3.10.11: There is a lot of stuff happening all around the country re unions, etc., so many things, issues, concerns, fears. Of course the 'big' one is going down in Wisconsin. I literally have nothing intelligent to say about that thing, that thing in particular, so that's yeah, okay, moving right along.
But I do have some thoughts re the 'bigger issue' (unions in general, I guess). I think the problem is very simple. There are a certain number of people who negatively exploit said union-type jobs / 'low-level' government-funded positions, in particular these jobs' pension/tenuring/benefits systems. This is not wholly unfair. There should probably be much better protocol in place for judging those who do this (eg, "the shitty tenured teacher," "the lazy union buffoon," etc.). But these people are just individuals among a large group which includes civil servants of myriad capacities and teachers and [insert one of many other examples] who mostly do a great job throughout their entire careers. They (in theory) teach us, build our shit, keep us safe, [so many fucking other things you probably don't even think about], they are very important re 'the fabric of society'. Mostly, they work hard for adequate salaries--more than a lot of people but far less than certain private sector jobs--in exchange for far better than average pension plans and benefits. They are by no means perfect. But who is these days? Am I right?
(Don't even get me started on the corporate bullshit-hypocrisy angle, and who's funding a lot of these anti-union efforts. You could debate that painfully and/or endlessly all day.)
But like so many things about America, the problem isn't the problem but the manner in which we address the problem, a manner that has snowballed manically over the last oh I don't know ~100 years or so, give or take ~25-30 years. We don't like to pragmatically address these so-called 'major' issues, we like to blow them the fuck up. We don't (can't?) realize that problems don't die, problems need to be fixed. We like to think, foolishly in this hyper-accelerating world, that some 'big idea'/brand/slogan (eg. "CHANGE") is something that needs to 'happen yesterday'. We are ruled by selfishness and greed. Speed, knowing, getting what we deserve. It matters not that we have so much we could be giving. No. Not when our neighbor is taking a little more than we might have / [be able to get at some magical/perceived time in the future?].
Ultimately, I'm of the opinion that no one is right and no one is wrong here. Simply being human is by itself too big of a 'problem' to warrant spending any meaningful amount of our waking time on something like 'politics'. On some level I can see the appeal of being a crazy teabagger nutbag would. I don't agree with them at all, but America needs and should have clubs where people feel like they belong. I want to feel annoyed/pissed/saddened that all the people everywhere can't realize that these are just unproductive ways to make us feel like we are a part of something. I wish we could realize that the other (non-political) stuff, ie humanity and 'the greater good of humanity', are--'at the end of the day'--the only things that should matter. But there doesn't seem to be a structure in place to actively do this. At least one that would yield tangible, semi-immediate results. But maybe we should try to think back to a time before all of us were born, a time when necessarily seeing tangible results--eg social issues / 'literally anything'--was not important because it was not really possible, was not something (via the internet and all that that entails, 'modernity', etc.) that we all think we 'deserve' right this fucking second, or [in a defeatist tone] something we just couldn't possibly avoid.
But maybe it's not too late. Just close your eyes and make it so. Ba da bop ba ba, I'm lovin' it.
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