The entertainment industry has proven itself, time and again, resistant to recessions. It says something about our lives that we need that outlet no matter what. The New York Times has been looking at the writers’ and actors’ strike in Hollywood as a piece of what they are calling the “fractured work” puzzle. Noting how inequality inevitably increases in a capitalistic system, they put the screenwriters into a situation with which I am unfortunately familiar—that of the adjunct professor. Adjunct professors now make up some three-quarters of the teaching force in higher education. In case you haven’t had the misfortune yourself, an adjunct gets paid by the course (not very well, by the way) and has no benefits—medical or, often, retirement (some state schools are required to offer the latter, but you’ll never be able to retire on the pittance you receive). The idea is that work is being broken into smaller chunks so that entrepreneurs can pay less for work done.
Everyone knows such a system isn’t sustainable. It will crash. Unless it’s reformed. Some people have asked me about becoming a copyeditor for a job. The thing about copyediting is that it’s freelance work. Publishers generally don’t hire copyeditors full-time. You can make a living at it, but it’s self-employment. You need to set aside the money for retirement and health insurance. As well as taxes. And you have to work long hours to make it pay off. I tried it for a year, but I’m a slow reader. It was clear that I didn’t have the right literary stuff to make such a living, so I had to move into acquisitions instead. If you know me personally you may find that ironic.
Those of us who’ve always sought a spiritual existence, however defined, often don’t fit into a capitalistic system. Especially if you question doctrine. That’s why I became an academic—or at least tried to. It’s one of the few places where people with my skill set can thrive. Work often defines who we are. Usually one of the first questions to arise when you meet someone is “what do you do?” Specialists often suggest dissociating our selves from our jobs—I suspect that’s more necessary in positions in which a person is unwillingly being taken over by a position that’s not fulfilling on some level. Wouldn’t it be better, since we’ve opted for fractured work, if we made it something you could do for a career? The New York Times suggests specializing, but be careful, dear reader, in what you decide to specialize. The “market” may well dry up on you and striking may not even be an option.
