Idiocracy is Too Accurate
Anybody else see it? Get frustrated by it? Today after months of my dryer sounding like it's going to catch fire I went to the local Lowe's to get a new washer/dryer set. The poor young guy trying to help me was struggling. I'm used to that now. The young men who were damaged just before my son are entering the workforce now and trying their hardest. I get it. But, the first appliances I selected from the floor were not available. Anywhere. Then, the second set I liked...dryer is coming from somewhere far, far away. No problem. I can wait. But...I see this all the time - people trying to sell something that isn't available. People just failing to do basic inventory. I stood there for about an hour while this guy worked the phone, was put on hold for long stretches...etc. Then, I had a vision. I saw all of us bending over a tub and washboard. I pictured those big tv-antenna looking clothes hangers we used to have in our back yards at grandma's house. I think we may all be going back to that. I wish I was kidding, too. I'm down with it. I'm ready for a simpler, cheaper life.
On a similar note...I am not sure if I should mention that I found an area right near here that really reminds me of Galt's Gulch as described in our book. Washoe Valley. Place looks like a postcard. I'd put it 2nd behind the valley in CO that inspired it - Ouray.
On a similar note...I am not sure if I should mention that I found an area right near here that really reminds me of Galt's Gulch as described in our book. Washoe Valley. Place looks like a postcard. I'd put it 2nd behind the valley in CO that inspired it - Ouray.
Original price tag on it was in the $2,500 range and I picked it up at a garage sale for $50. I think the reason they got rid of it was (besides the fact it was the size of a Sherman tank) it would get "tired" and just quit after 30 minutes or so shredding. Still, one need not worry their documents could be re-assembled with that thing.
Washoe Lake was in some of the scenes in The Shootist. John Wayne's last movie.
The hypocrisy from Hollywood, et al, is overwhelming. Men and women are the same. Some people are neither. We can allow people to be motivated by sex, or behave if they are, but we will take advantage of the fact that everyone is.
This post made me connect the two thoughts. Idiocrisy was ripe with this in an obvious manner. All these new, popular, acclaimed series are as well...and five minutes later some college student will be keel-hauled in public for having sex with a drunk girl, who was probably wearing something designed to inspire lower body blood
flow.
Jethro Tull lyrics are a lot more reasonable about the way the real world works. Hollywood wants it both ways.
On the other hand it confuses the heck out of some of them if you hand in $20.35 for a purchase of $18.35. "You gave me too much," they'll say.
Also, at the flea market three weeks ago I counted change for a $5 pony ride from a $100 bill, and did it backwards. The dad paying for the ride was Mexican, and obviously knew exactly what I was doing. I asked him whether he learned backwards change here or in Mexico, and he said, "Here in the US."
Hope springs eternal. We meet the very best people when doing pony rides! Crummy people are not interested in doing something good for their kids. It's nice to hear parents telling their kids, 'Dile: "Gracias".' (Tell him, "Thank you.") And the little kid says, "Thank you," in English.
We see the same things in the sales pitch for socialist solutions to social problems. Everyone in favor touts how wonderful things will be, while deliberately turning a blind eye to the myriad historical failures of socialism.
Unfortunately, immature, uneducated (or properly, maleducated) minds always seek the simplest sounding solution, not having been trained to deal with a complex world. Capitalism sounds like black magic to socialists thinkers. When a proponent of capitalism tries to explain that the number of dynamic interactions among suppliers and consumers create too many degrees of freedom for absolute control, and it's better to let the market run free of government interference (Smith's "magic hand" principle) a socialist can't grasp how such a system can possibly have a positive outcome, because there's no scenario where someone doesn't fail.
What socialists refuse to accept is that all previous attempts to create a system where success is guaranteed, and no one fails has always ended up with everyone failing, except the controlling elite. Unfortunately, you can vote your way into socialism, but you usually have to shoot your way out of it.
How to put it generally?
Rigid systems always work as intended, until they don't.
Successful systems have flexibility.