The absolute worst thing about long-term unemployment is the sense of negation, the sense that one has ceased to exist, that every cover letter and resume you send isn't being read by anyone. Paradoxically, the rejection letters and emails only serve to compound this sense of alienation, of inhumanity. What was that lyric from that hardcore punk song we used to play over and over in college? "I am no-one/I am nothing." I think maybe the band was Boy Sets Fire. Whatever happened to those guys?