Saturday, August 9, 2008

Wake Up Rant: "A Nation Of Whiners"?

I sleep with the radio on, or at least some noise going- which explains why it's so easy for me to fall asleep in front of the television- it helps me to wake up thinking, plus "Coast to Coast" is usually on my station of choice during the night and half listening to it has given me some pretty creative dreams. Anyway, this morning I awoke to the weekly mish-mash of reruns ("Best of"- HA!) of our local morning host (the ONLY local radio talk show that covers local "news")and it started my day with my blood boiling.

There was a call from this sheeple spouting rich republican dogma. I know it was "dogma" from my brief channel surfing of last Thursday's early evening cable news trying to find out why Detroit Mayor Kwami thought it was SO important to go to Canada and violate the judge's on his last, what 10 felony convictions, enough to bust him and have him spend the night in jail (ANYONE with that much of a stripper addiction- which I gather was his reasons for going to Windsor "on business"- always gets my attention), they took a call from someone who spouted almost the exact same thought as this sad woman, practically word for word.

"We're a nation of whiners" she said. "Those too stupid to get in over their heads with their mortgage should just shut up and work harder and not expect the government to give them a hand-out"- that was the basic gist of it. It's a new dogma chant going around- just listen to you local right wing, nut job, dogma maker radio idiot and listen- it'll be there. Those sheeple are worse than the sad sheeple that they're bitching about, and frankly they make me sick.

Now, I'm NOT disagreeing with what they're preaching, just the ways and reasons why they're doing it. They want to whine that everyone else is whining, and really if I'm not careful I'll be whining about them whining about the whiners in debt. It's SO easy to complain and whine, especially about the other person's faults, and yet not take the time to try to UNDERSTAND why they're in the position they're in, so let's take a second, WAKE UP, and THINK about the whiners and the whiners who want to whine about them.

Starting at the bottom, the sheeple financially in over their heads. Are these really stupid people? Middle class idiots who buy a house with an Adjustable Rate Mortgage, buy an suv to cart their family around, squeeze out puppies (sheeple kids), and when prices jack up and their ARM catches up to them end up penniless and in the street- are these folks horribly stupid? Honestly, I don't think they are. These folks ARE sheeple who have sucummed to the corporate hypnosis more than anything. We all have been programmed since we were born, since our eyes could follow the images on the TV, to buy, buy, and buy. We go to stores and buy stuff we really don't need, we get credit cards and run them up, we eat at unhealthy fast food restaurants, we buy big cars because it's cool, we buy a house on a weird mortgage because we can, and hey, we can be like everyone else and "flip" the house and make more money to buy more shit we don't need- we are part of the American consumer society, and we're really just following orders. Their programming works. This does not mean they're stupid, a lot of these folks went to college, have multiple jobs when they can, and drive the economy of not only our country, but of most of the world (though that's changing rapidly). They do these things not only because they're sold a sad bill of goods by the advertisers (also consumers making a living), or manufacturers (also consumers making a living), the media (also ...well, you get the idea), but because they're programmed to think in the "now" and not the "what if the shit hits the fan". They are TOLD to want, want, want, and buy, buy, buy, because they're told they DESERVE it. They Are Americans after all, and it's the American Way to strive for the American Dream and acquire as much as they can afford and hey, if you can afford it NOW you'll still be able to pay on it and afford more later. It's a cycle, better still a gerbil wheel that they are programmed to get on and run, and run and run. They never save, they're retirement will be provided by social security and the thankful corporate that they work for, heck even their 401-k is deducted from their check without them really seeing the money or given a chance to spend it. "Don't Worry, Be A Consumer".

I've seen that wheel. I've run that wheel, and have spent the last few years trying to jump off of that wheel as much as possible. I was lucky. My mortgage jumped early, I had my house reassessed (greatly DOWNWARD) a couple of years before everyone else's house came due, I saw my credit card interest leap right as I started to fight to buy it off. I WAS LUCKY, and I understand most of the spoon-fed hypnosis seen in the media, I've thought about it and realized that folks who fall prey to it are NOT stupid, just easily programmed. If YOU think about it for awhile you'll see it too. We were all taught that fable early with the Emperor and his new clothes. The threads on that suit are made from the "American Dream", and we're all told to comment on how great the King looks in it. Sometimes I feel like I'm that little kid pointing at the King's wiener and saying "but he's naked!". Many, MANY more folks need to be exactly like that little kid and "wake up" and speak up. Just remember that it's okay to point and laugh as long as you don't piss the king off- that could be bad.

In future blogs I hope to help you guys as much as I can to get off that gerbil wheel. I'm not perfect by any stretch, just a little monkey who probably doesn't know any better. I'm just sick of the constant shit I'm forced to live around. It's time to throw a little bit of that shit straight into the face of the sheeple on the other side of the bars. In my mind those people are worse off than the middle class sheeple. They've received more upper class programming. Staying with the above fabled analogy they're the tailors weaving the invisible threads for the Emperor and laughing as they tell the king just how cool he looks in them. They're already in on the joke and getting paid to further it and do their best to skip out of town before their deception is found out. They are MUCH more a part of the problem than they realize.

I honestly believe there's a small part of the upper middle class and upper class who still believe that America is not in a recession, or more than likely a depression. These are the whiners whining about the penniless whiners. They have NO idea how reality works, let alone how life really is here on earth. These are your politicians, your greedy corporate big-wigs, your right wing radio whack-a-dos who are working hard to tell anyone who'll listen to not panic, everything is just a minor adjustment, and that all of their problems lie in the perception of the regular folks and that they should all goose step in line and tell the Emperor how great his new threads look. Even when faced with reality they spin it in their direction, saying our economy is caught in a "perfect storm". That "perfect storm" is little more than "corporate greed" fed by politicians fed by that greed to give the corporations more power to screw, which gives them more money to contribute to more campaigns for folks who'll make laws favorable to their greed, which just turns the hurricane of America's destruction faster and faster.

Political spin just pisses me off, and I think it's time to start calling these folks on it. that's also going to be part of my blog service, every freakin' chance I get!

I got a pal of mine (sometimes I think he's on the same level as my cousin, Shock.) who toes the right-wing line. Most times I get to know what the new line of shit-n-spin from the right wing from our conversations. He honestly believes EVERY Muslim is out to overthrow the country, Bush is one of the greatest presidents of all time, abortion and being gay should be jailable offenses, and that the middle class is just whining when they talk about their situation. It took me YEARS to convince him that there was a war on the American middle class which was going to hurt us MUCH more than anyone in Iraq. Now, after losing his job, almost losing his house, losing his phone and cable, and almost having his power shut off, he ALMOST believes me- sometimes. I love the guy like a brother because when we start thinking alike I know it's time to educate -or still, RE-educate- myself on my position. I believe you should surround yourself with folks who challenge you mentally, plus it saves me from listening to the right-wing dogma and from going insane from time-to-time.

So, instead of whining, what's the solution? Should there be a "bail-out"? Nope, I don't think there should be, not because I think those folks are stupid for getting into their financial mess, but because it does nothing to FIX the problem. I think the government should be more in touch with the majority of the folks who vote for them. There should be legislation against the mortgage companies to freeze every one's mortgage at their lowest interest rate, and THEN make ARM mortgages totally illegal. Credit Card companies should be regulated and made to play fair, as should banks, and "Cash & Go" places that prey on the financially strapped. Oil companies should be made accountable, made to reinforce their refinery structure, allowed to drill on American soil (with STIFF penalties from the Environmental Protection Agency for screwing with any of the environment they drill in), and forced to pay an adequate profit margin to the consumer and not an outrageous one.

But I also believe we should restructure the tax structure and make politicians more responsible to the sheeple they are supposed to represent. There should be a constant threat of recall and in some cases term limits, or at least made to take a breather from being a "career politician" to actually have to taste "real life" every once in awhile.

But most of all I believe there should be a sense of ethics that include a restraining of sheer corporate greed, an education campaign (perhaps funded by a windfall profits tax) to the American public about how to be financially responsible, save for the future, rely upon themselves, THINK FOR THEMSELVES, spend wisely, and make it a good thing to know and help their neighbor whenever they can.

Everyone needs to shut up and DO SOMETHING POSITIVE, no matter how small, to make their home, neighborhood, town, county, state, and country a greater place, THEN worry about making the world a better place.

All of us need to STOP WHINING, START DOING, and most of all

WAKE UP.

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On a personal note- I apologize for the delays in getting more shit up here. I almost have a handle on my workload, so expect more on the way very quickly. Finally, if you're reading this please leave a comment and let me know what you think. Suggestions, comments, and criticisms are always welcome. Whining is not. I know you're out there because my hit count is rolling- I just want to encourage more discussion, no matter how nutty or pissy you think I am.

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