Image via Wikipedia
I was watching TV last night.
Yeah, I know that it makes my brain rot but sometimes after a hard day trying to make my computer behave and write coherent sentences, it’s great to throw off the mental activity and watch a mindless crime show. This one started off simply enough but it soon got more complicated. It was about some evil middle class home owners who murder homeless people and their law student enabler. This enabler who took time from his law classes to work at a homeless soup kitchen (in Malibu, where else) was suing the homeowners because they were mean to the homeless . (Naturally it is mean to expect the homeless to obey the laws and, of course it annoys the law enforcement community no end to be expected to enforce them.) Everybody loves sweet homeless people and hates the money grubbing middle class. Right? Naturally the poor homeless people were just trying to get by. It was a hard life because once they finished eating at their ocean front food kitchen, they had to climb the hill to their sylvan homeless camp and darn if there wasn’t a small subdivision in the way.
Bummer!
No matter that they were breaking the laws by camping in the woods without permits. They have rights , you know. They were just doing what God made them to do. Rousseau would be proud. It was the homeowners who were evil. It made me realize that this whole country is going down the tubes when the popular media glorifies lawless, irresponsible behavior and demonizes hardworking people who actually work to earn a living, own property, pay taxes and raise their kids to do the same. What are they thinking?
Nobody rewards responsibility these days.
According to this TV show , those of us with money should pay $50k a year to send our kids to law school so that they can make the world safe for free spirits who take responsibility for nothing. My wife was incensed and excused herself to read in bed. “Stick around ,” I urged her. “You know its only fiction.” At this point the district attorney was emotional as he described the rage of ordinary middle class people seeing someone defecate on their yard. His condescension was unmistakable. “How dare they expect homeless people to behave responsibly?” he seemed to say. Elected public servants demonizing the people that pay them to maintain civilization. That has to be fiction, right?
Well I’m not so sure.
California is bankrupt, spending way more money than it takes in. The tax burden in California is one of the highest in the nation. You would think that this would provide plenty of money for government services but our elected leaders tell us it’s not true. It turns out that we spend too much money on law enforcement and public safety so to balance the budget, we either need to pay more taxes or wait two days for a fire truck or the 911 operator to answer. It seems that public safety is expendable. Government’s real function of to take care of people who can’t or won’t take care of themselves and demean the folks who do. The little secret is out. The state is run to make life pleasant for homeless people and other folks who refuse to take responsibility for their lives.
Responsibility: the new silent minority.
The only people making any effort to solve this problem are the ever shrinking minority of people who actually earn a living . And what do they get for this selfless act? They get the pleasure of being taxed into poverty just so the irresponsible can live the lifestyle they want. I don’t get it. Why do we bother? We are still living in the past, remembering the old days of responsible government, working hard and getting ahead. We can still remember when taxes were only 20% instead of the 60% today and the world was safe, the schools were good and you never saw homeless people defecating in public spaces or in your own yard.
Why be responsible? It doesn’t make any sense.
There is no reason for a reasonable person to behave responsibly today. Private property is a burden with few benefits and many problems. Working is slavery and then you get most of your income taxed away. When you complain, the government tells you that you are heartless. Who is the government to tell us anything? In the old days they did what we told them to do and the Constitution wasn’t a living document to be rewritten by mealy mouthed statist judges. This isn’t the America that offered endless opportunity and freedom to be whoever you want to be. This is a gulag where people who try to be responsible are beat up and sucked dry so that the free and irresponsible can live without making any effort.
I didn’t sleep very well last night.
Maybe those computer problems weren’t so bad.
That is the truth!! Just had an issue with our phone/cable/internet company! Left the ground box open and all wires exposed–no phone, no cable, no internet, no message left. The repair headquarters guy said, “Sorry, it’s after 5. I won’t be able to get anyone until tomorrow.” Me: “Nope! Totally unacceptable! Get someone out here now!” . . . he just left, we’re connected for tonight, linemen out tomorrow to completely repair it. Oh, and repairman was scheduled to come this morning between 8 & noon. I stayed home ’til 1:00 — so he had to come screw it all up between 1-5. It was at least working before. There! I’ve vented! Your blog is quite apropos for me today!! (Move to The South, Ralph. We have our problems, but nothing like California!)
Paula,
Thanks for sharing here as well as Facebook. I’ve thought about the South but then I remember the humidity. Have they fixed that yet?
“Why be responsible?”
For the one reason stupidity by ohers cannot change…because it’s the right thing to do.
As fr the humidity…it’s relative. Move up high and the humidity s less. That’s one big reason I live in the Appalachian foothills instead of the coastal plain.
Bob,
You are such a downer!
Wow Ralph….sounds like you went to a tea party or something. Sad truth is many a homeless person is either mentally ill, a chronic alcoholic, or big time meth user. Seems like on every street corner, there’s a person with a cardboard sign askin’ for money. Hard times in the Land of Plenty.
Hansi,
I don’t doubt that there are some reasons why the homeless can’t be expected to be responsible. What I can’t get over is that a civilized country would have a support system for them, either family and institutional. It wouldn’t let them roam around at will and unsupervised. Are you thinking about Texas Tea? You got any?
Uh-oh…gonna step on Hansi’s toes a bit here…***sigh***…here goes:
Yes, some…far from all…homeless have issues that accentuate their dependency. Some homeless are mentally ill…but few to the point that government programs are necessary.
Some are chronically dependent on drugs. I know I was. 30 years as a drunk, drinking a half gallon of rotgut gin a day. Not eating properly. Driving drunk…to the point that I ran into a school bus (minor accident, no injuries, thank God…yes, God), hospitalized in bad enough shape in November 2008 that I was not expected to live…liver failure to point docs said I’d need a liver within a year or die…and had to be sober 6 months to get on transplant list.
In the midst of that horrible 2008 my house burned completely leaving me with a pair of blue jeans, a pair of sandals, a pair of underwear, and a pocket T-shirt, along with a 1986 pickup truck as my ONLY possessions.
Oh yeah…I had a belt to hold my jeans up.
I got out of jail (for hitting the school bus) on December 29, 2008, and the only government (or other) assistance I got through the whole thing was the three hots and a cot provided as punishment for the DUI.
Now? I’m far from rich, or even really comfortable, but I get by just fine. I own a paid for house, still have the 25 year old truck I’ll eventually get my license back to drive…and haven’t asked for or expected a handout from anyone.
Personal responsibility. Some do it willingly and some have to have it forced on them…but all but a very rare few can do it…if they have to.
Bob. so where are the folks we pay to tell them they have to? Most of them are too busy scolding me for being heartless.
Ralph…I’ll join you in the heartless category…right after the hail storm is over. Right now I have some of that high southern humidity you were talking about over on RCB coming down and hitting my roof in baseball-sized chunks.
Ralph…I watched a TV show last night that pushed some of my buttons. What was amazing, was how a fictional, highly inaccurate police show “Flash point” could elicit an emotional response from me, and piss me off. Though about this post you wrote and wondered, not at the content of the TV show, but its power over my feelings. And from what? a couple of writers, a director and producer whose views and politics I’m totally unaware of. Why did I subject myself to this trash. At the end of the show i said “this is bullshit, I’m never watching this crap again.”
Bob…You didn’t step on a single toe. most of the homeless I’ve encountered are there for a simple reason; bad choices…be it financial or involving substance abuse. The only help I’d be incline to give is to point them in the right direction. But still can’t help but give a buck to someone with a sign on the street begging. Can’t be fun.
Hansi,
You are right about TV. We normally watch crime shows for diversion in the evening. These may be unrealistic but they are diverting and most of the time work the good vs evil theme. The one that caused me to react went off the reservation pandering to the irresponsible and demonizing the lynch pins of civilization- middle class schlubs.
Behaving responsibly has to be its own reward these days.
It sucks feeling like a chump for it though.
Dave,
Feeling like a chump is letting somebody else define you.
Learning to be thrifty in today’s economy will be a big help with your family
grocery and clothing budget. Is it because you don’t
know how to find good deals on the internet.
Chocolate freezes well, so snagging clearanced chocolate and freezing it for later use or baking can help provide a cheap treat over the
winter months.
The earlier you call up this particular credit card debt relief service to help you on your economic crisis, the faster you’ll be able to decrease financial debt. Study such critiques as well as become debt free with no need of a bankruptcy proceeding.
A specific direction a person can certainly get out of debt may be employing a genuine unsecured debt settlement company. Be certain that you actually get the absolutely free debt consolidation quotation to learn precisely how much you’ll be able to slash your bills. This could clear up a good deal of situations.