VoidPhil

In Bullshit Jobs, anthropologist David Graeber examines the current phenomenon of jobs that seem unnecessary. Why do insurance claims examiners need to exist? Or for that matter, most bankers, financiers, medical administrators, university administrators, and the like. Graeber concludes that most of these jobs exist due to a complex of mutually reinforcing constraints, concerns, and goals to which politicians, liberal elites, and corporations have committed themselves. Graeber bases his book on an essay he wrote in 2013, “On the Phenomenon of Bullshit Jobs.

Arthur Koestler's The Lotus and the Robot is an exploration of the religious and cultural identities of India and Japan based on two years of travels he conducted there during the late 1950s. Koestler's look at the two civilizations is very interesting with respect to both his time period and in comparison with modern views. Koestler occupies an interesting location on the artistic continuum between journalism and academia. His works are journalistic in the report style he adopts, yet many of his descriptions are based on historical, psychological, philosophical and theological insights.