as someone who works adjacent to higher ed i often think about this. but i also always recall this toni morrison quote:
“I tell my students, 'When you get these jobs that you have been so brilliantly trained for, just remember that your real job is that if you are free, you need to free somebody else. If you have some power, then your job is to empower somebody else. This is not just a grab-bag candy game.”
as someone who wants my career to be rooted in my ethics, i def have a very “be the change you want to see in the world” sort of outlook. it may be a bit corny but it def helps me navigate all these opposing issues alongside my personal beliefs. i think the “no ethical consumption under capitalism” idea is often be used by others to be dismissive of working toward change, but i also think, in your case, this phrase applies.
May 18, 2024
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this jacobin piece changed my perspective on how i think about work and a career.
it really breaks down the “do what you love” mindset and reframes work as a necessary act instead of something that should give you personal gratification.
would recommend this read to anyone, but especially people who maybe are attracted to academics or who define a lot of their worth in professional success and the idea that they are “doing what you love”!!
Feb 18, 2024
Been thinking a lot of this Beuys piece and works from artists created during the span of the vietnam war and the civil rights movement. The optimism that if only there were enough dialogue created with their pieces, you could galvanize individuals to organize and together enact change.
I’m wondering if Beuys were alive today would he still hold onto that same sliver of hope?
(Joseph Beuys, I Like America and America Likes Me)
Jan 23, 2025
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This question has been in the back of my mind for the past few years because when we talk about “getting free“ we have to acknowledge that the bounds of the society we’ve created aren’t free at all. Getting free means breaking from oppressive power structures, having the freedom to collaborate with others without pretense of capital, the freedom to imagine new systems of governance for ourselves with the ability to change with consensus and the ability for us as a peoples to live in the commons (that is this world) as good stewards to ourselves and nature~
I won’t get into it too much but I highly recommend folks read David Graeber and David Wengrow‘s ’How to Change the Course of Human History’ or any of the video essays by @Andrewism🌿 to get a better idea of what I’m talking about ✌🏾
Apr 19, 2024
Top Recs from @deardoveswings
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mandatory part of the human condition, i fear. i have like 58 but thats besides the point
May 30, 2025
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liking ur rec = saying hi when we go to get our morning papers from the end of our driveways (picture me doing so tony soprano style)
Aug 12, 2024
actually it’s a me song because i like it. be quiet and listen to this “show me how” by men i trust.
May 4, 2025