Thursday, February 08, 2007

The CIA and the IRS tell us where to shop and how to dress

This is my post on conspiracies. But there is no mind-blowing silver bullet in conspiracy theories because all of the worst conspiracies are right in plain sight and are no big deal to indifferent, regular people who just want to get along.

There is plenty of food in the world, yet people starve. Even in America, people who don't want to still freeze and starve to death every year. It makes no sense but who has time to worry about any stomach but their own?

It is hard to make a living, even when you do things right. There was an old man at my desk job who had a PhD and had been a professor at the West Minster school here in Salt Lake. He is a cool guy. He is fun to talk to and he has a lot of cool stories about doing brain experimentation on chickens. But he hated his co-workers in Academia. He said those professors were the most childish people he had ever met. So he quit and worked at the desk job and part-time at a bookstore. A substantial number of people at the desk job had degrees so it didn't make me feel too far behind in life when I was there.

It just seems that even when you have the credentials, it is still unlikely you will land a job you like with people you admire, respect or even find tolerable. I applied for a job recently and, according to job description, I was very qualified for several aspects of the work and it didn't really pay that much. But the company shows promise so I tried for it. The first interviewer seemed to love me. The second guy didn't show much emotion but I figured he was just quiet. I was honest and I think I gave good answers but I didn't try to fluff myself up. I didn't try to knock his socks off. And that is my best guess as to why they told me they didn't want me. Job hunting tip to myself: Every question should be answered with "Whatever you tell me to do is the RIGHT thing to do. Whatever you want me to think is the RIGHT thing to think. I AM THE COG. I AM A VERY GOOD COG." We are indentured servents, free to choose the man who holds the whip.

My wife was laughing because she checks the "want ads" for me. She chose a yellow highlighter to mark good prospects but found that nearly half the ads are highlighted in yellow by the printer. So she grabbed a red pen to circle the jobs instead and then noticed that "circled in red" is another feature you can purchase when you place your ad. How is THAT for a conspiracy? An orange highlighter is the way to go for marking stuff in the paper.

And the first page of job listings is half filled with ads for lame colleges and technical schools. It is funny logic, "I need money NOW so I'll look for a job... OR since I have no money I can go nuts getting loans, stressing out about classes and then HOPE that I will get some sort of degree or certificate that makes me special enough that I can make more money than fools in call centers by responding to this crap-college ad in the "help wanted" pages.

Call centers are funny. Their ads say this to me: LIKE TO TALK ON THE PHONE? or ARE YOU PASSIONATE ABOUT MUSIC? How would like to spend the majority of your day getting yelled at by strangers about musical equipment you will never be able to afford (on our wages)? I love that. Sign me up.

College is the land of empty promises. Insurance is highway robbery. Healthcare is for the rich. Drugs are the answer, or so the television tells me. I don't use drugs but I think I would be more accepting of life if I did. Meaning, I would think of myself as a loser and would then expect to be treated as such.

America has been the bitch of the energy companies for almost 100 years. Oil, cars and highways. Public transportation systems are for socialists. We put the greediest, most self-serving people in our greatest offices and accept that "if it isn't this money-grubbing bastard it will just be a different one." That is also the go-getter attitude that leads to SUCCESS for the common man in this country. Yay. Our leaders cut the path to the riches. Sometimes they share it with their friends. We are just their groupies. We are just supposed to love them for it. Patriotism.

We all seem to accept that if we already have a bad system in place then we can't possibly change it. We also except that even though companies are slowly poisoning people, we can't make them stop because then they wouldn't continue to get rich and that would hurt the feelings of their CEOs. And those guys are known to write big checks to politicians. I like my friend Gordon's idea that, should the death penalty be kept legal (it's awesome when whether you live or die depends on how good a lawyer you can afford), white-collar crime should be punishable by death. See you in Hell, Enron.

The law is still the law. Survival of the fittest. There aren't any REAL secrets, just details. Life is bad enough around the world that decent people feel guilty for not suffering MORE than they already are as poo rains down from the sky.

Don't worry about me, I assume you are dumb but I still like you and I hope you will think the same of me.

6 comments:

Native Minnow said...

I concur!

Especially the part about the judicial system. It doesn't really work. If you're rich, you get away, if you're poor, you get convicted. Simple as that.

Anonymous said...

I know I was naive for most of my life, and still am, but is it wrong to want the system to work? When I found out it was just who had the better attorney, I was honestly saddened.

Anonymous said...

I'm not saddened...the majority of the time, people who are guilty end up in jail or prison. Unless they are lucky like the Enron guy and have a heart attack first...It is sad when innocent people end up in jail/prison, but that is the minority of the time. It is also maddening when guilty people get off, but that is the minority of the time as well. I think it is an oversimplification to say that rich people get off and poor people go to prison...Psycho

flieswithoutwings said...

I don't think that it's as rare as you make it sound either. I mentioned before about how I went to court to fight a ticket. The case was my word against his and the cop had the burden of proof. The cop only proved by his own testimony that he was speeding at the time of the incident, that he swore to have seen a non-existent line of paint the very morning of the hearing (I had pictures) and that he has some amazing ability to see through solid objects and that is how he knows that I did not come to a complete stop at a stop sign. I provided a ton of evidence to discredit the testimony that he did not discredit himself. If I thought any more information was needed I would have fought harder but, in the end, the judge said, "GUILTY" only citing that I had had a speeding ticket two years previous as proof that I was some kind of unrelenting maniac. And I had to pay. These things are going on everyday but most of them don't matter enough that we need to hear about them.

1 out of 1000 executions being wrong or unjust is still way too many.

Why do you think a person would deal drugs or rob a bank? Both of those scenarios are not uncommon in our society and both situations could easily escalate to a point where that person could be on trial facing the death penalty.

Why would they do it? It isn't because they are bored. What do you think went on in Mark Hacking's head the night he shot his wife in her sleep and all the years leading to that night?

Everyday people deal with a lot of pressure. In our society, it is easy to feel cornered, it is easy to feel desperate, it is easy to feel like you don't have choices, it is easy to feel like there is no way out. Why do you think drugs are so popular? I see drug use as a symbol that life is unbearable to people. What percentage of our population uses drugs (even alcohol)? A lot of people lose their jobs or go to jail over drugs and a great many more people WOULD lose their jobs or go to jail if people really knew what they were up to.

And then some poor sucker snaps and everybody shakes their head and calls them crazy.

But Paris Hilton and Nichol Richie rack up DUIs like they are going out of style. How many days do you think those girls have spent in jail?

Trying to explain that money rules the world is like trying to explain that the sun is hot and I don't even know where to begin.

It is not wrong to WANT the system to work. That is why our system is still in place, because people have faith. But we have the duty to change things when the system is not reliable. When people go blindly through life chanting to themselves that everything is honky dory, that is when everything goes bad.

Aiming to improve things is the entire point of having our freedoms even if it means giving credence to negative criticism of ourselves.

ShootingStar said...

I'm going to say something a little harsh here--I think you know I love you so I trust that you can take it:

What is the point of a blog like this? I think those of us who are going to buy into what you have to say know all of the things you write in this blog--in fact we know it all to well. We lay in bed thinking about it. We walk down the road where the newest MacDonalds is being built and can't forget about it. So this blog simply drives the nail in a little deeper. What do we do about it? Why do people ignore these things? How do we still find some hope to do something good? These are the things I'd like to know. A blog like this makes me worried that energy in worthwhile people like yourself is being spent in despair. Detailing too many problems at once leads to apathy--I know I can't solve all of these problems so why should I do anything? I'll just go buy some frenchfries at Macdo and choc. at the super wal-mart to make myself feel better.

After reading this blog--I feel like I deserve to know what keeps you going? How do you not despair in the face of this crap?

I understand if you want to delete this response after you read it--looking back over it, it is pretty harsh.

slimysculpin said...

"worthwhile people like yourself..."

Yikes. Who makes the list of worthwhile people?