Fear and control

It seems to me that this is what it's all about. The "ruling class" (or the aristocracy if you will) present you with views of their terrific world, and tell you can live like them and fulfill on the American dream by working hard.

And yet there's this oddity to it: in order to achieve it, you have to live by a set of rules. It's a false promise of course. It takes more than hard work to get there.

And by the way, these rules greatly benefit them, and which, in reality, are against your own interests.

Let's dive in to that a bit. We had the pandemic and everything about the way we worked changed for a time. Corporate profits (at least for the large companies that could allow for remote work) were through the roof. Higher than anyone expected, and in some cases record profits.

But as soon as they saw the opportunity, companies started trying to bring people back into the office. Where they can control them. You have heard phrases like "it's the only way we can mentor future leaders" which is utter nonsense. You had some suit types telling their staff they never actually "left" but rather this was a speed bump. And then you had the ones who told their employees to come back or simply find another job.

Several companies said they would manage to get everyone back through slowly changing policies until they got what they wanted.

There was one company that let the cat out of the bag, and said "when the recession happens, people will fear losing their jobs, and so they'll do what we tell them without argument."

Which is exactly what I said. Fear and control.

Look, I have no way of knowing where this goes. But here's a nugget for you: a fair number of people saw through the charade and quit their jobs as part of "the great resignation." Suddenly it wasn't about money, but rather quality of life. Some people might wind up back working for a company. But then again some millennials who went back to traditional jobs in "corporate America" realized that this was horseshit and I heard a comment that summed it up well: "I'd rather sell my toenails than go back and do this again."

But it goes further. Healthcare in this country is designed in a way that favors the wealthy. And everyone else should feel lucky to have anything. And in that same vain, the fact that insurance is tied to a job is relatively crazy. So you have to work in order to stay healthy? That's controlling you too. (Aside: a friend in Canada really couldn't believe how silly our healthcare system is. To be sure theirs is silly in other ways, but ours forces you to work in order to have good insurance).

And what of this decision about abortion? And states making it a criminal act? This is also about control. Tell people what they must do, and then blame other people for their woes. It's a huge shell game. It's not about life. It's about keeping us poor and in fear.

There's also this gun nuttiness that's rampant. It causes people to take out these frustrations and the rest of us can live in fear. And right on cue, some dumbass connects guns and abortions and says some nonsense about wanting to arm babies in the womb to prevent abortion.

So it's not about life?

And on and on. The military industrial complex is huge and is about acting tough on a global stage. And fearing some boogeyman … gotta stay big. How about if we spend less on that and more on, say, social programs to close some of this gap? No. If they did that, it would be harder to control people.