No Good Deed Unpunished

Woman stabs husband
in heart during
argument about tacos.

I do not believe I have a particularly bad temper. Usually it takes quite a lot of provocation to set me off. But occasionally even a very small thing can do it. That’s what happened to me today and I have been irritated, angry, upset, pissed off and disgusted all day, about everything! I went to the supermarket (my mother-in-law is arriving tomorrow for a week-long visit) to stock up on some necessities. There was a large school bus parked just outside the market with a sign indicating it was part of a drive to raise food for the local food bank. I completed my shopping and left, ignoring the food drive. But before I even arrived home I had begun to feel guilty. As my guilt accelerated I finally gave in to it, returned to the market, bought some beans and pasta and stuff and made a contribution. You might think this might have made me feel better. It didn’t. It just made me more and more angry. I wasn't angry about spending a few dollars, I truly believe in sharing, but one thing leads to another.

First I became angry because I felt guilty. Why should I feel guilty because I did a good deed? Because I began to wonder, why did I have to do that? Why, when I live in what is widely touted as the richest country in the world, should I as an individual have to be responsible for seeing to it that no one would have to go hungry? Why should anyone have to go hungry in the richest country in the world? Thinking about that made me even madder. Isn’t the function of government to look after its citizens? Why doesn’t my government do this? Then I thought about how far we are in debt. I guess we can’t look after our citizens because we don’t have enough money. But why don’t we have enough money? Well, because we have been spending too much on wars. Why wars? I guess because we have to defend ourselves. But then I remembered that our “war” in Iraq was not a result of their attacking us. It was unnecessary to say nothing of criminal. Afghanistan came to mind, a “war” even more stupid and unnecessary than Iraq. Of course there is the Iran problem that probably wouldn’t be a problem if we weren’t so arrogant and ignorant. Mad about this I then remembered that Israel was trying to get us to attack Iran for reasons I think are just paranoia. All this makes me mad as hell. Then I thought about war criminals and became even angrier, knowing that our war criminals are not being held accountable. In fact, they are apparently “buddies” with our current President. That made me even madder.

I began to think about all the plastic bags full of groceries that I saw in the bus, plastic bags, dozens upon dozens of plastic bags. Then I remembered there is a huge floating island of plastic bags in the Pacific Ocean so huge and polluting it can probably never be eliminated. That made me mad. I began thinking about food in general, and the fact that so much of our food now is genetically engineered, especially corn, which makes up part of almost everything we consume nowadays. Corn enjoys huge subsidies from our government, making it cheap so it can be used for most anything. That made me really mad. Of course you can’t think about food these days without thinking about corporate farming, a type of farming that is slowly ruining the land and most of the food products we need, corporate farms that get huge subsidies for growing corn, and other subsidies for growing nothing at all. I’m not happy about this. Farming led me to think about fish farming, and fish farming led me to think about how many of our natural fish species are depleted by overfishing and unenforced regulations. I love fish and this makes me truly unhappy. The disappearance of fish made me think about the extinction of other creatures, animals, birds, insects, virtually nothing has been spared by human rapacity and greed. Animals made me think of Polar Bears which will probably soon be extinct. I’m not pleased about this. And I’m even less pleased about the cause, global warming, that may spell the end of our own species if left unchecked. I get really angry and upset about this. I get especially angry when I get requests for money to save the Polar Bears. I can’t understand how money is going to save the creatures from man-made global warming unless, maybe, it will be used to bribe corporations to stop poisoning our air and water (this seem unlikely). In short, “I’m mad as hell and not going to take it anymore.” Of course I will take it because I have no choice in the matter.
Why don’t I have any choice? Because our political system is completely corrupt and no longer has anything to do with what might be considered “government.” I’m not much of an authority on the evolution of government, but I do know that leaders were not chosen for their ability to line their own pockets at the expense of their citizens. Presumably leaders at all levels of society were chosen to represent their communities and direct their affairs in such a way as to protect them and allow them to flourish. They were supposed to protect the public interest. Somehow, along the way, our leaders have failed to do this. If they had we would not have hungry people out of work, decimated forests, polluted rivers, mountain top mining, corporate farming, billionaires and paupers, disappeared species, wall street bailouts in the billions of dollars, millions upon millions without health care, nor we now be facing a health care bill that is mostly a multi-billion dollar gift to the Insurance companies, massive unemployment, and just endless nonsensical wars. In my view the “teabaggers” are pikers, making mountains out of molehills, baying at the moon about having to pay taxes or being threatened with socialism, or whatever slogans they happen to be obsessed with. Their perceived problems are trivial indeed in view of the real problems facing us, problems I doubt that most of them even think about.

What is the point of this raving? I don’t know. I’m just mad, mad about just about everything. You think I’m mad because my mother-in-law is coming. Wrong, I like my mother-in-law, and besides, being older than she is, I have no fear of her. You might say this is merely a case of “no good deed going unpunished.”

LKBIQ:
A country which proposes to make use of modern war as an instrument of policy must possess a highly centralized, all-powerful executive, hence the absurdity of talking about the defense of democracy by force of arms. A democracy which makes or effectively prepares for modern scientific war must necessarily cease to be democratic.
Aldous Huxley

TILT:
If present trends continue one half of all species on earth will become extinct within the next hundred years.