The New "Experts"

Original image courtesy viewimages.com, format modified for artistic purposes.

I don't need to explain that apart from having a form of brain-damage that affects my neuro-motor functions (as opposed to cognitive brain-functions), the second most annoying thing in my life is corporate-flunkies-half-my-age-who-think-they-know- everything-about-everything errantly telling me what "I" did to screw myself up.

The irritation is in telling me that "I" somehow made a mistake when an automated system of the corporation's own design doesn't behave as advertised. The unfortunate thing is that I more than anybody understand how the Corporate Shell-Game(tm) keeps a company's own clerks in the dark about what the customer actually experiences.

It makes sense, you know. The inherent complexity of having disparate teams of specialized-labor interacting with the customer through even more complex automated systems naturally begs for trouble.

But at some point, actually understanding the logical flaws in the CORPORATION'S INFRASTRUCTURE only foments a kind of madness in ME (primarily because I am merely a high-school graduate who was regularly short-changed on salaries by even LESS QUALIFIED senior managers because I didn't matriculate from an expensive secondary institution [also known as a University]).

Whenever I share this fact with people, they invariably assume that I can't be that bright if I couldn't figure out how to get a university degree. But in actual fact, the 3-time sifting of my PARENT'S ASSETS as a result of marriage, extended-family, divorce, remarriage, repeat made it practically impossible to fit into any financial institution's definition of a safe-bet, actuarially-speaking.

The irony of later having worked for 3 investment banks and a Big-6 consulting-company only makes more bitter the experience of being treated as an idiot by a clerk.

Yet...the customer is always stupid is the motto that helps other underpaid workers rationalize their pain, so I am caught in a perpetual battle between genuine empathy and utter rage when I interact with MOST companies. Still, I have been repeatedly complimented on my friendly, intelligent demeanor by people who actually speak with me (a rare occurrence because of Corporate-implemented flak-management apparatuses that minimize legal problems by keeping problem-resolution staff safely insulated from the customer).

People who've worked with me on a professional-level frequently ask why [if I am so aware of all these circumstances] I don't start my own consulting company. And the answer is because I can barely walk or lift a pencil...two unavoidable prerequisites for being an effective consultant.

But ultimately the reason is because I just don't care anymore. A person who doesn't responsibly disconnect from other people who routinely solve their problems by sweeping them under the rug is in danger of becoming one of the very personalities he/she loathes so much.

I'm certain I've done enough writing to make my benign intent clear...but I think it's time the New Experts with their University degrees show the world why they get paid 5 times as much as people whom they know are more qualified than themselves.

I'm not giving up...I'm just saying that maybe it's time for all the over-paid, over-fed managers of the world to do some work for a change.

Dead or Alive?

Illuminated Crowd in Montreal by Raymond Masson, c. 1986, Photo (c) Rolf Hicker

I've had the not-so-rare misfortune of being typecast as "less mature" than those with whom I associate simply because I maintain hope in the ability of people to triumph over the forces of apathy that have become everywhere apparent.

I contend that maintaining hope in the "irrational" or "unlikely" is not only a necessary prerequisite for acquiring peace-of-mind, but a necessary prerequisite for life itself.

It's not that I lack experience...I have plenty of THAT. The fact that I have not become overwhelmed by the experiences I have had (which would drive MOST PEOPLE to suicide) doesn't make me immature.

It proves others older than me to be less experienced at actually LIVING life, rather than bloviating about it. And for that reason, I genuinely pity people. --mattergy

Soul Search

I have long known that the worst way to lose someone is having them mysteriously disappear.

The reason this is true is that any genuine relationship--whether it be casual or implicitly interdependent (such as the relationship between a child and parent)--is solidified by very deep and often irrational expectations.

These expectations are inherently tied to a kind of unconscious temporal sense that defies explanation.

It is as if--without expectation--the human soul naturally expands into an infinite space-time despite our rational understanding of mortality.

Conscious experience is filled with expectations. And those expectations provide comfortable (or even uncomfortable) boundaries within which our lives are given MEANING.

The sudden disappearance of entities that give MEANING to our lives is traumatic in strange ways.

Anybody who has suddenly lost a pet knows this feeling, even if they didn't care much for it.

The mysterious loss of a human being is 1000 times as traumatic, because somehow the soul continues searching infinite voids, and will not rest until an answer is found.

My deepest sympathies are with those who have experienced this kind of loss. --mattergy

The Subtle Appearance of Impropriety

Friends and outsiders alike frequently make the mistake of thinking they fully understand MY political views, which are unique and largely unaffiliated with those of ANY "action-groups".

The reasons for this are actually fairly simple to understand, but irritating to those who start with political agendas, and then seek "supporting viewpoints" to bolster those agendas.

I don't play that game. My methodology is to start with FACTS and then to figure out what the facts say.

It was in this way that I was (in my youth) able to reconcile scientific fact with religious dogma...and in the end realize greater social truths than anyone I knew had previously dared.

It is for this reason above all that I find so unnerving President Bush's incessant quest to obscure the actual testimony of those closest to him in the firing of high-level federal prosecutors.

Being a good American, I know that (historically) when the Chief Executive of the land has sought to retain excessive power through secrecy, it has NEVER been a good thing.

I don't know what our Executive Branch is hiding, but my intuition tells me that it can't be good...whatever it is.

When a Chief Executive feels confident enough to mask facts from public view, it makes ME think that the WORST has occurred...and I'm sure I'm not alone.

Want to Discourage Abortion? Make PLACENTA More Valuable than Embryos

Having Multiple Sclerosis is no fun. But the idea of harvesting embryonic stem cells to use as a medical treatment is even LESS appealing to me.

That's why when I read this article about placental stem-cells showing effectiveness in treating M.S., I was just thrilled.

Apparently, bearing live children may be more medically beneficial than killing them.

Now, I am as hesitant about abortion as anybody, but the gunky stuff that is now routinely thrown out when a child is born may in fact hold as yet unexploited treatments for a wide range of diseases including the extremely disabling Multiple Sclerosis that took my fairly robust life and turned it into a cause for collecting Social Security Disability before I even saw my 40th birthday.

If treatment with placental stem cells proves to be as effective as it was for Kathy Zuker, it might actually become a deterrent against the abortion of unwanted children.

Harvesting placental tissue for stem cells may sound evil to some, but could it be any more evil than the routine disposal of the stuff that daily occurs in delivery rooms around the world?

Personally, I see the prospect of placental stem cells becoming a pro-life incentive of vastly beneficial economic value...maybe the first untapped medico-economic revolution of the 21st century.

Good Jeans

I, admittedly, have had some extraordinarily intelligent people in my family.

This, in itself, doesn't qualify me as an experienced analyst of human affairs...and in fact the achievements of my forebears are far more commendable than anything I have done.

But one trait these people all share in common is that they didn't give up.

Certain people believe that there are genetic predispositions that tend to produce robust people, but in MY family, the rule has always been success through OVERCOMING ADVERSITY.

Maybe there are genetic predispositions that foment this trait...maybe not. But honestly, it occurs to me that ANYONE willing to put forth the effort can rise above the adversity of life if they have the right encouragement.

And by right I mean right for their individual personality.

For example, my great-great- grandfather was a mill-worker who lost his arm in a primitive seed-processor at the end of the Industrial Age.

Yet with the help of my great-great-grandmother, he still managed to earn enough to send his grandson and granddaughter to college, where they learned enough to eventually become renown builders and protectors of American society in the 20th century.

These were not wealthy people by any means. They were merely ordinary people with strong convictions.

Anything good that I write is ultimately a result of their humble determination.

So I honor them here. I only wish I had a photo.