A previously unpublished essay by David Graeber:
In this short essay, David discusses how a very questionable idea, about the nature of human consciousness, shapes the academic world into a machine for producing "great minds" and, in the end, justifies social structures of inequality.
Let me begin with a brief story about bureaucracy.
Over the last year my mother had a series of strokes. It soon became obvious that she would eventually be incapable of living at home without assistance; since her insurance would not cover home care, a series of social workers advised us to put in for Medicaid.
Here is a list of music that David was listening to. There’re 17839 tracks. You're viewing the first of 744 pages.
David listened to music all the time: when he was writing books when he was taking a bath, when he was making dinner, or when he was doing the dishes. He also listened to music with me in the evenings, stopping from time to time, so he can read to me the texts of the songs.
After moving to live in England and especially in the Portabello Road area, David bought a guitar and with the help of his close friend, the musician and bookseller Neil Aptaker began to learn to play. He used to arrange his daily work like this: “I’m about to do something difficult or unpleasant, like fill out some bureaucratic forms for the university, and then I’ll let myself play the guitar for the whole hour.”
The working-class English music of the seventies, which he listened to all the time, was one of the few things that had reconciled him with moving from his beloved New York City to London.
