Cigarettes and Elephants

 A peculiar instance of youthful racism from my past surfaced in the rinse cycle of my semi-consciousness today. I had just woken up and in these glorious days of vacation while I am still under contract, but have exactly no work to do for my employer, I am afforded the leisure of not bolting out of the sack, driving some coffee and breakfast into my belly and showering before I'm fully awake. I can ease into an awakened state. I can evaluate the dream I was having just before opening my eyes, mull over some options for the day like chores or meals, writing a blog post or maybe seeing what a friend or family member is up to. I can think about my employment situation and the many different possibilities that lay ahead. And, as I almost always do, I can contemplate the unnatural disaster that is our world. 

Today, during that last part, I was reminded of my high school years and some details jumped up out of long-long-long term memory that brought a smile to my face. The name of a corner store, which wasn't exactly on a corner, but it WAS across the street from the liquor store corner, of the town I went to high school in, Castlegar, popped into my head. Jo Alves! I remembered what may have been one time or it may have been many times, going to buy smokes with my best friend Brian Manning. To be clear, I didn't exactly smoke, I was one of those leeches who never really had enough money to commit to the habit, but was always bumming cigarettes from friends in financial positions in which they could, and had. Brian smoked Player's Filter. No! Wait a sec, I think he smoked Player's Light. 

He sometimes got a full pack, and he sometimes bought what was alternately called a "half-pack," "poverty pack," or a "ten-pack." Not every store sold these. In fact it might have been illegal. But Jo Alves' sold packs for $1.30 and poverty packs for $0.70. How do I know this? Well this is where the youthful racism comes in. The owners of Jo Alves' were Portuguese. They spoke English but with heavy accents that Brian and I found entertaining. Like I say, it might have been once or it might have been more than once, but Brian asked the price of a pack of smokes and the cashier replied, "Dollere therety," with heavily rolled r's. We got a kick outta that and repeated it a thousand times to each other afterwards. Then Brian asked about the half-packs and didn't hear the response, so he asked the cashier to repeat it. "Seventy! Seventy, boy," was the response. So "seventy, boy" was another endless source of mockery for us. Like I said, it was youthful racism and I'm not at all proud of it. I bring it up only to illustrate one aspect of this unnatural disastrous world of ours. 

25 smokes for a buck thirty! That is just over a nickel a cig! I don't smoke, but if I could find cigarettes today at those prices, I think I'd have to start! To be honest, if I could find cigarettes at that price today, I'd buy them by the truckload and sell them all black marketly. I'd be rich before I got caught. But what a foolish thought! That's not the way the Canadian (or ANY) economy works, is it? It's not possible for the little guy to get rich. Only the big guy. But the mechanism is the same, only in reverse. If I found a good price (dollere therety) to buy smokes and then sold them at a greatly increased price that I knew people would pay, I'd be doing what Player's has been doing for years. Difference is, it's illegal for me to do it. But why? That's the billion dollar question. It's exactly what the businesses do! They MAKE cigarettes for a cheap price, then sell them for a greatly increased price that they know people will pay. 

And where cigarettes are concerned, there is a HUGE advantage for the people who sell them: addiction. The manufacturers, distributors, merchants, ANYbody can raise the price of them and addicts will still pay. Do you know what the price of that same pack of smokes would be today? $15.50! I think it would actually be MORE because that is a stat from 2019. And it depends where you buy. Here's a modern photo of a pack of Player's cigarettes:

So let's do some math here. At the time of the story, I believe I was making $7.35 an hour at my after-school job washing dishes and slicing meat and cheese at the Homestead Soup and Sandwich Deli. A pack of darts at a buck thirty would have been... let's say 18% of my hourly wage. If I were to spend 18% of my hourly wage on a pack of smokes that cost $20.50, I'd be making... I hope you're sitting down for this... $114.00/hr. Anybody out there pulling in a hundred and fourteen bucks an hour? Anybody? Anybody? Bueller? Bueller? ...

Here's another way of looking at it: I was making $7.35 an hour and that was minimum wage. The price of cigarettes went from $1.30 to $20.50 from then to now. So if the minimum wage had kept up with inflation since the 1980's when I was going to high school, a guy washing dishes at the Homestead Soup and Sandwich Deli would be raking in $116.13/hr!!! Minimum wage in BC right now is a whopping $14.60/hr. And business owners are crying about it! 

The Homestead Soup and Sandwich Deli was a happenin' joint! It was so busy, they needed TWO guys in the hot, steamy back room washing dishes, bussing tables and slicing. Me and Chris Schurren (I'm sure I spelled that wrong) worked our arses off! And after the place closed down, we were the guys who stayed behind to sweep and mop and clean the grill. YOU wanna work an hour there for $14.60? Me neither! 

I think the Homestead closed down long ago, but if it were still open, there'd be some poor schmuck bustin' his/her ass for an hourly wage that can't even buy him/her a pack of smokes! And, once again, the owner of the Homestead would probably be whining about the minimum wage laws being too harsh. She/he would say that salaries eat up far too much of her/his profits. 

How did we end up here? Well, if you've read my blog regularly (and who hasn't?) you'd know that there are three things that contribute to the answer to that question: 1. Corporate greed 2. Gov't working for corporations 3. "Weak" people.

We all know of MANY examples of inflation that is completely out of control! Even youngsters. We KNOW we're getting screwed! But we are conditioned by a certain belief system that allows us to accept this injustice, in fact, to add insult to injury, the popular mentality of recent times is that we are not just supposed to accept it, but be happy in it! Does that elephant look happy? No? Well then I don't wanna spend time with her and allow her to infect me with her negativity! Sound familiar?

When I say "weak people" I certainly don't mean it. Does that elephant look weak to you? Me neither. But allowing itself to be restrained by that puny rope and stake IS weak. That's how I see the strong Canadian people. We're elephants! We have a LOT of power, we just prefer to settle for a miniscule portion of what our country OWES us. That elephant could easily rip that stake out of the ground and rampage. Why doesn't she? Well, if she does tricks, they give her peanuts. That's the majority of us. The average Canadian does tricks for peanuts. And we settle for that. We do our best to be happy in that. And when we can't, we just ACT happy in that. Anybody other than me sick and tired of ACTING happy? Anybody else think our country is many times over rich enough for all of us to actually BE happy? So what's stopping us? Effective socialization. A bullshit belief system. 

Let me give you an example of the kind of socialization that we've all had, whether we know it or not, that has subdued our power. Is there anyone who read that line, "what our country OWES us," and didn't have some kind of a knee-jerk entitlement distaste? Be honest. You did, right? Hell, I had one while I wrote it. We're conditioned to believe that feeling entitled to things is wrong. But it's not. Frivolous entitlement is wrong. Proper entitlement isn't. Guess who conditioned us into these feelings that proper entitlement is wrong. The people from whom we are entitled to, absolutely entitled to, a lot more shit than we are getting! Big companies, banks, government. That's about it. 

If you've ever wondered what our government does, or more specifically, what our government does with our tax money every year, this is it. They condition us. In 1867, the government didn't need a budget. They governed, they didn't buy shit. When the world wars started happening, the government asked for a little and the people gave. And just like the cigarette companies, they have increased the amount little by little in accordance to how much a weak bunch of people will give. You don't need to look any further than the fact that we are still giving to fund wars that have long since ended and been paid for to get an idea of HOW weak the Canadian people are. Here's a little quote from a Fraser Institute paper on the history of Canadian taxes:

"Paying for this expenditure changed over time. From 1867 to World War I, the federal government’s revenue was dominated by customs duties, which peaked at 66% of revenue in 1912. The needs of the war effort sparked the search for new revenue, which led to the creation of the first personal and corporate income taxes and the first federal sales tax. Over time, the importance of these three new revenue sources grew and it is anticipated that by 2017 the personal income tax alone will make up 51% of federal government revenue, corporate taxes, 13%, and commodity taxes (GST, excise taxes and customs duties), 17%."

Of course with a purposely supercomplicated tax code that is over 1500 pages, you can't expect the numbers to come out correct. 51+17+13 is only 81. There is 19% missing. But of the 81 mentioned, regular people pay 68% of it while corporations pay 13%. People get zero subsidies and corporations get enough government subsidization to render their overall tax output to either zero or below. That's right, in Canada we are PAYING many of our corporations to make money while we are charged to be their labour force. Another Fraser Institute paper calculated 144 billion over ten years between 1995 and 2004. More payroll tax is paid by employees that corporate tax is paid by the company in most cases. Who do you suppose is footing the bill for that missing 19%? Feel like that elephant now? 

Compare corporations to Canadian people. We were born in Canada. Most of our corporations are not Canadian. They owe the most to Canada for their fortunes. But they don't give SHIT to Canada. Canada is the people, not the government. What they pay for the privilege of doing business in Canada is 13% or less depending on the subsidies our corrupt government gives them. The people who owe the most pay the least. The people who are owed the most receive the least.

Canadians have a birthright. We were born in Canada and have a far more legitimate claim to the riches of the land than do the corporate parasites. Our major industries, mining, logging, oil, wheat, water, that is the land and the land is Canada. The people are part of the land. When someone sells our natural resources, they sell part of us and we get 0% of the sale. This is NOT frivolous entitlement in any way. This is theft. But we have beer. Hockey. If we pull up this stake, maybe we won't get this meagre living we've grown used to.

You'd think that the more tricks the trainers force the elephant to do, the closer that elephant gets to just stomping them and going back to Africa or India or Southeast Asia where it's from. But it seems the longer it's in captivity, the more shit its owners can throw in its face.  Is there a breaking point? 

I remember my Mom's 2nd husband, Phil swearing, before my high school days, that as soon as cigarettes reached a DOLLAR a pack, he'd quit. He's dead now, probably from smoking. He smoked Player's too, but PLAIN! No filters! UGH! Anyway, if he were alive, he'd be obediently paying $15.50 for his cancer sticks just like Canadians are paying more and more tax every year. What we get hasn't changed and our salaries haven't gone up. When indexed against inflation, they've gone down. But we continue to pay our dues in humility and servility.

I'm sure any Canadian who is reading this has already thought of several things that have gone up on par with or faster than cigarettes over the years. If I were to hazard a guess or a few, I'd say beds, glasses, hockey equipment (except weirdly skates), and maybe the number one victim of inflation in Canada has been university/college tuition. A few of our cities like Van, T.O. and Calgary have condos that have shot through the roof, but most housing HAS gone up, but not like the above listed items. Gas? I dunno. If EVER I needed comments on a blogpost it's now! What has risen in price in Canada? Meat? Eggs? Cable? I haven't been there to see.

$100 in 1980 is supposed to be only $330 bucks today if indexed for inflation. So you can see that cigarettes FAR overinflated during the time between the 80's and the 2020's. What other items have gone up outrageously? Here's an article that might give some perspective. It also includes one thing that has actually gone DOWN in price since the 80's. Can you guess what it was? I think you can but don't bust your block over it, just read the article.

Like the frog in the pot who slowly boiled to death, we have had prices creep up while our salaries have stagnated and rather than jump, we've gone down with the frog soup. All of us. Really old people will tell us we just need to work hard to get a cozy retirement like they have, but we know that's a practical impossibility. But we'd rather argue with the old folks than DO something about it. And that's what the evil triumvirate are banking on. Corporations, banks and government are sure we'll acquiesce. Like captive elephants. 

The Impeachment Imperative

 I am up at 4 AM. Not for golf, not for fishing, not for work. I am up at 4 AM watching the impeachment trial of Donald Trump. Part deux. Why is this trial necessary? Most think it is not worth getting up early to watch, indeed, I believe a huge majority of people think this trial is trivial. It won't make any difference. Let's move on. This is the precise state of mind necessary in the good members of the general public under which evil revolution thrives. It is also the precise state of mind that is being pedaled by almost every member of the Republican party at this time. They can wait 4 years. Nothing to see here, folks. In fact, removal from power could be an advantageous position from which to strengthen and define the party's novel and extreme Trumpian ideology. 

It is understandable that people, busy people, people who may not closely follow the exploits of the Trumpian revolution, could have missed portions of it or even not made certain associations between what the Republican party under the leadership of Donald Trump was doing, with other dangerous and bloody revolutions. But when you listen to people like Ted Lieu and Stacey Plaskett reminding us of the progression of the revolution in detail, giving timelines, quotes from speeches and tweets, videos of crowd reaction at the Trump rallies, those rallies start to appear more like what they really were: repetitive inculcation of the young and weak-minded into followers through blind faith rather than intelligent conviction. Toward what end? That too becomes difficult to deny... revolution. 

A lot of people like Donald Trump because he uses simple words unlike a lot of politicians who speak over the heads of the average member of the electorate. I would suggest that because he actually DOESN'T possess all of the best words and is intellectually stunted is only part of the reason for this. History has shown us how effective and efficient this tactic is and how it can be used for revolution. Use language that can be easily understood by the young and simple in order to recruit them to your cause. It's something so simple, even Trump could figure it out! I think of China and Cambodia and how children were informing on parents who would not conform to the revolutions there. Think about the videos you saw of the attack on the US capitol. What do you reckon the average age of the insurrectionist was? Or more difficult (but not always) to discern, the average intelligence level? I used a quote from Thomas Kuhn, the man who wrote the book on paradigm change and how it happens, in a recent post. He talks about manipulation of the suggestible youth and letting the old people who refuse to conform to the new paradigm die. He noticed this (as did I) in science, but it works the same with socio-political revolution. 

And on Jan. 6th, when he came to the conclusion that his revolution was hitting a roadblock, or at least a setback with the election loss, Trump prematurely made his move only to discover that recruiting for his revolution will take more than four years. That is what happened and that is highly impeachable. Without impeachment, the revolution will not die. 

You doubt me. You think I am being extreme. Then read on, please. 

A friend recently tried to convince me of the ingenious nature of Trump's word selection, a topic that he had tried a few times before to batter me about the brain with and one I felt I had to discourage once and for all. He was saying that Trump cleverly calls people nicknames like "Sleepy Joe," "Crazy Arnold," "Crying Chuck," and "Low Energy Jeb" to manipulate public opinion on them. Well, I didn't disagree, I simply said that 5-year-olds do the same thing for the same reasons. It's nothing ingenious. In fact, the 5-year-olds I've known in my lifetime were more creative with their name-calling. However, Trump's handlers, the brains behind the brainless, also know that what works for a 5-year-old can and DOES work for a large portion of any population that has been deterred from being taught how to think, and have settled for being taught WHAT to think. Any of us in education who can't face the reality that this is exactly the direction our field is headed, are probably already victims of this perversion. Some might call it replacing education with religion, or rational thought with blind faith. I'll use a lengthy, but salient quote here from H.P. Lovecraft and I will replace the words "religion" and "religionists" with "Trumpism," and "Trumpists." See if this doesn't work:

"If (Trumpism) were true, it's followers would not try to bludgeon their young into and artificial conformity; but would merely insist on their unbending quest for truth." "With such an honest and inflexible openness to evidence, they could not fail to receive any real truth." "The fact that (Trumpists) do not follow this honourable course, but cheat at their game by invoking juvenile quasi-hypnosis, is enough to destroy their pretensions in my eyes even if their absurdity were not manifest in every other direction." 

Let me ask you if you haven't noticed another thing at Trump rallies: repetition. Endless repetition of slogans, chants, nicknames, and revolutionist strategies. If you've never seen or heard of Jordan Klepper, he's about the best Trump-buster there is. If you think the average Trump supporter is a member of his revolution through intellect rather than brainwashing, just give this a gander. This, by the way, is only the tip of the iceberg. 

How do you suppose these people got this way? Do you suppose they took the "honourable course" outlined by Lovecraft above? Or do you suppose they were just singing songs without considering the lyrics? And I'm not saying these are bad people. One quote Trump takes a lot of heat for, but that has an acorn of truth to it, is when he said there were very fine people on both sides of the violent protests in Charlottesville, Virginia. I believe brainwashing CAN cause very fine people to believe and do horrible things. 

Slavoj Zizek is a guy from the only European country that has suffered three totalitarian regimes in the 20th century - Slovenia. He has a lot to say about the "sheeple" that were mentioned in the Jordan Klepper vid above, but he says it in a no holds barred manner that I like. No bullshit is probably the way he'd describe it. For instance, he said, "Humanity is okay, but 99% of people are boring idiots." That'd be your sheeple. I'm not sure of his calculations, but I like the quote and have sometimes felt like this. You can read it in at least half of my blog posts!

“Property taxes' rank right up there with 'income taxes' in terms of immorality and destructiveness. Where 'income taxes' are simply slavery using different words, 'property taxes' are just a Mafia turf racket using different words. For the former, if you earn a living on the gang's turf, they extort you. For the latter, if you own property in their territory, they extort you. The fact that most people still imagine both to be legitimate and acceptable shows just how powerful authoritarian indoctrination is. Meanwhile, even a brief objective examination of the concepts should make anyone see the lunacy of it. 'Wait, so every time I produce anything or trade with anyone, I have to give a cut to the local crime lord??' 'Wait, so I have to keep paying every year, for the privilege of keeping the property I already finished paying for??' And not only do most people not make such obvious observations, but if they hear someone else pointing out such things, the well-trained Stockholm Syndrome slaves usually make arguments condoning their own victimization. Thus is the power of the mind control that comes from repeated exposure to BS political mythology and propaganda.”
― Larken Rose

Have I not said this before? Add to this certain aspects of, or the entirety of marriage, politics, banking, religion, economics, democracy, social mores... there are so many forms of mythology that are popularly subscribed to! Given a brief, objective examination, any of them could be accurately described as lunacy. Sometimes I think maybe 99% is the right number. Or is it too low? 

But let's return to Zizek. He's an interesting guy! Even though Communism was one of the horrors his country endured, he remains a Communist. His reasoning is something I have also given on this blog a number of times, and it's the extent to which I, gulp, agree with Trump on that one statement of his. Here is how Zizek describes it: "...the horror of Communism, Stalinism is not that bad people do bad things - they always do. It's that good people do horrible things thinking they are doing something great." The video below of this nose-wiping, lisping, swearing madman includes a portrait of Stalin hung in his home for shock value alone, and some awfully thought-provoking insight into how MOVIES have contributed to the American mythology that is almost unanimously followed. 

My favourite, and again something I've shared here before, concept he talks about is misdirected violence. Right now Trump is on trial for the violent insurrection he induced. Like Manson didn't murder anyone, Trump didn't storm the capitol. But he incited violence. In a way, violence is on trial here and in that way, I see a danger. I believe there NEEDS to be violence in most societies to bust us out of this horrific mythology we are in. Zizek believes we need to violently bust ourselves out of our somnambulistic states. I totally agree. Even if it takes the form of the "Fight Club" self-ass kicking, it is necessary for us all. 

To better define the "mythology" that has ravaged America, and I think most of the world, who better to define it than Uncle Noam? 

“Modern industrial civilization has developed within a certain system of convenient myths. The driving force of modern industrial civilization has been individual material gain, which is accepted as legitimate, even praiseworthy, on the grounds that private vices yield public benefits in the classic formulation.

Now, it's long been understood very well that a society that is based on this principle will destroy itself in time. It can only persist with whatever suffering and injustice it entails as long as it's possible to pretend that the destructive forces that humans create are limited: that the world is an infinite resource, and that the world is an infinite garbage-can. At this stage of history, either one of two things is possible: either the general population will take control of its own destiny and will concern itself with community-interests, guided by values of solidarity and sympathy and concern for others; or, alternatively, there will be no destiny for anyone to control.

As long as some specialized class is in a position of authority, it is going to set policy in the special interests that it serves. But the conditions of survival, let alone justice, require rational social planning in the interests of the community as a whole and, by now, that means the global community. The question is whether privileged elites should dominate mass-communication, and should use this power as they tell us they must, namely, to impose necessary illusions, manipulate and deceive the stupid majority, and remove them from the public arena. The question, in brief, is whether democracy and freedom are values to be preserved or threats to be avoided. In this possibly terminal phase of human existence, democracy and freedom are more than values to be treasured, they may well be essential to survival.”
― Noam Chomsky

I believe it is possible for society, even on a global scale, to take control of its own destiny and concern itself with community-interests, but we can only do so by coming to the Fight Club self-ass kicking, mind-blowing realization that we subscribe to so much mythology and that it is fomented upon us by a small number of people with the intentions to control and exploit us for their selfish gain. Zizek says something else profound toward the end of the above video. "Every revolution, if it is an authentic revolution, is not only directed toward the future, but it redeems also the past failed revolutions."  

What Trump is on trial for now is not some "march" on the capitol. Even the people who participated in the assault on the capitol hate when that term is used to describe what they were doing, as Plaskett pointed out. He's on trial for inciting a revolution, one of ignorance and violence. One that would knock the US back to times when racism was enforced with violence. These, presumably, would be the "great" times in the MAGA slogan. These times, in some areas, existed fewer years ago than a lot of people know. In some places and in many ways, they STILL exist. Hence, BLM. Give "Mississippi Burning" or "In the Heat of the Night" a re-screening at your place tonight. It'll do you good. 

The American Revolution was a failed revolution for the people who supported these ideals. Trump's was just a more recent one of the same kind. And if he is not found guilty (which he won't be) there may be another in the future. The work America has to do must start with recognizing that every member of the Republican party who is averting his/her attention from videos of the violent revolt being played during the trial is a co-conspirator and needs to be purged from politics. And then they need to completely remove money from politics and clean up the mess money has made of politics. Jack punches himself in the face. They then need to take some "smirking revenge" on the corporate fat cats who have been constitutionally exploiting the people (protecting the "opulent minority" from the majority) since independence in 1776. Jack blasts himself in the face again and falls on a glass topped table shattering it. 

I'll stick this article between these two changes America needs to make because it is about the best example of the lunacy Larken Rose talked about and the embodiment of both changes. (And just to be clear, I don't agree with Larken Rose on everything) This is a satirical article in a satirical source of satire, yet this CEO, a genuine object of derision and scorn, is not a rarity, but LITERALLY represented in a great many actual human beings, including, you guessed it, Donald Trump. To give you an idea of how messed up our world is, the satire, the hyperbole, the extreme opinion put forth in so obviously a comedic way that it couldn't possibly be construed as libel, is undoubtedly Darren Woods' opinion. I'd go as far as to say that he wouldn't be CEO if it weren't. We KNOW this, don't we? Yet it's an accepted part of the corporate mythology.

They need to abandon the vulture capitalism and greed that is infecting the entire planet and is a scourge on Nature and the environment. Jack picks himself up and throws himself at the wall unit. They need to recognize the power of love over the love of power. They need to stop being assholes to each other and everyone else. Jack feeds himself two more quick jabs. And, they need to regulate Wall Street and the financial institutions in their country so they will go back to the boring entities they were before they turned into a world casino using Jack's money to make themselves rich, or blowing Jack's money to make Jack poor. Jack climbs up his boss, getting blood all over him and making it seem the boss was guilty before the SEC storms in and concludes the obvious.

This is a fight I'd dearly love to see, but it's unlikely to happen. I believe it will be a far more likely possibility if Trump is found guilty and never allowed to participate in politics again. A LOT of people voted for Trump, so his revolutionary rhetoric and inculcation was successful even though he lost the election. His followers might reconvene at the church of MAGA if he were to run again in 4 years. If he is still alive then. And not in prison. It would likely go a long way toward discouraging a proxy revolution lead by a loyal follower or member of his family. And THIS, my dear reader, is the impeachment imperative. 

Now, maybe it's because 99% of people are boring idiots, maybe it's because people are sheeple, I don't know, but impeachment is a far off dream. Realistically, I am just hoping for a few people/sheeple to wake their asses up and see the reality of the situation. Though he won't be found guilty, and most people aren't watching the trial, let alone getting up at 4 AM to do so, I believe it to be important. If only a few people are "punched in the face" by these proceedings, then they are not a waste of time. That's the violence I am hoping will be incited.