Careers in Post-Capitalism (a gross generalization)

My parents taught me many things when I was younger. One of the messages they found most important was that I get a good education and a good job with a good salary. They taught me this because that's what they wanted to do but were never able to. My father dropped out of college early on and never went back claiming school just wasn't for him. My mother started out as a journalist, but soon gave that up to focus on starting a family and eventually she went to nursing school, a career that has little opportunity for growth and little opportunity for wealthy success. They are reaching retirement age now and they feel more than ever how if certain decisions were made, if they had the money to go to good schools, if they managed to find  jobs with real earning potential, retirement might not be such a scary prospect.

Their perception is based on the reality in which they grew up. My grandparents were extremely hard-working. On one side there was a modest factory worker, on the other there was a doctor. These were careers, single jobs that kept their families afloat. That is what was demanded in their environment. The job market in the United States was simpler to wrap ones head around. If you worked diligently for a given company, they would reward you with a long career and benefits for your family, benefits for your retirement. Of course this is an example of a good story. I fully realize every generation has had to struggle for success. My point is simply that the idea of a career was one long-term job, with one company, with the opportunity for growth and eventual retirement.

And this is the perception that I was taught when I was younger. It's the reason I went into the field of computer science and it's the reason I signed on with Bank of America. I've been with them for 5 years and seeing the shift of this career model, not only at my own job, but in the behavior of my parents workplaces as well, has been profound.

Here is what's going on: Large companies no longer respect their employees. They look at a dollar value of your worth to the company and from that decide to keep you on or let you go. If oversees workers are cheaper, the company will not hesitate to replace you no matter how good your work is. Pensions and other retirement benefits are quickly become a thing of the past. My pension was recently dissolved. The conclusion of this is that there is no job security at large corporations anymore and it won't be returning with any turn-around of the economy. The small companies never had job security to begin with. They are the upstarts, the entrepreneurs who took a substantial risk and hoped for the best. With both of those options of job security unavailable one has to take a different approach. And that different approach is to focus on individual growth

The current environment of fly-by night start-ups and companies based on intellectual property rather than goods is extremely volatile, but it's driven by a unique sort of person who is resilient to this volatility. That person is one with many skills who can find small jobs to fill the time and keep him afloat. The modern worker is a web designer/programmer/consultant. The modern worker is a yoga instructor/hair dresser/stripper. The modern worker who succeeds in this rapidly changing world is multi-faceted, but one new requirement is necessary for these types of people to survive as they deal with so many responsibilities and so much pressure. They need to be absolutely passionate about their work.

During older generations most work was a passionless chore. Jobs were dangerous and generally unrewarding, and this taught the people of this country that their career was not something to feel passionately excited about. It was the only means to start a successful family. One can imagine the toll that takes on a human being. Some themes of the hard working man of previous generations reflected this enormous weight: domestic abuse, alcoholism, and abandonment.

That previous environment based on pumping out tangible goods is what is shifting, what is giving us a ripe opportunity. When the job market is no longer based on industry, but based on ideas, people can literally dream up any original idea and market it. That is what I'll refer to as post-capitalism. As stated before the shift has implications. Goods are a constant need which is why older generations had greater job security. Ideas are short lived and perpetually expanded upon, which is why our environment is so volatile.

But, overall this is a change for the better. People just have to find something they want to do and work at it every minute they can, and then find something else and work at that, and then find something else and so on. There is a lot of reward in capitalizing on your own personal passions.

This new perception of mine leaves me in a pickle, however. I have one skill working at one company who is waiting with hot anticipation to replace me with an oversees worker. I need to find other marketable skills. I need to identify a handful of passions and get to work... I know I want to keep writing, I know I like to help people (the possibility of massage therapy has crossed my mind), I'm knowledgeable of music in a way that most people are not, and I know if I don't start working on these things in a real marketable way, my future is at stake.

Movie: Prometheus

I already accepted Prometheus wasn't going to be a modern classic walking into the theater. After reading a couple reviews (making sure I didn't stumble upon on any major spoilers), it was evident that Alien is an untouchable composition in the annals of Sci-Fi. But I still wanted it to be decent. I wanted Prometheus to be a solid effort with a decent script and a few memorable characters. But it wasn't. It just wasn't.

I'll start off with what I liked. Noomi Rapace and Michael Fassbender are so good at what they do and they were allowed to show a little bit of that during the course of this film. Noomi was taken right to the point of desperation and she approached it with such an honest sense of strength. And Fassbender has quickly become one of my favorite actors exhibiting unbelievable professionalism and poise. Watching him play an android with a hidden agenda was mildly disturbing, which is exactly what it was meant to be.

The actual beauty of the film shouldn't be overlooked either. I gratefully tip my hat to the set designers and CG artists who were involved in this effort. All the environments were stunning and fully engrossing. I never doubted any of the sets for a second; all of it was believable. And I am proud to admit that CG presentation as a whole is getting damn close to reality. It was only a matter of time before technology gave the willing artist the ability to create a believable environment on a computer screen, but that day is here.

But the flaws... finally I get to the point where I can blow off a little steam... For anyone that doesn't know, the point of this film was to explain the brief encounter with a technologically advanced humanoid being featured in the original Alien film known by the people involved as an "architect." In Prometheus, the architects are said to be the origin of life on earth. They came to earth and created us. Keep in mind that the premise doesn't include any other life on the planet. So instead of embracing the theory of evolution, the film says, "Oh yeah, humans aren't a result of evolution, we were engineered by this other race of humans and put here." WHAT?! Why at this point in our society would the writers of this film decide to throw evolution in the trash?! 

But accept that for a moment, while I give another spoiler. The architects are bad guys!? Why?!!!! Why would you make the an ultra-advanced humanoid being a violent warrior?! That doesn't make any sense... To achieve limitless innovation to the extent of intergalactic travel a society would have figured out a solution to violent behavior. Technology isn't the only thing that advances. Every part of a society evolves, including how to deal with one another. Violence obviously isn't an intelligent solution to ANYTHING! But, oh well, the architects gave us life and for some unknown reason (follow me here), they set up a military installation on a distant moon and developed biological weapons with the purpose of returning to earth and wiping us out.... WHAT?! I know, I know, that's the mystery, that's the unexplained that Noomi wants explained, but that doesn't make it any less stupid. 

I can see how you'd think that I'm being too critical about that, but just listen for a second. Sci-Fi is all about viewing reality from a perspective that doesn't exist yet. It's about imagining a place in time that is so far removed from current events that each journey into the unknown is an opportunity to introduce an entirely new way of thinking and feeling. What the writers did with Prometheus was to view the future through our violent, short-sighted eyes. We know violence already, we know war and we know how dumb and primitive it is. We know what bashing people over the head with heavy things looks like. I want to know something else. And this film failed to show me a single perspective that was at all futuristic.

Now let's take a second to discuss the characters other than those skillfully executed by Rapace and Fassbender. Uhhh ummmm... oh sorry, I FORGOT THEM. Seriously Ridley... You used to be really good at that; giving a character some heart, some fragility, some god damn humanity. But I guess you forgot. There was one moment that is absolutely unforgivable. Near the end when the ship captain makes the decision to destroy the architect's ship by ramming theirs into it... The two supporting characters just sort of say, "Alright, gotta die sometime..." WHAT?! I get that it's cool to go out in a big way, but to not give a second thought to instantly committing suicide. They literally just threw their arms in the air and embraced it, not really understanding at all that the human race could have been in danger. It took them about 5 seconds to decide it was alright to die. They even ended the scene saying, "I'll see you on the other side buddy." FUCK.

Oh, and one more detail before I close. When you find an alien's head, your first reaction shouldn't be to shove an electrode into it and bring it back to life without a single ounce of  preparation or precaution. That shit just wouldn't happen. And to make the head explode afterward... Where the fuck is Michael Bay... I know he's here somewhere.

Overall this was a pretty film with a couple great actors in it. That doesn't nearly make up for how shallow it is, how many disposable characters there were, how little they felt when their life was at risk, or how blindingly dumb the conflicts were that endangered their lives to being with. 

1/5