"Don't bury me, I'm not dead,"
--The Serpent and the Rainbow
I've been busy watching what's going on, or rather, not going on with my latest contribution to the fiction world. I've been watching it in much the same fashion as a spectator watches a train wreck with all the carnage that watching such a thing entails. I feel as insignificant as I am supposed to feel, and, for awhile, I felt the desperation that comes with that carefully engineered insignificance.
I'm hurting, dawg, just the way I'm supposed to. Congratulations to those who are working overtime to see that the pain stays. You've done a wonderful job, and I tip my hat to your efforts. For me, that book is a message about what love is. It's a worthwhile message and one that needs to be heard. It is my sincere hope that someone who needs to hear it, hears it, despite what's going on with me.
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The world is like Walmart. Walmart employs thousands upon thousands of people. Walmart is a multi-billion dollar corporation. The workers are like zombies. They are used to make the machine that is Walmart work. They are wage slaves--working eight hour days plus and making minimum pay. Walmart is a prime example of how the rich get richer and the poor just keep getting poorer.
The poor are taught to work hard, and be proud of very little. They are taught to take pride in what a rich man would kill himself for. When the stock market crashed during the Depression, people with wealth jumped out of skyscraper windows at the prospect of being reduced to poverty. Yet, the poor are taught that working their fingers to the bone has some merit in it. It'd be funny if it wasn't so disgustingly sad.
Recently, a Walmart was caught running a food drive for its workers for Thanksgiving. Customers were asked to put a little something in the charity box for people who work hard every day. I've read different perspectives as to what my fellow human beings thought of this act of 'charity'. Most said, that it was not up to the company to provide better for its workers. This is a capitalist society, and the company is supposed to spend as little as possible in order to make the most profit. There are the few that rage against the machine and this line of thinking, but for the most part, the capitalist answer is the one that stands.
In America, everyone dreams of being rich someday, even the poorest of the poor. We are completely individualized. "I" and "me" rule us. The capitalist answer to the question of why Walmart is allowed to treat its workers so poorly is a simple one for "I" and "me". One day, if "I" work hard enough, "I" will benefit from what Walmart is benefiting from now. One day "I" will be a superior being, and the masses will tremble before "me".
It's a sad and sorry state of affairs, really. Rich vs. Poor. White vs. Black. Straight vs. Gay. Walmart vs. Humanity.
Humanity is losing in favor of the big payout in the end that's only going to happen for a very few people in reality. Those few will be the tyrannical overlords who control all the rest. And everyone is hoping, working, sweating for a tyrannic overlord button. Soooo... "fuck the Walmart workers, they should get better jobs with their broke asses".
_____
Every once in a great while, among the bullshit that gets published, I find a book worthy of reviewing. I've found such a book. If the author allows it, I'll review it here next time I post.
And the Song of the Day is:
Queen's, Somebody to Love
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