Bad Attitude: The Processed World Anthology

by Chris Carlsson

Bad Attitude is a collection of writings and graphics from the extraordinary Processed Word magazine. Dedicated it giving voice to the benumbed foot-soldiers of the information age it contains blistering first-hand accounts of life at the bottom of the ladder in big banks, defense contractors, computer manufacturers and food processing factories. In these pages the service economy and the new high tech jobs often touted in glowing terms by the mainstream media are exposed for their quotidian banality, their essential uselessness, and the catch-22 absurdity that permeates all corporate life under late capitalism.

Moving at bike messenger speed between offices, Bad Attitude describes the hazards of the office computer and how to sabotage it, mutant culture in Silicon Valley, the new transiency undercutting links at work, the connections between time and money, bosses and secretaries, resistance and resignation. It provides a unique basis for new theoretical developments in the struggle for human liberation, and, above all, it assures the thousands of isolated rebels mired in dead-end and deadening jobs that they are not alone. The spark of revolt can and must be nurtured until the next wave comes along.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction

282 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

Chris Carlsson, executive director of the multimedia history project "Shaping San Francisco" (foundsf.org), is a writer, publisher, editor and community organizer. He was a founder of the ground-breaking magazine Processed World, and helped launch the monthly bike-ins known as Critical Mass that have spread to five continents and over 300 cities. Carlsson has edited and authored numerous books, including Reclaiming San Francisco: History, Politics, Culture.

Reviews

[T. Smith]

great collection of Processed World, radical office workers' 'zine