Poor and bitter about it

I have become convinced that the current American situation – i.e. universally despised, culturally homogenized, on the warpath, and wildly religious - can be attributed to this one simple truth: The rich people who run the system for their own gain have managed to overwhelmingly convince the rest of us that if we just try harder we could be rich and join their club, and if we haven’t yet it’s our own fault.
I firmly believe that if poor people – and by poor I mean anyone who doesn’t hold enough capital to actually influence public policy - wizened up and realized the reality of their hopeless situation we’d have an entirely different country. Better or worse – that’s hard to say – but different nonetheless.
One of the mechanisms used to foster this environment of mass delusion is the media – the industry in which I work – which manages to promote rampant materialism and flaunt the excesses of the super wealthy without generating hostility and unrest amongst their underclass audience. A first for humanity. Remember what happened when those French peasants got wind of what was going on in the castle? Let them eat cake indeed. In fact, the media has created a culture where the exploited are not only dumb to their exploitation, but where those same down trodden exhibit hero worship to their oppressors.
It’s truly amazing how this works. Not only is their nearly zero resentment toward people whose very lifestyle should be an affront to 95% of the populace, but instead, an insane preoccupation has developed with the lives of these celebrities, royalty, and members of the elite class. How a show like The Simple Life could exist without sparking riots in the streets astounds me. Seriously – it was a program about rich girls who will never know what it’s like to want for anything, traveling around the country to mock working class people – how could this be popular? Are people so goddamn stupid they don’t realize whom the joke is on? You may be laughing at those girls but trust me, Paris and Nicole are the ones having the last laugh. We’re all just a bunch of rubes to people like this who have no concept of what it is like to worry about providing for themselves not to mention their family. Perhaps Paris and Nicole really have no idea how to clean a house, dig a ditch, milk a cow, or work a cash register, but you know what? They don’t have to know anything about it. Outside of the parameters of this ridiculous show that is paying them more per episode than most of the population earns in a year, Paris and Nicole will NEVER need those skills because they will be able to hire other people to do this kind of crap work – the crap work the rest of us MUST engage in.
“But The Simple Life is off the air,” you may be saying. “What’s the point of this tirade?” The point is that there is no end to this kind of shit and its ultimate effect on our culture is why most of the world hates us and why we are all slaves to corporations that use this country as their own personal bank, army, and PR department. MTV currently has a slew of shows depicting the trials and tribulations of rich kids. On a recent episode of Laguna Beach the kids rallied together to help Malibu mudslide victims. Yes, that’s right, instead of raising money for Hurricane Katrina victims, starving Sudanese refugees, or poor children in Appalachia, they chose millionaires with homeowners insurance. This isn’t some tongue in cheek Daily Show segment – this was a serious undertaking and attempt to draw sympathy from the audience. And don’t get me started about The Apprentice. Donald Trump trying to teach others how to be successful? I wonder why he never mentions that the key to his success may lie in the simple truth that his father left him a real estate empire and no matter how hard he has tried, through numerous bankruptcies and public failures, he can’t squander it. We should be storming the Bastille but instead we watch these shows like lemmings and drink the Kool-Aid like Jonesians at Jonestown.
So why does this matter? Why is it such a problem for our culture to revere the rich like Gods? Because we think it's okay when oil companies record $10 billion in profits over a three-month period. They earned it. Sure. We lament at cocktail parties, but do nothing to change, the fact that actors are paid $20 million a movie and teachers make $20,000 a year. We got to war under false pretenses in order to put more money in war profiteers pockets and we’re so uninterested it’s on the back page of the local paper. We make issues like the death tax and abortion the reason we vote for someone when most of us will never be affected by either.

Why do you think their pushing Christianity on us again? Why do you think after so many years of leaving God out of everything there’s this big push – by our government and corporate America – to stick God’s nose in every asshole it can find? Because that’s what they did in the old days when the class system offered no chance for advancement – they offered up good times in heaven.
“It will all even out in the end if you don’t cause trouble,” the Kings told the peasants. “Just be good and listen to this book some friends of mine translated.”
Mind control and promises they don’t have to ever keep – when your government starts relying on ghosts and goblins to dictate public policy it is time to move to an island.
Ultimately I think both characteristics – fascination with the rich and famous/religious resurgence – exist because of another simple truth. Our own lives are so crappy and unfulfilling we can only find joy in the wonderful lives of others and the promise of a better life after we’re dead. There were people who cried like babies when Princess Dianna died but didn’t even donate a dollar to help the Katrina relief. It’s similar to fat, out of shape blowhards who get so excited when their professional sports team wins, one would think they had actually accomplished something themselves. They feel like winners because a group of guys who wouldn’t spit on them if they were on fire won a ballgame. Meanwhile they live in a tract home with a wife that hates them, a job they despise, and three children and a dog they don’t know.
So keep sticking up for thing like rolling back the inheritance tax and making the definition of marriage a part of our Constitution. Keep reading about who Brad Pitt is banging and don't miss Diddy's next press conference to announce his new moniker. Keep watching E and MTV's Cribs and don’t forget to take a break for church on Sunday.

All right – enough already. Sometimes I have to shut myself up. One can write bitterly about his poverty for so long...

Anyway, I have to get to sleep. Unlike all those rich bastards in Washington and Hollywood, I have to go to work in the morning.

I have to visit the set of Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Origin for the television program, Extra! It seems that what the world really needs is more inside info on what’s happening on some movie set.

Selling out to the man.

And doing my part to keep you all brain dead.