Day 58: The Atlantis Code

The Atlantis Code by Charles Brokaw.  ISBN: 9780765315311.

 "Sometimes you don't have to actually have possession of a thing to learn from it.  Sometimes it's enough simply to know it exists."  Page 69.

This sort of reminded me of the "Is an antelope a document" discussion we had in library school.  It's one of those endless arguments where you only "win" if your side of the argument is better than whoever it is you're arguing with.  In this case, I think I'll have a one-sided argument with Mr. Brokaw, here.

Possession of something does not exactly lend itself to real, comprehensive knowledge.  Of course, you can look at the documentations or examine your data that something exists.  But unless you actually encounter the artifact or experience the sensation, the benefits of "knowing" that something exists are almost negligible.  Our brains are not really wired to wrap around concepts, that's why the study of philosophy is so important (so that we can exercise that particular brainy muscle group).  When it comes down to it though, we are tactile and emotional creatures; we are becoming conceptual creatures, especially as more of our world moves online.  But we still experience the world primarily through the "touch" and "feel" method, or the poke and emote, if you will.

If you think about it, there are not a whole lot of new concepts in the world.  Even our most fantastical creatures -- our boogeymen, mythical creatures, nightmares, dreams, etc. -- are composites of other animals or experiences.  This means that the whole, "There's nothing to fear but fear itself" bit is all well and good, but nothing scares the crap out of us like a huge rabid dog that has us backed into a corner with snarling, slobbering blood-covered teeth.  We may be afraid of the shadows, but that has more to do with what we know the shadows can hide.

Aaaaaaand that's why cover letters are such bull shit.  Boiling myself down to a piece of paper does not give you any idea of how hard I work, or how competent I am.  You might see that I worked three different jobs during my last year of graduate studies, or that I packed in a job, three classes, writing my senior project, and running all over campus while coordinating philosophy club (which was out of my area of study, by the way).  But this tells you that I can pack in a lot of activity during a short period of time to put good things on my resume.  And what about my apparent job hopping, that whole thing where I'm at an internship for 4 months and then I hop back to my library job at Antioch.  Very unusual.  But that was part of the program, any Antioch College student's work history will look like that!  And yeah, there's some extra stuff in there with me moving around or working temp jobs. 

But I am not a document.  I contain more information about my merits and demerits than anything I could possibly create, or that could possibly be created by me.  So why do we think that putting ourselves on paper is the best way to hire someone?  And who in their right mind thinks a job description is a good way to decide if this is the right job?

Day 57: The Atlantis Code

The Atlantis Code by Charles Brokaw.  ISBN: 9780765315311.

"Patience, I think, is the best tool.  Though it's often one we struggle for."  Page 15.

My fiance has been very good at discovering my utter lack of patience.  It's funny, because I used to think I was very, very patient.  It seems that somewhere between puberty and my 23rd birthday, I lost the ability to chill the fuck out and just let things happen.  I mean, I can...if I have to, but I really don't like it.  Reading this book did not help my general temperament at all.  I think if you read my review of the book, you'll understand a little better about why this frustrated me so much.  Or you can just keep reading, whatever.

I am the person who notices the utter lack of males in advertising for household cleaners.  Occasionally there's one or two, but they are either A) demasculinized or B) looking over the "little lady's" shoulder (I'm talking about you Mr. Clean).   This kind of advertisement says a couple things, namely that only women are good at cleaning, only women should be cleaning, and that a man still has to come and approve of our work because we either can't live without a man's validation or we won't do it right unless a man comes and checks up on us. 

Really?  I guess we should take away all the manly jumpsuits male janitors wear and place them in little frilly maid costumes.  I'm actually not certain why people (and I'm actually targeting men more than women in this statement) don't get more upset about this representation of cleanliness=womanliness.  Okay fellas, here's the thing these commercials are really getting down to: If you don't have a woman in this house you are living in utter and abject filthiness.  You are so lowly and disgusting that you are not even capable, much less motivated, to take five or ten minutes to spray a counter and wipe it down.  That is what the chemical companies and the advertising companies are saying about you, by not targeting you or including you in their advertisements.

I bet most men don't even think about the way that sex and sexism in advertising affects them.  I mean, that is one of the privileges of being male.  They don't have to think about it.  And you know what, I find it difficult to be patient and wait for men to come around and stop being misogynist assholes when I feel like I have to live with it almost every single day.  There's a reason I stopped watching tv, and it's because of commercials like the ones I've mentioned.  And there's a reason I wish that books like The Atlantis Code would stop being published.  But apparently there are still people out there who think that these books are "interesting" or that the commercials are "informative and entertaining."

Maybe I would have a  little more patience with it if they weren't created at the expense of half of the world population.  I don't mind there being misogynist characters in books, or seeing women do housework, but I'm getting really tired of hearing the phrase "get back in the kitchen" followed by peals of laughter by puerile males.  I'm not impressed with that kind of behavior, and I don't find it funny.  I have a great sense of humor, and I will laugh at dead baby jokes, but when you've just been "let" out of the "kitchen" having some schmuck who has never even thought about what that phrase might mean to a woman just makes me want to kill a bitch (of the male variety).  So you'll have to forgive me if I don't have all that much patience.