As I prepare to go to Madrid to give some talks on the relationships between the events of May 15 in Spain to Occupy Wall Street right now, I've run across a video of a matador and some lively banderilleros at work in a corrida de toros the center of the financial district. Perhaps because they misunderstand the traditional Spanish pageantry involved, the police come to arrest two of the participants. However, the brave matador arranges his own victorious salida en hombros, but not on the shoulders of an admiring crowd.
From you friends at Occupy Wall Street -- A good question
I'm flying to Madrid in a couple of days to give talks at Universidad Complutense and participate in a round table discussion with philosophers, a lawyer and activists in the 15-May and subsequent movements. I've also been invited to Patio Marvillas, a squatted building that serves as a community center, to share my thoughts on Occupy Wall Street.
Another wonderful community center in the city, Tabacalera, an old tobacco factory dating back to the 18th century, is the subject of an interesting piece, "Fuera de Lugar," by publisher/public intellectual, Amador Fernández-Savater. The background here is that the future of Tabacalera, a place alive with social movements, is under a cloud because the conservative Partido Popular is likely to win the upcoming elections and withdraw any funding for the center.
As I've noted before in these pages, a very easy way to translate articles from Spanish (or any language) into English in rough but readable versions, is to use Google Chrome and its built-in translation program. When people complain that the translations are not perfect, I respond: "Give me a break!" (or something a little more obscene).
Vast majority of Americans bored with their jobs
While the big concern these days is unemployment and lack of any significant job creation, a simmering problem in our society is the fact that most people who are lucky to have a job at all are simply bored out of their minds while at work. A recent Gallup poll found that 71% of employees are either "not engaged" or "actively disengaged" in their work.
Another astonishing result of the survey is that people who've had some college education, including those who've gone on for post graduate degrees, are among those least engaged in their jobs. So much for the idea that higher education leads to more interesting, stimulating, creative life pursuits. In fact, those most "engaged" with their jobs are people who've had only a high school education, 34%.
Given the jobs and income panic in the U.S. right now, I doubt that this problem will attract much attention or concern for the time being. But think of all the intelligence and concern that psychologists, organization theorists, managers, and business school gurus have lavished over the decades on such topics as "self actualization" and all those wonderful steps employees take as they ascend Maslow's pyramid. What happened to all of that?
Even if basic numerical trends in employment start to improve, it appears that our economy will remain rotten at much deeper levels.