Non-Profit? My Ass

What, exactly, is meant by non-profit? Is a non-profit really any different than any other corporation? Perhaps. But in my experience, these companies are just as concerned with the bottom line to the extent that the people who work for them are nothing more than after thoughts, necessary evils that there really is no distinguishing them from one another.

I also find the ads for street activism rather annoyingly like any other business job ads. They make the job appear to be a fantastic way to meet people, make lots of money, while doing good for your planet, country, etc. But, from a conversation with a few of these "activists" & having read some rants on Craig's List from others, these jobs require one not only one fulfill a quota each day, endure heavy pressure from higher-ups that if they cannot produce, they will be fired, & one can have all this for an actual sub-standard wage.

Of course, you're not supposed to be in it for the money, are you? But with your non-profit employer contradicting themselves by implying that they're in it for the cause, yet repeatedly proving themselves to be, in reality, so concerned with the money, you have to wonder. Many years ago, I'd read an article showing how much money collected by the Christian Children's Fund was going to upper management salary. Out of every dollar collected, some incredibly huge percentage went toward management salary, while less than a cent went to the children they claim to be "providing for".

Now, in my own experience working for a non-profit organization, we were encouraged to push memberships, as well as sales -- I worked in retail. One of the selling points of these memberships was that it was tax deductible. So, I wonder, who's really paying for these memberships, as well as all the contributions made to that, or any, organization, by the rich? We know that the rich write off anything they can, as the tax laws are written in their favour. In turn, these memberships & contributions are a scam.

Don't you see? The rich -- & anyone purchasing a membership or making a contribution -- write these things off. Then, it is the tax payers who foot the bill for their special events with silly catered foods & an open bar. OK. Fine. I have no great problem with paying less in taxes which inevitably wind up paying a totally unrealistic salary to some moron who talked a good enough game to get into political office, but then these non-profits insult us by requiring we pay for entrance when we'd already done so by paying our taxes -- without all the wondrous write-offs which really only cater to the rich.

Would I be so crass as to suggest we boycott non-profits? Would I go so far as to suggest we band together & protest this abuse? Certainly not. I will suggest that people open their eyes. We're being duped everywhere we turn by marketing people & the wealthy. Naturally, we aren't going to get something for nothing, but why go looking for it if we're just being manipulated? Stop being fooled.

Yet again, I'm left with only one final thing to say:

Question everything.

You're no fun any more

I'm on a nostalgia kick again. Me? Sure. I'm remembering a time -- &, perhaps a place -- when a man could compliment a woman's dress or look in a very simple manner, & it would either be accepted or politely rejected for what it is -- a simple compliment. But, apparently, today, a simple compliment -- void of any seething intent -- is perceived as a sexually potent & lurid remark. Yes. I have now graduated from the woman repellent, to the creepy old man.

A statement to any woman under, perhaps, thirty to the effect of, "Hey, I like your dress" or "That's a nice skirt", has become intimidating. Somehow, women now expect such statements to be followed by a regimen of stalking resulting in some rape scene. For the record, I have never wondered how a woman would look from the bushes outside her home.

Of course, if any woman whom I'd complimented found me even remotely attractive -- guess what? I wouldn't be a threat, I'd be considered possible bed fodder or even -- if I had money & was generous -- a possible boy friend. One cannot even so much as scan a room & meet the eyes of a woman scanning the same room without being judged abusive.

I'm sure that any woman who has judged me such would deny these statements. I'm sure their ill perceived judgment of me would become more surreal simply because I accuse them of thinking entirely too highly of themselves & being conditioned either by breakfast cereal commercials or made-for-tv movies. But I hardly think my reaction to their reactionary minds bad powers of observation -- I've a rather strong ability to see beyond the surface.

I also know that I'm generalizing. There are certainly women in their twenties & later who know better. Sadly, I know a very small number of them -- & I expect that number to continue to diminish.

Apart from the fact I have never so much as expected, let alone forced anything of a woman -- "no" had meant "no" long before television told us so, & I had even made it conscious a point of respect before I'd ever had the opportunity to get to know a girl (when I was but a boy) slightly -- not even intimately -- to do only as they made clear I could. Sex, as wonderful as it can be, may be on my mind, but isn't something I've ever expected. Frankly, frequently in my life, I find sex so silly it's practically pointless.

So, have your sugar-coated lives; find your princes (or goth-punk-wanna-be-artist) & live your passionless, humorless, surface lives. Obscurity calls to me, the freedom to be & think & dream -- with or without the physicality sex -- grows ever more appealing to me than the phony life we must live now.

Misanthropy is the result of even a dolt who stops to think about it.

Light up, or leave me alone

Have you seen the anti-smoking spot on television with the plucked, headless turkey? These are so hilarious that I can't imagine any smoker feeling any desire to quit because of them. This headless turkey (I suppose nick-named Cold Turkey), is, perhaps, a greater advertising icon than Joe Camel had been in the past, or even of the Marlboro Man during his run.

But the anti-smoking coalition's accident aside, I'd like to point out something which isn't getting much coverage about this. That's the parallels between today's anti-smoking campaign & that of the Nazi Party's propaganda of the 1930's.

That's right. Hitler had run an anti-smoking campaign as well. Apparently, just as now, people then were all too willing to accept the supposed authority of someone holding credentials. But, as I'd heard yesterday from a friend of a friend, only half of a graduating class of doctors got high marks...or words to that effect. The other half barely got their paper. More, the Nazi's "experts" were clearly more in sympathy with the movement than they were with their actual findings. I suspect the same goes for our "experts" today.

It comes down to the fact that just as in the past, we are relying on questionable authority. But do we actually question these authorities? Of course not. We're not "experts" in the field, so what do we know? And that's the point: What do we know? If we can only claim knowledge of a second or third-hand nature -- knowledge we don't bother to verify -- how can we claim any knowledge at all?

Yet most people just accept what they're told without the slightest thought. Remember what happened with cholesterol & eggs not too many years ago? These supposed authorities claimed that in their findings, eggs were, essentially, evil & killing us all. Some years later, these experts decided that, wait! There is good cholesterol & bad cholesterol. The egg industry, I'm sure, is still trying to recover from the destructive effects of these so-called experts.

I'm a smoker. I also eat fatty meats, drink whole milk, & I occasionally drink alcohol. Oh, my! I must be evil. But because I was endowed with a brain -- & I know how to use it -- I've found authorities very questionable from my earliest memories. Time & again, I've been told things which were not backed up -- & when questioned, I was told only that I should be quiet & listen. Well, I have listened. For years. These days, I can no longer just be quiet.

When I was a teen, my eldest sister was studying to become a nurse. Whenever she'd visit, I'd always look through her nursing manuals. They were filled with pictures of the results of all sorts of ailments. Of course, I'm sure each of the victims in these manuals were likely in very advanced stages of whatever illness, & not one suggested any other contributing factor to these results. It was all presented as black & white. Round the same time, my mother was using the prevailing anti-smoking propaganda of scare tactics in her attempt to quit. She would bring home all sorts of brochures & booklets with pictures of lungs, throats, mouths, hearts, arteries, etc in advanced stages of cancer. All the time I was looking through this horror material, I kept wondering if maybe there had been more involved than smoking -- or if these pictures really were body parts with cancer -- from smoking. Of course, no authority would ever manipulate the facts to suit their agenda. That would never happen.

This begs many questions: What about the crap in our food & drink? What about the crap in the air? What about the radio activity & countless synthesized chemicals in the environment? Are we attacking something which may not be the actual evil because it's relatively easy? Sure, while the Nazi's didn't have the same environmental issues to worry about, they did have a greater agenda which is what I'd said in a previous entry about distractions. But let's not get on that today.

I'm simply saying that our authorities have other issues -- sometimes more psychological than otherwise -- which are far more important. Oh, but if we find someone to discriminate against, we not only provide the necessary distraction, but we are given, like children, something to do so our authorities can do as they please.

I'd like to wake up now.

Have I missed something?

"The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48"
Volunteer Vol`un*teer", v. t. imp. & p. p. Volunteered; p.
pr. & vb. n. Volunteering.
To offer or bestow voluntarily, or without solicitation
or compulsion; as, to volunteer one's services.
1913 Webster

The term volunteer implies that there is no money involved -- from either the volunteer or the entity to which one volunteers...right? So, how is it I keep seeing references to volunteering in which the volunteer has to pay a sum of money to volunteer their services? Did someone forget to look up the definition?

Some years ago, I'd also wondered about ads I'd see in the classifieds of news papers in which internships were becoming paid positions. There was a time when an internship meant one had the right to be in intimate contact with a company's policies & procedures with the compensation being the knowledge one could learn, like a mentor-ship program. But now, most intern positions are paid.

So, in one area, the tables have turned. Naturally, the rich are those who reap the greatest reward -- particularly in bringing on volunteers who are willing to put up their own money to work for a company. And I'm sure those selfish bastards who'd come up with this idea feel fully justified in this. Why, it's a sound business practice, isn't it? Suck the very blood from an employee -- or client -- & give them as little as possible. Only, in this case, the company is simply reaping the benefits of some sucker working for them & handing out absolutely no compensation.

This reminds me of working in customer service in which the company gets occasional calls from foreign language speakers. The potential income a company can make from a sale to a foreign customer is, of course, directly related to how much they're willing to pay a bi- or multi-lingual employee for the benefit. But does the compensation ever come close to any idea of benefit the company receives? Of course not.

I have some talent with languages. I'm fluent only in English, but have been able to communicate in a fairly large number of other languages. In more naive times, I used to speak in the native language of customers because it was easier to do this than to repeatedly ask them to clarify what they wanted in English. But was I offered even the differential pay of twenty-five cents per hour often extended to employees able to speak another language? No.

In each company where I'd done this, I would -- at some point -- ask about receiving such pay to be flatly denied. But I wasn't given any option. I was told that I had to continue to speak to foreign customers in their own language, if I was able to communicate in whichever language, without compensation.

I caught on pretty quickly & stopped talking to customers in any language but English.

Is it any wonder I have no respect for the rich when they blatantly treat me with such disdain? Is it any wonder I'm so unwilling to offer any extras when I receive none in return?

I say, let them kiss my ass. I'm done kissing theirs.

There can be only one

We've heard this before. But no one wants to pay attention. In the US the top economic one percent hold more wealth than all the the other ninety-nine percent combined. How is this possible? How could such a thing happen? That one percent, enjoying that which we've all been hoodwinked into believing about life in America -- a comfortable life -- are directly responsible for, likely, every ill which has befallen the rest of us living here.

Naturally, the news media only tell us what the power elite want us to know, but think about it. Why would so many news agencies go to such lengths to tell us that, say, unemployment in this country is low, when the truth goes farther than that. One example of this is that many who had been laid off have not had the opportunity to return to the field for which they'd trained & are working in another field -- making much less money -- because their unemployment benefits had run out.

Another example is a story which never runs in relation to the employment situation. Sure, there are stories on the news which concern homelessness, but do they ever tell us just how many people are homeless? Do they ever tell us that there are more homeless people due to their inability to get jobs which pay enough for them to pay their debt as well as keep a roof over their heads, let alone eat on a regular basis?

No. And it's unlikely, so long as those who have brought us, like a drug fiend in need of a fix, to need such things as the painfully slow, pointless, funny only to a few, gew-gaws of the Web -- I miss GopherSpace & ftp sites. How about the saturation marketing we're assaulted with everywhere? I listen to what is referred to as a non-commercial radio station KEXP which runs -- though, admittedly, infrequently -- commercials. Yeah, commercials. They call them something else, but they're still ads for rather expensive toys & properties by rich people who are only seeking to get richer. Not once have they run a free ad from a small business owner.

Again, I ask, why do we need all these toys? Why do we need the newest, most wonderful piece of crap which is no better than the previous one -- only looks more slick? Who the hell are we trying to impress? Those getting richer don't give a damn about us -- they just want our money. So they repackage their crap & call it new or innovative. They brainwash us from an early age to believe their claims. They have turned us all into consumer clones who can't live without the shiny non-necessities of today.

But I was talking about the top one percent, wasn't I? Those who have the beautiful life which we must not only believe we actually want, but that we can, through hard work, really attain. They have taken the American Dream -- which, like our constitution, was very different when this country began -- & twisted it into an absolute myth. They use gambling, call it a lottery, & make us all believe we can win & suddenly have the good life they enjoy by our hard work & hard-earned money every single day of their lives.

The only way out -- should any have the power to see through the lies -- is to physically get out. True, the country I'm intending to move to, Chile, has a huge gap between rich & poor. Sure, as here, people there are brainwashed into believing that this new toy or that new home will bring them a sense of contentedness & self-worth. But that's just the country which appears to suit me. There are numerous countries, called "third world", which aren't dirt poor or under the thumbs of dictators. Countries with far richer cultures than here. Places where we might really find that contented bliss.

We could stay & fight, just as many wish to do with the government. But I'm growing older. I've seen numerous administrations. As each leaves, another set of equally corrupt -- & rich -- politicians come to take their place. There's no end to it. And changing one's circumstances won't automatically mean that one will find a government which isn't corrupt. But we can stop the madness in respect to finding a government, the wealthy, & the blindest of marketing people we can, gratefully, ignore.

Just be sure to turn out the lights before you go -- we don't want the new tenants to have to pay the wealthy power companies for the electricity we'd wasted.

Please hold for an important message

How many times have you heard this coming from your answering machine? If you're like me, you have a land-line & prefer to screen calls. This, of course, requires one of the most incredible pieces of technology ever created: The answering machine. No having to dial a number to get any messages, no need for caller-ID, no having to actually miss calls, as you (an adult) have the option of picking up the receiver & talking to the caller after determining who they are. That is, if the caller actually attempts to leave a message.

I'd Googled this phrase to find that this message, or system, can cost a marketer from $59.00 to, at least, $350.00. Naturally, this can only work for a marketer if the person receiving the call is sheep-ish enough to actually sit there waiting for some bastard tele-marketer to condescend to them.

What marketing genius came up with this?

There was a time -- really -- maybe rather ancient, but there was a time when tele-marketing didn't exist. I don't remember when I started getting such calls, but after the first few, I grew tired of politely thanking them & asking them not to call any longer. When that day arrived, perhaps after the third or fourth call, I grew more & more delighted to simply fuck with them. This wasn't an entirely original idea. Many others were growing increasing tired of these calls as well, & found as much entertainment as I in wasting their time. But times have certainly changed.

Lemme tell ya, if these people have any hope of prying cash out of my tightly clenched fists, they'll have to be on the line. Naturally, I don't like the idea of businesses actually seeking customers by any means other than offering honest services & worth while products I go looking for.

So, for any marketing wise asses reading this, you're wasting your time on me -- & from the looks of the number of pages on Google with complaint after complaint, it's not working on others either. Get a clue.

Eat the rich

I'd recently related a dream business idea I've had for some time to a friend. I've mentioned this idea, as well as some others, to a few other people I've known. But only in recent years have I been confronted by a very specific type of opposition.

It's not that the idea is bad. It, as had the others, seems rather sound. But the the fact that this business simply doesn't serve the rich draws incredible opposition. All who've opposed me backed up their allusions to my "naivete" with examples, they believe, are the only things which would make a business successful. Each example were things would only make the rich happier.

Why is it that -- particularly in the past few years -- we have all become servants to the rich? Look at the shops round us. Most every one caters only to those who have lots of money. The few businesses which serve the poor are still there -- some are not just successful, but are very successful. The poor aren't going away either. So, how have we come to believe that only serving the rich will make us successful?

How could such a thing happen? Is it possible that the rich, &, naturally, the government who are composed, primarily, of the rich, might, somehow, have brainwashed us all into thinking that we are free? So free, in fact, that we have become so distracted by other things, that we don't see that we're all just serving the rich?

So, a business aimed at serving anyone other than the rich -- aimed, specifically, at ignoring the rich -- could only be doomed to fail...? I don't think so. I firmly believe that while there will always be rich, there will be those who are not aware of the fact that they are nothing more than servants, or slaves. In turn, someone has to give them some form of refuge -- whether one is aware of such a place being a refuge, or not.

OK. So, maybe it's a stretch -- a long one -- to think that the rich could consciously manipulate us into unwittingly becoming their servants -- maybe, but it's pretty clear that this is what has happened. We're all trapped. We're all enslaved to not just money, but to those who have much of it.

Would that we could see an end to globalization, an end to our enslavement, an end to poverty, & war, & the desire for more toys. Would that we could see an end to greed &, power, & the inevitable abuse of power.

Would that we could see an end to all these stupid ills surrounding us every day.

It's a beautiful world

Oi! This electronic, power sucking, and wonderfully convenient world in which we live is really getting me down. Not in the way the government has always gotten to me -- that's a totally different quality of down. This down is not so much frustration, but rather fatigue.

At my new job, I work with a number of kids. These kids, like most anyone who'd entered puberty in the 1990's, really only know a world of convenience. Everything from cell phones, Blackberries, Visa &/or MasterCard debit & credit cards, CD & mp3 players to workstations at home & laptops slung over their shoulders.

Sure, we could say kids today are far more spoiled than kids of my generation, or earlier. They can't put the cell phone away for a minute. I'd even seen an entirely too entertaining science program on PBS last night concerning something called the World Wide Mind, or WWM, pronounced "Wim". The WWM requires a computer chip, containing a transceiver, to be embedded into one's brain that one can be connected to anyone else with this chip embedded, & to the Internet, creating a new network, & providing one with immediate knowledge of anything they wish to know just by thinking about it.

When the WWM begins, it's pretty clear that the young will be the first to opt for it.

Let's forgo the obvious evils & ensuing abuses of this WWM & get back to my fatigue. This has been growing for quite a long time. While I love the fact that banks instituted ATM's & ATM cards, as trying to get some cash on a weekend or at night had become impossible without them. But do we really need to be able to spend, spend, spend at any moment? And why would we need to hear music everywhere we go?

OK. So, I'm a 'puter geek. Have been from the minute I'd accidentally hacked into a UNIX mainframe & found a directory containing obvious games when I was about ten years old. But I'm growing really sick of the ubiquity of computers. I think I'm mostly bothered by such companies as MicroSoft touting some new product as being the greatest thing with which we can't live without which is nothing more than a prettier piece of crap than the last one they'd released.

I doubt I'll ever find a woman who can stand me long enough to actually consider birthing my demon spawn, but should that ever happen, I think my kids might hate me. It's not that I'd be an overly strict parent, or would be stingy, or uninvolved. My kids would hate me because I would only allow them so much television & computer time. Instead, my kids would have books on most any subject available to them, they'd have board & card games, & they'd have musical instruments & other tools of destruction...or, rather, art.

I also believe that my kids would have far more encouragement in artistic, true intellectual endeavors, & political activism to the point they'd likely tell me to get the hell away. And I would, as I had the children of an ex-girlfriend, explain why certain things are just not acceptable, rather than yelling & spanking when they do wrong.

But, above all else, while my kids wouldn't be deprived, they would not be spoiled.

Pre Employment Credit & Background Checks

I'm a decent guy. I pay my taxes, I don't take controlled substances, & I'd say that the only laws I've broken in many, many years have been limited to j-walking -- & any other law I may have broken in the past might possibly have been so heinous that it might have been a misdemeanor. So, after I'd left Seattle, approximately a year & a half ago & arrived in Hawaii, I first found amusing, & later annoying, constantly being asked if I have any felony charges against me.

While in Hawaii, where a living wage is nearly impossible to come by, because I don't take drugs, didn't find it unreasonable for a potential employer to require I take a drug test. I certainly found it odd that they would want to do this before I exhibited any sign of being under the influence of some controlled substance, but fine. I needed the money.

Now I find myself in California -- the state of my birth, & a state which is historically politically progressive & tolerant. But, to my utter surprise, employers here, as many other places, are now not simply verifying that one has no trace of illegal substances in their system, but are actually forcing us to sign a document at the time of applying -- not when being offered a position -- rather at the time of applying for jobs stating that we agree to a complete background check.

Let me see if I have this straight: I have to agree -- before I even get to see anyone other than a cashier, assuming I ever do -- to have my entire life scrutinized by strangers to determine if I am moral enough to work for a substandard wage?

Let's overlook the fact that these are strangers who will be judging us based upon things we may or, actually, may have not done in the past -- all out of context, of course -- & concentrate on this: Corporate board members, CEO's, CFO's, upper management, etc in countless large corporations all over the world have been in the news for many years not because of benevolent acts, but because they repeatedly break numerous laws which inevitably have a negative effect on the lives of those in the company who are making it possible for them to feed themselves, buy new golf clubs, club memberships, & put braces on the perfect, white teeth of their children.

So, I wonder: Why is it the morals of the person to whom they will only pay a minor wage being investigated? Time & again, the corrupt corporate cronies are being arrested & sometimes put in prison, but more likely they're buying their way out of it & getting hired by another corporation & getting a much greater compensation package than the previous corporation had given them. But, naturally, the lowly wage-earner has to worry about losing their job if they accidentally find that a stack of post-it notes they'd slipped in their pocket for whatever reason had, because it's just not that important, somehow made it home with them.

Yes, yes. A struggling company can be made or broken because of the loss of a few post-it notes, but I have news for you. I've been round; I've seen things. For instance, every company on the planet -- assuming those in charge have any brains whatsoever -- write any "loss" off of their taxes. Then, each time I've worked when the issue of a minimum wage increase comes up, & the state approves it, every employer cries that they can't afford it & will either have to lay people off or will, they whine, have to go out of business.

Guess how many of these businesses are now gone. You guessed it -- none. How many of them laid people off? Again -- none. How many of these employers lifestyles were even slightly effected by a minimum wage increase? Oh, my god! None.

I'm sure I'll get mail from various people claiming they'd lost their business due to employee theft or minimum wage increases, but wake up. If you treat your employees well, they'll appreciate it, & they won't steal from you. I know this from experience. Oh, & I sincerely doubt that anyone ever was forced out of business because they suddenly had to capitulate & cough up a few more cents in wages. Had you been paying your people an amount which even implied you had any respect for them as life forms, a minimum wage increase would have still been less then you were paying them, anyway.

But, sure. I'll continue to sign these silly pieces of paper. What do I have to hide -- & what choice have I? But I still wonder how those who'd come up with this idea sleep at night.

Sit down & shut up

Bosses. They're all out of touch. I remember working for a large corporation in Buffalo NY when they were preparing to open a new call center in Las Vegas. Although I'd had no intention of moving to Vegas, I took the opportunity to get some time off the phones & sat in on the meeting concerning moving personnel. In addition to all the "wondrous" things the company was offering we lowly wage earners (virtually nothing, actually) to entice us to transfer was no provision whatsoever for relocation.

The president of our division stood up & said that must be an oversight. But no problem -- they'd figure that out later. One of the wage earners who was planning on making the move asked how can anyone working in the call center make the move if they have no money? The president stared blankly at her & said, "Well, each of you should put it on your credit cards." This drew a distinct groan from the wage earners. Confused, the management just looked at each other wondering what was wrong. This is where I decided to justify my being there & pointed out that "...in America, most wage earners live pay check to pay check & normally don't qualify for any form of credit. What's more -- just because I happen to (have been) fortunate enough to qualify for credit, each of us is literally hovering round the country's poverty level & even the credit I have wouldn't get me any further than the state line."

Not only did the president not believe me, he said I was being very offensive & should sit down.

In the end, only a few people from the call center -- after loans from their families -- made the move. People making even anything over $40,000 a year lose touch with what it might have been like for them -- assuming they weren't from wealthy families -- before they made that much. And I've yet to meet anyone in upper management in corporations who has the slightest clue what life is like for the rest of us. It's too stupid.

Oh, I certainly didn't fall for their crap. As for opening eyes...I think this is why I get passed over for promotion in large corporations because experience & ability have nothing to do with corporate promotions. Why have I been singled out? I'm no "company man". I point out fallacies, I complain to management when their marketing-laden ideas have no value for anyone but those who already have lots of money. Corporations don't like those of us who see through the BS -- they're only too happy to abuse our knowledge & talents by always demanding more of us & not paying us a decent wage -- let alone paying us even a little extra for all the extra they want of us. All the while they whine about all the money they'd spent on training us & all the cookies, literally -- cookies, they dangle before us, not caring really that we're "ungrateful" & threaten to quit. Why? Because to them we are easily replaced by another wage earner whom they can abuse till they get fed up & quit.

In spite of the fact it is we who put food on their tables, braces on their ugly, spoiled children's teeth, & make it possible for them to spend tens of thousands of dollars on their three or four long vacations every year, it is we who are treated badly & it is we who are forever called ungrateful.

Ignorance really is bliss. The most painful is seeing though the BS, knowing that we're treated as slaves & fodder, & knowing that any change we make simply changes the circumstances -- we're still slaves & fodder in the eyes of a new employer.