Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Capitalism, the one eyed king.

"In the land of the blind, the one eyed man is king."

-Desiderius Erasmus

Because that's what they're giving you, the one eyed king.

It's a bit of a paradox, really. If I were blind I wouldn't be watching a commercial attempting to sell me a drug that cures something called "restless leg syndrome". RLS anyone?

More bullshit from our friends at the pharmaceutical companies. Old news, but one example how pharma giants try to cash in on stupidity. I suppose if the condition was violently throwing me off the bed or causing me to kick innocent bystanders, I'd have cause for concern. But from what I read, this isn't the case.

I'm sick of advertising. Buy this, buy that, go here, go there. Gimme your money.

I have a four year old, and while the shows she watches are bearable, I can't stand the line of junk the toy companies have lined up between the shows' segments. The volume on the TV mysteriously shoots up %100 during commercials, just to be sure that mom and dad in the next room don't miss out on hearing about the shit they want me to buy my four year old--like she won't come to me anyway afterwards.

Not even Santa can keep up with their bullshit. In a hundred years, instead of a jolly fat guy sliding down your chimney, it's gonna be some fat cat CEO guy in a suit and tie.

And guess what? If you're still living in the land of the blind, you're going to be at the bottom of that chimney, hands clenched around your ankles with your bare ass in the ready position.

Say hello to the one eyed king.

I must be bitter!

Right? You betcha...

If you ask me, being bitter keeps me awake to what the hell is going on out there. Happy people, and there's nothing wrong with being happy, tend to not wanna remove the blinders. Or how 'bout, just plain idiots who don't give a shit. Happy idiots, I suppose. The ones capable of marginalizing other human beings in order to line their pockets.

If you read my previous blog, the one pertaining to my recent job loss, you're probably thinking, this guy is just flat out unhappy--he's venting. I've been silently venting for 20 years, and I'm happy with my wife and kids and my family. What I'm not happy with, is looking around watching regular people getting the shaft, one way or another, and just accepting it. Yes, my layoff was the catalyst that jolted me into gear. So here I am.

I'm bitter and angry because I'm sick to my stomach. Don't think for a second I'm envious or jealous. Better write this now while I'm poor and uncorrupted. I expect all who know me to hold me to this blog if I were ever to strike it rich.

Here's a story...

"Oh what a tangled web we weave,
When first we practise to deceive!"

-Sir Walter Scott

I've been recently laid off. Specifically, I was working for a casino. You know, one of those supposed "recession proof" type of businesses. This was the third round of layoffs in a year, and unfortunately for me, I didn't make this last cut. Sure, they gave me severance, as long as I signed all eight pages of their bullshit, which mainly pertained to me agreeing not to make disparaging remarks about the company... which I soon will be in this blog.

When I talk about eating shit, day in and day out, and how we are treated as workers, what happened at the casino last year, is a perfect example of society being irresponsibly asleep at the wheel.

Back in late summer of '08, the casinos in the Midwest tried to remove the $500 loss limit, via "Proposition A". If Prop A succeeded in passing, guests would be able to blow their entire life savings on any game in the casino in twenty minutes and still have time to go take out a 2nd mortgage on their home, come back and blow that as well.

Here is the number one reason employees were given by the casino to support Prop A: Job security. And when I mean support, the casino supplied all employees with the tools needed to get out into the public and get people to vote yes on Prop A. Employees were asked to wear shirts, in public and on the casino floor, go out into the community and hand out flyers, yardsigns, buttons, all supporting Prop A. This was all legal, as far I know. There were restrictions, however.

Come November, Prop A passed by a margin of %56.2 in favor of Prop A.
Two weeks after Prop A passed, the layoffs came.

Some of the same people who were out in the community, doing all the dirty work on behalf of their employer, get their walking papers two weeks after Prop A passes, after they were all told that Prop A would create job security for these same folks.

Talk about being propagandized and shit on. No big surprise that the layoffs came after and not before Prop A was put to vote.

While I may not have been directly affected by the layoffs, I felt for the workers who lost their jobs. I kept my tongue in neutral and sucked it up. People were happy just to have their jobs.

And as far as the public goes... they're asleep. The same people who just lost their jobs wish they had the extra money guests could waste on gambling and apply the same monies to paying their bills instead.

What ruthless scavengers we are.

Wakeup call

The bullshit. The greed.

Half of our society is keeping the other half asleep at the wheel.

I suppose in all of recorded history, not much has changed, except just how much more methodical they have become. They're subtler now. They now use manners to trick us. To our faces, they openly insult us with a smile; on billboards, magazines, newspapers and television. We open our mouths real wide and allow them to shovel in truckload after truckload of their bullshit. It tastes good until our pockets become empty. We blame the wrong circle. We rinse and repeat. They think of more bullshit to feed us. We then watch our children open wide. We grow old. Now our children are eating and dispensing the bullshit. Our children rinse and repeat.

Wakeup