Those words are a trap. They are used by the people who refuse to think, refuse to decide and thereby abdicate all responsibility for living. They think that decision by committee is a virtuous thing. They believe that holding an opinion and sticking to it is intransigence and dangerous. This is used by the people who hold the opinion of whomever they happen to be talking to at the moment they are talking.
It is one thing to ask your shopping buddy if that pair of skinny jeans looks good, it's quite another to ask someone, knowing ahead of time, what their stance is on any subject, to use as a decision making device knowing that if it all goes to hell in a hand basket, you will use that opinion to point the finger at the and blame them for anything that goes wrong.
It is this device that Liberals use to say that Capitalism doesn't work. Liberals try Capitalism and can't hang because they don't, as a rule, have good business sense, or they think that Mercantilism is Capitalism. And it's my fault Capitalism didn't work for them because I know, for a fact, that Capitalism always works. It's my fault that they couldn't make a go of it because they couldn't conceive of true Capitalism and true free markets. They can't do anything without some crony boosting them up and helping them out. However, it's my fault because even with the crony Mercantilism, they couldn't hang.
Why does it matter what anyone else thinks? What is your opinion? On whose judgment do you live your life? The judgment of others? Why? Are you happy living that way? Or do you go through the motions never understanding why you're so unhappy? Do you truly understand that you have put yourself in a position to be made miserable on the whim of another person who has, perhaps, no moral compunction against making you unhappy so that they may be happy?
It is important to know what YOU think. Based on what you know form an opinion on any given subject. Do you think that your best friend wears a shirt that perhaps shows off her fat rolls in a way that in unbecoming, but you've allowed her to wear that shirt because you were afraid of offending her? Quietly tell her that the blouse is unbecoming and perhaps she shouldn't wear it out shopping. If she's offended and no longer wants to shop. Go shopping yourself. You don't need her to buy that purse. If you like the purse, if it goes will all of your shoes and belts, buy the mother and enjoy the holy shit out of it.
And then go out and have a nice cup of coffee and a pastry all by yourself and enjoy the purchase and the moment. And you will know that what you think is good and right.
And BTW, even with a mouth like a sailor, I think I have a crush on Adam Carolla. Calling Maxine Waters a cunt on air was priceless.
3 comments:
1. Capitalism doesn't work, it merely creates and encourages a disparate gap between the haves and have nots. Pharmaceutical drug prices is one glaring example. There are plenty of others. BP posts 2.8 billion in profits and bonuses and raises all around after that fiasco in the gulf? There's capitalism at work for you.
2. What do you think is a very important question. Why? Three words. "We the people", the supreme law of your land. Everyone's views count, not just yours.
Zal, you obviously have not read my essay on the moral justification Capitalism. When you do read it, re-think the premise of your first comment here and we'll talk.
Of course my view is the only view that counts to me, because at the end of the day, I base my decisions on my own judgment. No one else has to live with me or my life, just me, so I had better make the right ones because the wrong ones effect me in a huge way, which means they also effect those around me in a huge way, and on down the line to those around them.
So, no. Not everyone's view counts. Because not everyone is rational or logical, and those are the only views that should count. Because as much as a Utopia of love, puppies and unicorns farting rainbows is attractive, it's not logical or even sane to think of as an actual reality. Nor is the view that you can make everybody happy and like you.
And think of it this way, you can always justify capitalism, profit and ability, but you can never, ever justify theft and thuggery.
"Zal, you obviously have not read my essay on the moral justification Capitalism. When you do read it, re-think the premise of your first comment here and we'll talk."
Oh, is that what it is? I read that post but parked it firmly in the fiction section a.k.a.complete utter bullshit part of my mind. Your account of capitalism was laughable at best and bore absolutely no resemblance to the reality that everyone else has to deal with on a day to day basis.
Here are some of the more outrageous claims you had in there:
1. In other words, a free market society in which the market defines the value of an object.
This is complete and utter bullshit. Large capitalist corporations control the markets and control the prices. Gas prices are historically high because of fear mongering even while we enjoy a glut and overabundance of oil in the north american reserves and within the market.
2. I have found most capitalists to be anti-greed. They see it as ruinous and dangerous to a free market society. And, they are right. Greed connotes backroom deals, bribery and outright theft.
This would be called "lobbying" and bribing officials to make sure that laws are passed in their favor. Big tobacco, oil companies, big pharma, and those lovely guys that genetically modified soy and corn.
Heard about your FCC commissioner that's jumping ship to be the new lobbyist for the NBC/Universal merger? Right after the FCC has approved it? No backroom deal going on there? How blind can you be.
What system has allowed companies to own and patent genes or diseases and prevent anyone from doing research or work on them? Yes, the capitalist system. Is it to make a "reasonable profit" from their work? No, it's to gouge people of their life savings to maybe ease their suffering.
Don't even get me started on HMO's in your wonderful capitalist system and seeking any possible way to get out of paying for what they're being paid to supply.
3. Unions are now irrelevant. Why? Because we have federal regulation that legislates the morality of doing business honestly.
I guess you haven't seen the working conditions in some of the slaughter houses in the very state that you work in. Essentially economic slavery. Does Smithfield get the law brought down on them for hiring largely illegals? No, gotta keep the profits rolling in.
4. Capitalism provides reasonably priced goods and services provided by fairly paid workers, who are then able to purchase goods and services from other capitalists.
What country is this?
Your ideals about capitalism are cute. Altruistic and naive, but still cute. They are, however, just that, dreams of fluff and bunnies, and about as likely to come about as the workers paradise of the old U.S.S.R.
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