Thursday, January 13, 2005
Peace, Love and Sticking it to the Man
I stand for individuality and freedom. I stand for quality and consider myself a warrior against bogosity. Not to say I never say anything bogus or to say I never act unoriginal, but I'm talking about what I strive to be.
First of all, I believe living in the Bay Area has changed me. The liberal attitude I had has been nutured and there is no one I know here who has the slightest belief that George Bush is the right guy to be running the country. I couldn't agree more. How did I go from rooting for Ragan in 1984 to where I am now? Some of it is being in CA, but a lot of it is that I feel I have been left behind by the powers that be. I am not important to them. Here is an example:
Last spring during a baseball practice in San Francisco my car was either broken into or just gotten into, on a sunday morning. My cell phone was stolen. When I got my bill a few days later I found that the person who stole my phone made 10 calls with it. I called the SFPD. I said, "Look at these great clues, let's fight crime together!" Guess what, they said, "we don't do that." They literally said that. I said, "You don't fight crime?" The lady said, "We don't use cell phone records to find stolen cell phones, you can file a report, I'll send you a form." The MAN is happy to give me parking tickets and give me a ticket for no front license plate at that exact location, which is which is within site of a police station. No one over there gave a crap that some crime had been committed within site of a police station. Maybe they thought this cell phone theft was too insignificant to investigate. What it cost me was like $75 and a renewed 12 month plan with my sucky cingular service. My point is, if this stupid criminal stole my cell phone and that is the ONLY crime he ever committed, sure let him go, but I bet he (or she) steals stuff all the time. We need to stop this stupid criminal if only to bring the mean intelligence of our criminals up.
So last night someone from the police calls while I am eating and wants me to donate something to some police cause. So I tell her my cellphone story. My wife says, "Why do you have to be such an asshole?" First of all, I don't like telemarketing and I want all the people who call me to be encouraged to get other jobs, and secondly I want her to know that I don't think the police have ever solved a crime against me and have only punished me for minor traffic infractions. The Man doesn't care about me.
This week I have come to the conclusion that mainstream media is also the Man. I don't know if they are corrupt or just incompetent, but I have decided that I can't trust the content I get. Does that mean I think the New York Times is the man? Not yet, I don't really read that one, I guess I should start. My point is, I don't think you can believe what you read in news stories on the net. Not when I saw the same AP story posted at 6 different sites I expected to have original content.
I'll admit that I believe that conspiracy theories and mental illness go together. I am not sure there is enough organization for the media to know how to tweak their stories to do something like support the war, or support Bush, but I am saying don't expect easy access to the truth. I expected easy access to the truth, I thought the net was a great place to get news. I am rethinking that.
So who is the Man? Certainly Bush is the Man. The cops who won't help me only fine me are the Man. ESPN's scolding of this week's individuality of Randy Moss and Randy Johnson is like the Man. Are the New York Yankees the Man? Do they use unfair regional advantages to finance their huge payroll? Yes and Yes and the Yes Network. Is Microsoft the Man? Kinda. I would say anyone with power who tries to force their doctrines on anyone else is the MAN. I am trying to rally people to pick up pens, not swords, because of course, war is the real enemy. That and bogosity. Stick it to the Man
First of all, I believe living in the Bay Area has changed me. The liberal attitude I had has been nutured and there is no one I know here who has the slightest belief that George Bush is the right guy to be running the country. I couldn't agree more. How did I go from rooting for Ragan in 1984 to where I am now? Some of it is being in CA, but a lot of it is that I feel I have been left behind by the powers that be. I am not important to them. Here is an example:
Last spring during a baseball practice in San Francisco my car was either broken into or just gotten into, on a sunday morning. My cell phone was stolen. When I got my bill a few days later I found that the person who stole my phone made 10 calls with it. I called the SFPD. I said, "Look at these great clues, let's fight crime together!" Guess what, they said, "we don't do that." They literally said that. I said, "You don't fight crime?" The lady said, "We don't use cell phone records to find stolen cell phones, you can file a report, I'll send you a form." The MAN is happy to give me parking tickets and give me a ticket for no front license plate at that exact location, which is which is within site of a police station. No one over there gave a crap that some crime had been committed within site of a police station. Maybe they thought this cell phone theft was too insignificant to investigate. What it cost me was like $75 and a renewed 12 month plan with my sucky cingular service. My point is, if this stupid criminal stole my cell phone and that is the ONLY crime he ever committed, sure let him go, but I bet he (or she) steals stuff all the time. We need to stop this stupid criminal if only to bring the mean intelligence of our criminals up.
So last night someone from the police calls while I am eating and wants me to donate something to some police cause. So I tell her my cellphone story. My wife says, "Why do you have to be such an asshole?" First of all, I don't like telemarketing and I want all the people who call me to be encouraged to get other jobs, and secondly I want her to know that I don't think the police have ever solved a crime against me and have only punished me for minor traffic infractions. The Man doesn't care about me.
This week I have come to the conclusion that mainstream media is also the Man. I don't know if they are corrupt or just incompetent, but I have decided that I can't trust the content I get. Does that mean I think the New York Times is the man? Not yet, I don't really read that one, I guess I should start. My point is, I don't think you can believe what you read in news stories on the net. Not when I saw the same AP story posted at 6 different sites I expected to have original content.
I'll admit that I believe that conspiracy theories and mental illness go together. I am not sure there is enough organization for the media to know how to tweak their stories to do something like support the war, or support Bush, but I am saying don't expect easy access to the truth. I expected easy access to the truth, I thought the net was a great place to get news. I am rethinking that.
So who is the Man? Certainly Bush is the Man. The cops who won't help me only fine me are the Man. ESPN's scolding of this week's individuality of Randy Moss and Randy Johnson is like the Man. Are the New York Yankees the Man? Do they use unfair regional advantages to finance their huge payroll? Yes and Yes and the Yes Network. Is Microsoft the Man? Kinda. I would say anyone with power who tries to force their doctrines on anyone else is the MAN. I am trying to rally people to pick up pens, not swords, because of course, war is the real enemy. That and bogosity. Stick it to the Man
# posted by Mike @ 9:58 AM 
