I found this next one really interesting. It’s a short read, but it gives us some idea of why we can all watch the same news program and come to vastly different conclusions. It’s sort of a built in cherry-picking response that we all have. 

Good riddance to the job interview. It’s a terrible way to assess someone’s skills given all the lying and bad acting that takes place. 

Although, I’m not sure I’m on fully on board with the practical assessments suggested in the article. In my own job hunt, I’ve come across a lot of places that say they’re looking to hire writers and ask you to write them a 500-word article as part of the application process. 

These places get dozens, if not hundreds, of applications and they never pay. And then a pack of talented but desperate job seekers comes along and voila! They’ve got enough content to fill their blog for the rest of the year. And at between $50-$300 per post, they’re saving themselves a bundle with that one little job ad. 

There are a few important takeaways in this next article that we should probably all pay attention to. 

If there’s one thing you read on this list, let it be this. 

I can’t promise you’ll be any happier for thinking of yourself as a prisoner in the modern Panopticon, but if you want bliss … well, you’re signed up to the wrong newsletter I’m afraid.  ;)

As a disclaimer, I’ve always hated Foucault. But even I have to admit that he has written some of the most interesting work you will ever read on the mechanisms of power and the surveillance society. 

If you’ve ever found yourself cursing the system or wondering how in the fuck the world went so mad in the first place, and I know many of you have, then you’ll probably like this one. 

From the moment we’re born to the moment we die “we are subject to the power of correct training,” just the notion of being and living and acting like a “normal” person is a function of the invisible systems of discipline that keep everyone in order. 

Let me give you a fairly innocuous example.

Have you ever stopped at a traffic light in the middle of the night and sat there waiting for the light to change even though the streets were empty and no one else was around?

Yes? 

That’s the invisible system of control at work. You’ve been trained to respond that way and what keeps you there, waiting for the light to change, isn’t logic or morality, it’s crippling fear.

Isn’t that fucked up? 

I’m sure you can find dozens of other examples if you think about it for a minute. But of course, resistance isn’t entirely futile. Because as much as society favours obedience, fortune has always favoured the bold. 

So until next week, go be bold my brave friends.