DO NOT READ if you're prone to offense. I don't seek to flame or be flamed, just something I think about.
So my mind works in strange logistics and I spend a lot of time thinking in taboo. More and more things "corporate" just irk me to no end. I was able to avoid most of it in school, but after getting a job and placed in the industry, it is inescapable.
True, I could have worked for a smaller engineering firm, but they are quite a bit harder to get into without personal references; and believe it or not it isn't too easy to get an engineering job as a white male thanks to the new corporate buzzword--"diversity"(*), so I took the first job available to me.
Back in September I was invited to a "personal meeting" with the CEO. (At the end of the fiscal year, september, he invites a "random cross-sectional view of the employment body" of 20 people to a meeting, so it was by no accomplishment good or bad of mine). Now don't get me wrong, the CEO was a very personable character, and would rival Nathan's skills among a crowd of his own peers... but ever since that meeting and listening to the language he was using, I CANNOT trust anything that comes from corporate level management anymore. It was so impersonal, so fake, so elusive, and used a lot of words to accomplish a lot of NOTHING.
I only picture them in meeting rooms laughing, talking, scheming... similar to what any of us might do in a hotel room prior to a concert. Only instead of being related to the evening's events and fun banter between metalheads, it's talking about how to make a bigger share of profits for themselves, how they can "more efficiently" run the company (ie: what new ploys can they market, or what kinds of benefits can they trim), etc...
So that always makes me think. I think of the "sheep" we are. I think of how we walk into their crappy schemes... either unknowingly, or justifying it to ourselves somehow.
As an example, let us look at gas prices. (shush! this isn't just a thread for me to bitch about oil!
) Well after Katrina (after prices had "stabilized" back to normal) I went and decided to do a little neurotic research... I went and found gas price fluctuations while George was in office... and then as best data I could find as far back as I could find. I then found an inflation website (http://inflationdata.com). After doing some calculation, I found it funny that gas inflation always seemed to ride higher than "inflation". In 1980 when Reagan taxed (or did something extreme to gas prices, maybe someone around back then can fill me in more?) gas capped out at about 2.90/gal ... a rather far cry from the 3.30/gal I saw here during Katrina. Even during the Gulf War "crisis" they barely breached 2.00/gal!
(all prices adjusted for inflation)
And how it seems to come from the top... good ol Georgy boy. I really despise that man. Don't get me wrong, I hate all politicians, but George goes that extra mile to show his indifference towards his fellow citizens. He is in business to be in business, not to be a leader of his people. How insensitive can a person be?
Now, I do tend to like the "freedoms" I have in the USA, but many times I think those freedoms are only there so long as you follow the crowd. Sure you're free to speak... so long as you speak in a publicly acceptable manner. Sure you've freedom of religion...so long as you don't ask for your religious holidays off, but observe those that are given to you. Sure you have freedom of choice... so long as you choose to die for your country if they so ask you. But many times I find myself not too proud to be an american when I see all kinds of problems here that can't be fixed. And I don't mean just things like "poverty", "hunger" and yada yada. But things like... WHY THE FUCK are we throwing tons and tons of money on a useless war (in my book, "war" is by definition, useless. not to be confused with fighting, though.) when we COULD be educating people and wouldn't need to have to import so much technical skills or outsource so much work.
Now here's where it's going to get vile.
How many of you have heard of those kidnapped in the middle east and were executed as infidels or what have you? I suspect most of you. How many of you have SEEN any of the videos these "heroic" terrorists' executions? I don't mean doctored for TV ones or even explicit TV ones where you might see blood on a knife after hearing someone scream in pain. I mean the ACTUAL videos of their hostages being beheaded. It's brutal, it's inhuman, it's psychotic, and it's certainly uncivilized. (I have dozens of them for anybody not believing me).
BUT!! How many of you have heard of ANY hostages being saved? Personally, I have heard of NONE. I do not cling to every news story, so if someone can point me to a story that says otherwise, I would appreciate it and back down my passion a bit.
What do you make of that? Here you have children begging their dad to come help them, and dad just sits by idly and does nothing. No special ops group, no nothing... unless I suppose if it were a big name politician, then maybe? What kind of fucking father does that? If it happened literally with dad/children in the country here, you'd have every legal system crunching down on that. But as a country, we apparently feel no need to protect those citizens not currently living here?
And I often think "What would happen if I were there and were held hostage?" "What would I do in that given situation?"
I would NOT beg for my life, though I don't think there is any way I could mentally prepare for what was going to happen. I would, however, do all I could to show my disgust with the country's lack of efforts to do anything for me other than raise the price of gas to crank up their bank accounts. Or how untrustworthy I felt the government was... Here is someone serving the country by doing what is generally socially accepted as a common good, and dying not for what they believe in, but after months of being humiliated, tortured and starved by a rogue terrorist group to be sacrificed to their God.
Sometimes it's just too much and I feel very emotional and unnerved at how we can easily dismiss our leader(s) as being just typical leadership, and overlook the extreme dishonor being done to our fellow citizens.
I'm starting to lose focus as so many things run into my mind, so I'll end there and hope that at least one person out there understands my logistics about these misdeeds.
--------------------
*some companies, including mine, Rockwell Collins, put tags like "diversity focus" on new hire positions... which means (and yes, it was a hiring manager that told me this) that their FIRST choice from a group of candidates for the position MUST be female or minority. Nothing at all against any female or any minority (except elvis impersonators... gawd damn they drive me crazy), but that sounds a LOT to me like "instituitionalized discrimination"
So my mind works in strange logistics and I spend a lot of time thinking in taboo. More and more things "corporate" just irk me to no end. I was able to avoid most of it in school, but after getting a job and placed in the industry, it is inescapable.
True, I could have worked for a smaller engineering firm, but they are quite a bit harder to get into without personal references; and believe it or not it isn't too easy to get an engineering job as a white male thanks to the new corporate buzzword--"diversity"(*), so I took the first job available to me.
Back in September I was invited to a "personal meeting" with the CEO. (At the end of the fiscal year, september, he invites a "random cross-sectional view of the employment body" of 20 people to a meeting, so it was by no accomplishment good or bad of mine). Now don't get me wrong, the CEO was a very personable character, and would rival Nathan's skills among a crowd of his own peers... but ever since that meeting and listening to the language he was using, I CANNOT trust anything that comes from corporate level management anymore. It was so impersonal, so fake, so elusive, and used a lot of words to accomplish a lot of NOTHING.
I only picture them in meeting rooms laughing, talking, scheming... similar to what any of us might do in a hotel room prior to a concert. Only instead of being related to the evening's events and fun banter between metalheads, it's talking about how to make a bigger share of profits for themselves, how they can "more efficiently" run the company (ie: what new ploys can they market, or what kinds of benefits can they trim), etc...
So that always makes me think. I think of the "sheep" we are. I think of how we walk into their crappy schemes... either unknowingly, or justifying it to ourselves somehow.
As an example, let us look at gas prices. (shush! this isn't just a thread for me to bitch about oil!
) Well after Katrina (after prices had "stabilized" back to normal) I went and decided to do a little neurotic research... I went and found gas price fluctuations while George was in office... and then as best data I could find as far back as I could find. I then found an inflation website (http://inflationdata.com). After doing some calculation, I found it funny that gas inflation always seemed to ride higher than "inflation". In 1980 when Reagan taxed (or did something extreme to gas prices, maybe someone around back then can fill me in more?) gas capped out at about 2.90/gal ... a rather far cry from the 3.30/gal I saw here during Katrina. Even during the Gulf War "crisis" they barely breached 2.00/gal!(all prices adjusted for inflation)
And how it seems to come from the top... good ol Georgy boy. I really despise that man. Don't get me wrong, I hate all politicians, but George goes that extra mile to show his indifference towards his fellow citizens. He is in business to be in business, not to be a leader of his people. How insensitive can a person be?
Now, I do tend to like the "freedoms" I have in the USA, but many times I think those freedoms are only there so long as you follow the crowd. Sure you're free to speak... so long as you speak in a publicly acceptable manner. Sure you've freedom of religion...so long as you don't ask for your religious holidays off, but observe those that are given to you. Sure you have freedom of choice... so long as you choose to die for your country if they so ask you. But many times I find myself not too proud to be an american when I see all kinds of problems here that can't be fixed. And I don't mean just things like "poverty", "hunger" and yada yada. But things like... WHY THE FUCK are we throwing tons and tons of money on a useless war (in my book, "war" is by definition, useless. not to be confused with fighting, though.) when we COULD be educating people and wouldn't need to have to import so much technical skills or outsource so much work.
Now here's where it's going to get vile.
How many of you have heard of those kidnapped in the middle east and were executed as infidels or what have you? I suspect most of you. How many of you have SEEN any of the videos these "heroic" terrorists' executions? I don't mean doctored for TV ones or even explicit TV ones where you might see blood on a knife after hearing someone scream in pain. I mean the ACTUAL videos of their hostages being beheaded. It's brutal, it's inhuman, it's psychotic, and it's certainly uncivilized. (I have dozens of them for anybody not believing me).
BUT!! How many of you have heard of ANY hostages being saved? Personally, I have heard of NONE. I do not cling to every news story, so if someone can point me to a story that says otherwise, I would appreciate it and back down my passion a bit.
What do you make of that? Here you have children begging their dad to come help them, and dad just sits by idly and does nothing. No special ops group, no nothing... unless I suppose if it were a big name politician, then maybe? What kind of fucking father does that? If it happened literally with dad/children in the country here, you'd have every legal system crunching down on that. But as a country, we apparently feel no need to protect those citizens not currently living here?
And I often think "What would happen if I were there and were held hostage?" "What would I do in that given situation?"
I would NOT beg for my life, though I don't think there is any way I could mentally prepare for what was going to happen. I would, however, do all I could to show my disgust with the country's lack of efforts to do anything for me other than raise the price of gas to crank up their bank accounts. Or how untrustworthy I felt the government was... Here is someone serving the country by doing what is generally socially accepted as a common good, and dying not for what they believe in, but after months of being humiliated, tortured and starved by a rogue terrorist group to be sacrificed to their God.
Sometimes it's just too much and I feel very emotional and unnerved at how we can easily dismiss our leader(s) as being just typical leadership, and overlook the extreme dishonor being done to our fellow citizens.
I'm starting to lose focus as so many things run into my mind, so I'll end there and hope that at least one person out there understands my logistics about these misdeeds.
--------------------
*some companies, including mine, Rockwell Collins, put tags like "diversity focus" on new hire positions... which means (and yes, it was a hiring manager that told me this) that their FIRST choice from a group of candidates for the position MUST be female or minority. Nothing at all against any female or any minority (except elvis impersonators... gawd damn they drive me crazy), but that sounds a LOT to me like "instituitionalized discrimination"
