Thursday, October 6, 2011

Wall Street Hippies (Part 3) - How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the Income Gap!

A friend of mine posted this chart on FaceBook recently (a real friend, not just someone I know through FaceBook).  He found it at Mother Jones.  He made the point that these "Occupy Wall Street" hippies are mostly about envy.  I'm sure that he is right.  What I'm not sure of is whether they'd be happier being wealthy enough to be in one of the red/orange/yellow squares ... or, whether it would make them much happier to have everyone in the blue.  I suspect the latter.  Socialism, after all, is not about causing everyone to have plenty; it is about spreading the misery around equally.  And the Wall Street Hippies have concluded that those in the top income brackets are not carrying their fair share of misery.

But I find at least two objections to this chart and the realities behind it.  The first is that the Mother Jones / Wall Street Hippie thinking depends upon this being a Zero Sum Game.  In that view of things, there is a fixed amount of wealth in the world, and the only question is how to divide it up.  It would be like having ten of your friends over and ordering a medium pizza.  It wouldn't seem fair for one fellow to have eight pieces while the rest divide up the remaining two slices of pizza.  But the point is, there is no limit on how large the pizza can get.  In reality, you are able to order an Extra-extra-extra-extra Large pizza.  And then, even if you divide it unevenly, everyone has plenty.

The economy is not a Zero-Sum Game.  Wealth can be and is being created.  The pizza is getting bigger.  How does the total wealth of the world increase?  It increases by commerce, but mainly by genius, inspiration, perspiration (hard work), patience, faith, and by people diligently and zealously pursuing their vocations.  I would be willing to wager that 99% of the Wall Street Hippies have more expensive and more capable cell phones than my family has.  Our Century has the richest poor people in the history of the planet.

How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the Income Gap!

And here is the other main point.  The folks at Mother Jones and the Wall Street Hippies create (or most likely, just find; creating is too hard for them) charts like this to prove one main point:  The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer.

But why are they surprised?  This is the expected outcome in the world.  In fact, I will be so bold as to say that it is God's intended way for the world to be.  How do I know this?  I read it in the Bible:
"For I say unto you, That unto every one which hath shall be given; and from him that hath not, even that he hath shall be taken away from him."
I put that in red font, because those are the word of the Lord Jesus Christ himself.  You can read the context here in St. Luke's Gospel the 19th Chapter.  Maybe it seems odd to you that it should be this way.  But it inevitably is.

Perhaps my favourite professor of all time was my Physics professor at Cooper Union, Professor Milton Stecher.  Freshman Physics was a "weed out" course, helping to identify and separate weak students form the herd, perhaps giving them time to choose another major before wasting four more years.  Professor Stecher was fond of quoting the verse above and applying it to his students.  Those of us in the "hath" category, were those with the greatest aptitude for Physics.  They were also those who did the required homework every evening.  Those in the "hath not" category were those who did not like Physics, or found it difficult, and therefore abandoned the nightly wrestling with it.  During the first week of classes, Professor Stecher asked us to cast our minds forward to the night before the Final Exam in his Physics class.  He asked us:  "Which group will you find studying hard that night?"  After giving us a moment to reflect upon this, he gave us the answer:

"You would expect those who had not done the homework to study more on the night before the Final Exam.  But you would be wrong.  It is precisely those who have been diligent all throughout the semester that you will find still toiling away, perhaps unnecessarily, the night before the Final.  For I say unto you that unto every one which hath shall be given; and from him that hath not, even the little he hath shall be taken away."


Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Wall Street Hippies (Part 2)

In my last blog entry, I linked to this We Are the 99 Percent site.

Since then, I've spent some more time looking at the photos of self-pitying and whining over there, and one clear theme is:  Massive student loan debt with a degree which does not guarantee employment.

I will propose to you that this is due in large part, not to corporate greed, but to the self-centeredness of these people with the wrong degrees.  I, too, might have gone to art school:


But I chose to major in Mechanical Engineering, partially because I felt that there was a greater market for that skill.  When you choose to major in something you "just really, really like", it may be that you are being selfish.

The free market is there to provide you information about what degree to take, and in what field.  I will propose to you that those who major in fields other than their most beloved ones are not being greedy.  Quite the contrary, they have the hearts of servants, being willing to subjugate their own selfish desires in order that they may serve where they are really needed, not merely where it is groovy and fun!

This woman, for example, had the chance to make a mid-course correction between her tow degrees and listen carefully to what the market was telling her:

I have to admire this guy, though,because he accepts at least partial blame:



Tuesday, October 4, 2011

The Wall Street Hippies

Okay, I'm sorry if it sounds rude to point this out, but the "Occupy Wall Street" and "We Are the 99 Percent" hippies are just idiots.  And these idiots are getting on my last nerve.  In any blog entry of reasonable length, I can only give you a tiny flavor of their idiocy.  But it is out there for you to find, if you have the stomach for such things.

A young woman quoted in this article captures the impetus behind this movement pretty clearly:
"I don't think we're asking for much, just to wake up every morning not worrying whether we can pay the rent, or whether our next meal will be rice and beans again,"
In other words, she is unwilling to face the struggle for existence that all people in all places have had ... forever.  How weak is that?  You wonder, in the case of these people, if the wrong sperm won the race.  Pretty much everyone has to worry about how they will eat and how they will pay the rent.  Duh!  But this bunch seems fixated on the wealthiest 1%, who they vilify for not having to face this struggle.  They are the 99% ... and they are moral and ethical retards.

What these hippies need is a mega-dose of Dave Ramsey!  Then, they would not have $75,000 in student loans or $35,000 in credit card debt.  I am currently swimming in an enormous sea of credit card debt myself, but the difference is, I admit that it is my fault.  My own damn fault.  I was covetous.  I bought things that I had not yet earned.  I am paying the price that God intends for people who act in this covetous way.  Funny, too, how all the people on We Are the 99 Percent accumulated their credit card debt only through medical costs, the cost of diapers, and the cost of food.  Sure.  I'll be they never bought any alcohol, marijuana, gaming devices, trendy clothing, or luxuries with those credit cards.  Right.


These folks sometimes rail against the American education system ... and perhaps with some validity because, dude, it's "genocide".  Oh, and by the way, just where in the USA is this genocide occurring?

The reference to prohibition is telling.  I'm pretty sure that the Prohibition of alcohol was repealed last century.  Let me check ... yes, it was.  Presumably he is talking about the prohibition of recreational drugs.  I have an idea that this is why 99% of the Wall Street Hippies are out of $$$ ... they spent it on drugs.

This woman's sign reflects the ridiculous notion that 99% of the country is behind them.  We are not!


The middle class used to be too big to fail.  But you are not the middle class.  You are leeches.  Middle Class used to mean that you worked hard for a living, and took care of your own business.  But these people never want to have to pay for their own rent or food.


Poverty used to cause hard work.  Now it causes loud, obnoxious protests with colorful balloons.

These leftists with the signs remind me of the folks who displayed their self-pity on the internet, apologizing to the world for the last Bush presidential victory:  "Sorry world!  We are good little hippies and voted against the evil Bush!  Sorry we failed you!"  It was pathetic.  As is this.  






















I beg to differ.  He could have gotten through school without student loans.  He could have worked his way through school, as folks used to do all the time.

In his semi-autobiographical book Black Boy (1945) Richard Wright tells of the old school attitude towards poverty and want.  He and his family would not take help from others.  It was a matter of pride, to provide for themselves through their labor.  Now, many of us have grown soft, weak, and have a mindset of complete dependency on others.  We are a bunch of namby-pamby wimps, whining for the government to take care of us, and protesting and rioting when others succeed in creating wealth for themselves.

On the Occupy Wall Street front page, they compare their movement to the Arab Spring.  But the very Wikipedia link to which they lead us defines the reasons for the Arab Spring as:

"... to organize, communicate, and raise awareness in the face of state attempts at repression and internet censorship."
We have little of either of those in this country, in case you hippies have not noticed.  The fields (of potential wealth creation) are "white unto harvest"!  Go make some money.  It will make you feel better.  If you've gotten yourself in a desperate financial situation, as I have, go and buy this book, and do exactly what it says.  It works.

This video gives a little flavor of the Occupy Wall Street protests.  The woman's sign (at around 2:00 into the video) pretty much says it all:  STOP Capitalism.




If I need to do a separate blog on the virtues of Capitalism, maybe I will.  But it will not be stopped by a bunch of pathetic non-contributing losers and whiners like this.  I imagine their numbers will dwindle once the less pleasant winter weather sets in.

 Honestly, I could rant for pages and pages about this.  But I can't - I have to go to work!

Monday, October 3, 2011

Sure Nuff 'N' Yes I Do!

For a goodly amount of time now, a friend has been urging me to check out the music of Captain Beefheart.  I don't know why it took me so long to comply.  It reminds me of friends who had been similarly urged over long periods of time to read the works of Flannery O'Connor, but who had taken years to comply.

Eventually, though, my life got quiet enough that I had time to type "Captain Beefheart" into the YouTube search field.  This is the first song I came up with, and it is still my favourite song from Beefheart.  It is the subject of this blog entry:



I just like everything about this song and its performance here!  What's not to like?  Lively delta blues, with a mean slide guitar.  It is performed on the beach (Cannes Beach in France) with most of the audience watching safely from a distant boardwalk.  I love the Captain's knowing smirks toward the camera at several points during the performance.  And I like the fact that he is so young and confident in his manner.  It would not always be like that for Don Van Vliet (for that was Captain Beefheart's actual name).  During some of his later public appearances, such as on Letterman, he seemed a rather fragile, timid, and even broken man.

Van Vliet once said:

"The way I keep in touch with the world … is very gingerly … because the world touches too hard."

But in this live blues rave, it is clearly the world that had better watch out for Captain Beefheart, lest he touch it too hard!  And I like that.  Just the way I like seeing pictures of Hollywood actors, now grown gray and grizzled, as they appeared in youth.  There is something so life-affirming about seeing someone at the zenith of his or her power, in the full bloom of youth, whether in photograph or moving image.

For strict musicianship, I prefer the studio track, because it featured Ry Cooder playing slide guitar.



But the live performance on Cannes Beach has something that surpasses what is found in the grooves of the studio track, and that is a certain distilled essence of testosterone-driven male bravado.  The singer is fully confident of who he is as a man in this world (and the expected effect of that fact on any surrounding females).  It is the same thing you get from The Who in "Call Me Lightning", or from Muddy Waters in "Mannish Boy".  Funny, I don't so much like this male attitude when I meet it in real life.  But I rather like it within the somewhat artificial confines of pop music.

I have, of course, branched out and listened to other offerings from the Beefheart catalog.  But this song and this particular performance of it will always be my favourite.

Saturday, September 17, 2011

Ears of Stone

Sometimes I think I missed the 1960s.  No, not because I was tripped out on psychedelic chemicals (that came later for me), but because things happened that never reached my ears.  Either that or, at the time, I had ears of stone.

Well, once again, I thank God for YouTube, which so often helps me fill in what I missed of my favourite decade.  This present case is most pleasant to present to you.  It came to me in one of those automated "Your favourite YouTube channel has been updated" emails.  I didn't know if it would be any good, but I took a chance and clicked on the link.  It was a track called "Ears of Stone" from a compilation album called, "Fading Yellow Vol. 2:  21 Course Smorgasbord of U.S. Pop-Sike & Other Delights 1965-1969".  The band is listed as The Network.

From the opening guitar strums, knew I was going to like it.  A few seconds later, when the Electric Prunesian psychedelic organ crashed in, and later when a faux sitar could be heard, my first though was:  I must share this with my brother Charles!  But somewhere just after the first wash of organ and the sitaresque guitar line came an even greater shock.  For I heard the follow words:

We've played our pipes for you, but you haven't dance.
We've sung our dirges, but you haven't mourned.
We've sung our songs for you, but you might as well be deaf.
Ears of stone, won't you hear me?


I never expected to have a psychedelically musical Gospel lesson sung to me!  For here were almost  word-for-word our Lord's rebuke from St. Luke's Gospel, the 7th Chapter:
And the Lord said, Whereunto then shall I liken the men of this generation? and to what are they like?

They are like unto children sitting in the marketplace, and calling one to another, and saying, We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we have mourned to you, and ye have not wept.

For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine; and ye say, He hath a devil.

The Son of man is come eating and drinking; and ye say, Behold a gluttonous man, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners!

But wisdom is justified of all her children.

The song continues:
We've written in big, black letters; you've merely glanced.
Written it in poems and songs; you've only scoffed.
We've written words for you, but you might as well be blind.
Eyes of stone, won't you see it?
This reminded me instantly of the quote from Flanner O'Connor:  "to the hard of hearing you shout, and for the blind you draw large and startling figures."

Now, in the spirit of "full disclosure", I have to say that the bridge for this song is pathetically weak.  But it is short enough that it doesn't rob the song of too much power.  I only wish they'd given that a bit more thought musically.  Still, I am very glad to have found this 45-year-old gem.

Enjoy!

Friday, September 16, 2011

Goodwood Festival of Speed 2011

This would have been a fabulous year to have attended the Goodwood Festival of Speed in West Sussex!

For those unfamiliar with Goodwood, there is a series of four YouTube videos which makes an excellent introduction.  Here is the first part:



This year, the Festival celebrated the 50th anniversary of the iconic E-Type Jaguar, as well as 100 years of Ford Motor Company in the UK.
























One thing I sure would like to have seen is the Lotus Type 56 turbine race car, which premiered at the Indy 500 in 1968, and which I later saw race in the Pocono 500.  Unfortunately, as stated in the information for this video, it is no longer fitted with the Pratt & Whitney turbine that made it so unique.

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

I'm Spiritual, But I'm Not Religious!

Have you ever run into a person (of course you have; their name is Legion!) who makes the audacious claim: 

"I'm not religious, but I'm spiritual!"

Since my earliest days as an adult Christian, this has bothered me.  Sometimes it has made me feel as if a person was being lazy, doing the easy part of possessing faith while neglecting works.  Other times, I have thought that such people were only eating dessert (spirituality), while skipping the nutrition-providing meal (religion).

It is open to debate what such people even mean by the statement.  Often, it seems to mean that they hold to some sort of internal, mental faith in a higher power, while eschewing corporate worship with others of faith.  A related saying is:  "I'm a believer, but I have no use for organized religion!"  (Of course, I maintain that as Anglicans we can lay full claim to being members of no organized religion!)

My latest objection is two-fold:  (1) that such a philosophy works and teaches against the incarnation; and (2) that those who hold to it are missing out on most of the fun!

If you imagine a world in which God tried to love us without the Incarnation of His Son Jesus Christ, you may see what I mean by my first objection.  In this gedankenexperiment, God send positive vibes and blessings down from heaven, but He doesn't sully Himself by taking on flesh.  He would still feel kindly towards us, but would be unwilling to do the incredibly difficult work of becoming one of us and living among us.  And that is how it is with the "spiritual but not religious":  they are fine with thinking kindly thoughts toward their higher power throughout the week, but unwilling to sully themselves by attending church cheek-to-jowl with other sinners on Sunday morning.

As to my second objection, what if a man were to tell you:  "Well, yes, I am married.  My wife and I have exchanged rings, and our marriage certificate is legal and all in order.  But we don't believe in physical or emotional intimacy.  We lead separate lives."  Would you not think such a man is crazy?  No matter how much he might object, saying that in the deep, spiritual sense he and his bride were married, you would always think of him as not quite "getting" the concept of marriage.  For he is purposely avoiding the best and most pleasurable part of the thing.  And this is just what I think when I run into yet another "spiritual but not religious" person.