Don't let people ever take advantage of you. At your place of employment, this type of thing happens all the time--you are always being used, by the Assistant Manager, the Store Manager, the District Manager, the head boss, etc. etc.
To most bosses (and this is one of the sharpened, venom-soaked fangs of capitalism) you are not a person. You are merely another tool, like the cash-register you ring people up at, or the factory switchboard you watch over. Most bosses will outwardly appear like they care about you as a person, but in truth, most have major ego problems, getting their rocks off by greedily holding on to the kernel of power that they were given by some smarmy corporate piece of trash.
Yeah, that plastic name-badge and title make you a better person than me, Mr. Manager.
That whole "office politics" bullshit just makes me sick. The idea that you have to stand and take the fact that people talk behind your back and are a detriment to your work because of personal grudges etc. is ridiculous. Whatever your problems are with me, don't abuse the position you were given to mess with me. In the long run, you're coveting a title given to you only to further ingrain the hierarchy of the workplace into your mindset. With your promotion to manager, you are not more "free" than the cashier. In fact, you are only chained down further, because you are accepting your new role, and this new role will only open you up to further subjugation from the higher-ups. the further you climb the "corporate ladder," the stronger your chains become.
This is Marxian but meaningful;
Until the proletariat is recognized as an individual, he will merely work linearly, like a tool.
People are not tools, people are people. How many Assistant Managers forget this and treat their underlings like slaves? How many people are dissatisfied with their place of employment mostly because of the way they are treated, like disposables?
I'm guessing its more people than just me....
We are not tools. Don't ever forget this, no matter how hard the machine trys to impress the idea upon you.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Friday, November 21, 2008
Piracy Today
Somewhere (probably CNN or MSNBC), I caught wind of what has been happening on the coastal seas of Western and Southern Africa lately. Pirates armed with machine guns and riding speed-boats have been forcibly commandeering everything from fishing boats to oil-tankers, taking the goods and then holding the crew for ransom.
One band of Pirates stole over a million gallons of Saudi-Arabian sweet, crude oil. Another band (possibly associated with the other ones??) made off into the jungle with seven military tanks.
Because Africa is in such despicable condition (infighting, tin-horn dictators, genocide, racism, etc. etc.) I could almost justify and at least sympathize if these pirates were robbing food-freighters or making off with raw materials so that they might construct buildings to live in, not shacks made of corrugated steel. But, this is not the case. I KNOW that everything being stolen off these boats is going to feed another war-machine, another dictator, or another "revolutionary" war. That is what is most disheartening. The same thing goes for the money accrued from the ransoms--it will buy missiles, bullets and guns, not anything useful for the increase of the standard of living.
Africa is in need of help from those of us who have so much, regardless of where we live. We forget the continual plight of a people literally ravaged by constant violence. They need food, medicine and education.
I constantly ask myself why we spend billions and billions of dollars monthly trying to militantly democratize Iraq, when this money could feed the hungry in Africa, or go to building a local hospital (or at least go to help feeding the poor and destitute in our own country!).
Piracy is extreme, but I stand by the fact that:
Reacting abnormally to abnormal situations is normal.
I think that the situation in Africa is completely abnormal, and things like piracy and genocide, while terrifying, can only be expected in a nation, a literal world, that everyone seems to forget about.
It is a very depressing reality.
One band of Pirates stole over a million gallons of Saudi-Arabian sweet, crude oil. Another band (possibly associated with the other ones??) made off into the jungle with seven military tanks.
Because Africa is in such despicable condition (infighting, tin-horn dictators, genocide, racism, etc. etc.) I could almost justify and at least sympathize if these pirates were robbing food-freighters or making off with raw materials so that they might construct buildings to live in, not shacks made of corrugated steel. But, this is not the case. I KNOW that everything being stolen off these boats is going to feed another war-machine, another dictator, or another "revolutionary" war. That is what is most disheartening. The same thing goes for the money accrued from the ransoms--it will buy missiles, bullets and guns, not anything useful for the increase of the standard of living.
Africa is in need of help from those of us who have so much, regardless of where we live. We forget the continual plight of a people literally ravaged by constant violence. They need food, medicine and education.
I constantly ask myself why we spend billions and billions of dollars monthly trying to militantly democratize Iraq, when this money could feed the hungry in Africa, or go to building a local hospital (or at least go to help feeding the poor and destitute in our own country!).
Piracy is extreme, but I stand by the fact that:
Reacting abnormally to abnormal situations is normal.
I think that the situation in Africa is completely abnormal, and things like piracy and genocide, while terrifying, can only be expected in a nation, a literal world, that everyone seems to forget about.
It is a very depressing reality.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
I Don't Know
I don't know what to write about tonight. I am a little grumpy and very lethargic, and my mind seems slowed down, like the gears that usually spin up there are trying to mesh through honey or something...
Whatever, that's a strange analogy but....
I sometimes have such an outpouring of ideas and thought and creativity that I can barely contain, and I feel the need to write some of it down, in case it might be useful for reflection or introspection. A big part of my reason for starting this blog was simply self-fulfilling--I get to keep my ideas in order in a more structured, less personal diary. After that fact, if anyone can glean anything useful from my posts, great. I'd love to hear from you!
But, as to the point of this post (there really isn't one), sometimes I get caught in a creative quicksand, getting slowed down and burnt-out. Thankfully, one of my better characteristics is the fact that I usually spring out of these lulls quickly. Rest assured though, when I'm going through them they can suck.
So, to anyone out there in cyberspace who may or may not have glanced over these pages on this little blog, gimme a day or three to organize some of my thoughts. Some new topics I would like to get to sooner rather than later include:
And much more! I'll stop being lazy soon enough, and get something put out there, because creation is the most divine thing that I have ever experienced or witnessed, and I ahve a profound respect for it.
--Wrench--
Whatever, that's a strange analogy but....
I sometimes have such an outpouring of ideas and thought and creativity that I can barely contain, and I feel the need to write some of it down, in case it might be useful for reflection or introspection. A big part of my reason for starting this blog was simply self-fulfilling--I get to keep my ideas in order in a more structured, less personal diary. After that fact, if anyone can glean anything useful from my posts, great. I'd love to hear from you!
But, as to the point of this post (there really isn't one), sometimes I get caught in a creative quicksand, getting slowed down and burnt-out. Thankfully, one of my better characteristics is the fact that I usually spring out of these lulls quickly. Rest assured though, when I'm going through them they can suck.
So, to anyone out there in cyberspace who may or may not have glanced over these pages on this little blog, gimme a day or three to organize some of my thoughts. Some new topics I would like to get to sooner rather than later include:
- The Somalian Pirates
- Obama and What he Means to the Anarchist
- The Importance of Thinking
- Censorship
- Gun Control
- How Crime is Economically Preventable
And much more! I'll stop being lazy soon enough, and get something put out there, because creation is the most divine thing that I have ever experienced or witnessed, and I ahve a profound respect for it.
--Wrench--
Finding Meaning in my Shoes
Worn and torn, what once was so white,
Ragged now, they seem to spite me.
Fraying Doc Martens and sole-less Nikes,
The chords that bind them twist like lightning.
Those venerable boots, worn with time,
Tell a story much akin to mine.
Once unblemished and factory new,
They now define me,
My good old shoes.
?
Ragged now, they seem to spite me.
Fraying Doc Martens and sole-less Nikes,
The chords that bind them twist like lightning.
Those venerable boots, worn with time,
Tell a story much akin to mine.
Once unblemished and factory new,
They now define me,
My good old shoes.
?
Monday, November 17, 2008
Some things on Religion and other Thoughts
In this time of religious infighting and external "spiritual conflict," I have a hard time picking my favorite bed-time story to make me feel better about myself.
All joking aside, though, I am not an Atheist. In fact, philosophically, I view the Atheistic viewpoint to be fallacious. This is due to the fact that things in the world are not objective, but in fact far more subjective, and atheism is one side of people adhering to all-or-nothing ideas of things. Things in the world are not bivalent but multivalent. Remember always that there is an infinite space between 0 and 1. Things in the real world are not nearly as concise as symbolic logic and binary systems would make them appear. Philosophers can (and probably will) obsess over ultimate truths, and try to define them or ascribe properties to them for a long time to come, and this is OK. It is a noble endeavor, and I would never try to suppress the thinker that would want to examine their possibility. However, I believe that things are never as simple as black and white, or 0 and 1 (at least none that I have seen). Because of this, I reject both the ideas of Atheism and Fundamentalist/Evangelical Religion (not limited to Christianity, keep in mind). In short:
There is nothing more annoying than someone who will never concede that they MIGHT be wrong.
Because I believe that absolutes don't exist, I must reject both extremes of the spiritual scale. The Secular and Religious must come together and cooperate. Working together, I believe that they might create some better hypotheses than, "God made all and rules over men," or, "Our universe is the result of a cosmic fart, all chance and no grace."
But, I digress--
The point of this post was to talk about religion, and why some religious teachings and "mythologies" seem to be repressed simply because of their simplicity or (what we deem) their "fantastical" nature. My point is:
Why are Jainism and Druidism and Paganism seen as fanciful concepts, when we believe ourselves that the most powerful, omnipotent, omnipresent being ever would routinely talk to people in the Old Testament?
Why is praying to nature "crazier" than believing a mortal man was the son of God, the most powerful being we could even fathom?
And, to put it bluntly, why the hell do we discriminate about it...
Ok, the fact is, I don't know for sure, and neither do you. You can't know for sure that there is something else out there. You can't tell me with certainty that God exists or doesn't. And I can't tell you that. We are all professing beliefs, and we are all pushing opinions.
That's nothing to kill or be killed over.
All joking aside, though, I am not an Atheist. In fact, philosophically, I view the Atheistic viewpoint to be fallacious. This is due to the fact that things in the world are not objective, but in fact far more subjective, and atheism is one side of people adhering to all-or-nothing ideas of things. Things in the world are not bivalent but multivalent. Remember always that there is an infinite space between 0 and 1. Things in the real world are not nearly as concise as symbolic logic and binary systems would make them appear. Philosophers can (and probably will) obsess over ultimate truths, and try to define them or ascribe properties to them for a long time to come, and this is OK. It is a noble endeavor, and I would never try to suppress the thinker that would want to examine their possibility. However, I believe that things are never as simple as black and white, or 0 and 1 (at least none that I have seen). Because of this, I reject both the ideas of Atheism and Fundamentalist/Evangelical Religion (not limited to Christianity, keep in mind). In short:
There is nothing more annoying than someone who will never concede that they MIGHT be wrong.
Because I believe that absolutes don't exist, I must reject both extremes of the spiritual scale. The Secular and Religious must come together and cooperate. Working together, I believe that they might create some better hypotheses than, "God made all and rules over men," or, "Our universe is the result of a cosmic fart, all chance and no grace."
But, I digress--
The point of this post was to talk about religion, and why some religious teachings and "mythologies" seem to be repressed simply because of their simplicity or (what we deem) their "fantastical" nature. My point is:
Why are Jainism and Druidism and Paganism seen as fanciful concepts, when we believe ourselves that the most powerful, omnipotent, omnipresent being ever would routinely talk to people in the Old Testament?
Why is praying to nature "crazier" than believing a mortal man was the son of God, the most powerful being we could even fathom?
And, to put it bluntly, why the hell do we discriminate about it...
Ok, the fact is, I don't know for sure, and neither do you. You can't know for sure that there is something else out there. You can't tell me with certainty that God exists or doesn't. And I can't tell you that. We are all professing beliefs, and we are all pushing opinions.
That's nothing to kill or be killed over.
Friday, November 14, 2008
Authority
I profess the belief that authority is responsible for most of the social problems in the world today. My definition of authority is, "The coercion by force or threat of people who could otherwise make their own decisions regarding their lives." This coercion can be direct or indirect, and can be readily seen or masked under subterfuge.
One place where coercive "authority" can be plainly seen is in the dictatorial regimes dotting Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America. The people there are subjugated to the ruler's will (often forcibly) at all times. Dissent is crushed under a military boot-heel whenever it rears its head, and freedom of speech is at best a false dream. The people are forced to labor for their overlord, who in turn uses this labor to grow even more powerful. The fruits of the common worker's labor are often automatic rifles, bombs and missiles, never the food, medicine, and education that they would need to loosen the grip of their masters and free themselves.
But, authority does not just reside in other continents--it is easy to see in the United States as well. A country founded by those who disdained any authority (Who we would today label as radical leftist Anarchists and Libertarians) has evolved into a State that mongers repression of the self and a lack of the freedoms that men died for in droves two-and-a-half centuries ago.
The gap between the poor and the rich continues to grow, with the "middle class" scrambling to regain a grip where they now reside. They desperately resist being sucked down into the "Lower Class" but it becomes more of a reality every day.
The class system (being labelled as "lower, middle" etc.) is an acid that dissolves away personal worth, making people believe that they are worth less than they are. People become inhuman, they become meat graded on its ability to feed the slavering jaws of politicians and businessmen. The laborers become nothing but another piece of machinery (See Marx), to be used and abused by the Capitalists who, in their greed, refuse to recognize workers as human. This class system was an invention of the Capitalists to keep the common man under his thumb. This devaluing of the self is one potent weapon that the corporations and government use to make us assume that there is nothing better in the world for us than laboring for them.
The rights that were once deemed absolute now can be dismissed with political misdirection and red-herring arguments. Freedom of Speech is limited in the respect that I have to adhere to certain rules when writing. NO HUMAN CAN REACH THE LIMITS OF HIS/HER ABILITY WHILE CHAINED TO THE GROUND. The adherences of convention, the ideas of obscenity and heresy are all inventions of those who would rather have people not express themselves to a fuller extent. Freedom of the Press is trampled with the amount of political manipulation that seeps into the media, warping what we need to know--FACTS. HUMANS CAN NOT BE EXPECTED TO MAKE A DEMOCRACY WORK WITHOUT UNBIASED INFORMATION THAT DETAILS THE FACTS OF CURRENT EVENTS. Freedom of Religion is sleighted when the Muslim endures torment among Americans, when the Jew is reviled by the ignorant, when the atheist is shunned by the believers. YOU CANNOT MANDATE PEOPLE TO BELIEVE OR DISBELIEVE.
The idea behind "rights" is that we are meant to believe that we were given them. We were not. We were born as humans , born out of the control of authority, and though we were indoctrinated into it early, we were never given rights, never granted them.
We were born with freedom, though some may have forgotten it.
One place where coercive "authority" can be plainly seen is in the dictatorial regimes dotting Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America. The people there are subjugated to the ruler's will (often forcibly) at all times. Dissent is crushed under a military boot-heel whenever it rears its head, and freedom of speech is at best a false dream. The people are forced to labor for their overlord, who in turn uses this labor to grow even more powerful. The fruits of the common worker's labor are often automatic rifles, bombs and missiles, never the food, medicine, and education that they would need to loosen the grip of their masters and free themselves.
But, authority does not just reside in other continents--it is easy to see in the United States as well. A country founded by those who disdained any authority (Who we would today label as radical leftist Anarchists and Libertarians) has evolved into a State that mongers repression of the self and a lack of the freedoms that men died for in droves two-and-a-half centuries ago.
The gap between the poor and the rich continues to grow, with the "middle class" scrambling to regain a grip where they now reside. They desperately resist being sucked down into the "Lower Class" but it becomes more of a reality every day.
The class system (being labelled as "lower, middle" etc.) is an acid that dissolves away personal worth, making people believe that they are worth less than they are. People become inhuman, they become meat graded on its ability to feed the slavering jaws of politicians and businessmen. The laborers become nothing but another piece of machinery (See Marx), to be used and abused by the Capitalists who, in their greed, refuse to recognize workers as human. This class system was an invention of the Capitalists to keep the common man under his thumb. This devaluing of the self is one potent weapon that the corporations and government use to make us assume that there is nothing better in the world for us than laboring for them.
The rights that were once deemed absolute now can be dismissed with political misdirection and red-herring arguments. Freedom of Speech is limited in the respect that I have to adhere to certain rules when writing. NO HUMAN CAN REACH THE LIMITS OF HIS/HER ABILITY WHILE CHAINED TO THE GROUND. The adherences of convention, the ideas of obscenity and heresy are all inventions of those who would rather have people not express themselves to a fuller extent. Freedom of the Press is trampled with the amount of political manipulation that seeps into the media, warping what we need to know--FACTS. HUMANS CAN NOT BE EXPECTED TO MAKE A DEMOCRACY WORK WITHOUT UNBIASED INFORMATION THAT DETAILS THE FACTS OF CURRENT EVENTS. Freedom of Religion is sleighted when the Muslim endures torment among Americans, when the Jew is reviled by the ignorant, when the atheist is shunned by the believers. YOU CANNOT MANDATE PEOPLE TO BELIEVE OR DISBELIEVE.
The idea behind "rights" is that we are meant to believe that we were given them. We were not. We were born as humans , born out of the control of authority, and though we were indoctrinated into it early, we were never given rights, never granted them.
We were born with freedom, though some may have forgotten it.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
First Post
This is my first post on this blog. I had the idea for a long time to get something put together like this, but it remained dormant until I actually willed myself to do it.
In here you will find pretty much anything on my mind. I am prone to introspection and over-analyzing things, so know that before you begin reading...
Discussion is the pinnacle of human intelligence. I love to talk and debate with people. Please don't hesitate to say whatever you want to say. I find that even when meeting people that are polar-opposites of me in my thinking, I can always find at least a grain of new knowledge in every discussion, and that's why I indulge in it so often!
--Wrench
In here you will find pretty much anything on my mind. I am prone to introspection and over-analyzing things, so know that before you begin reading...
Discussion is the pinnacle of human intelligence. I love to talk and debate with people. Please don't hesitate to say whatever you want to say. I find that even when meeting people that are polar-opposites of me in my thinking, I can always find at least a grain of new knowledge in every discussion, and that's why I indulge in it so often!
--Wrench
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