Happy (Not Quite) Independence Day

I heard recently that certain retail stores that have traditionally closed for Christmas may be canceling that tradition soon.  So… you think the people who are required to work that day don’t have families to spend Christmas with?  Is it perhaps that the American sense of entitlement has gotten that out of hand?

Funny… starting out a post about Independence Day with a statement about Christmas.  Well, I was thinking about holidays and time with family.  That’s what the “family values” crowd is supposed to be about, right?  So why is it that they invariably support the right of employers to do whatever the hell they want and fuck the family’s time together?  “Hey, you sleep in the same house… that’s family time.”

Another annoyance today is the damn automatic checkouts at grocery stores.  I won’t use the things because they’re taking human jobs with no recourse—again, just to serve Americans’ sense of entitlement.  “Oh, I’m in a hurry.”  Yeah, well, maybe that’s the problem—everyone’s in a fucking hurry.

I hate waiting in lines.  But I hate the thought of stripping away a person’s job because I hate waiting in lines.  One of the things I believe goes with the rights we enjoy is the responsibility to give a shit about our fellow Americans.

Seriously, people… we’re getting damned inconsiderate.  Our politics even reflect this.  Republicanism is institutionalized selfishness and lack of consideration for others.  They’ll happily trash the economy further and throw more families into despair for the chance to make Obama a one-term president.  More notable, however, is the fact that they’re managing this feat not by following liberal principles, but by following their own.  Isn’t that somewhat contradictory?

Go figure.

I’m constantly amazed by the odd double vision of the average conservative.  They fear enslavement by government yet run into the embrace of the corporations.  The government, as a general rule, is apathetic to your situation.  Corporations, however, spend billion dollars a year to acquire your money, using the most advanced psychological tricks available to modern science.  When was the last time you saw a commercial telling you that government was good for you?

Despite the fantasies of the Libertarians and Anarchists, government is a necessary evil… with emphasis on ‘necessary.’  Government, however flawed it’s become, is the only thing that stands between us and the rule of the powerful.  Of course, the powerful have corrupted what government we had… but at least the damage can be mitigated.

Assuming the Republicans don’t get their way.  The government small enough to “drown in the bathtub” is also small enough to fit in your doctor’s office, or even in your uterus.  The Right Wing definition of “Freedom” is the “Freedom to think as we do.”

We don’t expect them to think like we do.  We understand it’s impossible.  But, damn it all, we do expect them to afford us some respect, and acceptance that there are other ways to be a patriot than be a knuckle-dragging would-be thug.

If we could only actually have our independence from these new age Tories, these folks who cling to the Constitution, yet spit all over it.  That use the tools of technology to disclaim the Enlightenment.  Now that would be worth celebration indeed.

As I have said before, quoting Captain Malcolm Reynolds of the good ship Serenity.  “I aim to misbehave.”