Tuesday, January 30, 2018 10:07 PM
Some Sucky Spots (2018Jan30)
Conservatives give me a pain. They distort the Bible in the same way they distort the Founding Documents—politicizing the extremist viewpoints to sway public opinion, and equating it with Christian decency—just as they wave the Second Amendment around as if they believe that guns create a safe environment.
Decent Christians believe that we should love one another as we love ourselves, that we should treat each other as we would be treated. But Americans don’t do that—they put a price tag on everything—especially treats. And while I am no Christian, I have still managed to reach my sixties without ever using a gun—mostly because me and everyone around me had better things to do than play with guns—unless they were in the army or on the police force.
People would describe my area as a ‘nice neighborhood’. I suppose it’s a combination of people being busy and people not having much to tempt a thief. From outside my neighborhood, I imagine it looks privileged—though if you told that to folks here, they’d laugh—to them, ‘privileged’ means a much higher tax bracket.
My neighborhood’s virginity is important to me—if crime ever became commonplace here, I’d have to move away and live in the woods—or something. I fear that every nice neighborhood is vulnerable to hatred-born-of-fear and cruelty-born-of-commerce—any bad actor can pick our little pond to spread ripples in. Without pushback from a cohesive community, such things are not a matter of if, but of when. Such is my paranoia—or community spirit—you decide.
Back to Conservative pains in the butt- Question: If a handful of people own 80% of the wealth, with income-inequality and concentration-of-wealth steadily rising higher, how are we to view Capitalism as a long-term system for anything but the end of civilization? Or try this: If we cut taxes on big business, but raise them on families, so that we can keep pace with the monolithic economies of the undemocratic East, are not our citizens destined for the same autocracy and neglect afforded the people of Ukraine or North Korea?
Capitalism has not aged well—it used to have unlimited potential—endless room to grow—just like America, in its youth. By now, a lot of sediment has slowed the streams of commercial enterprise—once certain needs are filled by certain businesses, it becomes harder to find a new niche. Plus, the scale and interconnectedness of today’s business world makes paradigm changes problematical—so many moving pieces, pole-to-pole, around the globe—even in near-orbit, just above the atmosphere.
Capitalism has forgotten that Christianity is good for business. Once we had solved world hunger and begun educating the world’s children, no one is going to be willing to let that dissolve back into chaos—that’s a steady business for the foreseeable future—a new business with global value. It could pay as much as drug smuggling, once it got started—who can say? But do we fight for a piece of that pie—or do we shout “America First”, like a bunch of clansmen, and let the rest of the world take the lead in emergent economies?
I don’t know about you, voters. A third of you voted for that blowhard whose SOTU address I’m currently not watching—there is no need. Trump may change the details, but his story is pretty consistent: “I don’t take this country seriously and neither should you!—Cash is king!—Fuck you all very much!” Yes, that pretty much covers it—except for the over-the-top racism. (You know he does that so people will mention Hitler—and he can accuse them of hysterics, right?) You folks voted for a douche-bag—come on, admit it. You know you did.
Look, we didn’t know you were that mad, okay? You’re not Democrats, you don’t know how to protest for your own interests—you let some yahoo tell you what you’re mad about—and who to blame it on. But I have been in some sucky spots in my life. I can’t remember a single one I didn’t have to think hard about to get out of—I’ve never gotten out of a bad spot just by being mad.