Red with Envy

Hello, and welcome to the Eric News Network, bringing you all the news and completely biased commentary from my haze of a life.  In case you’ve been out of the loop, the ENN has been inactive for the past few months because of unforeseen changes in my drinking pattern, which has gone from casual social to kill the pain before it kills you.  OK, maybe it’s not that bad, but I can’t remember anything that happened before I woke up from my last binge so how would I know?  Anyways, I’m reporting to you today from the major cause of my recent spike in B.A.L., my job.  You’ve probably heard all the gruesome details so for those few of you who are uninformed, I’ll sum it up in one short sentence: My bosses suck major donkey dick.  You see, Pat, if your yearly salary triples that of a broke-ass college student you have no right to talk to him about money problems.  Thanks, John [flicks off security camera].  Now, I didn’t do that last part just to piss off my boss, should she happen to watch the security tapes.  I did it to prove a point.  Should my boss happen to see that, she would be very pissed off.  The reason why is more elusive than you would think.  It’s not because I’m being disrespectful, it’s because she’s scared.  You see, in this country money=power.  She has become very comfortable with this equation and enjoys her power over those who have less money than she, i.e. her employees.  If you don’t believe me, just take a look at me.  I hate kissing fuckhead customers’ asses all day long for her, but I do it because I need her money.  She, therefore, has control of my actions because of this.  The only problem is that I realize and lament this.  My lament is embodied in my attitude of casual hate towards the people I view as the cause of it.  Most people in my same position casually accept their fate, but I resist it.  I refuse to completely give in, and this shatters my boss’ illusion of complete control.  That is why she is angry.  My point is that money is nothing but control.  In theory, it is a way of motivation, a way to keep all the gears of a successful society running as they should.  But those who realize this learn how to manipulate it, and class separation is born.  You have the wealthy, using their wealth as a piece of cheese at the end of a stick that’s tied to the back of the mouse that is the rest of society.  The middle class tries as it might to get the cheese, but it’s always out of reach.  The lower class tries, but realizes the setbacks that prevent them from actually getting the cheese.  They more or less strive for the hope that their children might chase the cheese in the middle class and maybe, just maybe, their grandchildren or their children just might get that elusive piece of cheese.  Then you have the scattered people such as myself who say fuck that cheese, there must be some better smelling cheese out there.  Now you may say that’s America for ya, but I say no, that reminds me of somewhere else.  Now this place is really taboo in American culture, and has been since the 40’s.  It had another system of economy that was run by enticing its citizens with promises.  There was a slight difference.  In America we motivate our citizens with the prospect of becoming rich, what I like to call greatness of one.  In this place they stressed the greatness of the country, or motherland.  Their economy was controlled by the elite, aristocrats and corrupt government officials.  There was hope of becoming one of these elite, but only by becoming a particularly impressive pawn, and even then you’d be nothing more than a very rich pawn.  Here in America, you can’t get rich without bringing in revenue for the big guys.  There’s this little something called taxes, ring a bell?  And we all know the more you make the more Uncle Sam makes.  No matter how much money you make America’s wealth increases proportionately.  In this other place, there was massive class separation.  There were the aforementioned elite, and under them were their rich pawns who aspired to become one of them.  Then there were the laborers, who were born into a world of toiling for their well being and could only hope to provide a better life for their children than their ancestors did for them.  Now there are a lot of reasons for this union’s collapse.  One could argue it was their abuse of power or their crumbling economy, or a combination of these and a number of other problems could all explain its downfall, but one thing’s for sure, their inability to hide their intentions from everyone and America’s uncanny ability to do so has probably left this union’s remaining supporters red with envy.  Remember, freedom is a privilege, and with privilege comes responsibility.  Sanity, on the other hand, is a gift, don’t squander it.