Disposable Society

Living in a disposable society enables us to recreate ourselves whenever we feel the need or desire to escape, moreover, it is a concept that has developed under the mass media’s radar screen due to any number of modern factors, short attention spans not withstanding.  Some of these factors developed through technology such as society’s greater mobility through the use of the car, train, or airplane.  Add that to our modern workforce’s ability to move from job to job and company to company, thus, modern culture possesses the necessary wanderlust to satisfy the craving of any disposable soul, moreover, this plays into corporate shareholder hands and makes it easier to dissolve entire manufacturing divisions for short term profitability or outsource well paying jobs to third world countries.  This is not the only place that disposability rears its ugly head.

Twelve-step groups have sprung up like mushrooms in a cow pasture, and create another venue in which people are able to recreate themselves through the disposal of their past and the creation of their new present or future.  It is in cyberspace that people are truly able to live as they desire and pretend that their frailties and oddities no longer exist or that they are that man or woman which has haunted them throughout their sordid and miserable lives.  Sexual and corporate predators find this venue tremendously valuable in an endless pursuit of their disturbingly deviant behaviors.

This aforementioned idea of the disposable society is contrary to the usual drama we call the fast food generation or throw away generation.  Under this classification, people who were unable to digest the profound and logical instruction of their middle and high school teachers are slated for the waste heap of society.  Those of us who were able to dispose of our past and recreate our present scream past these heaps of humanity as they beg from exit ramps, corners or along downtown streets.  Maybe they are hidden among the railroad tracks as they travel in packs in a parallel universe that offers the same brisk service as any Mickey D drive through window or high speed internet connection.  As long as they stalk the shadow world, the rest of us feel safe and ready to dispose of our ugliness and replace it with a shiny new persona via the latest blog, search engine, or chat room.

It is the politicians, pundits and executives that travel in and out of the corporate culture that leave the stable, unstable and the breathing, breathless.  These are the true stars of society whose private personas live entirely separate from their public personalities.  They are the ones that commit heinous crimes that shock the world not due to the nature of their crimes, but do to the fact that their crimes are so out of character from the phony behaviors displayed during their public schemes in which they claim the pain they feel as they lay-off a huge percentage of their work force.  This way these white men are no longer forced to follow society’s rules that left them feeling trapped and impotent.

Their craving for power and authority can only be satisfied once they have satiated their need for depravity and domination that accelerates with each new encounter.  In the world of psychiatric mumbo-jumbo, these ideas are all too simplistic, and we are forced to search for the hidden meaning in all they do.  We are required to find how their delicate psyches were damaged, thus, leading to their depravity and destruction of any humanity they deem as weak or vulnerable. 

Corporate socio-pathology has reached new heights of absurdity when the needs of the few drive the operations of mammoth, international conglomerates to attack and destroy the welfare of their employees for the immediate gratification that ultimately may destroy their corporate infrastructure.  Profits are necessary and a healthy result of astute reaction and anticipation to competition within the marketplace, but this new focus on the disposability of workers, e.g., Boeing outsourcing of jobs in its latest attack on wages of blue collar workers is criminal behavior on the same level as the BTK killer.  Moreover, its impact is far deeper and the long term repercussions travel well beyond the closed production lines and workers’ families and become engrained into our civilization’s socio-psycho-pathology that expect the worst from an employer. 

At this juncture, it is requisite that as a society we reflect on the sociological and corporate changes that are attacking the foundations of democracy, e.g., the political and corporate embrace of the concept of disposability.  The fact that verbal intolerance is on the rise and the powerful are using it to attack those they see as weak because of their espousing diversity of thought and action, smacks of fascism.  These neo-conservative elitists’ use of exclusionary tactics recall the brutal and reactionary racism that has destroyed many 20^th Century Governments, and they are the heart of these attacks as they say “no” to anything but their own demented and delusional perspectives of America as prescribed by national and international corporations.

The idea of the disposability of the middle class needs to be eliminated.  The middle class needs to push back against these neo-conservative charlatans to expose their phony machinations as fraudulent and harmful to the long term health of society.  For all the ways that we have become a disposable society such as training someone in India so the position can be outsourced to add profitability, the government needs to step in as it did with the meat packing industry in the early 20^th century, and punish the lords of profitability that are willing to sacrifice American families for stockholders.  

 

 

World Beyond Twitter and Facebook

There is one thing to be said for modern travel: it is quick. There is no mystery or allure as once there was or seemed to be in the past. It is all about moving as many people as possible at the best price for the company in charge of the movement of humanoids.

For us sheep, this may provide a break in price, however, it makes traveling more than an inconvenience. It is officially a headache. Traveling through Europe is no easy task for the uninitiated and can be an expensive endeavor. You have to be willing to sacrifice any number of conveniences or money in pursuit of movement.

From London to Paris, if you are willing to ride on a bus for nine hours the monetary price is quite reasonable. On the other hand, if time and comfort reign supreme, taking a high speed train is the way to go and beats flying, but it comes at a financial price. It brings with it a relaxing environment, food and beautiful scenery.

Traveling is exhausting. We are on the move at least 8 hours a day. Searching for the next new monument or alleyway or toilet.  You are looking to find the history that was told to you in books or other reading.  It is fun to think about all that took place so long ago until you are confronted with the pain and hardship that most toiled.

When you are standing in a place such as the Louvre, and you realize that this palace was too small for King Louis the XIV. You can feel the power and hubris of the ruling class. You can feel the oppression of the people and yet it is so distant.

You are confronted with how small we are in relationship to the universe. Look at what is happening around the world today and you can see and feel the pettiness that drives humans and politics and how the immediate is so important, which of course it is not. I don’t think that this feeling has changed over the course of humanities life span.

I sit here now typing away staring into the Scottish woods of Cairngorms and I am taken aback by the futility of life.  Of working for the weekends or in this case the three week holiday that we are on. I think of my need to have the internet so that I can instantly connect to the people back home. There is no longer a need for the family slide show. You can throw your adventures up on the internet and share it daily.

The world has not gotten smaller.  With all our technology it may seem so, but it has not.  The world has gotten larger, which seems counterintuitive because today it is about making connections to other people. Walking through the streets of Paris or London or Aveimore it is the people that make the difference. We have met some of the nicest people as we have gone about.

It is funny to think that the plant and animal life is so similar between northern Scotland and western Washington.  They in no way have the mountains that we have, but the wild and desolate nature of the landscape is amazing similar. We are staying just outside the largest wilderness area in all of Europe and we made it to one of Scotland’s ski resorts. Very different in its set-up than in the states.  There were no trees just vast open spaces.

Welcome to the world beyond Facebook and twitter.

Right-Wing Attack Machine at it Again

Here we go again with another attack of the right-wing machine. This time it is allegedly against abortion. However, their attacks go beyond abortion; their end goal is to shutdown Planned Parenthood, which spends the majority of their time taking care of women’s health issues far beyond abortion, state by state. They are using the abortion issue as the leverage to eliminate health care for the underclass of American society or anyone that may need to use government subsidized Medicare.

The latest case in which women were attacked was Indiana. In this case, as reported by Mother Jones, the state was trying to deny women on Medicaid the ability to use their government program to get medical treatment at Planned Parenthood offices. Indiana was unsuccessful in its two year battle. This is a win for the good guys. Those white government men were denied the right to decide when and where women can be treated.

On the other hand, in Texas, Mississippi and other repressive, mostly southern states, these same white men have been successful in defunding Planned Parenthood through more clever tactics. What all this means is that women of means can get preventative care and abortions because they can pay for it out of pocket. Abortions are still being performed in all of these states, but only for the haves and not the have nots.  Therefore, if you a person struggling financially, you are out of luck when it comes to family planning, cancer screenings or other preventative measures relating to women’s health, and you use Planned Parenthood or other offices that were set up for these types of medical visits.

Remember there is no war on women. These republicans care deeply about unborn fetuses, but once you are born, you better find a way to get healthcare that they deem as acceptable. If you are dependent on any government assistance, the state of Texas will tell you when and if you can get medical attention. This is big government at its finest. The republicans have set up their own death panels and in their crosshair are women living at or below the poverty line.

In Indiana these same republicans were unable to deny healthcare to Medicaid patients. This is something that needs to be replicated around the country. Every American needs, no deserves, quality healthcare with no government intrusion including but not limited to abortions.

According to Mother Jones, Texas was able to cut government family planning funds. The repercussions to this is that 53 women’s clinics were shut down. Fourteen of these clinics were Planned Parenthood and the other thirty-eight were not affiliated with Planned Parenthood. None of these clinics performed abortions (Texas Policy Evaluation Project, Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas).  This is all about denying services to the working poor. It is a way of punishing those that are struggling to make ends meet in today’s economy.

All I can see from these actions is that women at or below the poverty line that need and use government assistance must ask the government’s permission to be able to get healthcare. Rick Perry is playing Big Brother and bringing along likeminded brethren to follow his lead. I can’t wait to see what they have in store for Medicare recipients.

What else are Americans going to have to ask permission from Republican controlled states? In many of these red states, you cannot ask for a pay raise or better benefits if you are a public employee. You get to bend over and take it. Why go into public service if you are going to be treated like chattel?

All of these policy choices demonstrate a lack of respect for Americans. It shows an obsessive inflexibility to differing opinions. These inflexibilities say that we know what is good for you, and we are going to tell you how you need to live.

 

What makes all this so insidious is that these republicans pretend that they own the higher moral ground, and that Americans are too childlike to understand these positions, therefore, don’t worry we’ll take care of you because we know best. Their arrogance is galling to say the least.

Cheating Death

We are always looking for ways to cheat death. Is sounds so preposterous, but it is so true. There are these clinics that advertise a way to gain that youthful body or feeling or some cosmetics that will eliminate those eye wrinkles.

What is the point of cosmetic surgery if it is not there to trick us into thinking that death is not inching up on us one day at the time? For me, hitting the age of 50 sent me spiraling down the death path. My morality came into full play. I had been fighting my afib for six years and knew that my life was going to end. I was obsessed with thinking and talking about. Saying things like, “I have 20 years to go (16 today) to reach 70. Everything after that is gravy.

My father died 10 years ago this August and I need to beat his 64 years. We always competed against each other through the years and there were times I bested him and he bested me, but in this matter no one gets the best of it.  We all die. I read about death daily be it a war story or a shooting in the US.

I have not come to terms with the idea that my conscious will just cease to exist. I have seen death up close and personal. Something happens to the body when the heart stops beating whether it is a pet or your parent.

Intellectually, l understand the concept of the universe existing for billions of years, however, it makes no sense in that we are here for a blink of a cosmic eye. The fantasy of heaven or the idea of reincarnation are meaningless in light that we just stop. It seems silly to worry about the inevitable, but I do.

I cheat death by taking a hand full of pills to keep my heart beating properly and my blood pressure in a normal range. I have changed my diet to deal with other potential problems. I don’t want to end up like my father fighting my weight as he did. I fight it and my impulse to eat beyond satiation.

All this writing is based on the idea that time is short. The same goes for traveling. I want to see more of the world. There is no way to see it all. I love seeing all the different pieces beyond my tiny corner of the globe. I have a partner that forces me out of comfort zone and that is a compelling reason to stretch yourself.

Letting fear rule decisions has been a big problem in my life. It has led to choices that may have stifled my dreams. I don’t really know how true that last idea is, but I do know that I have lived a life that for the most part I am proud. Oh, I have some moments that make me cringe to think about but who doesn’t? There are times I have been a real jerk. Who hasn’t? I work really hard to keep those to a minimum today. Not so much in my past.

I what are people going to say when you are gone? I know there are people that will miss me and others that won’t give a shit and others that I have harmed will be glad. Those are the ones that hurt the most. I regret doing harm to people in my past. Some of them still haunt me. They are the demons that drive me to be a better man, father, husband or friend. I need to work on these aspects every day.

Bon voyage. You get to find your own way to the inevitable. I am still searching for mine as well as coming to terms with my own humanity.

Addicted to Violence

America is addicted to violence.  Look around you and see if you think this is true.  Which movies are the highest grossing of all time?  How many weapons have been purchased by Americans in the past 100 years?  In the past 50 years, what are the highest selling weapons?  What is our favorite sport?  What is the highest grossing sport in America?  FOOTBALL. When you think of soccer, is it the carefree sport that you remember with beautiful passing and scoring, or is it the head butt by the French in the 2010 World Cup?  Maybe you think about the hooligans that travel with their teams and start fights in the stands. People go to car races to see them crash.

Violence is the driving force all over the world.  I don’t care where you were born or raised.  Violence rules the world we live, and people seek recognition for their ability to used violence to their advantage be it in the octagon or the ring or in the bar. The Middle East is on fire and violence is the name of the game. Violence is used to control societies in which the state has failed to protect its citizens.

You look around the world and the most violent run many of the governments.  They use others to carry out their violence. It matters not.  Violence begets violence and it is rewarded with power.  We celebrated the assassination of Osama Bin Laden.  We filled the streets with thousands of cheering fans of this violent end to a man who believed power emanated from the violence he was able to inflict on those that opposed him.

All societies believe in an eye for an eye.  If you look around our country, you will see violent hate groups ready to strike and attack at the heart of our government.  The most vocal of these violent hate groups is the leaders of the NRA.  It will always be their way or the highway.

They do not care how many people are killed with their weapons as long as there are 10 more people ready to purchase their products.  They do not care about mass murders or any data that demonstrates the dangers of their products.  They are an organization that uses irrational arguments to press their agenda and their members parrot this irrationality in the press and throughout social media.  They use coercion through fear to press forward.  The NRA loves violence because it sells their product. 

As a nation we love violence as long as it does not hit too close to home.  Most Americans did not even think about the assault weapons or high capacity magazine ban until Denver and Connecticut.   Ten years ago, after my father died, I sold all his assault weapons and used the proceeds to buy a motorcycle.  I did not want to have anything to do with them.  They bothered me.  I still own a 12 gage Remington 870 and 30-06 Winchester if I ever go hunting again, and I just purchased a Taurus 605 revolver for target shooting. I am not just some left-wing wackadoodle attacking gun owners.

 There may be reasonable people out there that own weapons of mass murder e.g. AR 15 or AK 47 derivatives with high capacity magazines, but there is no reason to have them.  They are meant to kill other humans.  Watch the movies or video games and see how these weapons are depicted. Or check out videos where ballistic jelly is used to simulate the human body and head and tell me these weapons aren’t meant to kill people. Don’t watch some bogus firing range demonstration using paper.  Watch film from Vietnam; they work really well.  I am not going to change anyone’s attitude about these weapons because we do not buy them based on anything but an emotion response. 

We love the violence that these weapons produce when we unleash their awesomeness.  It has nothing to do with the Second Amendment.  Join the National Guard if you want to support the Second Amendment, then, you can be trained to shoot a government issued AR15, and you will provide a much needed service to our country. 

I want to reiterate that American is not the most violent country in the world.  We are addicted to violence.  We avert our eyes when it kills our young especially when the young are not white suburbanites.  When Americans are killed at a rate of 100 a week, you would think that we were in a war zone and outrage would rule the land. The only outrage is from gun owners ready to take up arms.

Get out your check books or credit cards and head down to the gun range, the gun store or a pawnshop and pick yourself up a weapon of mass murder.  Use it in good conscience.  Go out with your buddies and pull off a few rounds.  Teach you husband or your wife how it is done.  Teach your kids.  My dad taught me. My nephew loves to take out his AR and rip it up.  Just don’t tell me Americans aren’t in love with violence.  It is an American right we like to call the 2^nd Amendment. 

Worshipping at the Altar of Duplicity

Duplicity is the act of deceiving for personal gain, i.e. politics. We live in a world in which personal gain is of utter importance when running a political campaign. In fact, politicians now have their own television and radio stations that are willing to deceive for them as a means of perverting and distorting the truth. It is money and power that drives all these players.

You know that you are in for trouble when you hear the words the “No Spin Zone or Fair and Balance”. If you have to advertise these position then it goes without saying that you have created the exact opposite of what you are preaching. How do I know this? The correct name for North Korea is the Democratic People's Republic of Korea? You see what I’m getting at? No, then I can’t help you because you have drunk the Kool-Aide. An obscure reference for some. Use Bing or Google and see what it is all about.

 

I am sick of politicians and talking-heads who are so enamored by their own voice speaking up for the rest of us. I am also tired of their hubris that seems to think they are the be all and end all for the world as they see it. We are to take their word as gospel and there are for too many people who worship at the altar of duplicity.

It is sickening to think that many Americans are unable to think for themselves, and that the hate and specious arguments being used on our airways is helping to crack the foundation of democracy. A bit of hyperbole? No at all. The second Amendment dispute is a perfect example. There are no rights in the constitution that are unfettered.  They all embody imitations, however, in the eyes of many the Second Amendment has no limitations. This is completely absurd.

To retain its singular purpose which was to have a militia to protect us from foreign and domestic enemies is no longer applicable. A well-regulated militia is an anachronism. It is a relic of the past that can no longer apply in our world. Your AK-47 is of no use against an Abrams tank or a drone strike or a cruise missile. Ask al Qaeda how they feel about the weapons that have decimated their leadership.

Our friends that like to play army on the weekends have no idea what they would be up against if they tried to start an armed revolution. I want you to know none of those armed militias speak for me. I have no desire to have some jackalope decide that our government is so corrupt that it must be destroyed in the name of some form of perverted freedom when they refused to recognize the freedoms they have at act like petulant children.

It is kind of like the folks that what to mix government and religion. There is no reference to any religion in the Constitution. Now, the Federalist Papers is another matter, but we disposed of those ideas with the ratification of the Constitution. There is no need to have a prayer before a government meeting unless you are going to pray and recognize all the religions that are practiced here in the United States. I don’t see that happening anytime soon because those who want to pray are of some warped Christian mindset that is intolerant of other belief systems.

Myopia is a strange disease of these Christians. They seem unable to see beyond the end of their noses, and they want to impose their brand of religion on the rest of us. That is the antithesis of the Constitution. It is not what the founders fought and died for over 240 years ago. It is time that these people be called out for their duplicity in the public arena. Their self-interest and hubris is not in the best interest of the country. They are tearing the country apart with their partisan and hate filled speech disguised as being reasonable and inclusive.

Do not be fooled by their phony sentimentality or their seemingly home spun tales. Deep down they are after the soul of America. They want to drive home their point of view and make it the point of view of America. They are unreasonable people that want you to bend to their will and believe that diverse opinions are harmful and show weakness. Our strength as a country only comes from diversity of thought and opinion in which a compromise is met that leaves each party dissatisfied as to the outcome. We have forgotten this idea in the early 21^st Century.

Rick Santorum Calls for an Anti-abortionist Jihad

There are crazy people that do crazy things in this world that make us all feel uncomfortable. Thank God there is Rick Santorum to act as comic relief. He can take the sting out of any serious situation with his mind numbing logic. Give it up for Rick. In this case there is no comic relief.  He compares at one point in his speech to the anti-abortion group Students for Life, the American Revolution to the fight to deny safe and effective abortions to American women, and goes on to say that anti-abortion activists are not willing to sacrifice enough for the cause.

After reading Rick’s comments to Students for Life. I really don’t know what to say. I am dumbstruck as to the point of his speech. I guess that he wants to say is that anti-abortion activists are not willing to sacrifice for the cause like pro-abortion activists. What kind of sacrifice is he looking for?

Does he want the aforementioned group of students to engage in acts of violence? Anti-abortion activists have used terroristic tactics and bombed clinics, thus, gone to jail for their actions. Looks like some sacrificed a lot. I have not heard of any pro-abortion groups carrying out such tactics.

Maybe Rick wants these student to go a step further and kill an abortion provider in their church. That murdering terrorist sacrificed his freedom for the rest of his natural life. In Rick’s eyes this must not be a sacrifice. Murdering a fellow human being must be okay as long as the person doing it feels as if they are acting on behalf of the unborn.

Truly, what are the sacrifices Rick wants these young people to make? It is not clear to me what he is after. More than that, I am extremely disturbed by his speech. Maybe he is calling for an all-out holy war against the pro-abortion antichrists. It sounds to me like a Christian jihad. Have the Crusades not been over for a few hundred years? Not in the eyes of these inflexible, intolerant Christian extremists.

His speech says all the wrong things to young people today. It is full of hate and venom. It demonstrates the intolerance and arrogance that spews from the mouths of Limbaugh, Hannity and Savage. It is full of lies and deceits that all these characters play off as absolute truths, which are never to be questioned.

Therein lies my disgust. It is playing on emotions by twisting the truth to fit a personal belief system. Both the left and the right do this all the time. There is no one side that has the corner on this market, however, the right shouts louder and pushes harder, and the one time that the left pushes back, (the Texas filibuster) the right gets all whiny about the behaviors.

There are plenty of examples of the hypocritical stance the right like to take in regards to the left. When a man in Florida spews lies about our president and the congresswoman allows it to stand, I can only shake my head stunned. Is it that she believes the lies or is it that being reelected is so important that she perpetuated the lie through an act of omission or commission? Your guess is as good as mine.

So, Rick, what do you really want from these children? What actions do they need to do to prove to you they care enough? The Muslim extremist expect children and adults to carry out act of terrorism and sacrifice their lives. Look at Boston. Is this what you want? Do these children need to carry out your unholy war? Are they the fodder for your extremist views that you want to foist on the rest of society?

These republicans in power believe as you do that government can force the general public to bend to their will. They have gerrymandered their districts so that they are bulletproof, for now, but you are helping to kill the republican chances of gaining any national offices. I return to my opening question, “What are these young people to take away from your speech in July?”

Republican Welfare

As usual the Republican House has found a way to save 40 billion dollars. They are going to steal it from the mouths of American children. What a shock. These children can’t vote and many of their parents do not vote. Moreover, these parents do not contribute to federal election campaigns for Republicans or Democrats so they make up a silent minority that is struggling to make ends meet, therefore, does not have the ability to buy protection from congress unlike American corporations.

From the Republican perspective, if you aren’t a large corporate donor, then, your needs are of no concern for them. They must make sure that the money keeps rolling in to their campaign coffers, and any welfare benefits must go to the highest bidder like the Koch brothers or big oil or big pharma or corporate farms. These people need the American taxpayers’ largess not those welfare frauds making minimum wages or less.

The House Majority leader Eric Cantor is leading the charge. The man who has grown up with a silver spoon in his mouth has no ability to empathize with people working for minimum wage. He is also leading the charge against the Affordable Care (Obamacare) because the taxpayers will be asked to again help the most vulnerable with their healthcare and corporations will be required to provide healthcare options for their workers, which is a travesty for American corporations.

Why should all Americans have the option of having healthcare? Why should corporations be forced to cut into their shareholders profits take care of their workers? That is a bunch of hogwash. On top of that, members of congress and their staff will be required to get healthcare like the rest of the country. That is a ridiculous situation for a member of congress and their staffs. I mean you get elected to one term in congress and you have retirement and healthcare for life no matter your age there is no need for a change. Hell of a gig. Who would ever want to give up that gig?

I only wish that someone would calculate what we are paying in healthcare and retirement benefit to former members of the House and Senate. People would be outraged by the number especially when these members are getting outrageous salaries from lobbying firms and such on top of their retirement pay. Remember that former members of congress get free healthcare upon retirement be it forced through the election process or not.

This sickens me as a teacher as I think about their perks in regards to some of my students that do not have enough to eat. From these republicans we hear, “These kids and their parents are ripping of the government and need to be punished for their poor choices.” What they are saying is that if you are rich and powerful you can rip off the American taxpayer, but if you are struggling to make ends meet, it is your fault and the government is going to punish you. The moral of the story is make sure you are rich before you try to get government benefits.

I think that there is an inscription on the Statue of Liberty that goes something like, “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore…” Not in Republican world. They will only reward those that do compensate them monetarily and to hell with everyone else so says Eric Cantor and the rest of his sycophants.

At what point are the American people going to stand up and say enough? Enough of corporate greed? Enough of the attacks on unions? Enough of the attacks on the weakest? I don’t know? I wish that there would be a concerted effort to go after these people that are against women’s reproductive rights and food stamps, yet for billions in corporate welfare. These want women and men to always remember that very pregnancy needs to go to full term no matter the consequences and once you are born the protections stop.

The Republican motto should be: “It is a dog eat dog world, good luck. Take care of yourself because the government could less about you until you have enough money to buy yourself a congressman or woman and/or a Senator.” Mitt and his minions can tell you all about this.