Ruth > Ruth's Quotes

“When people talk about for-profit colleges, they often do so with a lot of disdain. If traditional colleges that take in a fraction of willing students every year annoy you, then you might be disdainful of their "prestige cartel." If you are concerned about vulnerable people making expensive educational decisions with little education, then you might disdain the "predatory" for-profit schools. If you think that a strong work ethic can trump all manner of troubles, you might disdain the "weak" people who go to a "predatory" school. What is interesting to me is how much disdain is spread among students and schools and how little disdain there is for labor markets.”
― Tressie McMillan Cottom, Lower Ed: The Troubling Rise of For-Profit Colleges in the New Economy

“What I, as a Christian theologian, attempt to do here is provide a Protestant anti-work ethic, by coming up with what I believe are good religious reasons for (1) breaking the link between a right to well-being and work, (2) breaking one's identification with the "productive" self; and (3) breaking the time continuity, time collapse, that constrains imaginative possibility under the current configuration of capitalism.”
― Kathryn Tanner, Christianity and the New Spirit of Capitalism

“Many of us with anxiety don’t look like we’ve got a problem because outwardly we function ludicrously well. Or so the merry story goes. Our anxiety sees us make industrious lists and plans, run purposefully from one thing to the next, and move fast upstairs and across traffic intersections. We are a picture of efficiency and energy, always on the move, always doing.
We’re Rabbit from Winnie the Pooh, always flitting about convinced everyone depends on us to make things happen and to be there when they do. And to generally attend to happenings.
But beneath that veneer were being pushed by fear and doubt and a voice that tells us we’re a bad husband, and insufficient sister, we’re wasting time, we’re not producing enough, - that we turn everything into a clusterfuck.”
― Sarah Wilson, First, We Make the Beast Beautiful: A New Story About Anxiety