Sunday Thought

Why is everybody a scumbag?

I think it started with Bill Clinton, who lied under oath. If the President doesn't care about the truth, why should I?

But a good case can be made for going back to Reagan, who legitimized greed. The baby boomers went from love one another to screw one another over the course of his Presidency, and our society has never been the same since. Income inequality began with his tenure, and now the gulf between rich and poor is so deep, those on the wrong end have no hope, they don't believe they can get to the other side.

But the 2008 economic crash put a stake in the middle class's heart, well, what was left of it. Not only did the bankers rape and pillage, they got off scot-free. Financiers encouraged falsehoods in order to get rich, that's what the mortgage crisis was all about, and the working man who was blamed ended up upside down in his house, if he still had one at all.

So no one wants to pay taxes. You see fat cats like Mitt Romney paying less than you do and you have no desire to contribute to the coffer. People flee to other states to avoid sales taxes and Amazon fights paying them at all. And you want me to do the right thing?

Doing the right thing. That's what the so-called "Greatest Generation" was all about. Even if it delivered no riches, even if it granted no fame, even if no one was paying attention, character counted, you had to live up to a moral code, which also included taking care of your brother.

That was the ethos of the sixties. Don't be too hard on the baby boomers. Yup, they broke away from their parents who they considered to be old-fashioned and hopelessly out of touch, but they instituted hippie culture, which was based on the precept that we were all in it together, that we had to look after each other, that we had to love each other. The older generation was stunned when there were no deaths at Woodstock.

But then the elixir that drove the movement succumbed to greed. Yup, Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead were all about giving back, Led Zeppelin was all about lining its pockets. And corporations bought the labels. And music became first and foremost a business, until it was eclipsed by tech and ran out of gas, because the best and the brightest abandoned it the same way white people flee when African-Americans move into their neighborhood.

Now the rich have flown. Literally in their own private jets, but they also reside behind gates or doormen and even vacation at different spots.

But what bothers me is the way lying has been legitimized. We throw our hands up at e-mail spam, it's something we have to live with. We're stunned when Target loses our credit cards. We never turn the spotlight upon ourselves, ask ourselves about our behavior, what we can do to make things better. And primarily we don't do this because it doesn't pay. In today's society, if there's no economic benefit, people are out.

The same way they refuse to sacrifice. That was another tenet of the Greatest Generation handed down to their children. You had to sacrifice for the greater good. But today no one can lose their job, no one can lose a step in order to help those at the rear. It's like people want to live in a museum, populated by record stores and book stores. As if they hadn't studied the Middle Ages and were unaware of the penalties of stagnation.

And even the states are in on the act. Not only do they refuse to provide infrastructure, with Chris Christie dooming a tunnel into New York, but they compete against each other to bring corporations to their states with tax incentives. Hollywood is no longer a hotbed of filmmaking, producers go wherever it's cheapest, bitching about piracy all the while. Huh?

And Elon Musk builds his battery factory in Nevada because that state gives more incentives than Tesla's home base of California. Screw what's good for workers, for my home economy. Hell, didn't that Facebook guy move to Singapore to avoid paying taxes?

Give Paul McCartney credit. Unlike the Stones and U2, he stayed in England, he paid, because he realized that without your homeland and your friends, wealth is nothing.

But the shenanigans of the rich and powerful have infected the rank and file. People feel fine having handicapped placards, even though they're fully ambulatory. They feel no duty to fill out forms accurately. And then, without million dollar lawyers, they're the ones who go to jail, because they don't understand culpability and intent.

And the goal is to sell out to the corporation, as if it were your rich dad, as opposed to a soulless entity looking to merge with a foreign enterprise to avoid paying corporate taxes all together.

And public schools often suck, so you lie to get your kid into a better one, saying they live with a relative, or you work the angles to get into a private one.

And once you've got it rigged, you want to shut the door. Pull the plug on public schools you've left behind.

Acts scalp their own tickets.

Legislators care about lobbyists, not constituents.

Political campaigns are about disinformation, who can yell inaccuracies loudest.

It's every man for himself in America today. And since those lauded in the media are shaving points, those further down the economic totem pole believe this is legitimate and do so themselves.

So today life is a pinball machine wherein you must be fully aware, recover from being banged around by the bumpers, and avoid falling into holes and tilting.

We've got no leaders, no one speaking to the regular people telling them to do the right thing.

Jay Z sells out to Samsung. U2 sells out to Apple, and then forces its wares upon us. And we're powerless, we've got no choice and no rights.

So when these fat cats screw us do you really expect us to be honorable? Even though Samsung never knocks on your door, even though the corporation doesn't want to sponsor you?

Of course not.

So it's the same as it always was...

"Don't follow leaders
Watch the parking meters"

Yup, Bob Dylan told us to wake up and reject those in power.

Today we emulate them, they're just like us. Out for themselves.

And the parking meters expire when one car leaves, another doesn't get the benefit of the overtime, the city sold out to the man who guaranteed revenue, and you're furiously pumping in quarters, knowing that if you don't keep it up, not only are you gonna fall behind, you're going to be kicked out of your spot, your home, your school. In a land of desperation, everybody's desperate.

Welcome to the club.


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