Notes | Brutkey

David Graeber Institute
@DGI@graeber.social

Why are we not working 15-hours a week as John Maynard Keynes predicted?

This is related to what David Graeber calls: 'Bullshit Jobs.'

"Over the course of the last century, the number of
workers employed in industry and in the farm sector has
collapsed dramatically. At the same time, professional,
managerial, clerical, and sales workers tripled, growing
from one-quarter to three-quarters of total employment:'

In other words, productive jobs have been largely automated
away. But rather than allowing a massive reduction of working
hours to free the world's population to pursue their own projects,
pleasures and ideas, we have seen the ballooning of the admin
sector, up to and including the creation of whole new industries
like financial services or telemarketing, or the unprecedented
expansion of sectors like corporate law, human resources and PR."

"And these numbers do not even reflect all those whose job
is to provide administrative, technical, or security support for
these industries These are what I propose to call Bullshit Jobs."
....
. - David Graeber

David Graeber Institute
@DGI@graeber.social

"Every age has its fascism: the premonitory signs can
be seen wherever the concentration of power denies
citizens the possibility and the ability to express
themselves and implement their will. This is achieved
in many ways, not only by the terror of police
intimidation, but also by denying or distorting information,
polluting justice, spreading in many subtle ways
nostalgia for a world in which order reigned supreme,
and in which the security of the privileged few rested
on forced labor and the silence of the many."
.
- Primo Levi
(Aushwitz Survivor:. 1919 - 1987)

David Graeber Institute
@DGI@graeber.social

ICE attack teachers, carers, cab drivers, supermarket staff and even nurses, people who keep the economy going and provide huge value to society

On the other hand ICE provide no value to society with their work actively making the world a worse place

Being an ICE agent really is the ultimate bullshit job.

David Graeber Institute
@DGI@graeber.social

Our generation can learn from those like Erich Fromm who lived in Germany when the Nazis rose to power.

when fascism came into power, most people were unprepared, both theoretically and practically. They were unable to believe that man could exhibit such propensities for evil, such lust for power such disregard for the rights of the weak or such yearning for submission. Only a few had been aware of the rumbling of the volcano preceding the outbreak.

David Graeber Institute
@DGI@graeber.social

“These politicians want a Christian
nation unless it means providing
healthcare to the sick, or funding
food assistance for the hungry,
or raising the minimum wage for
the poor. They want to base our
laws on the Bible, until they read
the words of Jesus.”

James Talarico

David Graeber Institute
@DGI@graeber.social

Having attended protests for decades, David Graeber wrote extensively about the behavior of the police .

"Police regularly engage in practices which, in war,
would be considered outrageous, or at the very
least, utterly dishonorable.
.
If one does negotiate an agreement with the police,
they will almost invariably violate it. If those carrying
out an action in one part of a city try to create a
green zone or safe spaces in another—in other
words, if they try to set up an area in which everyone
agrees not to break the law or provoke the authorities,
as a way to distinguish combatants and non-combatants,
the police will almost invariably attack the green zones."
.
- David Graeber

David Graeber Institute
@DGI@graeber.social

Howard Zinn would have a lot to say about the world in 2026 if he was here today.

“Protest beyond
the law is not a
departure from
democracy;
it is absolutely
essential to it.”
.
- Howard Zinn

David Graeber Institute
@DGI@graeber.social

We cant just vote fascism away. the time has come to disobey.

David Graeber Institute
@DGI@graeber.social

Hannah Arendt saw the terror of Nazis in the 1920s and 30s and was imprisoned by the Gestapo.

She knew the importance of standing up to Fascism and to Fascist Terror.

Terror becomes total when it becomes independent of all opposition; it rules supreme when nobody any longer stands in its way.

David Graeber Institute
@DGI@graeber.social

Don't forget too the role of FoxNews and other media platforms in all this.

"Journalists have a fairly idiosyncratic
definition of violence. This has the
effect that if even just one protestor
damages a Starbucks window, one
can speak of “violent protests”, but
if police then proceed to attack
everyone present with tazers,
sticks and plastic bullets, this
cannot be described as violent."
.
- David Graeber