Seeking work
Just a general appeal. What substitutes for my employment right now will end on January 31. If anyone has any lines on stuff I can do, I’ll appreciate it. My email is stan@feralscholar.org/blog.
I’m 55, with a Bachelors Degree that I got by correspondence when I was in the Army, from a college I’ve never actually seen. My degree was in Liberal Arts, but the main subjects fell under “English.”
With the job market being what it is, ever more specialized, an aging generalist like mwamem doesn’t even know what the ads are asking for. This creates a peculiar condition. I can either work, as I have, in odd niches, for decent pay with very little security, or in non-profits — which is becoming more competitive and less inclined to hire middle-aged guys like me… or I can take really boring work for really low pay. I’m not too good for that, but I’d like to avoid it if I can. I’m helping support a couple extra folks right now, one of them being an infant grandson. On my own, I could probably live in a hollow log… but I’m not alone. (-:
I live in Raleigh NC. I hate airplanes and airports, but I can fly if I have to. I am disinclined to leave home, but will for short periods to do speaking gigs and whatnot… which I do occasionally, but right now I’m looking for something that is a wee bit more regular.
Here’s what I can do.
I can write, a lot. Writer’s block has never been my issue. The issue seems to be that people who write things like I write are not particularly sought after by syndicates or periodicals… but I’m willing to be proven wrong, as long as I don’t have to re-locate.
I can research; which is what I’m doing on my current little contract.
I can teach, even though I don’t have the paper creds. I did that lot on the Army, and some since I got out.
I can consult on organizational development — which I did with folks like Iraq Veterans Against the War.
I can do security analysis and training, but that is limited to certain people and projects with whom I can work and still look in the mirror.
I can do political and event organizing, from scratch.
I can consult on issue campaign and organizational mission strategy (and not just the military variety).
I speak Spanish, though I am getting pretty rusty these days; and I speak a functional Haitian Creole.
I have a strong work ethic, but I don’t do well punching clocks. I’ll hit deadlines, but how I get there weaves its way around a lot of other life stuff.
I can generally get along with folks from any background. (I hate wearing a suit, but will do so if it is for some greater good. I also don’t like to shave very often.)
So there it is, in a nutshell. If anyone knows of anything, employment or contractual, give me a holler.
Thanks.
Stan
Rhisiart Gwilym:
Siwmae Stan,
In your first item of the list of things that you can do, you left our a vital fact.
As I’ve mentioned to you privately before, you look to me – from the other side of the Atlantic – like the Tom Paine of our time: a contempary writer of crucial non-fiction who on the strength of output so far is already, probably, one of the major insightful, staight-speaking zeitgeist-seers of this pivotal era, especially of the view from within the US empire.
Such extraordinary spirits are not, let me tell ya, ever too thick on the ground. Even amongst the sane, awake, intellectually-honest commentators, anywhere in the world, there aren’t all that many, at least to my knowledge, who come up to that exacting standard.
If modesty prevents you from listing this reality in your work-request, well, I hope you’ll let me say it for you. It’s my sober considered assessment.
Also, let me say, I find myself often hooting with laughter at one of your trenchant encapsulations. And at other time I find myself stopped in my tracks by the sheer, brute excellence of a passage or a phrase, simply as writing. This from a lifelong practitioner and student of the art of the written word. (Even when I’m using the language of our – the Cymry’s – arch-imperialist neighbour, in whose empire we’ve been oppressed for eight hundred years. Bit like the American Indigens, only longer.)
Somebody give Stan a job that he can respect! You’ll be helping – vitally – one of the major writers of our time. DO IT!!
Cofion gorau i bawb (Best remembrances to all)
Rhisiart Gwilym
9 December 2006, 4:20 amRhisiart Gwilym:
PS – Sorry about the two typos. RG
9 December 2006, 4:21 amRhisiart Gwilym:
PPS – Sorry, three!
9 December 2006, 7:18 ambarnowl:
Stan needs a ‘patron’, just like they had in Renaissance times — a supporter of arts and culture so the artisan could get on with his work, without worrying about details like money.
Some people should be able to live their lives without having to grub around for a paycheck.
If I win the lottery, Stan would win too
10 December 2006, 2:59 pmVictoria:
I’m in the same boat, though I am not a 55 yr. old man. You started off the right way, networking with friends. The internet is really where to find a lot of stuff and to post you CV – my local paper has very slim pickings. Idealist. org and .com have jobs for those of us who still have some ideals. Myself, I have too much education and people think they will have to pay me too much. I wish many times that I had some other practical skills like radiology, plumbing or IT, as academics are not in a sellers market, that I noticed.
Bon chans epi kembe ko w!
MODERATOR’S NOTE: Mesi an pil,, mwen zami.
10 December 2006, 11:13 pmRedDan:
Stan,
Have you considered trying to make blogging pay via the use of blogads and the like?
Current events are extremely confusing, moving with extreme rapidity, and all too often overwhelmingly complex and convoluted for the vast majority of folks.
Many, Many of those folks are now turning to the internet for their news and analysis, because the talking heads and fluffy-haired androgyne spokesmodels no longer make any sense (Peoples’ material conditions are now too far out of whack for them to continue swallowing the latest excretions from the ministry of truth).
There IS a market for your special expertise!!!
If you are interested, you should contact me and I can put you in touch with the following:
1) People (that you know from your former life) that are I.T. experts with a serious interest in supporting and promoting bloggers.
2) People that are currently making a decent amount of money (paying the bills, anyway) writing on the internet.
It could work – you already have a decent core group of readers/commenters. With a better interface and an increased volume of output, you might be able to make it swing.
Let me know,
Dan
MODERATORS NOTE: Jobs are always back-ups. In this case, a friend (Brian Russell, a tech-fella) and I will soon (2-3 weeks) be launching a subscription web site for which we will need around 800 subscribers to pay bills, and eventually begin paying guest contributors for content. Bills get paid first, then Brian, then me…. ’cause Brian will end up doing the correspondence and “customer service” aspects at first. More than a blog. We are calling it a “practical strategic resource.” It’s called Insurgent American, cost $10 a month (34 cents a day), with an automatic payment mechanism through Paypal, and subscirbers will get:
(1) A free section with Title-17 news clippings related to the primary subjects covered by IA, and essays by the primary content provider and others, and examples of past in-depth analyses.
(2) A subscriber’s section available for $10 a month (34 cents a day) For that 34 cents-a day, subscribers will get (blurb in development):
(A) access to discussion forms [tentatively, Organics and Permaculture, Women's Self Defense, Local Politics, Social Gospel, Veterans' Activism, Household Debt Relief, Energy Self-Sufficiency, Community Gardens, Intentional Community, Environmental Justice, Using Law & Lawyers, Local Communications Infrastructure, Working the Suburbs, Working the 'Hood, Struggling with Homeowners Associations, The Women's Room (Women Only)],
(B) access to the Intellectual Hardball section with programmed study of a series of books that we call The New Canon,
(C) one standard-sized ad space with a link (your design, or we provide text-only (in the free section, so the public can see it),
(D) one link to any personal web site or blog (in the free section, so the pulbic can see it),
(E) one pdf copy of “Energy War – Exterminism for the 21st Century” at no additional charge,
(F) the subscriber’s section’s unique in-depth analysis of events in the world and how they relate to our present and future activity,
(G) access to Intellectual Hardball, the programmed-study readings for the development of feral intellecutals in a new episteme,
(H) the serialized version of Sex & War, an in-depth study of gender and militarism.
(G) the serialized version of The Insurgent’s Handbook, the precepts of which form the basis of Insurgent American.
(3) A unique space where feminists, deracinated leftists, peak-oilers, anarcho-kids, intentional communities, permaculture advocates, oppressed nationalities, the religious left, organic gardeners, radical veterans, environmental justice advocates, academic and feral scholars, social justice advocates, and anyone else, can come together to share and refine analysis in an aggressively non-sectarian environment, and above all to share practical experience for the collective purpose of establishing independent oases — from commune to urban neighborhood to suburb — for the express purpose of discovering and grounding a new form of political resistance based on graduated independence.
(4) IA will carry both practial and analytical work with popular appeal and content that engages in a highly conscious (political cadre) level discourse. IA’s purpose is not to build another organization or to recruit to any organization. It is to network and midwife audacious and cutting edge practical work and thought that emerges from the unique combination of interests that are brought together in this special venue.
10 December 2006, 11:52 pmrequired:
Bring on Insurgent American!
11 December 2006, 5:24 pmRedDan:
Wow…
Ok, I will probably be signing up…
Now, have you considered ways to spread the word around, and are you interested in getting some input on that score?
You (Stan and DeAnander) write a LOT. Not all of it is material that I agree with (of course!), and not all of it is material that would be “catchy” to the broader blog-reading public…but one thing I, personally, would like to see is some of the material getting out into the broader blogosphere in a way that will invite, rather than intimidate, the large, generally moderate, just-now-getting-turned-on to politics, warfare, economic analyses of various stripes, and so on and so forth.
Here is what I mean – I run in pretty strange circles here in Japan. As a result of my being an expat in a community where the number of foreigners is very small, relatively, and the desire for a taste of home is universal, I manage to hang out with people from ALL walks of life, from itinerant english teachers, traveling hippy types, ex- and current- military folks, and business moguls (and by that, I really do mean moguls…it kinda blows my mind).
BUT…here’s the funny thing…I get into conversations at the various parties, and make absolutely no bones about my political leanings and outlook…and I get things back like “Gee, universal healthcare sounds like it makes a lot of sense!” or “How long do we have before global warming really starts to destroy the current state of affairs, and what can we do about it?”…
Something that those people can read that will give them a window into the Left that will not make them run screaming (which is what, sorry to say, ANSWER and etc wind up doing).
How can that get done, and are you folks willing?
11 December 2006, 9:53 pmskol:
So I sent my subscription to IA…
Which means I sent money over pay-pal, through dozens of routers, and to a site called Insurgent American, which, to some very certain people, may look like “home grown terror cell”. Sending money to a site called From the Wilderness TELLING you about the world is much different than sending money to a site called Insurgent American talking about how to CHANGE it.
So if you’re having trouble with subscribers, maybe it’s something to consider. The paranoia runs high between patriot act, gitmo, and east-european-prisons-holding-god-knows-what.
27 December 2006, 10:39 pmAlex Broner:
I wish I had another school I could convince to have you as a speaker. Have you looked into jobs with the UN? It would seem that you would be very usefull to have around in a post conflict situation where both cross cultural sensitivity and some military skills would be required.
27 December 2006, 11:00 pm