Originally posted by MY2Commoncentsworth
reply to post by NoHierarchy
Look, I'm getting up there in age, but I'm still relatively young. I've worked my butt off to get to the point where I'm at today. I'm still poor
by anybody's standards, in many respects. But I am poised to start another sub chapter S Corporation that will allow me to work even harder to
finally make enough money to actually take a vacation if I wanted too.
Am I evil because I want to work and make an honest living? What do you have against rich people and Corporations? If it weren't for rich people and
Corporations, I wouldn't be in a position to be able to earn any kind of descent money. Why do you want to tear everything down?
You seem like a smart guy. Why don't to direct your talent towards making a living doing what you really want to do. What do you want from me? 90% of
my income? I am the one who wants to work, take the risks, and reap the rewards. You should really take a closer look at yourself.
You're asking the wrong questions, man. I don't blame people for wanting to make a decent living, I don't blame people for wanting to be rich, I
don't blame people for enjoying being rich. HOWEVER, I do blame a system for only allowing a SMALL number of people into the good old boys club. I DO
blame a society which rewards people most for random/arbitrary reasons and leaves people in the dust who are hard working, intelligent, ethical/moral,
and honest. I see a society where PLENTY of people work their ASSES off day in and day out only to have their pensions stripped from them by
companies/CEOs who'd rather not shave their own bonus packages, these people have their homes taken away by banks, their rights/dignity taken away by
employers, government and police, people are then fed all this self-help BS that essentially tells them to stop whining about it, that their problems
are either an illusion or that they brought it upon themselves. I DONT BUY THAT SNAKE OIL. There is a seriously DISGUSTING culture in this country of
blaming the victim for their troubles, especially economic ones. However, we're no different than at any other time in civilization's history- there
is only room for a few at the top, the rest of society must labor and slave away to serve the desires of the few at the top. I see a society where the
wealth, privileges, and enjoyment of a few are taken from the backs of the many. I see a society where the many are penalized for being poor, where
cops bust poor peoples' chops and protect the property/safety/peace of the rich far more than the poor. I see rampant nationalism and militarism. I
see a world that is being decimated ecologically by our lifestyles, habits, and consumption. I see a society of top-down tyranny, no matter how much
or little, where authority figures reign no matter if they or their actions are illegitimate. I see a society where EVEN PEOPLE who walk the straight
and narrow don't GET that benefit of the doubt from the system and are told to just suck it up, take their licks and follow the rules when they get
screwed over.... better luck next time. I see a society where, despite its wonders, marvels, and benefits, is still increasingly about choosing the
lesser evil. Most of all... we're living unsustainably. It tears me up to think about how many species we're destroying, how many ANCIENT habitats
we're leveling so that we can play f*cking video games, drive to crap jobs, watch sports on giant tvs, wipe our asses with old-growth forests, wage
large-scale wars, build endless expanses of commercial/industrial parks, suburban housing developments, roads, the list goes on. It tears me up to
think of how many hundreds or thousands of ancient cultures have been killed off and destroyed forever in the name of conquest, whether it was for
land, resources, religion, domination, racism, manifest destiny... I've woken up to it and there's no way I can shrug it off.
We live in a society of a MASSIVE CON-JOB. Right now, average (and I'm sorry to say- politically clueless) citizens are being whipped up into a
frenzy on the right-wing, being propagandized and fed disinformation about immigrants, freedom, Muslims, healthcare, regulations, and so on by rich
elites who have been CONTROLLING the game all along. I see ONE tyrannical entity (Capitalism) trying to paint itself as a freedom movement (when it's
NOT) and perverting Libertarianism (which was originally left-wing Anarchism) to enact de-regulation for their businesses. Since they already have the
power/wealth/monopoly on markets and our government, de-regulation will only seal our fate into a quasi-fascist plutocracy. I'm pissed off and lost
and I'm trying to find my way out, man. I personally WANT to make a decent living. I'm young and I am having a really tough time trying to figure
out just how the f*ck to live a life of morals/ethics while ALSO making a good living and NOT destroying the environment. That doesn't leave me with
any obvious options, at least not easy options. In fact, it's going to be harder for me to make a living with such constraints because I want to do
it ethically/conscientiously AND while we're facing economic downturns (and possibly collapse). And no I will NOT blame myself for that... of course
I'm not going to surrender and take no for an answer, I have and will work hard and persistently to gain success in my life, but I'm not going to
pretend for one second that there aren't SERIOUS flaws in the system which actually do impede my progress and may even prevent it altogether, it
happens to so many people. For every success story there are a thousand failure stories.
Bottom line is- the people don't HAVE to be evil in a system which is already evil itself. All people have to do is participate and they're already
sold into the game. And that's what we've got... a giant game, a very dangerous one, and it's not making people (or ecosystems) all that happy. I
don't have all the answers... we may be screwed for all I know. BUT I won't stop talking to people about it. I want more people to be aware, I've
seen people wake up and become more conscientious. I believe change is inevitable so we might as well make it the best changes possible and not leave
it to chance or momentum.
Sorry... I went off on a tangent... but I felt I needed to more deeply explain where I'm comin from.
