Jewish Atheist

Capitalism is best loved by those whom it most benefits at any given time. Execs and shareholders always come first. Like any institution - religion, marriage, government — it’s no better than the people who run it. So, with people of middle-school maturity in charge, we have bubbles, inept regulation, influence peddling, Ponzi schemes, financial meltdowns, funny money (derivatives), program trading (computers superseding human intelligence), insider trading, inhumane boss-ocracy, perpetual job anxiety, people in jobs they hate, greedy executives and unions, and 24/7 marketing to keep consumers buying the latest styles and gadgets, because greed is good.

It would be a pity for humanity to have come so far, just to be done in by our inability to abandon our primitive stories.

Knowing certain basic laws of physics and biology – among them that once the dead are dead, they are incapable of communicating with the living – I suspect that something not real yet very vivid is indeed happening in your head, something that feels and sounds like you are incessantly channeling Michael Jackson.

Any time “merriment” is mentioned on the invitation, I know it’s going to be another dreary event full of temptations to overeat or overdrink out of stupefying boredom, trying to make small talk at the top of my lungs, with frequent trips outside to escape the loud music and bad speechmaking. Hope I’m wrong.

I just saw a Funny Times cartoon about when we would finally get serious about the environment: when beer, TV, Viagra, and meat are no longer available. We’re not there yet.

It’s bad enough that we still depend so much on cars, partly because of the requirement that so many of us put in “face-time” at the office (picture thousands of cars, idling bumper to bumper, air conditioners at full blast, day after summer day, as repairs are done on the numerous “expressways” in this great land of ours). But it is unconscionable to burn fossil fuel for amusement. No society that is serious about fuel conservation and energy independence can burn this much gasoline for amusement.

How many gallons of irreplaceable fossil fuel will be vaporized during this racing season? The Indy 500 (1-2 miles/gallon) must use thousands upon thousands of gallons. Daytona, NASCAR, I can’t even begin to name them all…there’s immense social approval for it, as well as lots of logos and money (and with Danica Patrick, sex), so gentlepeople, start your engines.

This is the same insane school-administrator mentality that suspends students for having an Advil or nail clipper. Students learn, in no uncertain terms, that the adult world is irrational, demanding, rigid and ruthless. Students at Highland Park High are getting a valuable lesson indeed. Perhaps a few brave spirits will not be broken.

Is there ONE organization where boss-abuse, the adult form of bullying, can be reported and curbed, by a reporting structure that goes right to the CEO, such that even senior management assholes get called on their behavior and told to reform? No, I don’t think there is. In many cases, senior management confers the right to be an asshole.

Dumbth has progressed since 1989. There’s creeping dumbth as well: an ever-fresh supply of new conspiracy theories, Obama’s a Muslim, aliens, etc. And there’s a thick foundation level of Basic Dumbth (ignorance cultivated in the soil of religion, militarism, politics, and advertising).

I can’t afford the luxury of thinking my every thought is of interest to everybody. I can’t afford to waste time. I can’t afford being told by a machine how to communicate.

I can’t afford the Twitter.