I've had my fill, take it elsewhere!

Continuing on from yesterday's theme, with hopefully a bit more focus.
I mentioned being lethargic and bummed for a long time, with some new energy and hope coming into the picture, to focus my angst and my anger.
Unfortunately, for those couple of entities out there that believe I am financially indebted to them, my war starts in their yards.
While there are many things I care about in the world, and could channel my energy towards, I realize that my biggest ethical issues revolve around corporate entities (couldn't have guessed this by previous posts I'm sure), worker treatment, tyranny and the abuses of money.

As an Economics AND Philosophy major, my head has always been wrapped up in the material vs the spiritual, maintaining what they call the 'life-work' balance and what it takes to make one happy in our modern materialistic world.

Traditionally I have been labelled as somewhat of a 'hippy freak', given that money has never been my focus. I have watched a lot of it come and go, with hardly a care.
Over the past 5 years or so, since having children and striving to give them what I was told to be the American dream, I have completely lost touch with my traditions. I speak a good game, but I still sacrifice myself to the 'man' much more than I ever dreamed I would.

I'm done. It's not about the life of the company, it's about my life and the life of my family.

I have always been gifted at encouraging others to take this path, make their own way, evaluate their loyalties on a constant basis, and 'question authority', but I have fallen short of being a role model in this area. One of my favorite things to say (as a manager and counselor in the workplace) have been 'Your kids won't care if you're a Senator or even God if you aren't there for them. Better to be an available and happy gas station attendant'.

But this requires inner strength, conviction and fortitude, which I gave up along the way to the ideas of success through slavery. I'm done with that shit! The old me was the guy that quit because he couldn't spend enough time with his family and wasn't willing to make that sacrifice. Hell, the old me was the guy that stood up to the Soccer Coach in High School on the subject of fairness, only to be personally punished and not backed up by my teammates. I will be this me again.

We are so pathetically weak as individuals when it comes to our personal goals, rights and freedoms, making trade-offs that we convince ourselves are good ones, but regret for years to come. We allow ourselves to be shit upon, abused, neglected and used up by faceless companies as well as by the wanna-be dictators and tyrants (with faces) that populate the ranks of workforce management. Used car salesmen (if you truly are one, please excuse the reference) who deal in human souls without a second thought. Fuck that!

That is the underlying position I am taking for the coming battle. Timing is perfect, since right at this moment I am sitting in an overvalued Suburban home being harrassed by lovely entities such as T-Mobile and Target for pennies that I contend are not theirs to take. All of this at a time of economic unrest, housing market bubbles, bank collapses and the revealing of monetary greed like never seen before. I've had my fill!

Americans for Fairness in Lending beckoned to me this morning, through a fortuitous turn of events that had my friend sending me a link to a news article on predatory lending and the abuse of the American public by greedy lending institutions. It took no time at all for me to realize that my fight would start here, with the AfFiL, and that the first thing I needed to do was stand up and tell these abusive entities (starting with the two mentioned above plus my mortgage company) to fuck off and take it elsewhere.

I have rights, they are my rights and I won't give them away. I will no longer be the average Joe that bends over for these creditors on a whim, riddled with guilt and anxiety over an indebtedness that is fictitious (or even real for that matter). I'm the client, I'm the customer, I'm a real person and it is completely within my rights to stand up and say 'prove it, and until you do, don't call me again or I will be the one filing charges'

Sound bold? That's only because you were taught that you couldn't do this, that it was somehow unworthy. That you really need to just make the best of it and suck it up. I know you all have heard those things before (make the best of it, etc.) and again I say.....screw that!

I will not suck it up. I will not lay down and bend over anymore. I will not enslave myself to a corporation that will most likely die (go under) before me. They are transient, living in the ethereal world, and in the long run, mean nothing to me and my life.

People are real, people are worth saving, people are going to be here longer than these beasts of greed, and the investment has to be in reality. As comment on the current economic crisis, I say let the corporations fall, they only serve to manipulate and rule through greenbacks. I do understand and want to ensure that this course does not 'trickle down' on good people, so I will accomodate the idea that some degree of bailout is needed here, but accountability needs to be a factor and many need to fail. Do I care about that? I care about the job losses, I care about the effects on you and me and my neighbors around the world, but about the entities themselves, I could care less.

I know a lot of folks invested in careers, wearing corporate logos and eating, drinking, sleeping and shitting their jobs to the detriment of all else in their lives. I'm so sorry they were duped and hope someday they will snap out of it because all I see in their futures is frustration, dependence and death, after being cast aside into a lonely post-usefulness existence. Pity.

But as for me, no more! If you think I owe you anything, think again. Every promise I made under false pretense I am rescinding, and taking back what's mine. So if you do feel I owe you, be ready to prove it to me or take it elsewhere!

Later-E