recent binge of selfie-taking, some unintended act of simple math: subtracting some small
consequences ensued. The younger Iqbal satu- amount of indecent luxury from the torrent
rated his Instagram feed with shots of himself of inert and unproductive excess that we all,
driving really expensive cars with the vanity inexplicably, must endure. Vileness, after all,
plate LORD. On June 6 the teenager leased is in the eye of the beholder.t
P. S . MUELLER

Ancestors
Pull It Like You Mean It

A note on masturbation
3 Paul Goodman
Note: The following is an

excerpt from a never-before-
published speech by author
T he chief use of pornography and of the mounting sale of por-
nography is for young boys (eleven and twelve years of age up
to twenty-five) to masturbate to. Whats wrong with this? Both Dr.
Paul Goodman to the Luther Spock and a more liberal manual on child care put out by the Depart-
League of Americas ment of Labor agree that with regard to toilet training and masturba-
Conference for Professional tion, nothing should be done. With regard to masturbation, the notion
Youth Workers. Goodman is that this is a normal growth process. If, however, it is forbidden, then
delivered the lecture in it has harmful effects, because it is made guilty and there is a consider-
Columbus, Ohio, on Nov. 8, able stimulus with inadequate discharge. This is now the opinion of
1961. The title is our fault. the standard manuals on child care.
The Editors The attitude of the parent toward the pornography creates a fear
J A M E S G A L L AG H E R

Ancestors
of punishment with regard to the whole sexual act. Its part of an anti-
sexual attitude which causes trouble. That is, either the sexual act is
natural, innocent, lovely, and learning to engage in it is just part of that
whole picture, or it is not. Instead we catch the kids in a sort of trap. If
the child doesnt have normal sexual feelingsvery wrong. If the child
has normal sexual feelingsvery wrong. When this happens, the por-
nography business becomes a good racket.
There are two things which make masturbation harmful: One is
if the act is performed wronglyif the child, for instance, is afraid to
make noise as he should during a sexual act. The second is that he feels
guilty about the images he has. But if we combine the attitude of hav-
ing sex with the attitude of being punished, we get sadistic images.
All of pornography is full of sadistic images. These are not the nor-
mal feelings of an uninhibited child; these are the feelings of an inhib-
ited child brought up in your church. The ones who go in for sadistic
literature are the ones brought up in strict Protestant churches. The
children brought up permissively and free, if they go in for pornogra-
If we combine phy at all, will like pin-up girls, lovely sexual forms, etc. But the sadis-
tic literature is continually sought out by those who combine the sex
the attitude of
which they cannot push away and the feeling that they are being pun-
having sex with ished. For instance, the audience of Tennessee Williams is the Protes-
tant audiencethat is, the combination of lust and punishment.
the attitude of
If you imagine that youre going to turn back the sexual revolution
being punished, to the time when all of these things were out of mind completely and
they could not be discussed as freely as were discussing them here, you
we get sadistic
are quite mistaken. Freud pointed out that it is not repression which
images. causes neurosis; it is the breakdown of repression. As long as the entire
fabric of society, the habits of people, etc., kept things out of mind, they
9 were just like other things you didnt know anything about. But these
things are back in mind; our whole society is largely sexually stimu-
lating (even innocently, with regard to clothes, bathing suits, etc.). As
soon as there is that kind of general stimulation in our society, then
the repression has vanished. Once the repression has vanished there is
no other way to get back to normalcy except to go through the sexual
revolution to complete freedom.
W hat we are now seeing is a considerable freedom which is not

complete freedom, and this leads to the maximum of distor-
tion. And all of the distortions and the perversions are the direct result
of the inhibition of what has broken out of repression.
For example, in the TV westerns and crime pictures there is a con-
tinual low-grade stimulation without ever discharging. Therefore, you
can never be satisfied. Instead of showing the thing in its completion
(the cowboy marrying the girl, being sexually excited by her) the sex is
never carried to conclusion, but usually cut short by some sort of vio-

lence. Why not show the whole thing? That would be salutary to chil-
dren. It would make them take as a simple fact of life what is a simple
fact of life. Instead of sexuality being the whole end of life for children
of the ages you treat with (thirteen to eighteen), it would become one
of the five or six important parts of lifeas indeed it is. As soon as you
push sex into the background, it begins to pervade all of life.
What we have is a situation of what could be called mere lust plus
guilt. Instead of the combination which is natural, sex and affection.
Under normal conditions if somebody gives you pleasure you will be
affectionate; and likewise, affection heightens pleasure. We have the
situation where because of guilt and inhibition, there is a lot of isolated
lusting. This tremendous part of lifethe sexual partthen becomes
something which does not integrate with the rest of life, but is taken
by itself and becomes a feverish drive in its own direction. With many
people this tends to color the whole picture of life.t
J A M E S G A L L AG H E R

6Bafflomathy [No. 26]
Mario Alejandro Ariza (Instructions in Bostons MFA program and 24PearlStreet,
the Art of Filming Atomic Bombs, p. 22) was the Fine Arts Work Center online. Joanne
born in the Dominican Republic and grew McNeil (The Dads of Tech, p.118) writes
up between Santo Domingo and Miami. His about privacy and Internet culture. She is
self-published book of poems is The Same River currently a resident at Eyebeam in New York.
Twice. Andrew J. Bacevich (Star-Spangled Steven Poole (Blips for Brains, p.10) is the
Spam, p. 8) is professor of history and interna- author of Unspeak and other books. Andrew
tional relations emeritus at Boston University. Ross (Degrees of Danger, p. 66) is an NYU
He is currently the George McGovern fellow professor and a social activist. His books in-
at Columbia University. Siddhartha Deb clude Creditocracy and the Case for Debt Refusal.
(The Worst Industrial Disaster in the His- George Scialabba (The Endlessly Exam-
tory of the World, p. 74) is the author of two ined Life, p. 33) is a contributing editor of The
novels and the nonfiction book The Beautiful Baffler and the author of For the Republic and
and the Damned, which was a finalist for the What Are Intellectuals Good For? Jacob Silver-
Orwell Prize, the winner of a PEN award, and mans (The Crowdsourcing Scam, p.106)
published in India without its first chapter book, Terms of Service: Social Media, Surveil-
because of a lawsuit. Lisa Dierbeck (Pills, lance, and the Price of Constant Connection, will
p. 12) is the author of the novels One Pill Makes be published in March. John Summers (All
You Smaller and The Autobiography of Jenny in Yer Head, p. 6) is editor in chief of The
X. Barbara Ehrenreich (Terror Cells, p. Baffler. Astra Taylor (The Dads of Tech,
57) is a contributing editor of The Baffler. Her p.118) is a writer, documentary filmmaker, and
memoir is Living with a Wild God. William activist. Her films include Zizek! and Examined
Giraldis (This Brats for You, p.14) novels Life. Her latest book is The Peoples Platform:
are Busy Monsters and Hold the Dark. Paul Taking Back Power and Culture in the Digital
Goodman (Pull It Like You Mean It, p.135) Age. She is a contributing editor of The Baffler.
was an American social critic. He wrote Grow- June Thunderstorm (Able-Bodied Until It
ing Up Absurd. Suzy Hansen (Americas Long Kills Us, p.62) rains on your parade, which is
Holiday, p. 24) is a writer living in Istanbul. a problem if you dont like getting wet. Nata-
Jerome K. Jerome (Possibility of Infec- sha Vargas-Cooper (The Acquisitive Self,
tion, p. 18) was a nineteenth-century English p.129) is a staff reporter for The Intercept. Afaa
satirist. Debora Kuan (American Mammal, Michael Weaver (The Invisible Mans
p. 73) is the author of Xing. She lives in Brook- Electric Bill, p. 105) is the author of fourteen
lyn.Chris Lehmann (The Christ Nexus collections of poetry, the latest of which is City
and Professor David Brat, p.86) is senior of Eternal Spring. His book The Government
editor of The Baffler, coeditor of Bookforum, and of Naturereceived the 2014 Kingsley Tufts
the author of Rich People Things. Paul Mal- Award. A native of Baltimore, Maryland, he
iszewski (For Yama Is the Lord of Death, p. teaches at Simmons College and Drew Uni-
94) is the author of Fakers, a book of essays, and versity. Mikhail Zoshchenko (Story of an
Prayer and Parable, a collection of stories. Bcc: Illness, p. 16) was a Russian writer. His books
Dridge, a story written with J. Wagner, ap- include Nervous People and Other Satires.
peared in The Baffler no. 24. Jill McDonough
(Do What You Love, p. 85), a three-time Translator
Pushcart Prize winner, wrote Habeas Corpus Anna Summers
and Where You Live. She directs UMass-

LEWIS KOCH
Graphic Artists
Ana Benaroya, Steve Brodner, Mark Dancey, Henrik Drescher, Michael
Duffy, Randall Enos, Mark S. Fisher, Patrick JB Flynn, James Gallagher,
Stuart Goldenberg, Lisa Haney, Brad Holland, Shawn Huckins, Jordin Isip,
Victor Kerlow, J.D. King, Lewis Koch, Amanda Konishi, Stephen Kroninger,
Ruth Marten, P. S. Mueller, Lily Padula, Nolan Pelletier, Jonathon Rosen,
Graham Roumieu, Paula Searing, and Ralph Steadman.
The front cover of this issue of The Baffler displays the art of Ruth
Marten. The art on the back cover was made by Jonathon Rosen.
The typeface employed throughout the pages of The Baffler is Hoefler Text,
with just a smidgen of Gotham.

C on t e n t P rov i sion s
Letters
Feeling the urge to send us a letter? You are warmly invited to muster every
ounce of your praise or damnationwell take eitherand to send it to us at
P.O. Box 390049, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, or via our website, thebaf-
fler.com. Fair warning: we reserve the right to edit and publish your missive.
Submissions
Do you have the negative capability to contribute to The Baffler? Muckraking,
stem-winding, take-downing, doomsaying, and howling with indescribable pain
are all to be expected and duly consideredso long as they dont lack humor.
Were actively disinterested in celebrities; partisan electoral strategy; ad
hominem attacks on persons who dont make a hundred million dollars a year
or hold high office; think-pieces that set out to vindicate some slick Concept,
generational touchstone, or conspiracy theory; and those dreams you tried to
turn into a story while you were stoned. Thanks, but no thanks.
Poetry with grace and fiction with personality are most welcome; anything
that sounds like it was born in an academic workshop or writers colony
will be printed out and lit on fire.
All contributions to The Baffler are paid (a little).
Permissions
Would you like toreprint, repost, or otherwise reproduce something you saw
inThe Baffler? Hey, thank you, were glad to know of your interest. If you are
willing to pay money (yes, money), then youre in luck, because weve created
a needlessly complex form on our web site for the purpose ofconducting this
fictitious transaction. Go.
Invite Us
So they put you in charge of the speakers budget; now its your turn to invite
some sap who wont make everyone in the office feel dumb. Bradley, the smart
guy in the cubicle down the hall, would love to see Malcolm Gladwell come
in and fire up the sales department with a pep talk. But you think the boss is
more likely to be impressed if you went high and heavya Larry Summers, say,
or a big shot from the Bush administration.
At this point, you feel a pang of courage. Sure, your boss and his boss above
him eat up innovation and vibrancy like candy, but why not, just this once,
take a stand against the petty tyrannies of euphemism and clich? Go ahead,
invite one of our editors or contributors to say all the things you wanted to say
at last weeks Skype meeting. Our bags are packed.

MARK S . FISHER
Erratum
In Noise from Nowhere, Baffler no. 25, Jay Rosen was incorrectly quoted due to
an editing error. On page 37, his quotation should begin at To the people inside it
and end with hog political realism to itself. We apologize for the error.
The Baffler (ISSN 1059-9789 E-ISSN 2164-926X) is published three times a year
( March, July, November) by The MIT Press. Subscription orders and address changes
should be sent to: MIT Press, Journals Customer Service, One Rogers Street,
Cambridge, MA 02142-1209. Telephone: 617-253-2889. U.S./Canada: 800-207-8354.
Fax: 617-577-1545.An electronic, full-text version of The Baffler is available from The
MIT Press. Subscription rates are: Electronic only ~ Individuals $27, Institutions
$78. Canadians add 5% GST. Print and Electronic ~ Individuals $30, Institutions
$87. Canadians add 5% GST. Outside the U.S. and Canada add $23 for postage and
handling. Single Issues ~ Individuals $12, Institutions $30. Canadians add 5% GST.
Outside the U.S. and Canada add $6 per issue for postage and handling. Claims for
missing issues will be honored free of charge if made within three months after the
publication date of the issue. Claims may be submitted to journals-cs@mit.edu.
Postmaster, send address changes to:
The Baffler, One Rogers Street, Cambridge, MA 02142-1209.For advertising
and mailing list information, please visit http://www.mitpressjournals.0rg/page/
advertising or contact the Marketing Department, MIT Press Journals, One Rogers
Street, Cambridge, MA 02142-1209. Phone: 617-253-2866. Fax: 617-253-1709. Email:
journals-info@mit.edu. To request permission to photocopy or otherwise reproduce
content from The Baffler, please visit our Rights & Permissions page at http://
mitpressjournals.org/page/copyright_permissions, or contact the Permissions Manager
directly at MIT Press Journals, One Rogers Street, Cambridge, MA 02142-1209, USA.
Fax: 617-253-1709. Email: journals-rights@mit.edu. The Baffler is distributed by
Small Changes Inc., 1418 NW 53rd St., Seattle, WA 98107.
Phone: 206-382-1980; Ingram Periodicals Inc., 18 Ingram Blvd., La
Vergne, TN 37086; Ubiquity, 607 Degraw Street, Brooklyn, NY 11217.
Phone: 718-875-5491. http://www.mitpressjournals.org/bflr

E x h i bi t E 5 Stephen Kroninger and James Hamilton

T H E V E RY BE S T I N A N T I S O CI A L M E DI A
MARK S. FISHER
New! Improved! Optimized!

the baf f ler.com
D ONAT E ( PL E ASE )
T O T H E BA FFL ER FOU N DAT ION
T H E FLY N S TIT U T E
Charitable as a Church!
Since The Baffler works outside the directives of the market system,
we have to create independent standards, like staying in print,
paying contributors, and refusing ads and interns.
Well gladly accept whatever you care to send in support of our enterprise.
thebaff ler.com/donate
JONATHON ROSEN

The Baffler Magazine Issue No. 26

Caricato da

Informazioni sul documento

Copyright

Formati disponibili

Condividi questo documento

Condividi o incorpora il documento

Opzioni di condivisione

Hai trovato utile questo documento?

Questo contenuto è inappropriato?

Copyright:

Formati disponibili

The Baffler Magazine Issue No. 26

Caricato da

Copyright:

Formati disponibili

No.

The writers possess a contagious enthusiasm for

9 2014 The Baffler Foundation, Inc.

2 1 The Baffler [no.26]

The Baffler [no.26] ! 3

Sickness and Pelf

The Dollar Debauch

4 1 The Baffler [no.26]

Exhibit C: Mark Dancey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Exhibit D: Shawn Huckins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Exhibit E: Stephen Kroninger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142

Baff lomathy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138

The Baffler [no.26] ! 5

All in Yer Head

6 1 The Baffler [no.26]

The Baffler [no.26] ! 7

8 1 The Baffler [no.26]

The Baffler [no.26] ! 9

Blips Think hard

10 1 The Baffler [no.26]

The Baffler [no.26] ! 11

12 1 The Baffler [no.26]

The Baffler [no.26] ! 13

14 1 The Baffler [no.26]

The Baffler [no.26] ! 15

16 1 The Baffler [no.26]

The Baffler [no.26] ! 17

18 1 The Baffler [no.26]

The Baffler [no.26] ! 19

Price: $45 Price: $22 Price: $22 Price: $22

Never Forget Department of 9 Eleven Flag

Price: $15 Price: $30 Price: $10

20 1 The Baffler [no.26]

Rudolph Giuliani Plush NYPD 9 Eleven

Twin Towers Twin Towers Hallowed Ground TSA Box

Price: $10 Price: $25 Price: $45 Price: $15

The Baffler [no.26] ! 21

1. Take the lens cap off the camera, doofus.

22 1 The Baffler [no.26]

The Baffler [no.26] ! 23

Americas Long Holiday

BOOK R EVIEWED your world, as one subtitle puts ityou should

24 1 The Baffler [no.26]

The Baffler [no.26] ! 25

26 1 The Baffler [no.26]

The Baffler [no.26] ! 27

28 1 The Baffler [no.26]

The Baffler [no.26] ! 29

30 1 The Baffler [no.26]

The Baffler [no.26] ! 31

32 1 The Baffler [no.26]

M y mental health file whirs to life in 1969 in Cambridge,

Of course, from a patients point of view, this is all moot. If youre

The Baffler [no.26] ! 33

The following records August 16, 1969

34 1 The Baffler [no.26]

The Baffler [no.26] ! 35

August 17, 1981

36 1 The Baffler [no.26]

The Baffler [no.26] ! 37

August 26, 1981

As arranged by Dr. Jennifer R. Hornstein, I met with Mr. Scialabba

family history of alcohol abuse.

38 1 The Baffler [no.26]

The writers possess a contagious enthusiasm for