The Answer's Right in Front of You

You look tired.

'I am...'

Tough day at work?

'Yup. God I hate my job. I hate my boss. I hate my life...'

Why don't you quit? Find a job you enjoy?

'Oh PLEASE. Not this 'Capitalism Sucks' crap again. How the hell would I pay the bills?'

You mean like your satellite TV bill?

'Yeah.'

You actually need 357 sports channels?

'Well...keeps the kids out of trouble when I'm working overtime.'

Ever hear of a babysitter?

'On my salary??'

Kind of a Catch-22 you're in there, huh?

'Here it comes...I suppose we'd all be problem-free if we lived in a communist state, right? Give me a break. We all know that communism doesn't work.'

Sure it does. On communes.

'I don't live on a commune.'

No, but you live in a commun-ity. Isn't that close enough?

'What, so communism would work HERE?'

It's worth a shot. It's got to be better than what we've got now.

'Oh, right. Taking away everyone's ability to financially better themselves. That'll fly.'

So you'd rather work yourself to death 10 hours a day, 6 days a week, for minimum wage in a job you can't stand, for a boss you can't stand, in a position that you already know won't go anywhere? You wouldn't rather do what you love for the rest of your life and not have to worry about making ends meet?

'Sorry. I'm kind of enjoying this freedom of choice stuff.'

Right. Gotta love that freedom to drift from one crappy job to another crappy job to another crappy job until you've become so numb that it doesn't even bother you anymore that you've forgotten why you originally started this charade in the first place.

'I know why I started. To live Happily Ever After and all that.'

You don't seem to be living very Happily to me...

'I'm working on that. My company's got a good retirement plan.'

So you're basically spending your entire life trudging through hell so you can enjoy the last 15 or 20? What about all the time in between? You're in the prime of your life, and you're spending it behind a mountain of paperwork all day.

'Well, I get vacations...'

Two weeks a year of spending all the extra money you've pinched away to travel across the country in a cramped station wagon with screaming children (whom you hardly even know anymore, seeing as you don't have more than two weeks a year to spend with them) is your idea of a stress-reliever?

'Just wait until you get out there. You'll be grateful for it.'

I don't plan to "get out there". The idea of doing what I can't stand for a living makes my stomach turn.

'Good luck paying the bills.'

Like the satellite TV that I won't have?

'Or the gas bill that you won't be able to pay, or the electricity, or the water...'

Who says I won't be able to afford those?

'Without a normal job?? It can't be done.'

Ever tried it?

'Sure. I was in a band in college. I paid my "art" dues.'

How long did it last?

'Two years.'

That's some commitment.

'It wasn't easy.'

I didn't say doing what I love for a living would be easy. It'll definitely be just as much work as a "normal" job. Probably more.

'So why bother?'

Well, if I hate my boss, it'll be self-loathing, and then it'll be my problem...and I could set my own hours, and I could sleep at night knowing I'm not wasting my life to make someone else's paycheck bigger...

'Ok, but like I said, what about the bills?'

Like TV?

'Jesus....what the hell have you got against TV anyway?'

In root, nothing. It's just that most of what's ON television is mindless garbage designed to distract your attention away from the real problems.

'Oh, so I suppose now TV is some huge government conspiracy, too?'

Who knows? If it were, we certainly wouldn't hear about it on TV. Instead, we hear idiot drones screaming about how the nation's youth is going down the toilet all of a sudden.

'You mean like the ones who cry about, "What about the CHILDREN! We have to save the CHILDREN! They're killing each other! And having sex! And doing drugs!"?'

Exactly. That's a much overused excuse (facade?) for imposing upon the rights of the general populace. 'Kids just ain't like they used to be.' No? Are sex, violence, and drugs some kind of new trend? Is it video games? Is it TV? Is it Evil Satanic Rock Music like Marilyn Manson, Ozzy Osbourne, and John Denver? Sure, it would be nice to believe that we could strike back at that which rapes our minds with a big ka-thunk to the collective cranium and be done with it. But let's be realistic. Kids have been killing each other, having sex, and taking drugs since the beginning of time. It's just that now the (continually yellowing) media has decided that it's some kind of mass epidemic. 'Violence!,' the headline reads, 'It's the NEW PLAGUE! Come get some while it's hot!'. It's become a fairly accepted fact that the majority of "news" sources in the world have long since become tabloids. The truth is, the media is a business just like anything else. They can't survive without your money, so they naturally try to show you what you want to see.

'Don't insult my intelligence. I know when I'm being sold.'

Oh really? Then why did you spend so much time and energy absorbed in the O.J. Simpson trial? The trial itself and even the outcome didnŐt have the most remote effect on the way people live. Or maybe it did? Maybe it was just one more step in the downright embarrassing zombification of this country. Other nations are laughing at America harder than ever before.

'Oh, you mean like the Monica Lewinsky thing?'

Yes. Only in this society would the press waste so much time covering the President's sex life, making the fact that heŐs a pig out to be some sort of sudden sexual apocalypse. The general opinion of him seemed to be that he was a sleazebag anyway, why should one incident make such an enormous difference?

'Well....it's on TV now.'

But of course! If it's on TV, it must be newsworthy. Praise the Box! You want to talk about "false idols", Mr. Family Values? How about the one youŐre melting your childrenŐs brains with, now that you can't afford a babysitter anymore, since you spend all of your time working for a company that's draining your local "down home" economy, treating you like a slave, and giving your soon-to-be braindead children no future except to work for the same corporation for the same low wages until they DIE, just as you're doing, all in the name of the American Dream?

'Oh, sure, easy for you to say...'

Yes, itŐs very easy. Probably because it's true. Denial seems to be much more than an overused psychological buzzword in America. It's become a way of life. That's scary. If we spend so much time pretending something simple, like the "myth" of foreign sweatshops, try to imagine what we really don't know.

'Oh now you're just being paranoid. If that stuff was happening, we'd have heard about it on the news by now.'

Really? Ever thought about how the things on television get there in the first place? Who decides what's more newsworthy, or, as I've already illustrated, more profitable? All of the major media (TV, movies, newspapers, magazines, software) in the world is collectively owned by less than twelve multinational conglomerates. ABC, NBC, CBS, what's the difference? The money all goes back to the same people. Nearly everything you see on TV is created, owned, broadcasted, and censored by the very companies who need this very system to survive. They're not about to broadcast information that would prove how corrupt they are, are they? So where's the "free press" in that? Where's that "healthy free-trade competition" that most Americans are so proud of?

'But it's true! You're perfectly free to just start your own newspaper or TV show or something...'

Oh it's just that easy, is it? Suppose I wanted to do a TV show exposing this national myth of "freedom" and I could, by some yet unseen miracle, afford to produce it myself. Who would air it?? If you owned a TV station, would you show it, knowing that by doing so, you'd be exposing your own corruption, and then you'd be out of a job? Of course not! ThatŐs bad business. And that's what the game's all about, isn't it?

'You sure do talk a lot for someone who's never even been out in the real world...who's never had the chance to understand how things really work.'

I'd like to think of it more like that I haven't had the opportunity to be brainwashed and beaten into submission yet.

'I find that remark very offensive.'

Good. People need to be offended more often. There have been far too many emotional safety nets put up in the name of "Political Correctness". I'll admit that it's not entirely a bad idea, but I draw the line at being called "insensitive" when all I'm doing is trying to be honest. Isn't that what you WANT? Don't you WANT to be told the truth?

'Of course...'

No you don't. You want to be told what you want to hear. You don't want the truth, because truth can often be uncomfortable, and you want to be as relaxed as possible. You work 10 hours a day -- why should you need more stress? You want to be told that everything that applies directly to your life is just fine, and everything else is in ruin.

'So, the point of all you're saying is that my satellite TV with my 357 sports channels lies to me. You're awfully bitter.'

I'm not saying it lies. I'm saying it doesn't tell you the whole story.

'Why just TV?'

It's not just TV. I already told you, it's newspapers, magazines, software, everything. If you want the truth, you have to get away from the global corporation that's inherited the Earth. Dig deep. Investigate for yourself. Maybe listen to those paranoid wackos once in a while. They might actually know something.

'Ok, now you're just being condescending.'

Well, I got your attention, didn't I?

'Well...'

Oh, sorry, out of time. Gotta end this essay so I can pass this class and graduate and get a career that I despise so I can pretend to enjoy the last 15 years of my life.

'Gee, where'd all that relentless optimism go?'

My TV ate it.