The Revolution: Part 2

[cain]

see what you get for not being religious?

[Phantomgrift]

Dex, Desp, I think the only thing that really makes me raise an eyebrow at your statements is when you contrast the money-holders of businesses and corporations against athletes and actors/entertainers.

Both make ridiculous paychecks, but the lifestyles between the two are radically different.
The CEO types are branded as villains due to their perceived untouchable or unreachable status.
The entertainers are lauded and idolized, directly propelled to their riches via the direct influence of the public that buys their crap.

The entertainers are also the ones that are most likely to resemble, well, what happens when you give normal morons a lot of money.

[dexeron]

[Rip]

Hi everyone; my name is Rip, long time poor-as-fuck, first time richer.

I tell ya, when you go from "we're feeding the family Campbell's again tonight so we can afford Deli Pizza Night on Friday" to "cooking..? That's what they do after we order, right?", it is VERY HARD to not just buy the shit society has been telling me I need to be happy. And by "VERY HARD" I mean "my graphic novel collection has quintupled".

I grew up with two people who worked hard, in many cases without dignity, slaved away, and came home to more work to do...and debt to show for it. I grew up raised by people who stressed themselves nearly to death just to scrape meager meals together for three ungrateful kids, keep the lights on, and occasionally have a good Christmas. There was no college fund, there was no new car until the last one finally died a gruesome death, and if you wanted more than 25 bucks in your birthday cards you were a greedy little shit. THIS was the reward for working. And we were GODDAMN LUCKY we never experienced a medical crisis worse than a broken leg or two...Flannel only knows where I'd be now if a stray tornado came a few miles east/west.

Both of my parents graduated four-year state universities. Aside from a couple hiccups in my father's case, they were always constantly employed while I was growing up (this of course changed during the Recession, but that's a whole different topic). Their marriage didn't survive my sophomore year in high school.

And then I get here, where people don't work NEARLY at the stress levels my parents lived with every day. They come in at 10, breeze out around 4:30 (unless it's Friday!), and bitch about welfare while donating to Haiti/Boston/Whatever's Trending.

The dignity of the working man was based on esoteric concepts like "being proud to be part of the work force" or "doing your part for the community/economy". This is necessary, because if you strip out all that bullshit, you're left with "millions of families ruined because of imaginary numbers in a corporation's database somewhere".

Muhammad fed the hungry. Superman saves the helpless. Jesus clothed the naked. Shaft risks his neck for his brother man. I don't understand a society whose heroes would be vilified by its Moral Majority.

[Phantomgrift]

That's another minor reasons I joined the military.
Despite some of Desp's viewpoints on it, until global peace is unilaterally declared, we are still needed. Be it defense, offense or first response to things like Tomadochi or Hati. Thing is, the hours are long, the benefits are okay, but the take-home pay sucks and the stress levels are insane.

But no one else apparently wants the job.

Though I'm now curious. Where did you end up working Rip.
I knew you were working your way to a Masters degree, but that was about it.

[Rip]

I finished getting the M.A. added to my name a year ago. As for where I ended up working, you DO realize you're the only person on this board who's mentioned, repeatedly and recently, finding someone in their personal lives in the real world and doing a variety of colorful things afterward?

Not that I'm in any way afraid of you or realistically think I could keep any measure of my private life private if a dedicated person wanted to know stuff (I'm on facebook after all), but I've been photographed with the likes of Wayne Brady and Jessica Simpson, and those kind of people tend to shy away from attention.

If it satisfies to know that I'm still in the radio industry, then I would like you to know that I'm actually a chef now

[Phantomgrift]

I never claimed to want anyone to fear me.
To most folks, I'm a collective persona on the internet. That's about as fearful as a tv newscaster.

I just honestly couldn't remember where you worked.

[Sorce]

[HisDivineShadow]

[Phantomgrift]

How the hell do you determine who in a political party lies more than the other guys?

If any organization has that manner of power, it's clearly being wasted. They need to invest it in something like crime-fighting, where they can quickly and easily deduce who did what and where, saving the cops time and money wasted on things like clues and investigative detecting.