I just finished an article about the "used-to-haves." The people who had a basic job and could pay the bills on time. This woman took vacations and got pedicures. Now she's living paycheck to paycheck and feeling the desperation of not knowing what the future holds. She says there are many like her and they won't forget. They'll use their education and ensure their kids understand that they're not meant to live like the poor. She calls what's happening not a recession, but a theft.
I wear a yin-yang symbol every day to beat into my head the idea of balance. Every time I want to cause a scene or go on some shitty rant about the things I hate, it helps to keep in mind that I'm doing it from a pimp ass computer. Likewise, when things look rosy and amazing, there's probably someone shitting in your cereal. As a result, when I hear her message, part of me thinks her and her kind had it coming.
There are any number of things you choose to be persistently willfully ignorant about under the guise of keeping it together. How many times did she ask herself what it meant, beyond making her bosses look good, for her to work at that company? Whether she rode the slow burn to poverty or it happened “all of a sudden” would depend on how thoughtful she was about the idea that getting fired happens. An unpaid mortgage is firstly unpaid and your middle schooler hasn't graduated college.
One of the first pieces of advice from SCORE, the old guys who've owned businesses in town and now disperse their wisdom for free, was to get a loan. They said “leverage” was the way to get open and start doing business. Until you're open, after all, you don't have much of a business. I decided to stop going to them for help. I want to be in control, balance my ability and effort against what I stand to make. You can't do that from a hole.
But that's something easy like finances. What happens when you dig yourself a psychological hole? What happens when you're stuck on a loop about “the American dream” or “the importance of a degree” and you fail to see the reality? I think that plays to why we don't see a huge revolution. I think people are trapped, concerned with how it should be with no attention or capacity to understand their role in it. I was told “get a degree” and heard instead “waste money,” “pursue a job structure you don't agree with,” “impress people who don't deserve it,” “consign yourself to the idea that this is the best way to learn.” Lucky for me, I appreciated what I was getting into and balanced it against what I got out of the house.
The reality as it seems to me is that much of what we engage in is done for arguably “no reason.” It's what was already there. It's something to presently focus on. You're actually trapped, or feel trapped, and what you're doing distracts you from that realization. It's killing time. It's framing a “respectable story” to tell your parents and friends. It quiets you with a false sense of predictability. Desperation claiming noble sacrifice. Complacence struggling daily to look like allegiance.
As a result, the consequences are taken for granted. We don't see people standing for much anymore so, holy shit! That's why no one is standing! Your cog self in the wheel of the machine didn't care what the machine was making. You simply had your place. And your place afforded you comforts and entitled you with an opinion on what to expect. How you spin or why you spin don't matter as long as you're spinning.
No one bothers to expect exactly the
answer on the other end of the equation.
