7/17/07
Really, when you think about it, aren't we basically lucky to get anything?
Who holds all the cards? They do. Who has all the money? They do. Who has all the power? They do. You are nothing to them; a random voice on a technical support line, a lone hand pulling a lever, another driver in another car stopped on the freeway just like anyone else.
What are you going to do about it, march in the streets? RIOT? HA HA HA HA HA HA HA! *wipes tears* Oh, my, that was a good one. No, let's be serious. You're going to sit and take it.
If they raise the price, you will still buy it; I mean, why don't they raise the price infinitely? How about seven dollars a gallon? Sure, it'll be horrible, but you gotta get your kids to school. How about a war? Even the most unpopular wars can still last ten years. How about $1543.99 a month for that drug that is saving your son? Hmmm, well, while they "go fuck themselves" you're still going to leave your credit card.
Wasn't there once a Gentleman's Agreement? Was there a time when "shame" actually affected policy? No, I can't remember it either. Was that just romanticizing?
They have a product. They calculate how much to charge for it, based on whatever price will absolutely destroy you, then they add 25%.
And the best part? There is no "they". They are simply a revolving conglomerate of bad guys who never stay quite long enough to get what would normally be coming to them. They aren't met by a disgruntled lone gunman whose life they ruined; they die old and rich with linen-clad nurses and give all their money to the grandkids.
Between them and you are thousands of middle-management employees, all who hate it as much as you, and thus have no patience for your problems. Beneath them are help desks, based in far-off lands with odd currency, and right in front of you is a cashier, who may be the only person more miserable than you are.
Sure, go ahead and vote for someone else. Switch brands. Do that thing you always talked about, where you don't buy anything new for a month. Go "backpacking" and "get yourself off the grid." While you scramble for payphone change in some foreign denomination, The Man has the infinite patience of malignant ignorance; he and the other Men don't know who you are, and just began another round of golf.
Well said. I often wonder what would it take for the riot in the streets to occur and I can't think of anything except what if some of the items "the man" provides were banned by legislation. Say, SUVs. Like you say, people would still want to drive them.
I think about the rising price of gas, but it's not enough to make people stay off the roads or ride their bicycles (okay, a very small percentage) or make a change that would divert pennies from the pocket of "the men." As long as people remain comfortable and have enough cash or, in the case of many, credit provided by those big banks, there will be no riots.
If you think you are being played by the man now, you should watch the BBC documentary "Century of the Self" on Google Video or read Bernays' "Propaganda" and Walter Lippman's evil 1922 book "Public Opinion."
Don't give up. Recently, I was trying to order a food stamp application for someone who was po'. I got stuck in a horrendous voicemail maze that didn't offer that as an option. I called a minion at the department who said I should call the main number, and then when I told her that it wasn't an option on the main menu, she hung up on me. I looked up the director's office online and called them. The secretary said the number had changed but they were unaware that they hadn't listed the new number on the voice mail menu. The secretary was very nice and said she would fix it, and she personally sent me an application in the mail.
It is frustrating to go through all that work to change something, especially something that should be made easy when it's meant to help poor people, but sometimes calling the right person and being direct about it gets results.
With private corporations, it can help too if you go about it the right way, take names, and alert the media if something is wrong.
Sometimes.
We are the ones who made gasoline the personal priviledge it is today. The Standard Oil company possessed a monopoly on crude before the internal combustion engine was around. We pushed it even further, couldn't get enough of it. An iphone for 500 bucks, plus $2000 service agreement is quite a good deal - assuming that your interests lie with a miracle device, mostly for fun. Air conditioning rocks, and Enron knew it, turn it up and pay. Traders and investors live on speculation and price inflation. I love getting great cheap can openers, hell, I have more than one. I also love flying around to places just for the hell of it...take some pictures, go home.
Life saving drugs, well, they're life saving. What's that worth? I learned the term 'life enhancement drugs' from our old friend Ramesh. Why? 'Cause I needed prescription antacids to deal with the bourbon, nicotene and mostly self-induced stress. Those things cost $4 a pill, I take 'em almost every day. They let me keep on doing the same shit that I keep on wanting to do - I haven't let up one bit. I like posting comments on your blog, this is a lot of fun, but we don't need anything from each other - not right now anyway. This computer, DSL and electricity are pretty cool but I also have neighbors that I like pretty well, too. Not talking to them right this minute...
The Man is always there and we usually want what He's got. We have to call His shitty help line because we can't figure out how to deal with what we've plainly asked for, or feel like we deserve. We're paying for it, but could usually do without it.
Don't go off the grid, the price of candles would skyrocket and make my "special moments" a hell of a lot more expensive.
ian, as LAME as this sounds, did you see the new "die hard" movie? i saw it last week, after a week of work that turned my brain to mush...and, surprisingly, i LOVED it. the underlying conflict in the film is light, as one might guess, but not so light as the usual drug lord bad guy kind of plot. and, as events unfold, it's scary as hell to be brought face to face with our addiction to the system and the sway it has over us. i thought it was interesting. not quite as distopian as "children of men" but a modern musing on where we could end up in the not so distant future.
i'm not sure what to do....but i agree that each of us can continue to do little things. and maybe when we all get sick to death of it, we'll take to the streets. sigh.
happy tuesday!
Holy crap. Way to ruin my morning. And here I was, just trolling blogs, debating the "value" of blog ads.
Like so many other free non-radicals, I cope with the system by pretending I am one of "them." This pretense relies on easy access to consumer credit and liberal servings of premium liquor.
Isn't it ironic that our retirement assets (and in some cases our current income) are all predicated upon the success of The Man? Past and Present.
You're right. Unless you're a major stockholder, the Man doesn't care who you are. Or how much trouble you have jumping through the corporate hoops. The Man's been told it all works fine. People are just stupid.
Speaking of the MAN, I think I'm going to throw up. I was just looking up Crohn's Disease on Wikipedia, because a 5 year old I know has been diagnosed with that disease. After reading that article, I typed in my husband's Boston Brahmin last name. I read the article: origin of the name, coate of arms, notable people with that last name, etc...
All was fine until I read other descendants of the first guy to land here with that last name:
DICK CHENEY. WHAT THE FUCK! MY CHILDREN ARE RELATED TO THE BIGGEST man ON THE PLANET.
I went back to Wikipedia, because I'm still in shock. The upside is that my 3 kids are also related to Tennessee Williams, T.S. Eliot and Herman Melville.
You are exactly right. There is no Man. There is only a global money system that makes even Men (and Women) irrelevant. Just like us, the fat cats are easily-replaced, if they don't service the money system. The only difference between us and them is that they get a golden parachute, whilst we get the golden shower.
But it doesn't matter; there is nobody in charge, there is no Them. That's the scariest part. At least if there were an evil despot or dictator, we could overthrow him. Even a cabal or conspiracy could be defeated or would fall apart on its own as its members got greedy and double-crossed each other. But there is no such thing.
No, we have been taken over by robots, which are called corporations and dollars and banks. They are inanimate systems and constructs and they run our world.
I highly recommend the book "The Future of Money", by Bernard Lietaer. It's available on amazon.co.uk and they ship internationally (it was never printed in the USA).
You will understand once reading that book, especialy its primer on money in the appendix.
This very much applies to the state of health care in this country. We have allowed for profit companies with huge political power to decide what health care we get and charge us out the wazoo for it. While the CEOs of insurance companies and big pharma are getting rich lots of people are getting denied care and I am filling out more and more paperwork which could be time spent with patients. And that's just for the folks they will insure - there are tons more that never even get a chance because these companies are allowed to choose who can get health care and who can't. And, yes, we are putting up with it for fear of something worse. We (and I admit to be one of them) are always suckered into inertia for fear of something worse and suddenly worse is here whether we did anything or not.