As of late, I have noticed how very selfish people are. There are, of course, the more noticeable ones you see, namely on reality shows (God thunderbolt them right now) or the fob in movies who get their comeuppance by the end of the film. There are people who you know not to ask to borrow money, or their car or even their time. And we all love to demonize the rich, just swearing up and down that they just hoard all the money they get their hands on and wouldn't touch we commoners to spit on us. (However, you don't stay rich by spending money!)
Yet, there is a more subtle type of selfish person that over the years have revealed themselves to me. Not by their own accord, mind you, but I have come to know how people think in my years on this spinning mud ball. And I have noticed that there is this type of selfish person who flies under the radar, under the guise of "righteousness", "freedom" or even the "communal" good. The vampire to society's mirror.
I love downloading gaming apps. We all know the popular ones: Candy Crush Saga, Angry Birds, Words with Friends. I also like to search through the app store for other games that might tickle my fancy. In fact, I sometimes spend hours combing through endless lists of games. What's really fun about the find for me, is reading through the reviews written by other users. Oh I love it! Barring the spelling, grammatical and punctuation errors (not to mention the outright disjointed thoughts), I'm just giddy with what people have to say about the apps. I usually read all the way through to at least half the longer lists, then decide whether or not I want to download. But I've noticed a trend that keeps popping up. Especially with the "free" apps. People seem to want no ads (but really, who likes those annoying pop ups?) and are easily annoyed when they realise they have to pay for some features of the games. They rant on and on, over and over, dispensing acrimony about how evil the game developers are to dare to ask us to pay. The humanity!
So...these developers spend a good amount of time (sometimes a year or more) conceptualizing, designing and creating these games...out of the goodness of their hearts?! Do you know anyone that would create something over a long period of time to just give it away? To thousands of people? I don't. I think it's very selfish of people to think so short sightedly, of only their own desires, and think that the process of gaming begins and ends with their downloading it onto their personal devices. I'd love to ask each and every one of the complainers (haters) if they would like to get up early in the morning, use up some more shampoo, soap, food and gas to get to a job where they spend at least eight hours a day to work for free. Out of the goodness of their hearts. Let's see how well--or long--that conversation goes.
Hippies. Yes. Each and every one of us has some kind of opinion regarding this infamous bunch. Most people stop at "dirty" and call it a day. However, if you go deeper and spend time getting to know some, you may reach the same conclusion I have. That these modern day hippies are so far removed from the original concept that they deserve a Bizarro name. Oh I don't know... Dippies. Or Shitties. It's anyone's call really.
Anyway, Hippies are one of the most selfish, self serving group of people I have come across. I could talk about the GOP, but like Roy Fierstein said in Mrs. Doubtfire, "Oh honey, I don't have the strength." So for the intent of this article, Hippies take the top spot. Now speaking of politics, modern day Hippies just don't get it. And in my experience, they don't have a fraction of a fuck to give about politics either. Why not? There are guitars to be played (shirtless), hackies to sack, and layman's rhetoric to regurgitate about something you weren't even talking about in the first place. Oh and fuck showers. They're on an atomic level of selfish that they don't give a crap that you have to smell them. Yeah. They take all the oxygen.
What I find really selfish about the modern day Hippie is that they operate under the guise of "like, being cool, man". They say that we should all go back to the bartering system and stop using money. That's because a lot of them don't have any. They want us to all get together one day, and join hands and sing songs all afternoon. That's because many of them have part time jobs. They say there should be no bigotry and people should accept each other for who they are. That sounds good, right? Well believe it or not, there are racist Hippies out there. Even ones that wear dreds! When they say people should accept each other, they are implying that the establishment and the countercultures that frown upon them should accept HIPPIES.
You see, on paper, shunning the "evils" of money, getting together for a hug-in and stopping bigotry are all well and good, but dig deeper and its all for self serving purposes. I had a friend tell me one day that a friend of his, a Hippie, had inherited some money and decided to fly to New York City and hop in on the Occupy movement. Once he realised the movement was winding down, he came up with the idea to gather all the Occupy participants, band together and March from New York City all the way down to D.C. I nearly shot blood out of my ears! So here is this Hippie with a nest egg that thinks everyone has the time and money to just march down to D.C. Not thinking that these other people had jobs,children to take care of and other commitments. And of course, had this march actually happened, guess who would have taken the credit for it, for doing the "right" thing, for getting the people together. I just kept thinking the people should have gotten together all right...to punch him square in the dick.
Most of my friends and family are college educated. And most had to take out student loans in order to attain those degrees. Many, depending on their level of education, are still paying those loans back. A handful, however, are of the ilk that education should be free, thus they refuse to pay back their loans. Now, I agree one hundred percent that we should be on par with other industrial, first world nations with free education. Hell, I'd be a perpetual student (if only for the firm, young men around campus--meow!) and get a degree...hell, ALL THE DEGREES. It's free! But alas, we haven't quite gotten there yet. And what these people don't think about is that they got their loans from banks. And where do banks get their money from? You and me. Unless you're a master level hermit or a grid ghost, you have a bank account. So do I. Now, banks lend money to make money. That's just the way it works. In the world of finance, it's a dog eat dog world and most of us reek of Snausages. In the world of finance, friends aren't made, allegiances are. So when money is lent, someone wants that money back, and at a profit. Again, this isn't one of those out-of-the-goodness-of-their-hearts things. A lot of people are invested in those loans. And guess what? Those of us with bank accounts are invested in those loans.
Think about it. Your friend gets a student loan. S/he spends it and doesn't pay it back. Now imagine if hundreds, if not thousands of people did that. Since the bank use our money, imagine if the bank went under because there was a movement to not pay the money back. So who loses out? We do! As the industry has already shown by the financial collapse, those banking executives aren't going to lose out, WE ARE. So this "friend" basically, by not paying back loans, is bending us over and slipping us the hot beef injection. All for a cause that has no legs just yet. That was money well invested. Education!
So yeah. These selfish people need to be called out. And dealt with. And promptly spanked.
Who wants first dibs?
Addendum: I know was a bit acerbic regarding Hippies. And I know ALL Hippies aren't how I described. Yeah...
