Piles of Lies
There are so many lies out there. In fact the lie quotient seems to have increased exponentially since the Bush administration stole the presidential election and started turning everything upside down. I think that industry is taking its cues from this government. The more the White House lies about how its programs are doing the opposite of what they really are, the bolder industry gets with its lies to consumers. Reading the news is like reading code -- it requires the ability to read between the lines and expose the lies. In fact looking at the news is nothing but sifting through piles of lies. It makes me very uneasy. I really don't believe anything any more. Which may be part of the reason why I have withdrawn into my suburban hideaway and taken up the accordion.
Recently I realized that all the talk about saving money is baloney. Your average person out there can't save money. It costs so much just to live, and jobs are not plentiful, wages have gone down, and prices of everything are up. Yet we are constantly assailed because we don't save any money. What about the dangerous availability of credit (what I mean here is the problem of financial institutions abusing their ability to generate huge interest profits)? To say nothing of the perils of "investing" in the financial markets -- doesn't anyone remember that we only just discovered those games are rigged? I don't see how I can save money by putting it where I will lose it. While they are beating me up about saving, they are trying as hard as they can to take my money and put it into an "investment." The only person it's a good investment for is the financial institution. Did anyone notice the compensation of the CEO of the NYSE? Obscene.
Your average person is pretty much set up to go into debt from the second they are born. But they don't know it. They believe there is a way to avoid this. That must be why they call it the "American Dream." There's a great ad on TV I keep seeing for a loan. It shows this guy saying, "I live in a beautiful three bedroom house in a nice neighborhood. I drive a brand new car. I belong to the golf club. How do I do it? I'm in debt up to my eyeballs." There you have the truth about the American Dream. On the radio yesterday I heard a story about how someone making minimum wage can't afford decent housing. Not in Mexico -- here. Think of all the other basic expenses a person has to cover. Yet people who don't save are portrayed as slovenly spendthrifts who deserve to be poor in their old age. I think that kind of propaganda is designed to make people more tolerant of poor, suffering old people. To decrease compassion, because we are going to need a nation of compassionless citizens if the Bush mess ends up depriving the boomer generation of its Social Security income. If people can be trained to think of non-savers as deserving of what they get, then the problem can be dismissed without guilt or an attempt to help.
This reminds me of that diatribe I'm always posting a link to and trying to get you to read about the "Cheap Labor Conservative". The economic system is rigged to favor an elite, in conjunction with a government which can be bribed to make laws to allow them both to pick the pockets of the rest of us. One class has a stranglehold over economic resources, and therefore has all the advantages -- yet it still seeks to demoralize the class it buggers by the use of psychological mechanisms. Fundamentalist religion can figure heavily in this. Oh, the world is such a mess it makes my head fall off.
Status report: Virgin of Guadelupe's head still teetering on the edge of body cavity. Also... I put a green apple next to my V of G votive candle, in my bedroom. It's been there for months now, I swear, and has not decomposed or shrivelled up... But don't worry. There is no way I am going to get religion. You should know that by now.
What really set me off this morning was a story about how the New York public schools just took a lot of money from Snapple to get it into the schools. CNN showed a comparison of Snapple vs. Coca Cola in calories and sugar content. Virtually identical. So while we are beating up our kids about how fat they are, we are underfunding our schools to the point that we have to accept sugary foods for our students from ethically challenged corporations in order to keep those schools open. With all the talk lately about obese American children, you would think that an institution like a public school would be trying to look after their best interest. Another set of lies, between the lines, here -- the free market will take care of everything, we don't need education spending, kids can make good choices about the foods they eat, etc. etc. etc. Sifting through it, here. Trying to make sense. Uneasy.
Yesterday's harsh NYT editorial about GWB, 'Presidential Character,' was delicious and powerful. A real pen-whoopin for little Georgie. Bravo to the Times for not pulling any punches. Carry on.
Jumping ahead to other news, my favorite quote of the day -- Arnold Schwarzenegger to the man who egged him: "That guy owes me some bacon, now."
Smile. For a second, anyway.
8:20:04 AM 
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