Tuesday, June 25, 2013

The Difference, or: The 99% is a State of Mind

Candid conversations that reveal the most, you know.

Take Vice President Joe Biden's recent trip to the Bay Area as one example.

President Obama (Bless his Holy Name) and Vice President Joe Biden (crickets) like to visit the San Francisco Bay Area because this hotbed of leftism is a great ATM machine. They fly in, raise some money, and fly out. As somebody who earns part of his living flying in airplanes, we are always restricted to the ground or designated areas when these VIPs arrive for security reasons.

The President made one visit last month; a week later, Biden followed. Joe, being the "aw shucks" regular guy he is (he'll tell you so), performed not only a fundraising speech but also visited "regular guy" places like a local deli. At the deli he mixed with the great unwashed--uh, I mean, regular people. According to the video shown on the local news that evening, one lady went up to Joe and said, "I'm really glad you stick up for the little guy."

Joe replied, "That's OK, I'm a little guy too."

Is somebody in the back raising their hand? You have a question?

I don't mean to be negative but that exchange doesn't sound like it's worth our time, dude. Unless Biden is talking about his penis, what's the point?

I'm glad you asked .... but let's keep it clean, okay? Thanks.

While today's leftist rails about the oppression of the one percent while claiming to be part of the 99%, each statement drips bitterness. While the 99% claim to be fighting the oppression, really what they're admitting is that they are "little guys" who have nobody to stick up for them so they need people like Obama (Bless His Holy Name) and Biden (crickets). But the bitterness comes from their state of mind.

The "little guy" needs somebody to stick up for him because he is powerless. He has no ideas. No initiative. He invents nothing. He waits for somebody else hoping to latch on to another person's success. When he is unable to latch on, and suffers for it, it's the other guy's fault. The other guy has too much money and is mean and nasty because he won't share. Instead of spending time creating a business, creating and selling a piece of art, or something else equally productive that may raise his standing in life, the "little guy" pitches a tent in front of a bank, paints a sign ("Capitalism is Evil!"), and rails against the one percent.

That's the difference between the "99%" and the rest of us. I'm certainly not in an income bracket that qualifies me for a spot with the one percent, but there is no reason for me to allow myself to get dragged to the other side (which is the goal, the classic divide-and-conquer, don't kid yourself). My attitude is strictly One Percent and I don't apologize for it.

Living in the Bay Area is expensive. While my salary covers my lifestyle, it doesn't leave a lot for extras. But instead of complaining, I'm creating. I write books (see the link below!) and perform free-lance voice over work. It helps keep the hounds at bay and the good news is that while profits may be growing slowly, they're growing. In a couple of years I'll be doing quite well indeed.

When you classify yourself as a "little guy" you make it so. You'll never be anything more than that because in your mind you convince yourself that you will never be anything more than that. That's Self-fulfilling Prophecy 101. That's where the bitterness comes from. Deep down, the leftist knows this. But he dares not say so out loud because that would require him to take responsibility, and responsibility to a leftist is like Kryptonite to Superman.



ABOUT: Brian Drake lives in California and is the author of The Rogue Gentleman which will soon be released in paperback (and available now as an ebook).

Friday, June 7, 2013

Want to be a Rebel? Pray.

If you want to be a rebel and stick it to The Man in the 21st Century, pray. If necessary, pray in public.

That’s what a valedictorian in South Carolina did. Liberty High Valedictorian Roy Costner IV took his preapproved speech to the podium (because students can’t be trusted and The Man must make sure they aren’t going to say something off-color), and in front of the crowd, tore it up. Then he recited the Lord’s Prayer.

Now the school in question does not allow that sort of religious expression, specifically because a bunch of atheists complained. Prayer makes atheists cry and wet their pants. The school didn't want to have to clean up the mess.

But in the 21st Century, if one wants to be counter-culture, if one wants to be a rebel, one needs to pray.

How far have we fallen where such activity is now considered rebellion? How far have we fallen where simple expressions of faith are against the rules? Why do we allow cry babies to dictate the behavior of the rest of us? Are people so sensitive that they break out in a rash if somebody expresses religious faith? Come on, people. Let’s grow up. But since we aren’t going to do that, allow me to speak to you in a language you may understand.

I know what you’re thinking. Freedom of religion also means freedom from religion, bla bla bla, but what you people want is the abolishment of any kind of public expression of faith, and that’s going too far in the other direction. Just because you don’t like it doesn’t allow you to tell the rest of us that we can’t express it. And saying we still have the freedom to do it privately, in our churches, etc., doesn’t count. Most of this country has some kind of religious faith. You people are the minority. That means there aren’t that many of you. I’m sorry to break it to you, but that’s the truth. You bang pots and pans to make a lot of noise so we pay attention to you but you’re few and far between. That means sometimes you need to be quiet and let the other person have his say. You are free to say something in response, should you have the floor, but otherwise you need to sit and be polite and quiet and let the grown-ups do their thing. When the graduation is over, you can piss and moan all the way home about how offended you are that somebody mentioned the name Jesus.

The same goes for the non-Christian religions. I’m sorry you’re upset that we aren’t praying to your sissy fake moon god, but tough it out. When you have the floor, you can pray to your sacred cow or your totem poll or your picture of Lady Gaga. In the meantime, zip your hairy lip. Better yet, wax that thing. You look gross.

You think I'm being intolerant? Honey, you haven't seen intolerant yet.

I will admit that this isn’t my most eloquent piece of writing. It’s downright juvenile, really. But I’m tired of people in this country looking at religion—particularly the Christian religion, which seems to get most of the attention—like it’s a contagious disease. Uh-oh, they might get their Jesus on us! Of course, if you read the Bible, you know full well that they hate us because they not only hated Jesus first, but they hated what Jesus taught. I write that in the past tense because this sort of conflict reaches back through history to the days before the Crucifixion. What Jesus taught demands a response. You believe it or you don’t, there’s no in-between, and people can’t handle not having a gray area to hide in. So they attack, attack, attack. This is not unexpected, because Jesus said it would happen. Those on the other side have drawn their line and while I can respect that, I also expect to be respected. If I am not respected, I will fight back. I will rebel. I will stick it to The Man by going to church. How silly does that sound?

The school in question, in their divine wisdom, says they aren't going to punish Mr. Costner for breaking the rules. I'm sure his knees were knocking at the thought. But if he was anything like me at that age, his last thought before taking the stage was, "The heck with this place, I'm graduating."

Good luck, Roy. Millions of us rebels are with you.