Are we all just pragmatists?

Time after time, situation after situation, I encounter people that “get things done.” They argue with a sense of certainty that they are doing “the right thing for the situation,” as if there isn’t really any right thing at all. These people are called pragmatists. They look at the situation and determine what the right thing to do is based on what they believe are the special circumstances of that situation. This person deserves a break, this person needs a little help, this person could use a little extra time for special circumstances. Personally, I can’t really find fault with such lines of thinking. How can I fault the very thing that I do as well on a regular basis? No. The problem I have is with closet pragmatists- the people who at the same time they look at special circumstances they claim that they are working within a set system of boundaries. Hypocrisy: that is the real issue.

How can people on the one hand say that they support the Rule of Law and then with the same breath undermine the rule of Law by giving special people a break?

In a country that believes in opportunity for all, how can politicians go and create laws that benefit the few?

As Jews who pretend to care about right and wrong, emes and sheker, how can we go about defending people who are most obviously guilty?

Either there is a standard, or there is no standard at all. Once you start making exceptions to the rule, there is no rule at all. Everything is exceptions. Once everything is exceptions, aren’t we all just pragmatists?

(As always- Unproofed.)

Get Rich Quick! (Should I get an expensive paperweight?)

Just a few moments ago I had typed into the search engine a simple request, “How to make money fast.” I got back a plethora of responses all detailing the various ways a person could make money with out doing much effort. There were the letter stuffing jobs, the buying and selling website jobs, the make your own search engine jobs, the sell stuff on ebay jobs, and even the become an outsourced secretary at home job. Over and over one thought goes through my head, why would anyone pay money for something that anyone could do?

It all comes back to value. Way back when the butcher, baker, and coax cable maker all did the jobs in their job description. The butcher would butch, the baker would bake, and the coax cable maker would make candles. Then around the time I was old enough to realize that I might need to get a job someday, they changed all the rules. No longer would a person’s job description define what they produced; now a person’s job is whatever it takes to make money. Everyone is a marketer, everyone is a self promoter, and everyone is now a slave.

When tangible goods were the name of the game people knew where they stood. They were the producer of X, Y, and a little of Z. They knew that at the end of the day they produced something of VALUE. The products that were made were actual things that were used. Even software manufacturers knew that they were producing something that would actually have some sort of productive value. A better way to type documents is still a better way to type documents.

Now with the invention of “the cloud”, “the apps store”, “facebook marketing” and every other nonsense under the sun, people are being forced to pay money for nothing at all. And people are actually being paid to produce things that have no value whatsoever. Apps get created, bought, used once, and never touched again. Phones get discarded with increasing frequency. E-books get written, published, sold, and never take up one inch of shelf space. The book itself is never actually read either. The world is a shallow place, and the little birds of the world that pay for it all, a shallow people.

So my questions is these:

Should I pay 700 dollars for an Ipad?

Should I get a high paying job adding value to a company?

Should I pay $1 to rent a movie on RedBox?

Should I pay extra for the brand name? (The same Brand Name that spent extra on a commercial to tell me why it’s better than the generic store brand)

Should I pay taxes to a government that will use the money to buy someone else’s car and then smash the car?

I’ll wear my knitted cap under my black hat. That’ll teach them about values.

(Un-proof-red)

On the existence of Roaches

Some of the best ideas pop into a person’s head in the middle of the night. Some of the worst ideas pop into a person’s head in the middle of the night.

Why did God create Roaches?

What possible purpose do they serve? Perhaps they were created before God had man in mind? Perhaps they were created to mess with man’s mind?

I am of course referring to the little tiny roaches that scurry around when you just come into the apartment and turn the light on; those roaches that run under the counter just as you are arming yourself with a can of [insert bug killer spray here]. You know the kind I mean.

 4 months w/o an exterminator is really a killer.

I suppose when the dead bugs go up to heaven they can have my existential question answered. Though, perhaps God’s answer would be, “[insert godly sounding answer here]”

Values

Sitting in the living room at 2 in the morning, I find myself contemplating values. Specifically, I find myself contemplating American values. Obama has given a speech in which he policifies how he thinks American values should be spread throughout the world, specifically in the Middle East. I find myself asking the same question over and over in my mind, what exactly is American Values? Perhaps they are the values the American Heritage Foundations sponsors in High School text books? Perhaps they are the voice of the President of the United States himself? Or perhaps the values are the words that come from Fox News?

Frankly, I have no idea what makes up American values? I have even less of an idea of what makes up family values. I even have a hard time formulating what are my own values. (ok, the questions should have been in the opposite order, but then who can say?) What does it really mean to have (Capital ‘V’) Values?