But [Mr. Kurtz's] soul was mad. Being alone in the wilderness, it had looked within itself and, by heavens I tell you, it had gone mad...
The horror, the horror... [Kurtz's dying words]
— From Joseph Conrad's The Heart Of Darkness
It has only been in the last 5 years of my life that I understood the depth of the nightmare called the Human Condition. And like Mr. Kurtz, alone in this wilderness, I am going mad. The "horror" is everywhere I look, and I can't help but see it, even when I prefer not to.
I went to my computer and turned on the radio this morning as I do every morning. Within a few minutes, the guy on National Propaganda Radio assured me that the number of jobs created in this morning's BLS report did not matter; it was the unemployment rate which mattered. That bit of received wisdom was offered without explanation.
Which made me think of The Heart Of Darkness and Mr. Kurtz. And I thought, if I look at the June BLS report, the horror will be there. So I looked at the report right at 8:30 when it came out. And there it was, the horror.
Before I get into the numbers, I want to tell you something important. For me, it's not as though the Human Condition would be just fine if it weren't for X, Y and Z. It's not as though if only we fixed X, Y and Z, we humans would be all right and everything will turn out OK in the longer run.
No, for me, the horror is everywhere. When people fixate on problem X, or problem Y, or problem Z, and can not I see the rest of what ails our deeply flawed species, it drives me crazy. That's why I lose it sometimes when I see comments on this blog that focus on one thing to the exclusion of everything else, and thus miss the Big Picture, or the miss the point of a post altogether. Sorry about that. Mea culpa.
Humans are crazy, but since they're all crazy in more or less the same way, nobody is crazy. Go figure.
So you may think seeing the horror in the June BLS report is trivial, but it is not. From where I'm sitting, everything looks pretty much the same—the human fear of the Real, of the truth about themselves, their lies and cover-ups, their defensiveness, the noxious, impenetrable clouds of bullshit they throw up around everything they do.
On the surface, the BLS reported that 195,000 jobs were created and the unemployment rate remained unchanged at 7.6%. But what kind of jobs were added? To find out, we must look at the establishment survey and Table B-1.
Leisure and hospitality added 75,000 jobs in June. Monthly job growth in this industry has averaged 55,000 thus far in 2013, almost twice the average gain of 30,000 per month in 2012. Within leisure and hospitality, employment in food services and drinking places continued to expand, increasing by 52,000 in June. Employment in the amusements, gambling, and recreation industry also continued to trend up in June (+19,000).
Leisure and hospitality jobs are shit. They are shitty jobs. You can't run a household on one full-time leisure and hospitality job. You might be able to run one on 2 such jobs. If you want to run a household comfortably, you need 3 such jobs or more. Leisure and hospitality jobs are shit.
When the fuckhead on NPR tells you about the unchanged unemployment rate, he doesn't mention the shitty leisure and hospitality jobs, or the retail jobs. One rung up the shitty jobs ladder lie the retail trade jobs.
Building and garden supply stores? Home Depot and Lowe's. Oh, my!Retail trade employment increased by 37,000 in June. Within retail trade, employment increased by 9,000 in building material and garden supply stores and by 8,000 in motor vehicle and parts dealers. Employment in wholesale trade continued to trend up (+11,000).
Employment in professional and business services rose by 53,000 in June. Job gains occurred in management and technical consulting services (+8,000) and in computer systems design and related services (+7,000). Employment continued to trend up in temporary help services (+10,000). Over the past year, professional and business services has added 624,000 jobs.
Well, 10,000 of those jobs were temp jobs, so fuck that. It appears that 15,000 of those jobs might pay a living wage. Looking at Table B-1, we see that another 10,800 of those jobs were in "services to businesses and dwellings," which looks a lot like janitorial or grass-cutting jobs to me. Looking at the other subcategories, we are none the wiser.
If we add these three large categories together, we get 165,000 jobs, the vast majority of which are shitty jobs. Altogether, the BLS reported that 195,000 jobs were added in June.
There was a loss of 6,000 jobs in manufacturing.
And yet, when you look at the headlines, and listen to the fuckheads on the radio, you would think "the recovery" is gaining momentum or some such bullshit — "offering hopes for a stronger second half of the year" according to NPR.
That is the horror I am talking about. It is everywhere. It will always be there everywhere I look until the humans are gone or I am gone.
And you know what? Humans talk as though there's still some uncertainty about how the rest of the 21st century will go. That's so fucking absurd to me. There's no uncertainty at all! Well, yes, there's some uncertainty about the details, but they don't matter in the end. I laugh everytime I hear this talk because the horror is everywhere, always has been, and always will be.
If I don't find a way to avoid the horror which is everywhere, I may go completely mad.
Mistah Kurtz—he dead.
A penny for the Old Guy
We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass
Or rats’ feet over broken glass
In our dry cellar
Shape without form, shade without colour,
Paralysed force, gesture without motion;
Those who have crossed
With direct eyes, to death’s other Kingdom
Remember us—if at all—not as lost
Violent souls, but only
As the hollow men
The stuffed men
Have a nice weekend.
And good numbers are sometimes revised downward and bad numbers later revised upward. Dave, you make the main point: the US economy is increasingly low paid jobs, part time work, and temporary gigs.
Posted by: Ken Barrows | 07/05/2013 at 10:06 AM