Thursday, January 1, 2015

The Deuce...RISES!

   So I'm talking to the Buddha and I say, "Yo G! Like, what's the meaning of life, know wha I'm sayin'?"
   Buddha stares into my soul with those limpid pools of wisdom us mortals call eyes and he answers, "Live, my son. Just live."
   "Really?", I say. "That's all? Just...live?"
   He assumed the yoga pose 'dachshound sniffing self' and replied. "WORD!"

   I've been on a two year long sabbatical since my last post. After "my" America re-elected Barrack I knew my world view needed an intensive reexamination since I clearly was clueless as to how the world really worked. I'd like to report that I've got it all figured out now, but that would be juuuuuust a  bit of an exaggeration. I, maybe, have like 27% of it figured. Still, I like to think I'm somewhat further down the path to enlightenment than I was.

   For my own sanity I reduced my consumption of news and politics by a significant amount...and I discovered that that is not an easy thing to do. Both because of my own addiction to it (I've been a news/politics junkie since I was a kid) and because politics is ubiquitous in American society.

   To get away from politics I stopped watching FoxNews, CNN and other 24 hour news outlets. I replaced them with ESPN and CNBC. Guess what? They've got a lot of politics too.
 
   The talking heads on ESPN love it when there's blood in the water. Like their brethren in the news business they're first into the breach when there's enemies of progressive multi-culturalsim to be destroyed and new champions of progressivism to be deified. From the self-immolation of L.A. Clippers owner Donald Sterling over racist comments to the attempted destruction of Heisman trophy winner Johnny 'Football' Manzeil for taking some money for signing autographs, rubbing his thumb over his finger tips in the "cash money" gesture and generally acting like one of a thousand black athletes instead of the east Texas peckerwood he is. ESPN is all over the Washington Redskins name controversy (more racism) and the NFL drafting it's first openly gay player, Michael Sam from the U. of Missouri.
   CNBC is about business news, but business and politics are closer than the Kardasian girls are to their plastic surgeons. The two richest counties in the U.S. are suburbs of D.C. in northern Virginia. Not the upper east side of Manhattan. Not Silicon Valley. Not the gold coast of Long Island nor even the Hamptons. Northern Virginia. Why there? 'Cause that's where the money is sucker! All those other areas of the country can talk millions, even billions, but only Washington can talk trillions of dollars. And there are a hell of a lot of people living in northern Virginia who make their money working for Wall Street and Silicon Valley and big pharma and big oil, and they make it by talking senators and representatives and the White House into giving big chunks of those trillions to their clients. Tax breaks, research grants, zero-interest loans, government contacts, bail outs...all up for grabs.
   If you think love makes the world go around you're delusional. Money makes the world go around. And if you think you're a thinking, sensing feeling human being making rational decisions that best make your life orderly, prosperous and fulfilling...well you've been terribly misinformed. You, my good friend, are a full-time consumer and a part-time voter. You will buy what you're told to buy and vote for whom you're told to vote for. Choice is but an illusion.
   Uplifting stuff, huh? I remember taking the red pill of reality like Neo, but it seems even that was just another trick of the Matrix and I, maybe all of us, are still asleep while powers more ominous than we dare to imagine continue to feed us the soylent green while they suck the wealth and freedom out of us.
   However, not all is lost. I got married after 21 years of bachelorhood. Love may not make the world go around but it sure makes home life better. My wife is a constant reminder that there is still good in the world...and that nobody likes a crotchety old man for very long. Also, countless hours watching CNBC and reading a dozen financial/business blogs has been most enlightening as regards wealth and those who seek it.
       The stock market may be the biggest racket I've ever encountered...