The Neck

Recently I’ve been up to my neck in bureaucracy trying to get things done with regard to my appeal, changing my job status and having checks mailed to me. It seems as if everywhere in life, there are procedures and processes that enable inaction. When inaction is an option, a person takes it.

On numerous occasions in my life, I have spoken with my father about the subject of trying to get other people to do things for you. Like fathers are, he is cynical and realistic. He claims that teamwork is sham since the nature of most men in inaction. In any group, there are but one or two real doers and that everyone else is a hanger-on. The only way to get them do something is to make it in their direct best interest to do so. Being a “squeaky wheel” works as you are annoying them into doing something in their best interest (to make you stop annoying them), but the work involved in being a “squeaky wheel” usually is greater than the benefit or greater than just doing it yourself.

Perhaps I should read “Getting to Yes” and “Getting Past No.” But, I think I know what these books say. I’m sure they talk about how requests need to be reframed to make the audience think that an action is in their best interest.

My father speaks of this issue with a telling amount of anger. I suspect he thinks of his battery of famously lazy secretaries that he has had to cope with since before I was born. Ironically, with all of his faults, the one thing I can say about my father is that he is giver. Perhaps it’s from obligation or principle, but he often helps others for no reason. My father is an atheist who thinks that nearly all human beings are worthless and undeserving. So, why does this very jaded man continue help people? It is the antithesis of his belief that people only act in their best interest.

When my father was perhaps seven or eight he told me he received a letter from his grandfather while at church camp (yes, he went to church camp). My great-grandfather told him “helping others is all that matters.” My father laughs about this letter. How appropriate is it to send this to a boy of seven or eight? Still, he recalls the letter after fifty years, which tells me that perhaps it was appropriate.

As you may know, my pop-cultural savior is Angel. Day-after-day, he saves people, but, being manically depressed, none of it helps him feel less guilty and none of it helps him gain personally. So, why does he do it? “What else am I going to do?” was his response to this query.

The obvious answer to Angel’s semi-rhetorical question is “help yourself,” but instantly it is self-evident how empty that it. Yet, sadly, that is what people do.

Necks are for sticking out. Few people realize it, though. All around there are those that say they will help you and will “do what they can,” but what they really mean is that they will help you if it doesn’t trouble them too much or if it will help them as well. When you do find people that are truly willing to help the helpless, remember them and cherish them, fore they are rare

The Phoenix, Monotony and Corruption

All Japanese movies are basically the same. They begin with destruction usually in the form of war or an atomic bomb. Then a new marvelous and seemingly rich environment is established. Slowly, the corruption of this new world is revealed. In the end, the world is destroyed only to begin again.

This is, of course, a metaphor for Japanese society. The Samurai were corrupt and their downfall along with coming out of isolation made the nation new. A wonderful and new Japanese society came about and, again, became corrupt. A nuclear bomb was dropped and the phoenix once again rose from the ashes.

It is not just Japanese society that has this pattern. Dynasties have cycles. Kings come and go. Yesterday’s empires are today’s ashes and today’s empires are tomorrow’s ashes. Politicians are discovered to be crooked only to be replaced by other politicians that are discovered to be crooked. Clearly, over and over, power corrupts.

Why?

I always say that is worse winning at gambling than losing. When one loses, one stops. When one wins, one takes things to the next level. One needs to press the limits. Next time, to get the same buzz, one has to bet more money.

Doing the same thing over and over becomes monotonous. In order to entertain oneself, discover one’s potential and self-actualize, one must have a gradually increasing fulfillment of needs. Soon, laws and moral become barriers to this fulfillment and they are ignored.

Basically, corruption is a response to monotony and boredom. Any teenager knows this.

Corruption is not the only cure for boredom. One can simply choose new experiences. Unfortunately, most people are locked into careers and lack imagination. Variety and creativity may be the cure to everything.

Why We Earn and Why We Save

Life has been enjoying kicking me in the nuts lately. At first, it is a shocking and painful. And, of course, then comes the worse part of the aching sickness. There’s that pain in between one’s belly and one’s penis that just doesn’t pass as quickly as a kick anywhere else. It really is not that funny despite what the home videos of suburban America suggest.

I have taken some major financial hits lately. They leave me sick because it seems like time and progress have been lost (and I assume this all reminds me that I am mortal and am going die, which is upsetting). One gets a similar feeling when a house of cards falls or when one nearly makes it to the end of a video game only to die on an ultimate or penultimate hurdle. Its all wasted time, wasted potential and wasted life, which are limited.

Perhaps I am not being fair with life. After all, there are lessons to be learned with every financial hit and methods learned on how to protect finances in the future.

Not only that, but protection from the unexpected is the one of the major reasons we earn money and save it. I once spoke with Soulless Hedonist about money and asked him what he or I should do with extra cash. Besides taking a few trips or buying a guitar, he couldn’t come up with anything. I couldn’t come up with anything either, so my extra money went right into investment and his went into that guitar. Perhaps in the future, I’ll think of something to buy.

Many people see extra money and think of extra stuff. But, do I want a larger TV, a better car or fancier clothes. Maybe some of these items are desired, but if I were to buy too much nice merchandise, I wouldn’t fit in with my peers. My friends are not exactly the type that enjoy bling or respect others with showiness. Besides, owned items take time to maintain. One has to lock them up, keep them clean and worry about them getting broken.

Others may suggest that money allows one to have a nice house. But these kinds of massive debts do not mean much in day-to-day life. Housing equity is very frozen and any eventual profits are usually tax deferred until death. A few square feet here and there don’t add too much to one’s existence. Additionally, the enjoyment of a large house is offset much by maintenance.

What about working less? Well, more jobs require one to work 40 hours. More vacation? There’s only so many days one can get away with being on vacation in an office. Retiring early. This leads to boredom and a depression in people. When it comes down to it, work time is fairly fixed.

So, besides eating out more, paying for one’s kids’ fancy private schools and giving to charity, there’s not much to spend money on (assuming one’s earning more than $30,000 per year).

Perhaps lately I have been spending my money on the best thing to buy- protection from the unexpected.

Icarus' Pointless Flight

The world of fiction often begins with characters in a content state. A problem is introduced that disrupts this happiness and the rest of the plot is consumed with resolving this conflict. In the end, the problem is usually resolved and people are once again content, often ever-after. I’m not sure how the characters that Reese Witherspoon or Taye Diggs play can be so continually content and how resolution of problems can make them even more content. It all seems rather unbelievable. It is the equivalent of being perfectly content ordering something at a restaurant only to have a mess up in the kitchen bring you something you like even better (but for some reason didn’t order). It is all unlikely and goes against neo-classical economics, but fiction continues with this myth. Not only is there supposition that there is contentment, but there is supposition that there is super-contentment.

In the real world, humans always have desires for more. Infinite human wants make people unsatisfied. There is acculturation to pleasure or pain and people find themselves back at square one. Humans still look to the future to the day of eternal satisfaction. So, it isn’t surprising that humans invent ideas like “the rapture” or “the reckoning.” These are anticipated pay days when people will finally (and impossibly) be content forever.

Though Eastern religion and depressed people have often spoken about life being misery, for some reason most people still look to a day when it is not. This may come in the form of wealth or true love. It may come in the form of a blissful afterlife like Heaven or Nirvana. Everyone has “hope,” even suicidal people who think death will improve their situation.

But, what if there is no settlement? What if there is no content ending? What if life continues on without contentment and then leads to an afterlife that is also filled with desires and wanting as well. Even if we leave afterlife aside, this is the almost certainly the case for life. We will always be unsatisfied. If this is the case, why strive for anything? For momentary contentment?

Then again, what else would people do with their time?