No New Show Today
Just so you know. I am still recovering from my throat procedure so I don't want to strain my voice.

Status Anxiety
Saw the following here:

High status is thought to be one of the finest of earthly goods. For this reason, we worry whenever we are in danger of failing to conform to the ideals of success laid down by our society. We worry that we may be stripped of dignity and respect, we worry that we are currently occupying too modest a rung or are about to fall to a lower one. We might not worry so much if status were not so hard to achieve and even harder to maintain over a lifetime. Except in societies where it is fixed at birth and our veins flow with noble blood, our position hangs on what we can make of ourselves; and we may fail in the enterprise due to stupidity or an absence of self-knowledge, macro-economics or malevolence.

From failure will flow humiliation: a corroding awareness that we have been unable to convince the world of our value and are henceforth condemned to consider the successful with bitterness and ourselves with shame. The trouble with America in particular is the belief that if you work hard, you will be proportionately blessed with financial success. The converse side of this coin is that if you lack financial succes, you simply don't deserve it. Of course this fails to take into account the dynamics of macro economies in which national wealth is not necessarily a representation of the those who individually share in this success.

I think the problem in our competitive societies today is that the more we acquire, the more difficult we will be to please, yet at the same time the more difficult it will be to achieve status (simply because there is more to "wade through" before arriving at the peak. In modern societies if one is born into dire poverty it is very very difficult to "wade through" everything that stands in the way, and the more prosperous society becomes the more there is to wade through). The analogy is a waterfall. The people at the top are comfortably safe. Those in the middle will either sink of swim and are struggling to stay in the same place, desperately afraid of being sucked down and equally determined to reach reach the top. Those at the bottom of the waterfall simply have no chance.

I was once told that there are three possible solutions to most problems, money, a miracle or to simply change the paradigm. In the case of status anxiety, only two of those will solve it. Perhaps we should take a leaf out of the Buddhist book, and instead change our perspective and realize the ultimate futility and mortality of our existence. The problem you see, only exists because we use society as our mirror. If we stopped and put it all in perspective, we might change ours.

It's easy for me, as one of those people who are just barely above the lowest levels of our sociey, to sit back and view myself as a failure, and to see signs of that failure in everything I do, no matter how small: like for example, misplacing a bag of rubber bands, or forgetting to follow a procedure you are required to do before you go see a doctor. I'm sure some of you feel the same way: you see friends and relatives who seem to have no problems wading through life's obstacles and wonder why you can't do the same. It can be very stressful, I should know.

There are bigger instances, too: in my case it's my inability to do anything for my wife's illness other than offer her emotional support, because I don't have the money to bypass the normal red tape so she can receive the immediate medical attention she needs. Every delay makes her life, and mine, more miserable. Yet the process of earning money is so slow, and the only way to get around it ius to do something illegal or immoral. I could, for example, try to become a televangelist. After all, some of these people are little more than hucksters making tens of thousands of dollars a week by scamming and scaring people out of their money. It's a lucrative business, to be sure. But there's no way I can just do that, I mean, even if I considered myself a Christian (which I do not), I simply couldn't take money under those circumstances. It was the same way the time I worked as a cel phone salesman; sure, if I had been a little more aggressive and more persistent I might have made a better salesman, but I just don't have it in me to push people into buying something they may or may not even need. Some would say that this makes me a better person, but the only practical reality is that it will never make me a richer one.

I work around a lot of people who believe that they will never be anything better than what they are right now. They have reached, in their mind, as high a pinnacle of success as they are capable of achieving: a steady job to help them support their family. I am in the unfortunate position of knowing that I am capable of doing better but somehow unable to make it work. Some people are just no good at handling money. I know in particular that I would be an excellent small business owner, because I can be very dedicated to something I know I have a direct stake in, and I am an excellent organizer with a good eye for hiring the right people. But the current economic system is not geared towards helping people like me with small ambitions, it's geared towards helping those with dreams of huge multinational corporations in their heads. In other words, a bisiness loan of $50,000 to $100,000 is less possible than a business loan in the millions. Investors want a huge return, and they want it now and therefore I am cut out of it. I learned this when I went to Accion with, what I was told, one of the best business plans they had ever seen, but was doomed to failure simply because I was asking too much for them and too little for any traditional investors.

So here I am, stressed out as always, with no foreseeable hope in the future that my financial situation will be any better. I'm told that you need to envision where you think you'll be five years from now and work towards that, but frankly if I'm not homeless I will consider it a blessing. I only survive now through the grace of my landlord and the slim hope that my wife will either get accepted for disability or get the medical attention she needs so that she can go back to work, either of which can take months, even years. And the current political situation only makes me more worried, because the people at the top of the waterfall don't give a damn about people like me and will work to make it even harder for me and millions of others like me. And the people I work with will suffer too, because they don't really how thin the ice they are treading on is. As frugal and responsible as they have been, it only takes a little nudge to send them cascading further down that waterfall, and they might wind up exactly where I am, or worse.

Eighty years ago, things were pretty much the same for working people, until the New Deal made things better by building a safety net that included things like Social Secuity, minimum wage laws, overtime pay, etc. At first, only those who were really irresponsible and careless fell off of that net, but over the last thirty years it's been snipped at and cut so much that only a few can manage to hang on, while those at the top are erecting their own barriers, ones that will keep them well-protected while we fend for ourselves. Sure, it's easy for some to say that the poor deserve it, or that we can take the Buddhist option if we can't make it financially, but the first step is always to make sure that we can take care of our immediate needs. And that takes all of us working together. I only hope we realize that before we all wind up at the bottom.

Open Thread: Show 63
Listen here. Comment below. Professor Cole's site is on the left, under "regular reads".

Go there.

Read.

Ideal
Kos says:

But I don't think Daily Kos represents the ideal of blogging. I think bloggers with 100 daily visitors are the essence of the blogosphere -- and those guys, collectively, reach a lot more than Daily Kos does. While 100 daily visitors may seem shrimpy, it's pretty darn impressive to build an audience that size. When I hit that milestone, I remember thinking, "Damn, I couldn't even fit that many people in my house!" Now it's seen as a sign of failure, and that's just bullshit.

I'm willing to bet that there are far more blogs getting 100 visitors a day today than there were 2 years ago when I hit that milestone. To me, that's what's important, not that some people have commercialized their blogs.

A lot of this talk is arising from the two big articles about bloggers that recently appeared in the NY Times and the LA Times. I'd have links to the articles but I just underwent an esophagogastroduodenoscopy earlier today and I'm still a little groggy from the anesthesia. I'm happy to get the hits I am getting, they have been up in recent weeks, and one of the people at Anime Weekend said that a hundred hits or so a day is pretty damn good, so I am feeling a little better about those numbers than I was a week ago. Of course I'd still like more, but I'm feeling better about the numbers right now.

I'm also happy for the regular commenters, even the right-wingers, it's always interesting to see how what I write gets taken by others. The fact that they bother reading and responding at all shows that they're at least paying attention, which is more than I can say for a lot of people.

Now I'm getting all verklempt. Talk amongst yourselves.

Anime Weekend Atlanta
The wife and I returned from the convention about an hour and a half ago as I write this. It was a pretty good show, and we both had a good time. This was the tenth anniversary of AWA, I was one of those who was instrumental in starting it, I went into "retirement" a few years ago, because I decided I wanted to do other things with my time. I'm happy to be able just to go there and enjoy myself.

A few of the people there, people I have known for some years through the convention, had listened to my show and were impressed with the content. They mentioned how it's nice to listen to someone who isn't quite so bombastic. I try very hard just to be me when I do the show. I think I'm a fairly intelligent guy, but not very well-educated, so there's a lot of things I get wrong. I don't like being confrontational, I figure that there are so many people doing that, and doing it far better than I am, so why bother? I've had a couple of local people try to help me out as far as being a producer type, but I got the impression that they wanted something else from me after we talked, but as I am so fond of saying, I yam what I yam. This is how I do my show. I don't mind talking about doing things differently, but I'm the one who ultimately gets to decide what happens on the show. Otherwise, it wouldn't be my show.

Anyway, I have to go and record the rest of the next show now, this one will have Professor Juan Cole, and we'll be talking about the stuff in Iraq. Hope you enjoy it.

Work, Work, Work
It's been a busy few days at work, busy enough to tire me out to the point where I didn't have a lot of energy to do any writing. My writing sprees come and go, but a lot depends on how much time I have before and after work, and lately that hasn't been much.

This weekend I'm going to be hanging out at Anime Weekend Atlanta, a local convention for fans of Japanese cartoons. Monday I will be going to the doctor for, shall we say, an exploratory procedure, and I will be recuperating from that on Tuesday, which means you won't see much of anything from me until Tuesday, ad then you will probably see a lot of posts. There will be a new show on Sunday, featuring my interview with history professor Juan Cole, which I'm sure everyone here will enjoy. In the meantime, use this as an open thread. No biting no kicking no gouging.

Oh before I forget, congratulations to the Atlanta Braves on clinching their thirteenth consecutive division title. No other team in baseball has ever done this, not even the mighty Yankees during their glory days from the late twenties to the early sixties; in fact no other team in American professional sports has accomplished this. So even though they're still going to lose in the playoffs (probably to the Cardinals, who IMO are the best team in baseball this year), that doesn't take away from the remarkable consistency the Braves have had over the years, and moreso this year, having lost some key players during the off-season and were not expected to repeat as division champs.

Open Thread: Show 62
Listen here. Comment below.
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Defeatism
I was in the bartcop chat room last night and we were discussing what was going to happen in the upcoming "election", and I expressed my usual concern over the massive fraud that, in my opinion, the Republicans are planning on perpetrating, and what an uphill battle is being faced by the Kerry campaign. Almost immediately I was hit with a charge of being "defeatist", expecting, even wanting to lose the election. Nothing could be further from the truth. I certainly want Kerry to win, in fact what I want to see is the whole Bush administration frog-marched out of there, put on trial, and imprisoned for war crimes. In any civilized society, this would be the case, because what we're doing in Iraq is nothing short of criminal, and what we're planning on doing to the rest of the Middle East, should the Bushies get another four years, goes far beyond mere criminal behavior. That's what I want to see.

But that's not going to happen, and anyone who thinks that it's going to happen is living in the same kind of fantasy world that led us to go to war with Iraq in the first place. No amount of positive thinking is going to turn the mess in Iraq around, and no amount of positive thinking is going to enable John Kerry, should he miraculously get elected, to turn that situation around. At best, all we can really hope for is that Kerry gets into the White House and we get another four or eight years of holding back the right-wing tide, because, and let me be clear about this, they are not going away. The Scaifes, the Murdochs, the numerous others that are the real powers behind the throne are simply not going to up and die on us should their man Bush lose. It's not enough to win back the Presidency, we need to win back both houses of Congress as well, and by big enough margins that they wouldn't be able to mount any serious opposition. What we need is something like what happened in 1932, and that's just not going to happen, and we'd better learn to accept that.

This is not to say that I think we're going to lose, period: in fact I think in the long term we're going to win, because these people will always implode, because they are never satisfied with what they have, and eventually they will over-reach. History has shown us time and time again what happens when people go too far, and this time will be no different.

This is also not to say that I think we ought to "give up". Quite the contrary. We need to keep on doing what we're doing, and work towards the day when they fall, because when they do, someone needs to fill that vacuum. What I am mostly afraid of is that Kerry will win and we will declare victory and drop out, while the right just keeps on going. We can't afford to let that happen. As I have said before, what we need is more than a single candidate, we need an entire movement, and that takes time.

Open Thread: Show 61
Listen here. Comment below. Grow up!

Childishness
As I have mentioned before, the interesting thing about me doing a radio show and writing a blog that talks about working people is the fact that I fit in with them so little, in fact I've had trouble dealing with these "regular people" all my life, ever since elementary school. And one of the problems I have always had is that very rarely does anyone take my side on matters, the so-called adults who are supposed to be looking after people seem more concerned with making things easy for them than with punishing people for their bad behavior. We are expected to handle these things ourselves, and those of us who are, for whatever reason, incapable of doing that, are labeled as "whiners" or "losers". It's been the same way with me ever since elementary school: someone attacks me, I'm expected to fight back. I fight back, and I get in trouble from the people who told me to fight back. After a while, you just try to do your best to stay out of everyone's way.

But of course, not coming from a rich family, I am expected to make a living, which means work, which means dealing with people. I used to believe that once we get out of high school, the stupid games will have stopped, but, as I have learned time and time again, they never do. People are as immature when they "grow up" as they were when they were still in their teens. They may express themselves better, or are more sophisticated in how they play the game, but they still play the game.

That's pretty much what has been happening to me at work this last week. My supervisor called me into his office to tell me he had been receiving some complaints about me, complaints that were, in my opinion, pretty small, not the type of thing you talk to your supervisor about. I told him what I thought about the complaints, and about the things that I see happening all the time; the gossip, the immaturity, etc. He told me that while my complaints were legitimate, the meeting was about the complaints that had been raised against me, and I could come to him at a later date with my problems. He then asked me, in fact he encouraged me, to speak to him about things that make me uncomfortable at work so that he could handle them. This I did on Friday, when one of the people who had lodged the complaint against me was put in a position of authority over me. But in trying to settle the matter, it quickly became yet another meeting about my behavior.

So here I was, encouraged to speak out, and now being punished for it. The end result is that, while I am still employed there, I am starting to look for other work, because it's obvious to me that I'm not welcome there. But I know the same thing is going to happen to me again at the next place I work at, which is one reason why I have so much trouble holding on to a job. To me, it's symptomatic of my own failures that I always seem to get caught up in these childish games wherever I work. Is the problem with me or is the problem with everyone else? As I told my supervisor, I think it's a combination of both; they are unable or unwilling to accept me for who I am, and I don't handle childish behavior very well, in fact I handle it, well, pretty childishly. I hope that maybe, one day, I can learn to handle these things better. In the meantime, I expect to have a lot of different jobs...

History Repeating Itself
Every now and then I feel the need to repost this little bit of history, because it shows, regardless of the advances of technology, how little humans themselves have changed over the years. For those of you familiar with this era, feel free to skip the next two paragraphs...

The setting is the ancient Mediterranean during the Peloponnesian War, app. 2500 years ago. The war involved most, if not all, of the city-states of Greece, but was primarily being fought between Athens and Sparta, two long-time rivals. The Spartans were the greatest fighting force of their time, one of the greatest armies in history. Their city, their entire culture, was run like an army camp. The Athenians were the fathers of democracy (democracy itself is a Greek word meaning "rule of the people"), from whom we get so many things: science, philosophy, art, etc. During the war against Persia, the two united to defeat the armies and navies of the Persian kings Darius and later, his son Xerxes. After the war, the Athenians formed the Delian League, a kind of UN for the quarrelsome city-states, and for years they lived in peace and prosperity. But the League eventually became dominated by the Athenians, who had become greedy and corrupt.

During the course of the war, the Athenians "liberated" the island of Melos, who had been conquered by the Spartans and turned into a tributary state. The Athenians demanded that the Melians now aid them in their war against the Spartans, but the Melians wanted to remain neutral. The Athenians, as was their way, sent emissaries to try to convince the Melians that it would be easier for them to cooperate:

Athenians: There’s no point bothering you with the same old story about how we have a right to our empire because of our military, or tell you that we’re attacking you because of something you did to us. We won’t bore you with a long speech which you wouldn’t believe anyway. So since we both know exactly what’s going on, we hope you’ll just make it easy for both of us, accept it for what it is, and make the best of it. You know as well as we do that this is how the world is. Rights only come into play between equals in power. The strong do whatever they want, and everyone else does whatever they can.

Melians: Regardless, it’s important – and we’re speaking because we must, since you’re telling us to forget about our own rights when it comes to what’s best for your interests – for us to remind you that the rights you’re denying us protect you also. You in particular ought to know this, because your fall would not only destroy you but set a horrible example for anyone else who struggles to be free.

Athenians: It’s a law of nature that men rule wherever they can. It’s not like we’re the first to do this. Men were doing this before us, men will do this long after we’re gone. But since we’ve got the power, we’re using it while we can. You, and everyone else, would do the same thing if you were us.

The Melians refused to cooperate and Athens easily conquered them. But the Melians were proved right, in time the Athenians were themselves overthrown when they tried to expand their empire, the disastrous attempt to conquer Sicily sealed their doom. For nearly two hundred years, the Athenians were a shining light in an otherwise bleak world, but they were corrupted by greed and power, and it cost them. They had no need of an empire, they could have strengthened their alliances and continued to live in peace with their neighbors, instead they chose to dominate them, and in the end they fell. Faced with the same choices, we did likewise. The question for us is whether or not we can turn the tide in time, and prevent history from repeating itself.

No New Show Thursday
Personal issues are taking over, mainly the wife's medical troubles and some things at work I will bring up in the next show. You've been discussing the polls and the election, feel free to continue to do so here.

Open Thread: Show 60
Listen here. Comment below.
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Stop Blaming Kerry
I'm hearing some things on a few of the blogs I read about how Kerry isn't "fighting back enough". We all need to calm down and realize that Kerry is fighting the most powerful political machine in US history, and it's being backed up by a so-called "professional" media that's more interested in gossip and innuendo than actually reporting the news. The way they cover the Swift Boat and TANG items are perfect examples of what I am talking about. If people are going to spread lies and innuendo, there has to be some group of people, who can be trusted to tell the truth, to sort out what's bullshit and what isn't. That doesn't really exist any more, because the so-called "professional" media is more interested in "gossip and garbage", as Carl Bernstein pointed out, than they are in covering the real news.

As I have said before, changing Presidents means nothing, we need to build a true movement, and that takes time. Kerry's campaign can't be held accountable for things they have no control over. Actually I think he's doing a pretty good job so far, especially considering the vile atmosphere of today's campaigns. Just so you know.

NRA Infomercial
One of my readers clued me in to an NRA infomercial that has been running in battleground states, the typical lie-filled, fear-mongering kind of ad we've come to expect from these people. I don't talk a lot about gun issues here, but let me state for the record my feelings on the issue.

First of all, it is my sincere belief that the leadership of the NRA seems to be less concerned with the right to bear arms than with the right to sell them. They quote only the part of the Second Amendment that suits their purposes and ignore that whole thing about a well-regulated militia. I don't own a firearm myself, I don't have any plans to go out and buy one. Frankly I don't care if everyone is armed, but I believe I have a right to know that the people who do have them know how to use them, and most importantly, know when to use them. If you want to own a weapon to defend yourself, you should have to go and get a license and required training and renew this license regularly. If you want to own a military weapon, you ought to be in the military (active, reserves, or in the Guard), or a member of the police involved in special units like a SWAT team. Requiring you to know what the hell your doing is not an infringement on your rights. And if you abuse the right to own a weapon, that is, if you commit a crime using one, then you have that right taken away.

On a personal note, I don't care much for guns, I care only for what they defend. But I have to admit, what the NRA leadership does is brilliant: they scare people into thinking that the Dems want to "take your guns away" and therefore drive up sales so people can stock up while it's still legal. Good way to make a buck, which of course is what the NRA is all about. It always seems to come down to that with right-wingers, doesn't it?

Jet Man
So this French guy builds a small jet pack, straps it to his back, and flies around for awhile. No shit. Check it out.

Yeah I know it doesn't have anything to do with anything here, but what the hell...

Open Thread: Show 59
Listen here. Comment below. Check out Rant Radio!

More News
Blogger was having trouble posting earlier today, it's obviously sorted itself out. New show up tomorrow, with an interview. Other interviews to follow.

The wife was in the hospital again today, abdominal pain due to some internal nastiness getting the better of her. I left work a little early to be with her, lost two hours of work but thats not too big a deal. She needs surgery but still has some medical and bureaucratic hoops to go through before that happens. Meantime she tries to stay still because moving around is what causes the pain. I will keep you all posted.

Immaturity
I just wanted to say that I don't handle immaturity very well, in fact you might say that I handle it in a very immature way. How do you all handle some of the childish behavior you see at work, especially if you're in a position where you can't ignore them?

Labor Day
I did what every red-blooded American ought to be doing this Labor Day, I took it a little easy. I know there were people who had to work today, in fact I went out myself for a bit to get a few things; I got an extension cord for the phone mike (so I could do my phone interview with Rant Radio's Smokehouse for Thursday's show) at Radio Shack, I got a couple things at the supermarket and I stopped at Checkers for a couple of Mushroom-Swiss burgers (I love Mushroom-Swiss burgers, in fact the only time I ever got to Checkers is when they have them). There was only one person working at Radio Shack, a pleasant young lady who was very very busy but still managed to remain calm and polite while simultaneoulsy handling myself, someone purchasing a cel phone, and a nice elderly woman who was exchanging a machine that made your drinks frothy ("works great on cocoa" she told me).

The experience made me recall what I talked about in my last show, how the people in this country who are working are working too hard, and for far less money than they deserve. And on Labor Day especially, we need to be reminded of how important working people are to the country. In Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand was making the case that a few dedicated individuals, who she referred to as "the motor of the world" were the ones that really made things happen. But the realiy is quite the opposite: it's the working people who run the world, and if they all suddenly decided, "enough is enough" and launched a massive strike, the economy would fall to pieces, despite the best efforts of the Reardons and Taggerts. Of course, for many people, that sort of thing isn't an option, because they simply couldn't afford to go on strike, and others, the ones who think work is something that ought to be worshipped as a thing unto itself, would gladly go to work knowing that they were hurting their brothers and sisters who view work as simply a way to earn enough money to do the things they really want to do. And that is the essence of the working person's struggle: to earn enough to make a better life for themselves: to get ahead, not just sta in the same place all the time. Happiness is a difficult thing to pursue when you're either out of work, or working so hard you don't have the time to enjoy the things you're working for. That's what we ought to be thining about every day, but especially on Labor Day.

Another blogger reminded me of the late, great Bill Mauldin, the cartoonist famous for his WWII images of the regular soldiers, the "dogfaces" who bore the brunt of the fighting. WIllie and Joe, the main characters in Bill's strips, didn't see the bigger picture of the battles they were fighting, they were just doing their best to keep warm, keep dry, and survive the experience. Bill earned the ire of Gen. George Patton, who had his own views about war and had the authority to force them on others. Patton could afford to be a prima donna, Willie and Joe couldn't. GOA* Eisenhower understood that, which is why he sided with Bill when Gen. Patton wanted his cartoons removed from the Stars and Stripes. Despite what Dick Cheney says, Ike knew that sometimes you have to be "sensitive" to win wars, and he was more sensitive to the needs of the men under his command (as well as the needs of our allies) than Patton ever could be, and he was a better general to boot. So was GOA Omar Bradley, the former enlisted man who rose to the highest rank a military man could achieve. They never forgot that every dogface was a human being who was putting their life on hold so that future generations wouldn't have to do the same. Unfortunately, there were oo many people who saw what a good racket war was, so it's continued to this day; from Korea to VietNam to Iraq.

We working people are the backbone of this country. We grow and cook the nation's food, we clean the floors and streets, we build the roads and houses, we fight the wars. To people like Mr. Bush and his close associates, we barely even exist as human beings, except to do their bidding. They are, as they see it, our "betters" and it's not our place to question them. The shame of it is that there are many among us who buy the snake oil they peddle, just as there are those in other countries who buy the snake oil of people like Osama bin Laden, who have agendas of their own. Perhaps one day enough people will realize how badly they're being hurt fighting other people's battles and just stop doing it. I hope that day comes soon, but I doubt it.

We working people have no country. We work in Lebanon and China, we work in big cities like New York or small towns like Erin, Tennessee . We are Christians, Buddhists, Jews, Muslims, and atheists. We share a bond that is greater than any border or language, we share the burden of our lives and our children's lives. Let's remember that as we go about our daily business.

*GOA: General Of The Army (or Admiral Of The Navy): a five-star officer, the highest rank in the military. Only a very few have gotten this rank, most of them during WWII: Eisenhower, Bradley, MacArthur, Nimitz were all 5-star officers.

Open Thread: Show 58
Listen here. Comment below. Take a chill pill, you're scarin' me...

Open Thread: Show 57
Listen here. Comment below. You're not buying any of that snake oil, are ya?

Been Busy
Sorry there haven't been any posts in a couple of days, things are a little hectic lately, getting the computer and the new mixer set up and all.. A new show will be up tomorrow.