MONEY GRUBBING AND SNUBBING

People who scorn capitalism and the greedy while enjoying the fruits of both are almost as bad as those who devote their every fiber to making a grab at cash without moral qualms. The stance of the former is born out of bitterness and the need to be fashionable, not spiritual or intellectual superiority. And more importantly, it's hypocritical.

Sure, we can all spend all day expounding on the woes of corporate greed and the inequalities in the tax code. But how often is such a diatribe balanced with an examination of the societal benefits of corporate greed? I'm not about to say that the good outweighs the bad, I mean, what can compensate for mass exploitation of the planet and its most vulnerable people? But does that mean that you want to live in a world where market place competition is banned and we're forced to buy overpriced ill-produced goods? Would that improve the environment and our education system? Maybe. Would most of us find that acceptable? Most likely not.

Like most complicated situations in the world, this presents a conundrum, and once again I must pay homage to Voltair in saying that the "the truth is rarely pure, and never simple".

Penny For Your Righteous Thoughts

Do you ever get that feeling that you're behind? Everyone is better dressed than you, knows more about technology or art or whatever. Everyone has already heard the joke or the news bit before you.

Well, if you feel this way maybe you're just as insecure as I am. Or maybe I'm not insecure. Maybe the reason why I don't have the newest cell phone or the coolest ipod is because I don't feel like I NEED those things with the urgency that others do (or it could be because I just don't have the cash to blow). I often wonder just how much people genuinely want the things they buy or accomplish in and of themselves verses wanting them merely to show having them, to flaunt them. Folks sure get a lot of satisfaction out of flaunting, and that's not entirely bad.

For example, I don't think there's anything wrong with wanting to look good and have others notice. That is a primordial desire. We exist to reproduce, so why not aim to compete to attract attention, hence a mate, or money and success which is really just about sex anyway? Or power. Power and sex. People want them both. In great supply.

However, looking good is one thing. Donning a purse that proves first your ability to drop five grand on a bit of leather and hardware and second your impeccable taste is not just about sex. It is a little bit about sex, but it is more about status. Again here we come back to power. It really does seem that sex and power are the common denominators of our existence. And to think some folks feel so insulted by evolution because it places them too closely to mere animals.

Indeed I could sit here and cluck my tongue at all the outrageous foolishness in the world around me. However, I'm not so stupid that I don't realize I'm part of it, and it is the way things are. I suppose that's why religion has such a great appeal for some (that is, when it's not being used to wield power or prey on little boys or grab good ol' cash like in the old days). I'm talking about the truly devout here. The genuine saints, monks, nuns, the yogis, or just the truly good, spiritual people out there that have rare, not-so-corrupted ways of thinking. You know who I'm talking about. That is a direction that leads away from obsession with sex and power. It's heartening to think that there are folks out there that want to be led away from those things. It almost makes you want to go to church, or to an ashram (though that's way too trendy, IMO).

Pigeons Must Die

To work. That's where I'm going. Today the air is warm and gentle and I feel my thoughts easily gliding over the rooftops of the downtown buildings, dreaming of far off lands, or at least not being at work.

As I walk toward my building I see a pigeon lying on the ground with slowly blinking eyes. The bird is on the verge of death. People rush by, but I stand looking down on this lonesome, pitiful sight. This is a bird that no one wants, and no one cares in the least if it dies unceremoniously on the sidewalk. The pigeons are known to crap profusely downtown, as they perch on networks of transportation cables above intersections, leaving corners splatter painted with their white-green shit. I always approach those corners cautiously, reminded of a day I obliviously pounded the pavement in an interviewee black suit, and became appalled and disgusted to notice a white watery smear on my lapel. Yet despite that insult, I can't help but feel a small, creeping sadness looking down on this feeble bird. But, like everyone else, I walk on, though I shrug, and the air feels a little less warm.

I'm reminded of a documentary I once saw where a baby monkey who had met its untimely death as it climbed power lines and was electrocuted in the streets of an Indian city was lovingly scooped up by random passerby, who managed to cover the tiny, lifeless body with brightly colored ceremonial powders and a shrowd before commencing a brief funeral march down the street, holding the body aloft on a pyre. Monkeys, among others, are sacred animals in India. Pigeons, in San Francisco, however, are somewhere near the opposite of sacred. I try to imagine a San Francisco where pigeons are cherished and often fed treats for the purpose of good luck, akin to how it is considered good luck in some parts of India to offer a cow a bit of fruit, for example. I think the effects of such a shift in regard would result in not just a few fouled intersections, but a city blanketed in thin white excrement, because pigeons, though relegated to the ranks of other nasty pests like rodents and ants, manage to do quite well despite the lack of largess shown to them by the people of San Francisco.