It’s Angry...But I Like It.

I usually don't resort to extremes when it comes to expressing a viewpoint or opinion. Cooler heads prevail "they" say. But sometimes, you just gotta vent your spleen. After all the hoopla we've been hearing about the now infamous "Wall Street Bailout", I think some bitter bile is apropos.

I generally loathe the corporate state myself as it's profits and the bottom line first, people second (maybe). Without exception, you *ARE* ultimately just a number and very dispensable. A cog in someone's - some thing's "economy". I formulate this personal philosophy on the grounds of some experiences I've had working for arsehole corporations - but more so regarding a good number of friends and some family as a witness. Here are some examples:

My two roommates, otherwise good guys, are "worker drones". They slave away at their respective jobs for very meager pay and no respect for their hard earned work. It incenses me to see anyone exploited, sometimes ruthlessly so.

Roommate 1 has worked for a local prominent amusement industry for nearly 20 years. He has no benefits, no respect (deeds not words), and makes a pittance in pay (under $10 an hour). He loves his job, hence his undying allegiance to his "masters". It actually took a MySpace campaign on behalf of his friends (thanks Carol) with me included to get him a very small raise. The most "reward" he usually manages to receive for "a job well done" is (I kid you not) a gold star pin or some el cheapo "award certificate" (printed up off of a computer printer) granting him a status of "employee of the week". That's about it. He even has to sign a "contract" of which he has to work in whatever capacity his employer sees fit lest he forfeits his eligibility for unemployment benefits. Of which he needs since the aforementioned "job" lays him off at the end of each tourist season when they have no further use of or for him.

Roommate 2 works as a floor cleaner for a regional nursing home outfit, a position he's held for a decade. He gets up at the crack of dawn, buses his tired ass to scrub floor after floor and still only receives less than $10 an hour. He hasn't received as much as a raise in years. If anything, his workload has increased. He's 40 going on 70 it seems.

My mother has worked for a local municipal outfit for over 15 years. She's the hardest and most dedicated worker bee I know. Foregoing years of earned paid vacations to dedicate her full energies to her duties, she was recently "rewarded" for such dedication by having her job (and her co-workers) jobs downsized. This by having a salary reduction as well as losing numerous accrued benefits. But at least she had some semblance of a job...still.

Not for much longer. Soon, mom (and her co-workers) will be given her "walking papers" as this bastion of local "fat-cats" need to trim the budget. It just so happens that my mother's job is a "luxury" they can no longer afford. Also...she's just a few years away from her retirement and pension benefits. Predictably, these are now lost. My mom is 55 and wonders what's next (yeah, she was young when she had me). I have personally seen how the stress and duress of her job have exacted a toll on her health and well being. She's been mired in misery and long suffering from the mistakes and incompetence of other idiots and fools she's worked for.

Like the Wall Street fiasco, she's "expected" to pay for the "bad calls" of someone who can afford to lose a lot more than she. But as what has become predictable in this "capitalism at ANY cost" society of ours, she will be the one who suffers. Soon, she'll be out of an occupation she poured her heart and soul into.

I asked her..."was it worth it?". Apparently not I am told - if just a little too late. It's not just the livelihood that's lost - time, the most precious commodity has been forfeited as well. Times she could have spent with family and loved ones but decided to pass up since "duty called" first. Now, "duty" wants her to pack her things and leave. How's that for The American Dream? Sounds more like The American Nightmare to me.

Personally, I have had good experiences working for private businesses and in the capacity of being self employed. I like it like that. THE SYSTEM as we have come to know it, needs to be expunged, reformed, or eliminated. What sounded like a hippie's tired wet dream just a few years ago now seems to resonate with clarity and relevance. Perhaps revolution is the new conventional wisdom. Think about it. Drastic changes have been predicated and instigated on far less. Even the astrologers are portending big changes to come as Pluto will be moving into Capricorn. "The God of the Underworld" meets "The System". Hell, get me a ringside seat for that spectacular! Just as long as I don't get singed.

It is in that spirit that I wish to repost this colorful, angst laden poem (not of my own pen mind you) that sums up what I and apparently much of America thinks about being shafted by "The System". Suddenly, the term "capitalistic pig" no longer sounds so dated and cliched. It sums it up nicely.


Jump

by Leon Fisher

Jump, capitalist pig -- the party is over!

Jump, because you do not deserve any bailout, especially with what remains of the taxpayers' money.


Jump, it is only right, as you have looted and plundered the land of your birth without any regard of the consequences for your friends and neighbors or the future of our children.


Jump, you rotten bastards in your three-piece suits, your wingtip shoes, your Rolex watches and your damned suspenders, you who threw good hard-working men with dirt under their fingernails out of work.


Jump, you stinking rats who lied to the American worker, who bribed and corrupted the representatives of the people to send Americas good paying jobs to sweatshops in Mexico, China, to India, leaving in their wake minimum wage jobs while you stuffed your pockets at the expense of your fellow Americans.


Jump, you bastards, who called it business when it was really treason when you sold out your Nation for profit.


Jump, you miserable scum, as you have destroyed the American family, forcing mothers to leave their children with strangers to make ends meet.


Jump, for having sold your fellow human beings into financial slavery, chained to a lifetime of debt without end.


Jump, for making Americas currency all but worthless.


Jump, for throwing families off their farms, for taking away people's homes, for the stagnating wages.


Jump, you bastards for influencing the foreign policy of America to make war in order for your corporations and banks to seize and control the resources of other nations.


Jump, for you have the blood of the innocent on your hands, murdered in the name of corporate greed.

Jump, you bastards, for helping to give us Bush and Cheney who would turn America into a corporate controlled fascist state.


Jump, you capitalist exploiters of humanity, at least give us, your victims, the satisfaction of seeing you jump, along with all the other Wall St practitioners of soulless greed and exploitation.


Jump!