I Hate Job Hunting

Is there any worse experience than job hunting?

I've been unemployed for about a year and a half, and having sent into dozens upon dozens of CVs, I've had two interviews, and a whole lot of bugger all! And the longer you can go without work, the bigger that dreaded gap on your CV gets, which only makes employers more gun-shy about hiring you. Really, there are no words in the English language (or any other language) to describe my complete and utter disgust at just how much effort and just how much preening narcissism and self-serving whoredom is needed just to get an interview...at which point you're told, "Sorry, you're just not what the company's looking for."

I...fucking...hate it all! It's having doors slammed in your face over and over. It's being told again and again that you're a worthless piece of rubbish. It's being told that there are a thousand people who are willing to do this job, so what makes you so special? Having to pad the CV. "Personal Branding." "Networking." Polishing up the LinkedIn profile. It's all so bloody narcissistic and yet dehumanising at the same time. I'm told that I just have to work on "selling myself" when "selling myself" is something I typically associate with prostitutes. I think the worst decision our civilisation ever made is when we decided to let market forces dictate everything we do, so now we're forced to turn ourselves into pretty little commodities to be sold on some cold, inhuman job market whose only aim to get as much out of you as possible whilst giving as little back as is humanly possible. You're just a resource to be exploited; hell, the word is right there in the moniker the hiring department chose for itself: human resources.

Book Review: Morris Berman - "Why America Failed"

It should be rather obvious at this point that it is not "Morning in America" any longer. Rampant unemployment, a shameful level of poverty, a healthcare system that denies coverage to millions, crumbling infrastructure, a supposedly-matchless military that cannot find victory in either Iraq or Afghanistan, a gridlocked government...the list goes on. So the question is, then, where did America go wrong? And how can it get back on track?

"Un-American"

How many times have you heard the phrase "un-American" get bandied about in debates? How many times have you heard someone say that anyone who disagrees with his or her opinion must "hate America?"

Madness? This is America!

My first post on this blog was a look at "Bill Gates' 11 Things Kids Won't Learn In School" which, as I quickly discovered, was not actually penned by Bill Gates. Nevertheless, I think it stands as a perfect summation of how Americans view life.

Here in Canada, we're constantly being exposed to American culture. Go to any major city and you'll find Wal-Marts and McDonalds, stores lined with American products, theatres playing American movies, and radio stations playing American music. I've always maintained that it is absolute folly for the government of Canada to neglect support for the arts, given that we live next to a country that aggressively exports its culture at every turn. At any rate, I'd wager that the average Canadian has, by the time he reaches adulthood, gained a very clear picture of American culture.