Many thanks to The Doug Pegg Project for bringing a catchy tune and some humour to this Fucked-Up world that we’re all living in.
Check out iTunes to purchase the song: Livin’ in a Fucked-Up World!
Blog
Trust and Integrity
Ever wonder why things are so Fucked-Up? Actually it is pretty simple; most people cannot be trusted to do what they say. Our politicians are a perfect example;however, often even our best friends cannot deliver what they say. For example, how often have you been stood up by someone who made a commitment to meet you. Their excuse is often, “Oh something came up that I have to take care of.” What happened to planning? Can they not tell the somebody behind ‘the something ‘ they have another commitment, and arrange to do ‘the something’ at another time? Of course they can, but the bottom line is that they would prefer to do ‘the something’, rather than what they planned with you. Their lack of integrity allows them to stand people up without hesitation. It comes down to a plain lack of ethics and/or a total lack of organizational skills. Ultimately, very many people will agree to almost anything with no real intention to carry it out. Unless of course it is in their best interest, often either financially or emotionally profitable.
The lack of integrity almost always occurs in business dealings, perhaps more so! Just look at all those companies that make all kinds of promises, but then find a way of not delivering. Companies that promise excellent service often cannot even provide an employee who knows what they are talking about to reliably answer their phones. We get to call, then we have to hold in a call wait-line forever. While we wait they make us listen to the most annoying music they can find, throw in some advertising, and then for good measure throw in a message saying how important we are to them – who are they kidding?? Shit, we cannot even trust them to answer the phone when we need them, even after all the bullshit about service and how their customers are Number One. Let’s face it, they just want our money.If we were truly smart we would refuse to do business with them.
Today many people cannot even trust their own spouse, simply because they too, also do not often do what they say. On a simple level, people cannot even plan to meet each other on time; there is always an excuse for being late. Mostly, the truth is they lost track of the time and did not leave early enough. So, they are late, what’s the big deal? Well, at the very least on a psychological level, it give the other party a message you have little, or no respect for them! If that is the case, how do you expect them to trust and have respect for you?
I could go on about this topic; however, my book delves into the whole phenomenon of trust and integrity if you honestly care. Our world really could be a heck of a lot better if everyone understood just how important trust, and integrity are.
City Life
If you live in a city, you will know exactly what I am talking about. If you don’t live in a city, be glad you don’t. The first problem is that once we move into ‘city-life’ we get trapped. It is like getting stuck in a spider’s web, because of all the hooks around convenience. The conveniences however, are not anything that comes anywhere near the costs of being able to have them. Also the convenience does not make ones life better, only perhaps easier in some ways. Let me explain as simply as I can.
It is easier to find a doctor in the city, but city life will make you sick faster than anything else. It is called stress. Nothing works properly, almost everything is overcrowded, there is also too much diversity of opinions and lifestyles, which cause conflict. Individual politicians are out of touch with the huge scope of issues and problems, and even if they are in touch they will do very little about creating improvement. Then we have the air pollution issues created by construction, lack of municipal resources, and vehicular traffic congestion. Cities today are overcrowded, not very clean, nor do the local authorities have the money to do what is necessary. Most cities situated in areas that get severe winter conditions cannot even afford to remove dangerous road snow. Easy transportation is next to impossible any time of year, it is very often hectic and unreliable due to congestion. Public safety is only a concept, it is never a reality. Many city streets are not safe; we have security cameras to record the problems, not prevent them. Oh yes, don’t forget all the time one must line up and be abused to get the things they want. Cities due to their nature, are clearly overly competitive environments for human beings to be truly comfortable in. And, despite all the problems, cities are overly expensive.NEED I SAY MORE? Who cares if doctors are easier to find? If we didn’t live in a city, there is a good chance we wouldn’t need one anyway? Think about it.
On a potentially positive side, cities could be okay if our municipal politicians really cared. They could make things work a lot better by having integrity, accepting some real responsibility/accountability,and putting some fair and reasonable controls in place – but they do not have the will. All they have is talk. They only care about getting votes to keep their cushy high-paying jobs, and collecting more and more revenue (taxes) to pay for their salaries, benefit packages, and their ‘pet’ projects, whether they truly help anyone or not. Most often they hurt more people than they help. Too bad we don’t have more and better choices when it comes to voting.
Personally, I would never recommend living in a city, unless one absolutely must. Sure I understand that some people are afraid to be away from the crowd, but that is something one can overcome if they really want to; that is, if they have not already been hooked. If you have, perhaps you can still see that smaller might be a better choice than bigger, so if you can down-size, go for it.
Democracy Hypocrisy
We are always hearing how wonderful Democracy is. All I have to say is ‘Ba Humbug’. Democracy is supposed to be a form of government that reflects and expresses the voice of the majority of citizens. The administration is supposed to be fairly elected representatives who represent the desires of the majority of citizens living in their designated geographic regions.
Let’s really be honest and admit the above is not happening at all. First, our representatives are, more often than not, put into power by a minority of citizens. This happens because a huge percentage of people, for good reason, do not trust those who are running to be politicians; so they do not even bother to vote. Why vote if nobody running can, or will do the job properly? What’s the point in having the best of the worst? And besides, what does a person’s single vote achieve anyway? Have you ever heard of a politician winning or losing by one vote?
I know some of you are saying,”If you can do better, then why don’t you run for politics?”. Come on, let’s not kid ourselves -try! Are you rich or have a major benefactor, are you a celebrity, do you have family in politics, and will the other party members support you unless you do what they want; regardless of what the majority of citizens want. Who is kidding who? Politicians are an ‘old boys club’, even the young ones! They are also people who are able to say YES to everyone to get their vote, and then once in power vote NO, or vice versa.
The next problem, is we have ‘party’ systems in which our representatives vote for what the party leaders want, not what the the citizens want. It is not much different than a dictatorship, except we go through the motions of having fair representation and voting. Everyone including the media make it look like everything is above-board, at least until there is a scandal of some sort. But we all know who will win in the end, usually big business and the politician’s pet special interest groups – certainly not the majority.
You might want to think about what I have said the next time you hear someone get on their ‘high horse’ about how wonderful Democracy is. Although, it could be, if most of our politicians were honest and had any real integrity!
The Business of Education
We have all heard the mantra that if we want to be successful we need education – the more the better. Well folks, that is not quite true; just ask the waiter in the next restaurant you go to. We now have a population of over-educated, frustrated, in debt young people. They paid for an education that is not providing the employment they anticipated. In fact that employment is not even available, because there are too many people trained for ‘this or that’ profession. And even those who did get employed are working for lower wages, because of the effect of the ‘law of supply and demand’ around the numbers of over educated wannabes. Our young people are getting screwed. They cannot even get jobs in the trades, even though we are constantly told there are not enough tradespeople. What’s going on?
The truth is that education has become big business and is fully supported by government because it temporarily keeps the unemployment statistics down. Colleges and Universities are offering hundreds of seats for courses leading to jobs they know do not exist. They also know that almost half of their students will not complete the programs they have paid for, but the administrators do not have the ethics to make that fact commonly known. Why? Because they want the money to fund their elaborate facilities and overpaid professors and themselves. Those guys are living off the system without conscience, it is status and ego that drives them more than anything else. I guess you can’t totally blame them after spending years and years getting a degree in something that the only thing you can do is talk ‘no end’ about, and not much else.
The only thing that nobody seems to realize, or want to talk about, is that we are developing a society of disgruntled citizens who are fearful of the future and have little faith in anything, including their futures. Do we, you and me, our governments and business leaders think this is a good thing? Why is nothing being done about it? Do we all think this makes for a healthy world? Okay educators, if you really care, let’s wake up and say/do something about it !
Electronically Fucking Up the World Even More
Hi folks,I just got home from trying to take care of something at the bank. It never got done because nobody at the bank could get their computers to cooperate for what I needed. After three employees trying, I gave up in disgust. This made me again think how computers fuck up our lives and waste valuable time ( it probably happens at least two or three times a day) . I know Bill Gates and Steve Jobs if he where still with us would disagree, but lets face it, for them it has/had always been about the money. In fact, it is usually, only people who make money from IT, or use it for entertainment who think how computers are the best thing since sliced bread. I am sure some scientists, doctors and accountants do too, but for the majority of us working folk, seniors, and true thinkers, computers basically serve to cause frustration and suck up our money for redundant gadgets, all the various hardware, and software; none of which is cheap, or even reasonably priced! Too boot, it is often forced down our throats whether we really want it or not.
We get forced into buying programs that are on the cusp of being replaced by the next version, or does not really work the way the providers have made us believe it should. Why can’t ‘they’ come up with something that will last, for say, ten years without being replaced – it is not impossible, lots of thing do.We all know why – $$$$$, but not for us! We have all been sucked in on a grand scale.
All around us today corporations, governments, and other institutions are forcing us to use computers. What works for one of those groups, does not work for another. Even our software does not work, or even look the same, on all computers. What we end up with is gross inconvenience, confusion, errors, and more frustration; all burning up our time and money. How did we get so far down this road without someone putting on the breaks, or having some meaningful regulations? Why do our politicians, who are supposed to be protecting us, not doing anything about regulating the industry to ensure consumer protection, environmental protection, and hardware/software standardization? Could it be because Bill Gates is the richest man in the world, and he just might pull their plug? He just might start tracking me down after this.
Folks, I am getting too wound up right now so, better cool down for today. Just before I finish, I do want to say that I hope you never have to call for computer support; it is the easiest way to lose your temper than anything else I can think of. I am sure I do not have to remind you of your last experience after you got of the waiting queue , despite the promises of ‘support’. Well, they didn’t say in what language, did they, or how well qualified the support would be? Then, there is also the question of computer security, which everyone we deal with online says they have. Well, all I have to say about that, is never forget that the United States C.I.A. got hacked – how much of a chance do you think you have against being hacked?
For more on this and many other topics you can check out my book. Bye for now.
In the Beginning
Welcome to the website that will try to get you to stretch your beliefs in how you see the world and hopefully provide some insight on what you can perhaps help do about it. These posts will attempt to illustrate the stark reality of how, as humans, we are easily controlled and manipulated to the benefit of the few who are at the top of the heap, and those who are trying to get there. The assumption will be that you have read the book Reflections on a F*cked-Up World, however it is not necessary that you have. Perhaps after reading a few posts you will want to. (more…)