One of my favorite customers came into work this morning. She's a nice person, with a ready smile and an air of kindness about her. "Hi, how ya doin'?", I asked. "Not great. My husband just died.", she replied.
That caught me off guard, but I responded the best I could. There was something in her eyes. Grief, sure, but something else. I couldn't put my finger on it. We spoke for a short time about him.
His name was Steve Orlen, a UofA English professor, and poet. I didn't know his work, but I'm fond of poets in general, believing them a necessary part of civilization. They speak what the rest of us feel, but cannot voice. We're all indebted to them for that. By all accounts, he was well loved by his friends, colleagues and students.
As she was leaving, she turned to me with a smile and said, "His last words were, 'Never mind'".
Poetic.
After she left, it came to me what it was I saw in her eyes. She was proud of her husband. She had every right to be.
That didn't take long...
From the Daily KOS:
When they talk about lifting up conservative culture, they don't tell you that they fully intend to suppress all others. We're well on our way to becoming Iran, or worse. Political, educational, judicial, and cultural ministries. This from the people that supposedly want smaller government.
Days like today tend to make me believe that sentience itself is an evolutionary dead-end. I'm not exactly alone in this. The galaxy should be teeming with life, but there are scientists at SETI who theorize that we've heard nothing because all technological civilizations reach a certain point, then end.
When the end comes for us, it'll probably be no more than we deserve. I say 'when' because all things end. Such is nature's wisdom. The trick is to leave something positive behind.
The Tea Party Patriots, one of the the largest Tea Party umbrella organizations, with over 1,000 local chapters, hosted a press conference this morning to offer its reactions to last night’s elections and its vision going forward.
Co-founder Mark Meckler tried to pre-empt expectations among the faithful that Washington would shrink and the federal deficit would close overnight, instead alluding to a “forty-year plan” that the group was busy working out with its members. The plan, according to Meckler, was a highway with four lanes, only one of which was explicitly political. The other three were educational, judicial and cultural.
“All civilizations and empires have fallen because their cultures became decadent,” Meckler said. “We need to lift up conservative culture, family values and wholesome things by supporting conservative musicians, writers, artists and producers.”A forty-year plan. They wouldn't even give us two. All civilizations fall because of greed, self-righteousness, and stupidity. Nothing can be done to stop it. We may or may not evolve past the self-destructive parts of human nature someday, but I'm not holding my breath.
When they talk about lifting up conservative culture, they don't tell you that they fully intend to suppress all others. We're well on our way to becoming Iran, or worse. Political, educational, judicial, and cultural ministries. This from the people that supposedly want smaller government.
Days like today tend to make me believe that sentience itself is an evolutionary dead-end. I'm not exactly alone in this. The galaxy should be teeming with life, but there are scientists at SETI who theorize that we've heard nothing because all technological civilizations reach a certain point, then end.
When the end comes for us, it'll probably be no more than we deserve. I say 'when' because all things end. Such is nature's wisdom. The trick is to leave something positive behind.
Class Warfare
I had an experience yesterday that illustrated, for me, the way the affluent view those even slightly less fortunate. One of my customers referred me to a person who needed some computer work done. When I called him, he stated that he needed a fan replaced in his PC. I thought to myself, "Fine. If this guy wants to pay me 50 bucks for a 10-minute job involving 4 screws, who am I to argue?" I began to question him about the symptoms his computer was displaying in order to eliminate any other problems he might have. Aside from being a little, well, stupid, his answers were short, abrupt, and a bit rude. Maybe he was just having a bad day, I thought. I told him that I'd be at his house when I got off work, and took down his address.
When I googled the directions, I found that he lived on the outskirts of town, in a very affluent area. The bus services that area, but just barely. I don't own a car. I could probably afford to buy one, but I couldn't afford to maintain one (gas, insurance, maintenance, etc). I try not to live beyond my means because rich conservatives hate it when us poor folk do that. After all, it is we, not greedy, immoral bankers and brokers, that are the root of our economic troubles.
Anyway, as it would take longer than I anticipated to get to his house via public transport, I called him back to let him know that. As soon as I used the word "bus", his demeanor changed from rude, to rude and condescending. He stated that he decided that my services weren't required.
As much as I could have used the money, I was a bit relieved. An hour long bus ride, and a pretentious, rude customer isn't my idea of a good time after working a 10-hour day. It does bother me, however, that he made certain assumptions about my use of public transport.
Since I was young, I've always wondered why the affluent tend to exhibit characteristics that my mother would have slapped me for. The lack of compassion, and common courtesy, the sense of entitlement, the shallowness, and, of course, the stupidity.
It's simple. Greed makes people stupid.
The American mythology is a twofold fantasy. The first is the myth of social mobility, i.e., that anyone with drive, determination and a modicum of intelligence can "make it" -- that is, become rich. That is the Horatio Alger Myth. The other is that America is a middle class country. The truth is that most Americans are working class, dependent on receiving a paycheck from an employer for their livelihoods. The use of the term "working class" is practically unknown. However, there has been an assault on the American working class for a long time now, but because so many Americans, under the illusion that they are middle class, cannot see that it is they that are under attack by the upper class until it is too late. At that point, they are encouraged by the rightwing media to blame immigrants and racial minorities for their misfortunes. So far it has worked very effectively.
I wonder if Americans will wake up from their American Dream as it becomes more and more of a nightmare.
When I googled the directions, I found that he lived on the outskirts of town, in a very affluent area. The bus services that area, but just barely. I don't own a car. I could probably afford to buy one, but I couldn't afford to maintain one (gas, insurance, maintenance, etc). I try not to live beyond my means because rich conservatives hate it when us poor folk do that. After all, it is we, not greedy, immoral bankers and brokers, that are the root of our economic troubles.
Anyway, as it would take longer than I anticipated to get to his house via public transport, I called him back to let him know that. As soon as I used the word "bus", his demeanor changed from rude, to rude and condescending. He stated that he decided that my services weren't required.
As much as I could have used the money, I was a bit relieved. An hour long bus ride, and a pretentious, rude customer isn't my idea of a good time after working a 10-hour day. It does bother me, however, that he made certain assumptions about my use of public transport.
Since I was young, I've always wondered why the affluent tend to exhibit characteristics that my mother would have slapped me for. The lack of compassion, and common courtesy, the sense of entitlement, the shallowness, and, of course, the stupidity.
It's simple. Greed makes people stupid.
The American mythology is a twofold fantasy. The first is the myth of social mobility, i.e., that anyone with drive, determination and a modicum of intelligence can "make it" -- that is, become rich. That is the Horatio Alger Myth. The other is that America is a middle class country. The truth is that most Americans are working class, dependent on receiving a paycheck from an employer for their livelihoods. The use of the term "working class" is practically unknown. However, there has been an assault on the American working class for a long time now, but because so many Americans, under the illusion that they are middle class, cannot see that it is they that are under attack by the upper class until it is too late. At that point, they are encouraged by the rightwing media to blame immigrants and racial minorities for their misfortunes. So far it has worked very effectively.
I wonder if Americans will wake up from their American Dream as it becomes more and more of a nightmare.
My choice...
OK. You win. After months of blogging about all the craziness of American politics, there appears to be no way to stop our spiral into insanity. I say if we're gonna go that route, let's go all the way. Here's who I'm voting for -- for everything.
Vote for Xrazy Yraxaz...or he'll eat your face.
Vote for Xrazy Yraxaz...or he'll eat your face.
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