(Brazenly stole from Batocchio)
Reader Esteev writes:
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Similarly to SteveFromUpNorth, I am a 27 year old male with nothing more than entry level experience who visits your site for it's insight and hilarity that helps cope with a freaky future.
About a month ago I was fired. I worked for the Catholic church. While raised Catholic, I do not practice religion of any kind -- if anything, I despise it. But, I was unemployed for a year and had to take something in my field. Anyway, they got rid of me on a technicality -- I didn't attend some nonsensical Men's Conference. Oh, and not surprisingly, the man who got me the job (a family friend) was forced out 2 weeks before, but I'm suuuure that had nothing to do with me. It really was a blessing, pun intended, because I was miserable.
Zoom to the present day and I am back doing what I did during the summer throughout college: painting, fixing, maintaining and delivering boats and I've never been happier. I was lucky enough to have kept in contact with my old boss and he was happy to bring me back.
While I have never been happier, and have a farmer's tan even George Washington Carver would be impressed with, I too am nervous about the future. While in my late-20s, living at home, working in a boat yard, I've come to realize that the world is tilted in such a way that no matter what I do I'll probably just end up painting some rich guy's boat.
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The value of happiness in one's work is not to be underestimated.
And for those who prefer their Tom Waits served musically, a little medicine I use to periodically kick my own imp of self-pity in the teeth.
Because however bad one's particular circumstances may seem at the moment, its nothing compared to:
Pregnant women and
Vietnam vets, I say
Beggin' on the freeway
Bout as hard as it gets
6 comments:
I dunno'. Sometimes I think we deserve what we get. Why? Cuz' we fell asleep at the switch. I was in the labor market from the 60's through about now. Starting in the late '70's with the ascension of the neocons, we deregulated everything, and applauded it. The result was the largest redistribution of wealth in U.S. history: upwards.
I was too busy chasing that neon rainbow. Too busy playing computers, having kids, cookouts, and grand times to delve into this incredible theft. I believed the propaganda and consistently voted against my own self-interests, largely through ignorannce. As a result of my not paying attention, my kids and grandkids are fucked over for life.
No amount of mea culpas will change anything. No pink awareness ribbons, no candle-light vigils, no bumper stickers, no blogs-- nothing will undo the dissolution of the republic that I witnessed and took part in to my everlasting shame.
The only way to change now is to take it to the streets. I was there for the Mobe. I was sthere for civil rights, and I'm itchin' to set things right again before the jackbooted fascists knock on my door.
I cannot apologize enough.
Denny Smith, you're right that my generation's pretty well fucked. (born in '88 here)
My question is what do we do? Our only skills seem to be with a joystick, or downloading music, or cheating on our homework.
And worse, most of 'us' don't care. I wouldn't be surprised to find I'm the youngest reader on this blog! Sure, some of us got excited for a minute when Obama was running, but now apathy seems to have taken back it's place after being temporarily supplanted by Hope.
So what do we do?
-SteveUpNorth
Steve, thanks for the postback. You "get it", so, I know a lot of others of your generation do too.
My great fear is that if you do not know the freedom we once had and ignorantly squandered, then what you see now you might believe to be "normal." That is the shark in the water for your generation--if you accept this "normality", then it's game over, lights out.
What do you do now? You have two very important things my generation did not have: First, you are in a position where you have nothing left to lose. Secondly, you now have the ability to instantaneously communicate and implement (the Net).
The former inevitably leads to action, the latter to immediate impact.
Trust me: you have more power in the tips of your fingers than my generation has in their entire body. Use it.
BTW: us "old guys" still have a few battles left in us, and nothing would please me more than to get back in the trenches and get some payback.
Lead.
Hey, glad to see that clip make the rounds - the music's awesome - and I like this series. Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger and Billy Bragg have further to offer...
Denny, the saying is that democracy is a system where everyone gets what the majority deserves. But of course, for those at the top the rules are different. And while I think the biggest problems really hit with Reagan, Congress during that period deserves an enormous amount of blame for agreeing to his horrible budgets and tax cuts. I'm not sure those can be reversed, because the plutocracy has gotten stronger again. (Personally, I don't feel the mess is my fault, because I was a kid then, and while I thought Reagan was horrible, I was too young to vote.) But regardless of any bad votes in the past, the more the merrier for fixing the mess now, right? Plus, I think your story might resonate with other people. I don't know if you've read Deer Hunting with Jesus or Tear Down this Myth (about the Reagan legacy), but plenty of people still believe most of the crap you describe rejecting. Your experiences on that front might be a strength now. Just my two cents...
B, "...Your experiences on that front might be a strength now."
Yea, I admit it, I'm like the reformed smoker: the worst person in the world to light up in front of.
STEVEuPnORTH: as to "what to do"?
If I may; 1st, get a copy of Tom Hayden's book, "The Long Sixties".
In the intro is a section entitled, "The Movement Model".
A "movement" (takin' it to the streets) is the way forward, and how movements begin, work, and die are well described there. It's your roadmap for the way forward.
As the unemployment bene's run out, the furniture sold, and finally losing the house, etc... is when, IMHO, the conditions are right for the "movement" to be born. That time draws near.
Gear up. You have the tools to do it, and very soon, the economic circumstances will give you the "boots on the ground".
This grey beard supports you.
Lead.
Anothe gray beard sounds off about the situation we're in:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acLW1vFO-2Q&feature=player_embedded
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