Flint

BLM WHM SMN SCH THF RNG BRD MNK WAR DRK PLD > 99

Often times we find ourselves wondering if we are missing it somehow.  Were we brought up wrong?  Were our parents lax in their upbringing.  Other kids are in the football team, some of them are top notch at having friends and still others somehow got their IQ high enough to be in the GT classes without even trying.  What is this THING that we are missing... that we need.  

I believe it has a lot to do with education.  And for this I have to thank my sister because a long time ago I was wondering what it was I was missing at the bar.  I had education and money and friends but getting that ONE girl that I needed to have companionship, that ONE thing missing, was eluding me.  Over and over again people would say that I was creepy or that I drank too much or that I was scary.  "Here comes BIG [insert name]" they would say as though being a big person meant I was looking for trouble.  Of course in my mind I was taking hits, shrugging them off, and wondering what's missing.  

Then one day she came to my defense and said or mentioned my education.  So I started to use it to defend myself or to justify being different from them or to use it as a reason for their comments... that is, their possible jealousy.  

So today I am writing to explain to you how that works.  

I saw Alex last night on MSNBC.  I was watching Erin and then watched Anderson because it was easy to just keep watching and soon people were talking all over each other and Anderson had to stop them all or just talk over them to show them what stupid sounded like.  I was relieved that some of my beliefs were getting through for a change.  It's a shame what is happening in Flint, btw.  (Does anyone else think it's rather TOO coincidental that the town's name is Flint?)  We need to have a way to impeach leaders, most especially mayors but also governors when people get sick of them.  I realize that that's perhaps overkill for this because all of those rich people will rally behind him once they realize who the replacement for him is likely to be, namely someone extremely kosher with the idea of "redistribution of wealth".  Which makes me think of Rick Scott who didn't even want to have a Lieutenant Governor for a while, making his position even MORE secure right?  Can't go to the backup if there IS no backup right?  

So later I run over and watch some documentary and just in time for Lawrence I realize I have MISSED Rachel's special on Flint.  Thank god for the repeats and honestly sometimes I would rather watch a repeat of Erin's show than watch Don Lemon.  What reason can I give you, you say?  Well I can give you TWO reasons, lol.  

But I digress... 

So I am watching Lawrence and playing Diablo on mute.  It's nice because unlike Destiny or Skyrim or Civilization where I have an intense strategy going on in my head, Diablo is instant on and off.  I engage a group, pull to another group, try to keep the chain going but at any time in the dungeon I can kill off the current group and wait and usually there won't be other monsters.  It's a little hard on the people I am playing with but even that "contract" can be shortened by just finishing the current dungeon, which last 15 minutes at most and just go back to town and start shopping or messing with gear.  This let's me watch the show or the news more intently as it gets interesting.  So Diablo and the news is a nice mix.  I would like to have twitter also but I don't have a computer in my room that works anymore.  

So I am watching Lawrence and it was nice but I am missing my favorite face that used to come on his show at the beginning, namely Alex but he still manages to be interesting and keeps my attention somewhat and I kind of watch it till the end but then comes Chris and he really has a lot of energy even though I was gonna change it and so I watch him for a while and WOO HOO, Alex was on.   What a luxury! Thankfully I stop playing and hear her talk for a while and before I know it it is time for Rachel's show that I missed so here we go.  I am glad everything went ok with it because I was blessedly fearful of Rachel leading anything.  She is very charming and well not charming but instructive.  She is what I would call dutiful but not a believer.  Well, she was a LOT more of  believer last night.  I could see in her eyes the drain of being a leader that had weighed upon her.  Leading a staff is not quite the same thing as thousands of people NEEDING you. And you can't slip into that role of from cubicle to rock star easily but I think she did rather well.  I wish she would have cut it shorter at the end though because you could tell that she was slightly out of her depth... and this gets me to the point of today's story.  

Oh, and later as I relished my newfounded-ness of seeing Alex, what do I see before my eyes that I hadn't seen before in all of my days but Ann Coulter.  Wow!   Only Chris Matthews would have the guts to have her on his show and hopefully we will see more of her.. I mean of course more of her on TV... of her you know what... you know... just MORE. 

So last night was well into 3am before I got to bed.... oh that's right, my point.  Well, leading people takes two things and these things you see them in theater and in psychology and in organizational behavior(aka management) and in life I guess.  You have people that bow to reverent power and others that bow to legitimate power.  Some people, especially those that BELIEVE, bow to reverent power, to your accomplishments, to your badges of honor and to your place in the world as a figurehead or to your title.  It's a whole lot of NOTHING but to many people that matters.  Still others don't care about that at all.  They bow to legitimate power, these people tend to UN-educated.  They bow to money.  They bow to how many children you have they bow to how many supermodels you have been with.  They bow to your car or to your clothes or to your gangster symbol or tattoo.  That's legitimate power.  

Right about now you are probably having your AHA moment about Donald Trump yes?  Oh you get it now?  You studied but didn't learn this stuff in college, did you?  Well, that's how you learn, with knocks, and with failure.  That's why I am so wise by the way.  Losers tend to be BEST able to lead, not the least of which is Hillary and Bernie.  But don't expect the general masses to be the enlightened people you all are now.  It takes times to find my blog.  Takes even more time to believe me and still more EONS of time to teach and have people believe you.   Now that you can see the world all you can do quickly is tell your staff to DO THIS and not worry if they understand things like you do.  You can hope that one day they will explain things to their children like you tried to do for them.  

Legitimate power is like gravity.  What is important is gravity.  I can't overstress this enough.  Gravity is everything.  Where does gravity come from?  From mass, from Sunday mass.  Do you understand prayer now?  We all pray for such and such to get better and somewhere there is a doctor that needs to allow this patient to die so that the hospital gets its bonus but if enough people want such and such to live, and if he is important enough, then that patient gets a pass.  What am I talking about?  

Always, there is a leadership.  In Flint, people there were stealing yes?  I need Snyder to go too but don't for one second believe that the people in charge, and still in Flint, are all poor people.  A culture has to allow leadership to be corrupt because that lighter in front of my face has to become more and more stupid for me to leave at the bar while I go to the bathroom, right?  If I trust the bar I can leave the lighter, but with less trust, since everyone smokes, I can expect some people to use the lighter without asking my permission and with even less trust people would say it's stupid for me to leave it at the bar since people will just take it.  It's the diminishing trust there that allows people to say well, it would be STUPID not to save the city 15 million dollars that we could spend somewhere else and by the way, people won't REALIZE they are poisoned up until right before they die right?  It would be STUPID not to keep people sick with cancer, since that makes the hospital more money.  It would be stupid not to forbid students to claim bankruptcy on their student loans, (thank you Reagan), when we all know they aren't the ones that vote or pay for elections.  See how that works?  Stupidity is not common sense, it's the immolation of it. 

Ok, so now that I am tired and wondering if my father got poisoned with asbestos somewhere between when he retired 15 years ago and last year when he died, let me leave you with this.  Educated people MUST be honest.  They must.  One of the first things you can tell about a person when they went to good schools like SE who went to Cornell or Alex who went to Brown or Rachel who went to Oxford, is that a LONG time ago... a LONG long time ago... a LONG LONG LONG LONG.... what?  A long time ago they had to have a 4.0.  To have a 4.0 you have to study, you have to do well, but most of all you have to STACK. 

WTH is stack you say?  You have to stack your knowledge.  You have to become a miner.  What does education have to do with mining you say?  Why does Rachel remind me of a dwarf you say?  Because dwarves MINE.  Rachel MINE. Alex MINE. oh, um ok Alex mines, there that's better.  Educated people mine.  Dig dig dig and stack stack stack.  You see one small slip up one, dishonest act, and poof, SWITCHEROO.  Educated people = big huge stack, whereas uneducated people = no stack.   Only people accepted to the best schools have any idea that grades matter or that badges matter or that how people perceive you matters.  Most everything you hear in the bar is that it doesn't matter what people think, but it DOES matter because they are keeping track of everything you do, trust me on this.  Lost my point,  oh, so after having applied to the best universities and getting accepted grudgingly and after having worked so hard to promote yourself and the fact that reputation matters... WHY, would you marry some cook?  I ask you, lol.  

I digress again.  

But seriously,  I want you to mark this in your heads so that you can click to it in your times of TRUMPestuousness, that uneducated people are like Japan.  It's not hard.  Some people were meant to lead.  They worked hard to learn their lessons.  They studied in school.  They MINED.  They stacked.  Their house of cards, in their mind, is this big ornamentally corrugated three dimensional castle with four towers and a moat which, if you could see the top, it stretches to the height of the tower of Babel.  I'm not talking about me of course, I mean them.  I mean you.  When uneducated people talk about you this is what the Bible means about vanity.  It divides.  You may not have it but others WANT you to have it.  You can say one small thing about how hard school was and POOF you just separated yourself from the THRONGS of uneducated people out there which you frankly didn't even garishly think were listening .  And to stop this you must have followers.  Your house of cards must be filled in, first with lampposts, and then with straw, and then with wood, and then with clay.  People are clay.  Clay is used to make bricks you see?  Remember the big bad wolf?  Well he can blow your house down can't he?  He certainly did that to my career and my life but the lessons are there yes?  You can learn from MY lessons.  Fill your house with people.  Stand up for your Megan Kelly's.  Stand up for your Ann Coulters or Alexes or Eds.  Make your house stable and watch for funny people that instead of making fun or attacking competing interests like Fox or Amazon or Monsanto... attack each other.  I can't overstate enough how lucky you are to have educated people.  

On the other hand, TIME is a terrible mistress yes.  At any point in our lives we can Jenga our own lives through a simple unfaithful act... that then allows the switcheroo.  The bottomless hole that occurs because oops you didn't think you would get pregnant or oops you didn't think he could be a cop or oops you didn't think pushing that guy mattered in the grand scheme of things.  Even the most accomplished people can fall simply because others can see their weakness and attack them.  I cannot overstress this enough is to watch for negativity in your friends.  Watch out for friends that like to pretend or to joke around WAY before you get to know them, because they could be agents for others, especially when they are getting minimum wage and right next door is Million dollar Alex, trust me, someone is an agent there if this sort of things exists.  People that want your spot or more succinctly want you to go away so that more people LIKE THEM, that don't make them feel bad about being uneducated or threatened because I don't know, maybe they're ILLEGAL, don't have to worry about you wanting to hire more educated workers.  

Oh, I forgot to mention the second half of my point today.  "Second half!" you say but really it's a simple point.  People without education, are followers.  If they are honest they can be taught and become almost as trustworthy as educated people right?  Here is your seat, read this script when they answer, and collect your paycheck after you have done this SMACK amount of times, there you go, a job.  But uneducated people have ONE advantage over educated people that you all may not be aware of.  And I have stated this before and it's this they can risk their lives(or jobs).  It never occurred to me once in all my time working that I would say something dishonest or risk my job voluntarily.  It all comes back to Braveheart.  If you are willing to risk your life, you can pretty much be President.  Look how it turned out in Venezuela.  Bus Driver = President.  Who knew.  Well that's why people should worry about uneducated people.  That's why people should especially worry EVEN MORE about illegals.  I'm just gonna call them that since that is what they are.  An educated person doesn't think to himself, what if I lie about this and that they could never catch me, because why?  Because there go FOUR YEARS of education.  There go whatever titles he earned plus he's a liar.  Uneducated people don't value reverent power you see?  Once you threaten them, it's war, it's not about whether or not who's right or not.  That's why you can't argue with the masses.  Once they feel threatened, the time for understanding has passed.  

Now remember that these people can still be honest and indeed one of my main beliefs, is that we can and should have faith in people. Oh boy I'm tired now.  Uneducated people copy, like Japan.  They copy how to make our cars and the best they can do is make a perfect copy because they don't have the education to know why things work like they do.  So take that into account when you deal with THEM is that they want to help, they want to copy.  They might want to copy and sell and cannibalize your business, I grant you, but mostly they merely want to be comfortable.  They didn't work very hard, they aren't going to WANT to work very hard and to that end you should seek to make their lives easy.  Make wages and rent livable, make health care self-serve, make communication available to all.  

It's not hard.  

Part of the reason Trump is doing so well is that we all know deep down, that rich people are stopping this.  They want you to pay for internet, to pay to be healthy, hah, they even want you to PAY for WATER!  Trump is immune.  Everyone that paid off the DNC and GOP and who pay for commercials in the media, namely medical and banking communities want him gone and frankly I LOVE watching everyone try to take him apart because you know by watching him that THIS is what they would do to ME.  Everyone is saying it, this is what they would do to ME if I were to run for President and said the obvious.  

But that gets me back to my lesson of mass.  The more massive an object the more gravity it.  Do you remember the theory of relativity?  In the theory, E= mc(squared).  Energy is a function of mass.  The more mass, the more possible energy.  That's what Trump is is this hugely popular person.  A massive person.  A titan. A titan of legitimate power.  And as such he has the ability to stop time or at least to slow it down and he will do it and do a good job because this evolution of politics is new.  Everything new is benign like a child.  But, as other titans wake up to the call, we can expect them all to become bastions for the weak and "special" interests and then to become, well... what they became.  

"No matter how the wind blows, the mountain CANNOT bow to it." - Mulan