Thursday, December 15, 2011
Change of attitude
NPR feature this morning on long-term unemployment. Theme of the piece: many jobless people are finally willing to take night-shift work or move to another state. This is portrayed as an extreme sacrifice arising from extreme desperation.
Puzzling. Way back when I was young and flexible, I didn't consider night shift or long moves to be desperate last-resort actions. Maybe they weren't the ideal first option, but an easy second choice when the ideal wasn't available. I moved around and worked nights several times in the '70s and '80s, and stayed steadily employed. Didn't seem unusual at the time. I knew lots of people who did the same thing.
Is this a real change of attitude, a new sense of entitlement? Or am I simply overgeneralizing from my own experience back then?
(Must admit, though, my own attitude in recent years has been closer to the entitlement category! Around 1985 I belatedly realized that the system is rigged, realized that them as has gits. I stopped trying to be a good hard-working citizen, because goodness and industriousness are futile. Success comes from innate qualities such as attractiveness, brutality, and aristocratic connections.) ¶ 6:45 AM
Puzzling. Way back when I was young and flexible, I didn't consider night shift or long moves to be desperate last-resort actions. Maybe they weren't the ideal first option, but an easy second choice when the ideal wasn't available. I moved around and worked nights several times in the '70s and '80s, and stayed steadily employed. Didn't seem unusual at the time. I knew lots of people who did the same thing.
Is this a real change of attitude, a new sense of entitlement? Or am I simply overgeneralizing from my own experience back then?
(Must admit, though, my own attitude in recent years has been closer to the entitlement category! Around 1985 I belatedly realized that the system is rigged, realized that them as has gits. I stopped trying to be a good hard-working citizen, because goodness and industriousness are futile. Success comes from innate qualities such as attractiveness, brutality, and aristocratic connections.) ¶ 6:45 AM
