Tips from Truck Drivers
Here's a thing that's funny, and it's kind of unfortunate that it's funny, but what am I supposed to DO about it? It is what it is. When the first line of an article reads "As far as retired truck driver Carl Barlet is concerned, the government is broken," you immediately think you're reading The Onion. Don't try to deny it.
Actually, I cannot argue with the basic thesis, but retired truck driver Carl Barlet seems to have a perhaps overly heterogeneous idea of what exactly is wrong with The Government. To wit:
1. We need solar energy.
2. Taxes are too high.
3. We have too many representatives.
4. All of these representatives have houses.
5. A middle school building is being turned into an administration building.
It's unfortunate that it's funny, however, because on a less superficial level, it's really not funny at all. People like Barlet sense, correctly, that something is fundamentally wrong with the country, the world, our lives--but, fully immersed in the capitalist system that is really to blame for our alienation, they have no critical framework from which to even begin to conceptualize what this "something" is; thus, this angst manifests itself in weird, incoherent ways like this. And thus, this nation will never improve in the fundamental ways it NEEDS to improve, because off we go, chasing after phantasms, not realizing that they're just distractions, while the real issues remain untouched, ever-present but totally intangible, like oxygen.
Actually, I cannot argue with the basic thesis, but retired truck driver Carl Barlet seems to have a perhaps overly heterogeneous idea of what exactly is wrong with The Government. To wit:
1. We need solar energy.
2. Taxes are too high.
3. We have too many representatives.
4. All of these representatives have houses.
5. A middle school building is being turned into an administration building.
It's unfortunate that it's funny, however, because on a less superficial level, it's really not funny at all. People like Barlet sense, correctly, that something is fundamentally wrong with the country, the world, our lives--but, fully immersed in the capitalist system that is really to blame for our alienation, they have no critical framework from which to even begin to conceptualize what this "something" is; thus, this angst manifests itself in weird, incoherent ways like this. And thus, this nation will never improve in the fundamental ways it NEEDS to improve, because off we go, chasing after phantasms, not realizing that they're just distractions, while the real issues remain untouched, ever-present but totally intangible, like oxygen.
posted by GeoX, one of the GeoX boys. at 11:51 PM
God, you're such an elitist.
I swear, this country is like a young child. Money is like magic, things just come from the store, and if you don't have cash, you have a card! Where it all comes from, you don't know (if you're lucky) because you're a little kid.
We need taxes to do shit. Why don't people realize that?
Oh well, I'm just an elitist using your precious tax dollars to go to an elite school*, so my opinions don't matter!
*we got to the elite eight in the basketball thingie in march
Oh!
Truck drivers are not the best people to take tips from.
My uncle leaned out of the window, wrapping his body around the truck to unstick the windshield wipers. Multiple times. I was in the passenger seat going WTF WTF WTF OMG we're going to die "why did you do that?!!!"