XXX. Update part One

So, here's the story so far:

-- I've moved into a new place, after three years living on UB's campus as a student. Not being a student any longer, I had to find new digs. But, it all eventually worked out.

-- Still washing dishes at the restaurant. Not sure how much longer I can hold up there though. The job is taking a definite toll on my hands, my back and my sanity.

-- I notice that thinking about nearly any aspect of world affairs just flat out depresses me. It seems I just can't find anything to look forward to.

XXIX. So, What's the Real Story?

Quite often you hear of people who express doubts about, or dissent from some conventional point of view. Such people are labeled "conspiracy theorists" by rabid defenders of the status quo. This epithet is often uttered quite nastily, as though the person being labeled had just introduced into the room their personal effluvia. It is as if the mere utterance of such a deviation constitutes a transgression against all society.

The thing is, why does the term "conspiracy theorist" have a negative connotation? It merely means one who thinks about conspiracies and where they might exist. The term is completely neutral. Hell, I qualify as a conspiracy theorist--the Kennedy assassination, the drug war, and 9/11 are just a few of the things I regard with suspicion.

It seems people who question conventional notions often find themselves ridiculed and vilified by those who would rather be told what to think and believe.

XXVIII. It's Not Just about the Money...

Something just popped up in my mind, and I have to get it out.

This something is about money. Money--that thing we (in the West, at least) seem to spend our entire lives chasing, and which the vast majority of us will never have enough of.

When someone gets a job that pays more money than their current one, people expect them to be happy.

Everyone hopes to win the lottery jackpot--the prospect of getting lots of free money plus never having to work again will attract many.

But it's all fake.

Money is fake, that is.

In modern American society, instead of exchanging a good for a good, we use money to complete the deal. A long time ago, money was a representation of our country's actual wealth--specifically, of precious metals like gold and silver held by the Treasury. However, in the age of fiat currency, the "value" of money is an arbitrary determination made unilaterally by an institution with dubious links to private business, that the federal government has no real control over. This institution, the Federal Reserve, tinkers with interest rates whenever it feels that doing so would help big business--not to keep the currency in parity with some objective scale.

Money is now a completely imaginary thing, yet it has been elevated to a paramount position over our lives.

All the money chasing going on in our culture has collectively robbed us of the capacity to objectively consider what it actually is we're pursuing.

Money is treated as though it is the sole--or even the most important--economic currency. This is not remotely the case. Economics simply pertain to how we would rather spend our limited resources. Non-monetary considerations, such as pleasure, time, freedom, and stress seem to be largely ignored in the press and by our "representatives" when evaluating the economic state of our country. And I can tell you, nowadays there are plenty of livid, stressed-out, burnt-out Americans of all income levels.

But you probably won't read about it in the Wall Street Journal.