A WORKING CLASS POSEUR IS NOTHING TO BE.

Too many members of the American working class piss me off with their attitude.

They think that just because they have a flimsy tract house in the suburbs, are up to their necks in debt, and have jobs where they probably have to wash the bosses’ poop off of their mouths and noses every (really late) night after work, that somehow they are in the same league as the owners of their very short and tight leashes.

These drones are convinced that they will someday be in the top tier, running their own businesses, owning their own McMansion in an exclusive zip code, and receiving awards from the local Chamber of Commerce. They are utterly clueless to the fact that advancement in Corporate America is, more or less, a predestined and fixed game. If you are not a friend, relative, relative of friend or friend of relative to these pukes pulling the corporate puppet strings, then you will be kept in the same old position of subordinate servitude for possibly years on end. There is a slim chance that you will be noticed and considered for promotion to middle management if you are an asshole, but only if it is toward your fellow workers and not your bosses.

You will be dragged through their dumb ass company meetings, leadership and motivational programs, and functions where the employees are “voluntarily” enslaved to work in public on behalf of the company’s pet charity in order to provide good PR to the local community. In the end, you will not only fail to achieve any level of advancement in the company, but when the time comes to cut the fat from the quarterly budget, you will be shown the door, hopefully with a few weeks of severance pay to show for it. With a little luck, you will end up at yet another corporation, kneepads on at the ready to ride in the vicious circle yet again.

Keep pretending to manage those pipe dreams, suckers.

FAME. BULLY FOR YOU, CHILLY FOR ME.

"Hero-worship is strongest where there is least regard for human freedom." - Herbert Spencer

Who needs dictatorial rule and jackbooted enforcers when you can get the general public to remain obedient, passive and docile thanks to the Establishment Media’s well oiled and extensive fame machine?

It is liberating to reject any attempt to quest for fame.

The genuine artist needs to pursue pure creation, without any intention of notice whatsoever. What is important above all is the ability to be original, vital and relevant. Any underlying quest for fame is simply going to pollute the output.

Critical thinking needs to be instilled and encouraged at an early age.

Too many famous people exist nowadays whose only accomplishment seems to be achieving fame. This trend can only serve to sicken the future of humanity at large, since the only examples of role models for future generations are those with no relevant talent, accomplishment or abilities to demonstrate. Instead of achievement in science, art or any other sort of pursuit of substance, heroes and heroines of tomorrow’s world will be admired simply for the act of gaining media attention.

Don’t confuse success with fame. Success is doing what you want to do, no matter how much money you make or how many other people notice, save any. Success is creating something vital and worthwhile, and also can be the state of self-realization. Fame doesn’t care about if something is good or bad; it’s just a condition of false gratification, very similar to the highs from drugs or alcohol.

People need to stop mindlessly monitoring the Establishment Media, eyes and ears pathetically fixated upon the latest straw dogs of corporate idolatry, set upon the masses for the purposes of stealing hard earned workers’ pay and program ratings.

CLEAN, SOBER AND NEVER BORED.

On the evening of March 4, 1992, I drank two beers. They were the last two alcoholic beverages that I would have drunk for the rest of my life. In the months previous to that day as well as the time that soon followed, I had become completely drug free as well. Well, unless you count caffeine.

I don’t regret a single day of my decision. I had never experienced any sort of moment of epiphany when I had some guilty moral revelation about quitting all my shit; I simply came to the gradual conclusion in my mind that I was through with drug and alcohol use.

I feel that whatever works for someone to help with quitting an addiction, within reason, is something that I fully support. However, I had never felt any real need for such groups to be necessary for me. I’ve spent perhaps about 30 minutes in an AA meeting (at the behest of friends), but in the end, I wasn't interested. Somehow, it just seemed like I had eventually come to a conclusion in which I thought to myself: “You know what? I don’t even like alcoholic beverages.” To be quite accurately descriptive, I had finished drinking. No DTs. No jonesin’ for a drink. There was nothing even close to that stuff.

Family history may have contributed heavily to my eventual choice to go alcohol-free, what with my mother dying of cirrhosis at 55, my father staying drunk for most of the last 30 years of his life, and my brother probably heavily intoxicated when he committed suicide at 31. Perhaps the decision drew heavily upon personal health contemplations. After a bout with pneumonia in late 1991 that brought me down to a rather svelte weight of 123 pounds (at six feet tall), I began to take stock of the stuff that I learned about during my four days of hospitalization such as the importance of maintaining adequate blood oxygen levels. In time after quitting alcohol, I began to notice the difference on how my body felt. It seemed as if my veins were feeling, well… cleaner, actually. The new high was now to do without what was making me high. Imagine that.

Between the ages of 12 and 29, I had used or at least tried pretty much every narcotic as well as alcoholic beverage known to Western civilization. If I had to ponder the question of whether I would do it all again, I would be slightly torn on the answer. Although I don’t have any regrets, and feel that I have learned a lot about the wilder, darker and underground side of culture (thanks to 17 years of experimentation), I would probably have avoided all of that with only a slight twist of fate early on in life.

Artistically, I don’t think that substance use affected or influenced my output any differently than sobriety has done. I do hold the personal opinion that my songwriting actually improved after getting clean, but I can also write that improvement off to age and experience. I doubt that I would have had the discipline (or extra cash) to get into oil painting, even with the relatively low output of ten works total, had I continued drinking, although that didn’t seem to stop a lot of famous painters in history. (Well, perhaps in the end, it did stop them permanently.)

The extra money I have saved over the years, admittedly, is rather nice. For example, I can look at my Telecaster and see it replaced by several six packs of beer combined with hours blown away socializing in various bars and nightclubs and, well, not be playing the same guitar today. That’s simply a matter of personal monetary policy. In the matter of gainful employment, I can only speculate that I would be in a far less secure position in the work world if I had continued the typical habit of calling in “sick” following the then-standard all nighter (or, in my case, frequently, the two-dayer), that is, if I bother to call in at all and don’t become a no show for the day. The time I’ve gained back to pursue various endeavors of the mind and body, as opposed to simply sitting around and drinking with only some trivial conversation and lost sleep to show for the time wasted, has been a beneficial side benefit as well.

I don’t feel that I’m any sort of militant prohibitionist by any stretch of the imagination. What goes into a person’s body is simply and solely a matter of the personal choice of each individual. It’s what comes out as a result that might piss me off. That’s why I tend to be unsympathetic on any level whatsoever when someone uses substance abuse as an excuse for behaving badly. If a person is being a drunken asshole, it’s because he or she actually is an asshole deep down inside the personality and the booze is simply amplifying those character flaws. I don’t exclude myself from that analysis, which was probably one more motivation to finish drinking. I feel that I came to the ultimate conclusion that I like to be in control of myself – my mind, as well as my body - and alcohol, as well as other drugs, can pose way too much of a risk to lose that kind of personal control.

Ultimately, I would put forth that alcohol is just one of many unnatural substances in life that humankind has harnessed and embraced, and if one enjoys imbibing in strong drink then more power to them. On my end, I found out eventually that I don’t like alcohol in the same way that I don’t like certain foods and I am feeling much better without any of that stuff in my system whatsoever. Additionally, I feel much more mature and sophisticated without a social accessory which is perceived by so many as a symbol of maturity and sophistication. I’m never putting another drop of an alcoholic beverage in my system again. Ever. Why the hell would I need to?

DON’T FORGET… THE HUMANET.

It’s pretty easy to assume that the power and influence of today’s world is carried solely through channels of modern technological communication. The real change and progress always happens directly through the direct interaction between, at first, two people and then perhaps spreading to more.

In history, disasters have destroyed electronic lines of communication, and even if telephones, radio transmissions and the like were not operating, it all came down to the direct cooperation of real live people working together. It’s amazing what people can do when they know that, as a group, they need to work together in order to survive.

High technology du jour can be a wonderful tool in helping to accomplish great things, but ultimately, only people moving forth on their own willful device will actually accomplish anything worthwhile. The technology has never been, is not and never will be realized without us. Always place the people as the primary purpose. Technology should be implemented and utilized to improve and serve the human race, and not just to placate and pander to it with irrelevant toys and pastimes simply for profit.

The people of this planet are the hub of the very essence of technological progress. Too much backwards thinking is applied in this regard nowadays. This basic human network is the only true hope we have in the future. It is the oldest communications pipeline in history.

Call it The Humanet.

Let’s keep on developing and upgrading it.

LET’S KEEP ASKING THE QUESTIONS, UNTIL WE GET THE ANSWERS.

It’s time for a shift in the function of the American collective conscience, and that time is now.

Small segments of the population are starting to speak out here and there re: the steady control and exploitation by the ever-shrinking members of the ruling class inflicted upon the increasingly underpowered lower class. It’s encouraging, but not nearly enough to change the attitude of the people who are negatively targeted in this situation.

The working people of America need to somehow tear down the wall of financially motivated political doctrine that is gripping the entire United States like a prison of the conscience. Public policy needs to be created and implemented in the interest of the public at large and not the select group of individuals who are making a comfortable living out of politics, nor to the benefit of the corporate commanded money-grubbing power hungry political machine.

The challenge lies in the matter of communication methods. In today’s national psyche, we are facing, from the middle class on below, a syndrome in which half of the population are too afraid for various reasons to question authority and economic disparity, and the other half whom have conditioned themselves to believe that their opinion or input would make no difference and energy and time would be better spent on the survival of the self.

No matter who is elected to office in this or any other year, the fact remains that representation is for all of the people, not just for those who have won the election with the majority vote. We, the People, need to keep a fire under our elected officials, federal, state, and local, asserting our voice and our presence.

There needs to be a paradigm shift in the way that the American people drive and influence the policies of its government. The hired guns in the form of corporate and special interest funded campaign lobbyists need to be replaced by a surge of the public voice. Democrat as well as Republican special interests have well paid and well funded influence all over the halls of Congress, and none of this activity is remotely beneficial to the stability, safety or general welfare of the majority of the American people who are not in the controlling interest.

Face reality. Most of us are not in the same rigid ideology as those on the TV network political talk shows or the campaign rallies. Most of us want pretty basic things in our lives: security, privacy, safety, opportunity, and the most politically abused condition of liberty. Some of the conditions that guarantee these things require legislative oversight and some are better off without it. With practice, and as long as sensible process and consensus override mob rule, the people in the streets can eventually figure out the logical paths much more efficiently and fairly than the pundits in front of the cameras and the cash hustlers under the Capitol dome.

It’s not a pretty picture ahead for the typical American worker if people just ignore the warning signs. The middle class will become targeted increasingly by the controlling interests to get soaked in the pocketbook. Food prices will continue to rise, everyday necessary expenses will get more expensive, and revenue will be raised for the government coffers by extorting more tax money from the have-nots while the haves get to pay less thanks to their influence and control of the government. Jobs will continue to disappear and move into other countries. The perpetrators of these exploitations against working people will undertake these actions simply because they can. If the targets of their avarice decline to protest, or just continue to buy and consume as usual, then there’s no reason for the abuses to cease.

In the coming years, as the ruling class interests become increasingly desperate and clueless in dealing with deteriorating socioeconomic conditions, an iron hand approach to controlling the general population will become a more attractive option. Now is the time for the working class to begin to become aware of this not too distant future possibility, and work out a counteractive strategy to fight any such attempt to neutralize organized proletarian unity and efforts to intercommunicate dissent against various types of authority.

Under the conditions of today, the lower income majority of Americans are experiencing a condition of taxation without representation, while paradoxically, the higher income minority gets to enjoy the outrageous privilege of representation without taxation. This situation alone, of disproportionate revenue responsibility against benefit of governmental response, can be seen as a suitable enough reason to encourage and organize working class revolution.

The few of us who have been speaking out in an effort to get the American psyche adjusted to a new path need to continue and also extend the conversation. There needs to be an eventual refinement of the communication method in order to generate a wave of dialogue as opposed to simply a one-way message attempt. Speeches can be nice but only rarely do they instigate true mass action.

At this point in time, the current populace of economically disenfranchised Americans do not even need an organized effort to change the policies in Washington DC, their state capitols, or even their local government. They just need to get into the practice of speaking out their opinions and talking amongst each other about what is wrong and what can be better.

When it comes down to it at the end, the most legible strategy is this: every one of us needs to do what we can. Whether it’s simply ideas or direct action, many people can make a difference on just about every level of American society. Working people don’t need to just sit idly by, feeling helpless and allowing the ambitious few to dictate the conditions and future of the everyday lives of the rest of us.

Resolve to the goal that if you can’t get up and do something, at least start to communicate to those in your area of the world who are closest to you. Help those close to you who need assistance as much as you can. Most people aren’t evil or stupid; most of them in this country, however, are, for lack of a better term, asleep. It’s time to sound the alarm and wake some folks up.

DON’T WORRY. DIE HAPPY.

Really and truly, death is nothing to be scared of. Plus, it’s not going to be a hassle to any real degree. Once it happens, it’s not like any activities that were interrupted at the time are going to matter anymore.

Oh sure, sometimes, like a lot of other folks out there, there’s been places in time where I’ve wished that I was dead. The option is always there for self-termination (and as for any of those folks who think that it’s inappropriate to say that someone committed suicide or killed themselves, oh, fuck all those people, because in reality there’s no right or wrong way to describe the final act anyway). In consideration to family and friends who have chosen that particular route of self-induced death, I hold no resentment or even disagreement with their choice. I hold the firm opinion that the individual in question is the only party with the right to choose such an undertaking.

The philosophy that I’ve taken as I get older is along these lines: Y’see, if you really feel suicidal, then the safest and most painless method is to keep living, because life will kill you in a very efficient manner eventually. Still, I would be inclined to suppose that for many of us, in a world where very few of us can realize anything close to true personal happiness, security and fulfillment in life, most of us can see death as an mystery cloaked in our last unrepressed glimmer of optimism, which we will welcome like a ride home from an old friend rolling up to meet us at the curb in the middle of a strange and dangerous neighborhood. In contemplation of all that the trials and tests of life in this existence which confront us every day for nearly the entire duration of the short time that we spend in this plane, how can we ever reason that the next phase of the journey can be any worse?

SO, YOU’VE OCCUPIED THE PARK. HOW DO YOU OCCUPY THE CONVERSATION?

Co-ordination was not so good
But everyone did just what they could
Unarmed with inexperience
We had to use our common sense
- From Rats, performed by Subhumans, lyrics by Dick Lucas

So. People gathered in parks and plazas, marched, ranted, raved, rioted in a couple of municipalities, maybe even engaged in some sort of meaningful dialogue with each other. That’s nice.

The tough question that I must ask to anyone who will be willing to at least try to answer is this. Has the majority of the American middle, working and poverty classes come to realize that they need to somehow assimilate themselves into the political and socioeconomic conversation of the nation, which has been shut out to them for practically the entire stretch of American history?

So far, the answer I’ve been getting from simple extended periods of observation since the start of what’s been now referred to in many circles as the “Occupy Movement” is: Fuck. No.

Don’t count me in that equation, as the sentiments and awareness surrounding the Occupy Wall Street protest equals preaching to the choir when drifting in my direction. I’ve been writing about this stuff as well as talking about these sorts of subjects to anyone who’ll listen, both online and in the real life, and it’s been that way for years now.

However, since I happen to be one of those working class Americans that the self-appointed and reputedly leaderless faces and voices of the Occupy Movement claim to be fighting so hard for, please allow me the moment to educate for whoever has eyes to read a bit of hard truth about the so-called Average American.

Most people who could be labeled as “Average Americans” are barely even paying attention to national, much less international, current affairs anymore. Their topics of discussion in the workplace, bar, holiday dinner, front porch etc. usually deal with such heady subjects as the reality show they saw on TV last night or the raccoon that attacked their dog in the back yard or the big game last night or Scarlett Johansson’s boobs. (Come to think of it, those subjects I just mentioned as examples are the only relevant current events, at least in their minds.) Sometimes the subject turns to the latest round of layoffs or a neighbor walking away from their mortgage and getting foreclosed or somebody’s son getting killed by an IED in Afghanistan, but there is never any real wonderment about why these things happen, and these types of incidents are usually shrugged off as uncontrollable circumstances of everyday life. “Coping” is more often than not confused with “submission”.

Add, or even mix in, to the aforementioned segment the American citizens who have been seduced by the system to the point where they’re pretty much nothing but tools for the corprocratic wing of the American Dream Fabrication Machine, who have a couple of credit cards and a tract house with a huge mortgage and think that somehow they are inextricably linked to those at the top of the oligarchic foodchain. These are the people who are genuinely convinced that a more unfettered free market and less taxation and regulation for business interests will magically revitalize the economy and all of its current woes. They genuinely believe the pundits who dismiss any sort of dissent of the sort spurred on by the Occupy Wall Street protests as socialist propaganda or (perish the thought!) class warfare. In short, any criticism of the imbalance of wealth and political power in this country translates in their heads as unpatriotic national heresy.

These are only some examples of the types of folks who have not been reached by the message of the Occupy Movement, and it will be an uphill battle to try to motivate them into any reasonable dialogue in terms of contemplating the wealth gap and its subsequent economic injustices and unfairness among the workers and impoverished of 21st Century American society.

Also, I would not be too optimistic in terms of garnering any significant show of support from most or even any of our elected officials. Politicians have what seems like a genetically inherent talent at playing before the news cameras. If their role is not to be the usual preordained spokesperson for the corporate-friendly right, then they are going to carefully mince out a condescending statement about how they understand the frustration of the Occupy Movement’s participants, and covertly hope that it all blows over so that they can go back to being the same type of business jocking sluts as they usually are. None of these politicians are going to change their attitudes, policies or legislative strategies by one iota. That is, unless there is an ideological tsunami of dissent generated among the currently silent (or actually, for the most part, authority, society and media silenced) majority of the American public.

The true challenge, however, is in how to get through to the so-called ninety nine percent.

The United States Census for 2010 counts the current population at 308,745,538. Times one percent, that’s an unscientific estimate of about 3,087,455 Americans out there who are sharing the blame for the general fuckedupedness of our unbalanced distribution of wealth. That can be a significant number in terms of financial as well as media and cultural control. Many of these few million are, quite predictably, in various social positions that wield considerable influence and power. They can, and do, with glaring regularity, control the flow of information, jack up the price of food and other vital goods and services, and restrict the opportunity, health and general welfare and even the free communication and expression of dissent against the status quo.

Any true outreach effort will need to have a fairly equal amount of people at what’s been described as the 99 per cent level who are not only just passionate, but able to communicate and interact with others around them to the point that the discussion spreads as far as the next ninety eight people from each originator’s own personal space.

Is it perhaps becoming clear now that this type of sea change in the American psyche is going to take much more than just hanging out in a park in relatively small groups and talking amongst ourselves?

Hopefully it does, because after leaving those parks and plazas all over the country, and returning to your homes, workplaces, campuses and neighborhoods, you must try to get those people next to you in your everyday lives to realize that a lot of what is accepted as part of just another day getting screwed, abused and enslaved by the system of the privileged few does not have to be taken as acceptable, in any way shape or form, whatsoever.

Otherwise, without any real affect in that area, these protests just become a footnote in American history, and a curious political anomaly for scholars and sociologists. That would be a goddamned dirty shame.

IT’S THE RETENTION OF ASSETS, STUPID.

The American moneyed and ruling class won’t admit that there is a poverty problem in the U.S., even if the situation gets to the point that millions are sleeping on the street and subsisting on gruel and sop, and at that point they’ll be holed up in their gated community and mansion fortresses, ignoring and dismissing the issue entirely.

In the postwar years of the American economy, ‘round the 1950s to at least the mid ‘60s, the poverty rate decreased and things were a bit different from nowadays in terms of general opportunity and financial security. Folks could find jobs in many sectors for a living wage. Many could easily afford a down payment on a decent home from simply saving their money over time, and housing expenses were routinely around or just over twenty five percent of the average salary. If that wasn’t the case, entry level service jobs, attainable without a college degree or in many cases a high school diploma, were available as a means to pay the rent and survive. Rich folks didn’t quite get so concerned about taxes and such, because they realized that revenue was paying for infrastructure improvements that helped to make them even more money, and besides, they had already tried to overthrow the U.S. government in the 1930’s and failed.

Quality household products such as furniture and electric appliances were not only becoming increasingly affordable, many were American made and could be bought on non-predatory store payment plans as well. People had much more opportunity to save and many could depend upon some sort of company pension to supplement their Social Security upon retirement. Gains in civil rights increased though they did not perfect economic diversity in terms of equal opportunity and overall standard of living for racial and ethnic minorities. For those who were truly indigent, the Kennedy and Johnson administrations began to push for programs such as Food Stamps and the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964.

Forward to the Debtor States of America of the 21st century. The average American household carries about $10,000 in credit card debt. One out of six Americans are living in poverty, with a staggering number one paycheck away from homelessness. It’s only getting worse as the years, or even months, move along.

So how does the right side of the political aisle respond to this increasing problem? By employing a mind-boggling level of denial, such as the Heritage Foundation’s report, based upon circa 2005 data and charmingly titled “Air Conditioning, Cable TV, and an Xbox: What Is Poverty in the United States Today?”. I’d suppose that a more truthful title, “Hey, Fuck All You Liberals, Nobody’s Poor in the United States”, wasn’t as scholarly sounding.

Let's take a peek at this, erm, enlightening and educational research.

Ferinstance. Did you know that you are not poor if you have “amenities” like “a refrigerator, an oven and stove, a microwave, and a coffee maker…” and/or “ air conditioning, a clothes washer, a clothes dryer, ceiling fans, and a cordless phone...”? Somma them thar po' folks even have, according to the Heritage study's interpretation of the Residential Energy Consumption Survey (RECS) index, some kind of convoluted combination of "two color televisions, cable or satellite TV, a DVD player, and a VCR..."!

Gee whiz. Let’s just close down the government and call it a day! Everybody’s fancy and everybody’s fine! Your body’s fancy and so is mine! It truly is a beautiful day in the neighborhood!

What’s missing from this sunny Mister Rogers-based outlook is the fact that, unlike generations past, more and more people may have some basic household gizmos in their abode, regardless of income level, but on an ever increasing trend, those doodads will end up tossed out on the street by the landlord after eviction or sold in an auction for delinquent payment on a storage bin. Of course, you don’t count stuff like air conditioning, ceiling fans or clothes washers and dryers, because those will stay in the apartment that residents will be kicked out of.

People might be able to pick up certain “amenities” on an increasingly cheaper basis than the past, or get them as part of living in lower income apartments, but the fact remains that the income necessary to maintain day-to-day survival is becoming increasingly scarce. Add to this the fact that things like food, utilities and health care are on a constant increase in cost, and the Heritage Foundation’s bullshit-in-a-pretty-wrapped-package study contains far less relevance. This relevance is further diluted when you consider the fact that unemployment and poverty is much higher in non-white population segments,and in such racial and ethnic groups, recovery and sustainability is even more difficult.

The ways to reverse this trend of increasing poverty are not simple and are not cheap. It’s going to require more government intervention and regulation as well as fiscal stimulus, only this time, instead of funding Wall Street fat cats and banks, we need a return to the days of the New Deal and the Great Society, while analyzing and learning from the mistakes made by social programs of the past. And to get that funding, yup, there’s going to have to be an end to many tax breaks for the wealthy as well as an increase in taxation for the top percentile of income earners overall. In other words, the folks who will be financially hurt in their lifestyles by increased taxation the least will need to sacrifice the most.

Are the rich folks at the top of the economic ladder going to fight this type of government effort hook line and sinker? Sure they are, but fuck ‘em, they got theirs. Those who “have not” presently outnumber those who "have", and somehow the have-nots need to organize and fight for a better life. This means fighting for stuff like a living wage, affordable and available health care, and adequate aid for times when the ability to find and hold gainful employment just isn’t there. People in the lower rungs of the economic ladder want a temporary, not permanent means of assistance when needed, and a hand up, not a handout, despite whatever any conservative radio talk show host or oligarchy apologist mouthpiece will try to say.

Remember, voting is free, and besides, it doesn’t matter who wins an election. That person elected to public office is sworn to represent all of the people, and if they do not listen to all of the people, or act in deference to “insure domestic Tranquility” and “promote the general Welfare”, then We the People have the right, nay the responsibility, to get together with our situational peers and demand a better way of doing things.

Don’t just trudge around through your day expecting the ruling class to make it all better for you. They will be satisfied to see you quickly rot and die, because they will be safely tucked away in their luxurious cocoons and will not have to witness you, and as a matter of fact, they feel that they have the right to use you and destroy your body and your life in order to achieve their ongoing personal gain. True democracy is a process of correction. It’s high time that America’s working people rise up and correct the irresponsible tactics of today’s leaders and begin to truly fight for a better world for each and every citizen, regardless of whether or not your apartment has air conditioning or you were able to put milk on your breakfast cereal this morning.

EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE IN THE WORKPLACE. LESS BRAINS, MORE LIPS.

Hey, American Worker, if you really suck at your job abilities but have the God-given talent to be an all-star sycophant, the Establishment Media has some great news for you!

According to CareerBuilder, an employment website that makes money off of, well, employers, a survey of 2662 hiring managers found out that seventy one percent of ‘em would forsake potential hires who could actually walk and chew gum at the same time, instead hiring those perceived as being high in a trait known generally as emotional intelligence, or EI as it’s known for short to them fancy psychology type folk. Emotional intelligence has been under a marked degree of unrelenting criticism in that particular neck of the scientific woods, namely in regards as to whether or not EI can be an actual measurement of intelligence. It’s a relatively new concept, where the term "emotional intelligence" didn’t show up until the mid 1960s and models concerning EI didn’t begin to come forth until around the mid 1980s.

Generally, EI in any positive light can be seen as the ability in a person to admit and adapt to his or her own mistakes, cooperate with others, and manage emotions in order to be productive and meet various sorts of goals in various areas of life.

I would dare to surmise that the HR respondents to the survey, as well as the executives and managers of most companies and their respective departments, don’t see these abilities in quite that pragmatic of a view. In actuality, they are seeing the term “emotional intelligence” in the exact same light as a more traditional workplace trait known as “kissing ass”. In other words, those holding the power to hire and fire, and the corresponding paycheck purse strings attached, are becoming increasingly prone to foregoing actual talent and ability. Instead, they seek the type of workers who can’t produce or function worth shit, yet move along in the day to day operations with a big stupid grin on their faces, going through the motions and playing right along with any old fucked up policy that the boss hands down to them.

This trend actually makes plenty of sense. The unemployment rate is currently so high in most of the country, and a lot of people are practically killing themselves and each other to find and hold a job, any job. Employers in many sectors are now able to make potential job prospects not only jump through flaming hoops, but then lick the shoes of the hiring manager in gratitude for the opportunity to jump through said hoops. Top this off with the fact that those in the upper levels of companies, thanks to ever growing severance and bonus packages, feel mobile enough to move on from one job to the next. Under these circumstances, the tendency to favor shiny-happy apple polishing over actual skills can become potentially epidemic in proportion. After all, if the current ass-kisser turns out to be an incompetent fuckup, there’s always the next prospect to come through the door, in an endless supply. Sooner or later they figure that they’ll get it right, and if they don’t, that’s just an excuse for the leaders themselves to skedaddle to a greener pasture.

So, if you are out of work or looking to get out of the shitty job that you already have, keep in mind that your cognitive skill set now means absolutely nothing to a potential employer, and when going to any of the interviews held by the companies at which CareerBuilder employers are surveyed, don’t forget the knee pads.

THE U.S. ECONOMY. FUBAR AND FORGET IT.

"It's the people's business -- the election is in their hands. If they turn their backs to the fire and get scorched in the rear, they'll find they've got to sit on the blisters." - U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, 1864

Face reality. If you are not holding assets in the neighborhood of a billion dollars or more, the special interest whores inside the Beltway do. Not. Give. A fuck. About you. Your future chances of receiving anything resembling today’s Medicare, as well as your Social Security, is rapidly becoming set with odds of close to infinity-to-one. Be thankful, Pilgrim! Your noble sacrifice is helping to keep the Department of Defense solvent through the worst of economic times! Well, maybe not the veterans’ benefits. Those painful (and mediocre) defense budget cuts that need to be worked out as part of the latest debt ceiling deal will have to be taken SOMEwhere.

The already laughable phrase “job killing taxes”, at this point in our history and economic condition, is about as sensible as saying “teeth staining toothpaste”. The overwhelming majority of American businesses, especially the larger corporations, are not engaging in job growth now, and they are not going to do so in the foreseeable future, or probably well beyond that time. The game plan is clearly to continue to send jobs overseas on the cheap and explore technological innovations in order to do the same amount of work with less actual American workers in the building. Anybody left in the nation’s labor force still able to find work will be expected to be the taxpaying fund of the government, and they are not going to get jack shit in return for that revenue.

Ultimately, our elected officials will just let things run along as business as usual. Today's politicians, most not even close to a progressive ideology, are too weak-spined to truly take on the various corporate interests that are skating along in today’s economy with nary a cent of their profits going into the national revenue. For some reason, the job title and prestige accompanying it, or something or other, precludes most politicians from putting their so-called public service career on the line and representing the interests of working people, the poor, children and the elderly. Those rare few whom are truly walking the talk of progressive policy and do have the luxury of the backup of their local constituencies receive no support from their fellow representatives when they actually try to create legislative change, because their elected peers are too timid to confront the local loudmouths at home, regardless of whether said loudmouths represent the true will of the citizen majority, let alone the truth of any particular matter.

If the right wing of the political spectrum gains an advantage in the White House in 2012, let alone the houses of Congress, 2013 could turn out to be a year when anarchy in our society becomes a fact of life. There will be blood on the streets.

Personally I don’t condone such a violent possibility, but that’s what I see on the radar at this point. No one will have a monopoly on the bloodshed. It will be anarchists on the far left directly rioting in the cities and extremist domestic terror cells on the right plotting out one fucked up operation or another in the suburbs and rural regions.

The ruling class, holed up in nice secure gated communities and well-guarded mansions and the like, won’t care. If anything, such a situation would be exploited to clamp down on the lower income classes and their respective neighborhoods, and encourage the funding and resuscitation of such dubious government projects as COINTELPRO and a massive steroidal pumping up of the USA PATRIOT Act.

It might be a good time, now more than ever to take all of this newfangled technological innovation in communication and try to effectively spread the message that it’s not about anything close to lower-class entitlement abuse that’s sending the nation’s economy down the toilet. It’s the interests and cliques at the top of the nation’s capitalist caste system treating the remaining majority, from the middle class on down, like a toilet and trying to shit on each and every one of us for the collective gain of the richest one percent that is beating the working people of the United States down into increasing impotence in terms of overall political influence.

Get out on the streets, start talking about the world around you, and complain if you want to, because at this point, we’ve earned the privilege to do just that. Please leave the guns and bombs behind. If you want to really fuck up the program, it’s called non- violent resistance. Learn all about what that means, start organizing, and make it a reality soon. No bullet or explosive will match the damage of a national people's show of force to the targets that deserve to get hurt. Sooner or later, folks out in the working world need to figure out that the controlling hierarchy is leaving the majority of the American populace not only unnecessarily divided over various pointless dogmas, but also over and over again luring in the electorate to get used and abused, tasted and wasted, time after time.

PERHAPS WE NEED MORE AMERICAN CITIZENS TO STAND IN FRONT OF OUR TROOPS.

I had caught a phrase recently that for some reason was disturbing to read:

“If you can’t stand behind our troops, then feel free to stand in front of them.”

Really? What exactly do they mean when they utter this slogan?

Do they mean, like the guy who stood in front of the tank in Tiananmen Square?

Or perhaps the folks who stood in front of British troops in front of the Old State House in Boston back in 1770?

Are they maybe hoping that things would go down like the students who stood in front of Ohio National Guard troops at Kent State two hundred years after the Boston Massacre?

Is that what it gets down to?

So, I’m curious. Tell me, based upon that saying, what would happen if I, as an unarmed American citizen, walked up in front of one or even some of our soldiers and said, “I think that you are in two illegal wars that have been fought way too long, and if our government isn’t careful, you will be in a third before long. The troops need to come home and stop being used as expendable pawns of the chickenhawks and pseudo-patriots influencing this nation’s leadership.”

Or, what if I simply stood in front of them, saying nothing?

Enough with the rhetorical sayings. Let’s continue the conversation right now. What’s going to happen?

Should I look forward to a hail of bullets coming to my head, or at least a rifle butt in my face?

I’m not sure who thinks that it’s OK for a nation’s military to shoot at unarmed citizens, especially those who are engaged in peaceful protest, or even just engaging in freedom of speech or otherwise freedom of assembly or expression, but they’re not with the type of mindset that I want making any pertinent decisions re: this country’s foreign policy, or anything to do with its domestic policy for that matter. A nation in which we would live in fear of the iron hand of a military-backed regime is not the kind of place where I want to live. In such a drastic situation, I would be more than ready to place myself in front of the troops. At least my place in history would be secured, and future generations could hopefully learn about what happens when militant pseudo-patriotism runs amok and destroys any semblance of the true principles of democracy and human rights.

A lot of folks out there would tell me that we are already under the control of the military-industrial complex, but I’ve never really been the type to give up that easily on these United States. Still others live under the dogmatic phrase, “My country, right or wrong.” I’m more along the lines of, “My country right, and when I feel that it’s wrong, damn straight I’ll complain about it.”

Am I an enemy of the Constitution? No. Are people who assemble and express their dissent in peaceful gathering enemies of the Constitution? Of course not. So if anyone gets in front of the troops to exercise their Constitutional rights, isn’t that exactly what the troops' military ancestors and comrades have sacrificed so many of their lives for? I could only hope to literally stand in front of the troops if it only meant ending the disrespect of so many young people who represent the future generations of our nation, and preventing them from being spent like poker chips in situations better suited to the whims of isolated selfish interests of the rich and powerful than those in the interest of defending the true safety and liberty of a nation’s people.

I have a quiz for you.

Go take a look at an American flag flying on a pole out there somewhere, and as you’re standing there checking it out, ask yourself the following question:

Yours, mine or ours?

And yes, this quiz has only one correct answer. After all, the nation represented by that flag isn't the Divided States of America.

Perhaps, instead of suggesting how to be patriotic, we should be asking ourselves about what true patriotism means instead.

CHEVRON IS TRYING TO MINDFUCK US ALL INTO SUBMISSION. DO YOU AGREE?

No, it’s not your imagination, Pilgrim.

Chevron really is trying to get into your head and control your mind, yea, possess the very essence of your soul.

And I’m not talking about the cute cartoon cars, either, although one can argue that those lil' suckers are Big Oil's version of Joe Camel.

I’m talking about the wickedly insidious mass manipulation tactic that Chevron likes to call its “We Agree” ad campaign.

There’s no escape. If you watch any TV channel with commercial breaks, there they are. Thinking that PBS may be an exception? Nah. You will see the entire spots, same as the ones they show on paid TV, right before and/or after the programs on your local public broadcaster. Open up any of the largest daily newspapers. Oh, look, there’s a print variation on the TV ad, facing page bottom. Turn the page, and gee, there’s another half page ad in the exact same position on the bottom right of the page! And yet again, one more time, a THIRD half page ad, same place, same size, same “Can’t we all get along” brainwashing attempt. Don’t bother going online, there’s no escape. Click through ads on practically every major web site, and especially the web versions of the newspapers taking all of that Chevron ad cash.

Every televised ad has the same premise. On the right side of the screen, a “real person” who is genuine folk, outside of the sphere of Big Oil influence (or at least that’s what you, the viewer, are being persuaded to presume). On the left side of the screen, some paid executive or employee or something-or-other for Chevron. Each party simultaneously states his or her case from his or her side of the TV screen. Hey, Right Side Common Person is concerned with the environment. Well, hey, Left Screen Company Person sez that Chevron is developing clean energy alternatives. (Then they’re allegedly turning around and patenting them, then shelving said technology or using it in limited quantity to lower competition and keep costs high.) Big oil is making lots of profit, Right Side Common Person declares, and is concerned about that too? Well, hey, here’s a big multi-billion dollar figure to throw at ya from Left Screen Company Person to show how much that Chevron is putting back into the businesses that they buy stuff from! (Of course, that’s called “operating costs” and does nothing to explain why Chevron and the other Big Oil conglomerates think that it’s perfectly cool to pull in and accumulate billions in tax-break-facilitated profits from jacked up gas prices due to rampant speculation.) But, we need safe energy alternatives right away, squeals Right Side Common Person? Left Screen Company Person counterpoints, well, hey, Chevron’s pulling natural gas out of Australia that, like, can provide fuel to lots of people and shit! (And who cares about that silly tree hugger talk about fracking? Natural gas is totally safe to use! Just ask all those folks in San Bruno, California! Besides, just because drinking water becomes flammable, that doesn’t guarantee that people will die from it. Just don’t drink so much.)

Chevron wants you to recognize and respect their existence in your world, John and Jane Q. Public, and goddammit, they are going to make sure that you are seeing and hearing it from every corner of the planet Earth’s media that you pass through.

One who chooses not to keep up with current events, or simply is too busy with the necessities of everyday life to contemplate them, may not be wondering why Chevron is so concerned with their PR image, or care for that matter. Fair enough. After all, it may or may not be very important to note that this whole “We Agree” ad blitz was conceived largely due to the $19 billion dollar fine given to Chevron (thanks to acquired subsidiary Texaco) by the Ecuadoran court system for fucking up Amazon rainforest resources. The suits outta San Ramon are real nervous that this could somehow spill into the American consumer spotlight somehow, and they want to make sure that their share of your hard earned dough continues to get into their bank accounts via your filling the ol’ jalopy’s gas tank using their extortion-level-priced pumps at the local Chevron station.

Look at it another way. There’s no telling that Chevron’s sins of the soil could manifest itself in the American justice system sooner or later, especially if people take a good hard look at the company’s track record in the U.S.A. alone. As a matter of fact, since Chevron has no assets in Ecuador, it could likely be decided by an American court to go after Chevron’s money in this country after all, in order to satisfy the Ecuadoran judgment. We could well be witnessing the most widespread and expensive attempted proactive jury tampering attempt in world history.