Oh Lordy...

Last week I had the "honor and privilage" of spending some time in my fair city's City Court. Not for myself, of course. I was there for...uh...jeez...I'm starting to wonder what the hell I was doing there. Supposedly for moral support for a friend whose kid was in trouble. Let's just leave it at that.

Anyway, on the two mornings I was there I got to see the dregs of society parade past this judge and I was kind of astounded. I've never had anyone sit me down and say, "Whitee, if you have to go in front of a judge don't dress like a slob. Don't chew gum. Take off your freakin hat...and what the hell are you wearing a hat to court for anyway? Leather pants? Are you freakin kidding me? Comb your hair, dumbass!" No one's ever needed to say this to me.

I'm pretty sure these people have logged in some serious time with their TV's...I know this sounds snobbish, but I'd be willing to lay down some money that they don't spend much quality time reading books. Even on freakin Law & Order, scumbags don't dress like this. I know, I know...that's TV. But hell, everyone thinks TV is real these days.

Then you have my friend's kid. The judge would ask him a question. "Huh?" "Wha?" Like the M-F'er had something else to pay attention to. Man, I wanted to put my foot up his ass - and I'm supposed to believe in non-violence. The next time he was in court he started giving a court worker attitude. Seriously, I wish they would have thrown his ass back in the hole. Little f-er.

I went webjournal on you to give me a starting point for today's sermon. How do we fix this explosion of stupidity. You know what's to blame? Yep. It's capitalism. Now wait...before you think I'm about to get out my Jr. Trotsky Revolution Kit...I'm not necessarily advocating for Communism - though I will say again that 99% of the people who put it down have no clue what it really is or that it's never really been tried. But I digress...

The emphasis on the almighty dollar has allowed corporations to do whatever is necessary to sell crap. Firing workers for short-term rises in stocks, pollute, break the law, steal from pensions, lie, and brainwash our children (who become adults, hopefully) with incessant advertising that appeals to our lowest instincts. It creates a culture of materialism. Dumbasses who have come out of the womb to be bombarded by brand names and shallow values will stay that way...as children, their brains become wired to value stuff. Literally.

You have millions of people in this country who are in desparate need to get out of poverty; food, clothing & shelter. And when you talk to them, you see that their minds, their priorities are on "stuff". And yes, when they can't even get that they self-medicate causing more problems.

When I say "self-medicate" I don't mean getting your groove on. I don't have a problem with that. Hopefully, tonight I will be going out and getting high enough to hunt ducks with a rake. (beer, thank you) But it will be socially...I will get up the next morning...a little hungover, but able to function and probably won't do it again for at least another week or so. It's not my daily crutch to make it through the day...causing medical & social problems which taxpayers will have to pay for one way or another.

So, back to my original question...how do we fix all this? I don't think going back to the Pre-Clinton welfare system is a good solution, it didn't do all that much really and I agree with righties who say it created a culture of entitlement. I disagree on what to do about it. Just throwing people off welfare & saying sink or swim creates chaos. It creates desperation and violence. "Those people don't have any work ethic." True. I agree. But having people with no skills to survive cut loose is dangerous for them and for us.

We don't have pure capitalism now. Sorry, Bucky, but it's true. If we were using real capitalism the government (i.e. our tax money) wouldn't be bailing out companies, giving tax breaks for nothing in return and propping up big business. It's fiscal darwinism for you and me, but those who have will resort to outright facism to keep their brethren from hard times.

If we're going to subvert capitalism, why don't we do it a little more for the common folk...i.e. FDR. But these jobs that the government creates should be something more permanent. More workers means more tax revenue. Universal health care means healthier workforce, means more productivity. Oh...and universal health care means employers don't have to pay for it...cha-ching!

People don't consider this because their Cold War-era Social Studies textbooks told them that this is communism and communism is bad. That's just a label. There's a brewery in Rochester that is worker-owned. That's supposed to be Communist- why haven't we attcked High Fall Brewery yet? Labels, my friend...they don't mean doody.

If we did all this tomorrow, would that fix my friend's kid? Of course not...there isn't a silver bullet for this problem. It wouldn't be 100% effective, but it would be a gazillion times better than what we have and it would create a better culture for those yet to be born.

Thus endeth the lesson. Where's my beer?