[lbo-talk] Fwd: ParEcon question: Defining the Coordinator Class

Gar Lipow garlists at comcast.net
Tue Sep 23 13:43:07 PDT 2003


I'm not going to quote anything from this thread - because I think others have the intensely theoretical part of this discussion well in hand.

But I will quote from a letter a friend wrote and suppressed, because it is I think a good concrete example, and also an example of how coordinator class oppression interacts with and mutually reinforces male dominance:


> Dear Scientists,
>
> I am unsure which one of you is the motherless, corn-encrusted poop ball that left our gorgeous new conference room a total sty, so if it wasn't you, please feel free to ignore the rest of this letter.
>
> One of you, and perhaps several witnesses/accomplices used an overhead marker on the whiteboard. I understand that people make mistakes. If you didn't realize what happened and moved on to your science-making, I would understand.
>
> However, you did realize that you made an error. So you thought maybe you'd try and clean it. Then you discovered that it is incredibly difficult (yet not impossible) to clean overhead marker off the whiteboard. So, you left a big blue smear, not unlike smurf roadkill, across the board, mixed with other techincal sketches and equations in a rainbow of colors.
>
> Your secretary cleans up the coffee cups and soda cans you leave strewn about the room. She pushes the chairs back in and puts away the wires to the equipment, so none of you clumsy fucks will trip and break your skulls. We need to protect your precious brains. I feel like it's the least I can do to propel mankind's understanding of the universe.
>
> This was the last straw. Forty minutes of scrubbing, and ten blue fingers later, the board is clean. The secretary is now on strike. I am no longer in charge of the conference room.
>
> If you lose the remote control, it is your responsibility to find it or buy a new one. If there's an awful stench eminating from a random cup or soggy lunch bag, you will have to learn to like it, or learn where the trach can is.
>
> If all of the dry erase markers dry out because you couldn't be bothered to put the caps back on them, you'll have to open a vein and write in your own blood, asswipe.
>
> Love,
>
> The Secretary

Note: I think just about every secretary, clerk, receptionists, administrative aide or whatever who has ever had to clean up the un=needed messes of co-workers has wanted to write such a lettery. In fact many have; most offices end up with such a letter circulated sooner or later; though I think the above is one of the best I have seen in this genre.



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