Not all internships suck. In fact mine have been quite fruitful, but that is because I love writing and I've gotten to write, but internships in general have become so coveted that I could--myself, a college student--post an ad on Craig's List soliciting unpaid interns to help me go about my regular duties. And with my middling array of experiences and organizations I could polish my virtual identity and look completely legitimate, in the same way that I labored over my pre-internship resume to make it look substantial. This has been something that I have been seriously considering doing for some time now.
"Young writer/radio personality seeks detail-oriented, motivated spring intern to assist in tasks such as editing, transportation of documents, artist research, compiling multimedia, data entry and other organizational duties. Knowledge of pop-culture and computer savy a must. Experience with Macintosh programs and Microsoft excel definitely a plus. New York residents only, as you must have a superior mastery of the Metropolitan public transportation system."See? It looks pretty legit, right? Just think: they could follow me around everywhere, carry some of my things, keep my schedule in a sort of blackberry, but not a blackberry because I don't want them to be able to use it to socialize, just to organize my life, so maybe more of a modern palm pilot, and help me do all of the things I want to do. I could make them search for and compile a list of all known doo-wop bands, and then rate them, for my radio show because I am too busy reading Russian literature, German philosophy and pages of technical, hermeneutic psychoanalytic rhetoric. They could grocery shop for me. Help me do my homework. Send memos for me. Clean my kitchen and vacuum my carpet. Do nice things for my roommate. Basically, HE/SHE WOULD BE MY SLAVE.
People willingly offer themselves up to be someone else's slave; that is what society has come to. I mean, basically it's like being someone's personal assistant, but without getting paid and to a lesser extent of responsibilities because you can't be there all the time... because you're not getting paid. Since you're not getting paid you are probably also involved in something else, such as school, thus your life would demand as much as one with a full-time job, but with your attention divided. Again, without getting paid for your time. A.K.A. SLAVERY. I guess you could argue that you're not getting nothing in return for your labor, because you get to put the internship on your resume and can potentially get a reference for a future position somewhere... maybe even with money. The process is justified as a road to eventual compensation.
Still, people's conception of self-worth is so low, so bankrupt, that they feel it necessary to institute a master-slave dialectic for zero interim/immediate compensation save the status and honorary title as "intern." You get to learn a lot from working at a company and everything, but the notion of the nature of the work is so degrading. Even the afforementioned justification is just a comforting lie you tell yourself in the mean time. A False Consciousness, if you will. Even if you enjoy it, you've just been so beaten over the head and brainwashed by the SYSTEM you don't even realize they are taking advantage of you, and you won't, fully, until you are in some established and paid position and you have to look down on the next generation of lowly interns. You'll remember how sometimes people were really nice to you and got you lunch or coffee, and then retrospectively understand from your new experience, that they only did that because they felt guilty, about having a slave in 21st Century society.
