Recently in random rants Category
del.icio.usThen I read this article. Basically, according to Mr. Carpenter, I am a subhuman freak. On par with prostitutes, pimps, people with mental illness, and ancient tribal people. Frankly, I was offended by what he said. And I'm not offended very easily. While I understand everyone doesn't appreciate or agree with my choices of self-expression (my parents being in that category), it certainly isn't mutilation. And putting the artists in quotes, as to infer that they aren't indeed talented artists? I'd like to see him attempt to draw something with a vibrating pen on a squirming person.
But he can't. But he's too busy making broad judgments. Like assuming that Mike Tyson's face has anything to do with my ink (it doesn't) or that, in his own words, "No one can deny that the heaviest concentrations of tattoos occur in the lowest segments of society -- prostitutes, pimps, pugs, prison inmates, Ku Klux Klansmen and the members of street and motorcycle gangs." (they don't).
So basically, in Mr. Carpenter's world, I'm a freak. And yet, on any given day, Mr. Carpenter would have no idea I'm the kind of person he knows nothing about, yet feels the need to chastise. Heck, he may even think I'm a nice family man. As stated by one of my favorite bands, Good Riddance, "hatred is the stillborn child of ignorance and boredom". Sounds like Mr. Carpenter has too much time on his hands.
Wanna know what’s wrong with us, collectively, as a nation of workers? Let me give you a quick story of the ‘elevator’ incident recently.
I work in the home office of a large financial firm. The ‘campus’ has 4 towers. In each tower, there are employee elevators and service elevators. It’s pretty obvious which ones are which. In my tower specifically, there are 4 employee elevators and 1 service elevator.
Recently, the building management had to put signs up next to the door of the service elevator (on each floor, no less), explaining the purpose of the elevator, and reminding employees that they are supposed to use the regular elevators. Mind you, they aren’t that far away from each other. But the general laziness of people caused them to save themselves the extra 15-20 feet of walking by using the service elevator, thus causing the people that actually needed it to be constantly delayed.
So the signs went up. And the people, seeing these signs, got pissed off! This is a true quote, heard with my own little ears: “I can’t believe they put that up there. Those service guys are a**holes”. Obviously, it was the fault of the service personnel wanting to get their jobs done, not our laziness.
I will say that I used that elevator occasionally. Usually, at the end of the day when there was a group going down, or I knew the regular elevators were out that day. It’s even closer to my office, so I would be saving some time (at least in my mind). But for the most part, I didn’t use it, for that very reason. I respect and appreciate the jobs of the service people, and didn’t want my lack of motivation or laziness to get in the way of them doing their jobs. But most people took it as an insult, as though they were being inconvenienced in some way.
How often do we do that? We, as a people, are self-centered to the core. If it helps me, then it’s important. If it doesn’t, who cares. It’s that mentality that keeps us where we are. Doesn’t matter what generation you’re in. We all take for granted the amount of services, devices, or other items that allow us to be self-centered and, dare I say it, juvenile. Toddlers whine and complain when they don’t get what they want. And we do it, too. Fast food isn’t fast enough. Broadband isn’t fast enough. The list goes on.
I mention this for one reason and one reason only: we live in the most privileged nations in the world, yet we (collectively) are arrogant and uninformed to a level that I can't quite grasp. While we all sit and talk about how to advance our careers, develop methods to have different generations play nice with each other, and scratch out a bit of individualism in an increasingly saline and homogenized world, THAT happens in other places. Places that we (in some manner or another) support, exploit, or just ignore. Especially my own situation: I was a middle to upper class white male born in the suburbs. I essentially won the equivalent of the cosmic lottery. Land of opportunity? For me it was. I had a realistic chance of being whatever I wanted to be when I grew up. Even with all the mistakes I made in my life (and there were many), I have been able to succeed. Someone else making the same mistakes, but not lucky enough to be in my shoes would probably be in prison, or at least dead broke. Certainly not married to a beautiful woman with a fantastic child. Even in our own country, children go hungry on a daily basis. And I'm just as guilty as everyone else.
It's the election season. Since I live in a "swing" state (Florida), I am going to be bombarded with ads, phone calls, polls, and other media showering me with perversely slanted information putting someone in a more or less favorable light. I made a comment to a friend of mine the other day that I would vote "for the person who made me believe they were lying the least". And my friend agreed with me. That's just sad.
Ok. Rant over. Back to choosing art for my office walls while death counts increase somewhere. Happy New Year.
Bill Hicks said it best, so I'll let him say it.
"This is not a war. A war involves TWO armies."
If you keep up with the F*cking Old Xenophobes News Network (FOX for those of who didn't pick up on it. If you can call CNN the "Communist News Network", then I can use this), there is a war on Christmas. A war. As is, "people are getting shot" and "countries are being overtaken". There are books on the subject. People rant on and on about it. When Penelope Trunk writes a blog about how the holiday makes her pissed off (which I agree with on most points), she gets over 100 comments on a single day, with the vast majority calling her mean, rude, etc. and basically telling her to get over it and go with the flow.
Now, I'll preface this by saying that I am not a Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Atheist, Agnostic, or anything else. I believe there is a God, and I believe that I am not it. Beyond that, I couldn't care less. Also, my father is a minister and my mother is Irish Catholic. Both liberals.
Now, with that out of the way, let's get down to business. I have no fundamental problem with Christmas, based on what it really means. It was Christianity's way to import the existing Pagan festivals into the religion. Fine. No problem. And while I don't like the idea of obligatory gift giving, I do appreciate the time to spend with family and friends. But why the fight over this holiday? No one is fighting over Thanksgiving, 4th of July, Arbor Day, etc....
There's nothing quite like a polarizing issue to make the office unbearable. As we speak, there are doors in my office covered with wrapping paper and bows. The office "holiday" party (which is the PC way of saying "Christmas for everyone who doesn't hate Jesus") is this weekend, but I won't be attending due to babysitter issues. Now, do I mention to people that I don't really celebrate the holiday, and would like to be left alone? How about asking for my allocation of the holiday party budget in cash? Or maybe putting up a black tree just to really get people riled up?
I'm not. I'm going to just be quiet and do my job. I'm coming to terms with the fact that unless I want to start my own company, and only deal with people who agree with my politics and beliefs, then I'll have to put aside my own beliefs in order to just get the job done. Now, as far as my opinions on why people take issues and blow them out of proportion? Well, no one likes to get pushed around. And certainly no one likes to be singled out for being different. So unless I know I'm amongst friends (or want a good argument), I just don't talk about these things. Especially at the office, since they pay me for work, not opinions.
