Like most everyone these days I really abhor waste. While my pissed off quotient at waste in government is quite high, I can really do nothing about it can I? Okay yes I can vote and hope I choose someone who stays off the pork barrel for awhile. But I am more inclined to just accept that that is bacon, gladly eat it and deal with the ever increasing blood pressure it stimulates.
Today I want to rant about those who waste potato chips. They leave their crumbs everywhere - including in my couch, and I cannot help but remember my moms admonitions of all the starving people int he world who are now missing out on potato chips. How sad is that. This holiday think of those starving people in the whirl and put your potato chips in your mouth, not all over the house and especially not down into the cracks of my couch. Pass the salt please.
I, like I am sure all of you, enjoy a bit of a holiday once in awhile. For me it is time to begin thinking about where to go and what to do this summer. Not being flush with cash I do seek out those great deals and of course look for cheap flights. I am thinking most of us in the 99% do this same thing - of course only to run headlong into the reality that nothing is as good as it sounds. I must say again, they do seem capable of getting blood from us turnips.Yes I know recently the airlines have had to comply with more honesty in their ads, but of course that new truth in advertising is like all ads and press releases - they do not tell the full story. Well, I know you want the truth and so I am going to give it to you. However, I cannot say it any better or more clearly than these fine folks...
Tiger Woods is probably the most known golfer in the world. He has a huge gallery following him. People line fairways and surround greens when he is hitting a shot. They yell "in the hole" every-time he hits the ball - I'll ignore this obnoxious trait for the moment. They also just yell for no reason. He does little to earn these accolades most of the time. He is pretty much living on his laurels at the moment. (Funny this really sounds like I am talking about a politician doesn't it?)
Anyway these crowds I believe give Tiger an added edge over the less well known an popular golfers. They surround him and the hole he is playing on. When he hits a bad shot that strays offline, more often than not it hits one of his fan and stops - usually in not too bad a position - usually a whole better position than if there were no fan there to stop it. So for example, rather than his ball going way past the back of the green when he hits it too long, it hits someone and stops a few feet away from the edge of the green leaving him an easy chip shot. All this leads to his having, in my opinion, a much easier round of golf than most other golfers. His throngs of admirers protect him from really bad shots, insulating him from the realities that other golfers must face. He has an advantage. He probably gains a few strokes a round from what I have seen - all for the slight expense of some of his fans (those hit by his golf ball) ending up with a bruise. Those without huge throngs of followers have no such protection. This sounds like us regular Americans - taking the bruises for the powerful to achieve what they want.
Put this all together. Those who are popular and have followers are protected. Those who go it alone or think independently are much less so - but all the stronger for it. Certainly this is true in politics and for big corporations whose followers or employees take the hits (blame) for things so the main man or woman or entity can removed ahead unscathed and can stay on the course.
I am not sure what all this means really except what I know already - those who are in a privileged position to start with are protected. Their position is protected. This makes it much harder to unseat them or evoke change. Tiger's failing was that his throngs could not protect him from himself - though if they could I am sure they would. In our world success is almost a self perpetuating fact with perhaps a high nepotistic coefficient. Not good odds for the rest of us. Good news for those in control - of us though.
While I ponder this I am thinking I may read up on how to play golf as I seek more meaning from the game and of course, my stripes.
America is now the land of the fee. Not the free, I did not make a typing mistake, I mean fee. Have you not noticed how everything now has additional fees. The airline industry is the most notable - luggage fees, charging for meals, better seats, blankets, using toilets, pillows, and sometimes even for using credit cards to pay for your tickets. Other companies want to charge us for paying our bills online or using our debit cards. Fees to feed their ever growing coffers.
I prefer to be charged a specific price and know what I am getting. I do not want to bargain. I do not want added anxiety in my life because if I do not pay a fee I am going to to get lesser service or be treated more badly by the provider - or not know what I am getting. Why would I?
I learned long ago nothing is ever really free, and now it seems like everything can be better for an additional fee. Or simply paying more.
Everything costs more these days. (Bought gas lately?) Why is that? Are we all getting paid more money? I do not think so. I am thinking those who already have a lot of money are just transferring more among themselves. They skin us while skimming as much off the top as they can. The rich are getting richer and poor getting poorer, so it has to be something like that doesn't it?
I really would like someone to explain it all to me. I know I should have studied something practical in school - economics, law, or business. but I didn't. I chose and still do prefer art. I do not prefer being subjected into a forced poverty over increasing fees and prices when there is no value added service. In fact paying more for less. Soon I'll paying a lot for nothing - though sometimes I think that is the case already here in the land of the fee.
So did you watch the superbowl? Maybe just the ads huh? The whole superbowl spectacle is just a celebration of living in the past. A big money event groomed for the most wealthy and tailored to make the rest of us pine for Doritos. "Let them eat chips"!
Face up to it football should hardly be called a game. It is a concussion inducing bunch of widely scattered moments in between which nothing happens. The greatest thing in football is the no huddle offense. It will be stopped though because it reduces the amount of time for ads. I have a lot against ads, but have been known to be persuaded by clever ones. Hmmm, none of those this year. I mean the whole idea behind advertising is to make us spend money on things we do not need to keep our economy alive. Oh yes and to help the rich get richer as we go further in debt.
When the world feels they have deluged us with enough ads, they give us celebrity. Madonna! The sound was awful and the performance akin to a badly made spaghetti gladiator film. Madonna is over and living on her laurels. I also bet we could have probably fed a few million people a nice meal for what that show cost. Priorities should endure through time and we cannot let media corrupt them.
So am I a curmudgeon of the highest order? Perhaps. Stop wasting money, stop living in the past, and stop exploiting every last second of time in an effort to persuade me that I too am living the good life. I am not. Are you?
I had a flashback to my more youthful thinking the other day when I read the commentary of an article about cricket. In it the author stated that the goal of modern popular culture is to remove boring from our lives. So true.
Popular culture also is carefully constructed to make us feel inferior unless we have large amounts of money to spend - it does so with noise and clutter. Media and all of culture with its upbeat sensationalism is actually designed to keep us down. How can we complain when so much wonderful is all around us and so much is going on around us and battering our brains (which they have easy access to through our ears)?
Popular culture also removes individuality creating an implied consent for all that goes on to keep us fat and happy with our beer and Doritos or whatever. If we were not fat, happy and excited about the trivial we might actually start thinking. In recent years the World Wide Web has also been doing this same sort of induction. This bastion of purported freedom is now just too much information that seems too important too ignore coming at you too fast. It is mostly all just noise.
Why so much effort to have us not think about more important things than consumerism? If we did think the whole house of cards (i.e. our capitalist society) might crumble before the one percent's and their gatekeeper eyes.
I do not think cricket is boring. I enjoy a moment and embrace the sound of silence and all it offers - particularly time to think. It is through periods silence we will gain voices, realize what is important, learn to communicate with each other in meaningful ways and create a better world.
I saw an ad for a moral compass the other day. I was saddened by the fact that they were only available in specialized versions and at a very high price. I comforted myself with the thought that those who really need them could afford them.
I did wonder though how sales were. I pondered that in this economy they might be quite brisk - in the same sort of way escapist entertainment product sales tend to increase when things are, well bad. My thinking is that the morally correct decisions one must make in these times are bit more challenging - so a compass which points you in the right direction might be just the ticket. Couple that with the fact that they do not require any technical skill to operate, and it should be a winning product. The shrewd Toby in me was ready to proclaim that were I savvy or rich I would buy stock in the company that sells them. This a tip I would pass on to all of you my readers.
I then thought a bit further and realized that actually there are few if any customers for such a product. The need is there. The features are there. The benefits are there. What is not there is the willingness of the people to actually use and heed them. In fact success in this world might be better predicated on having one, reading it, and then doing the opposite. Another great disappointment, but perhaps the reason I should have one.
By the way, this post was not inspired by the upcoming election in the US, any world events, or any personal interactions with other human beings.
