Monday, December 19, 2016

"I Don't Know..."

Who is the idiot that first said I don't know isn't an answer?  If you don't know the answer to the question, then it's the only honest answer. Ask a roomful of people how the electricity gets from one end of the wire to the other. Unless you're in a whole room full of electricians, the obvious answer, from everybody in the room, should be "I don't know."  But it won't be. Instead, you'll get a lot of people giving their uneducated opinion of how they think it works. "The electrons jump from atom to atom..." (Ok then, smartass, why is copper a better conductor than steel?) The truth is, unless you've read a detailed explanation, and comprehended it, or had it explained to you in a manner you can understand, then you have no fuckin idea! The correct answer would be, "I don't know."

A girl asked me a question one time, I don't remember what it was, but we were in the middle of an argument, so it was likely an argumentative question, but anyway, I answered her, "I don't know." To which she replied, "I don't know isn't an answer!" ... ... Well, yes... It damn well certainly is. Not only that, but it's the only correct answer, because I don't fuckin know. What part of I don't know don't you understand? I don't know means I don't know. (Women just love it when you throw their own logic back at them.)  o_O  She continued to insist that I actually knew the answer that she wanted to hear, whatever that might've been, and that I was fucking with her. Right about then I just tuned her out, so the rest of her end of the argument might as well have been, "Blah. Blah blah blah, blah blah..."

Whatever. She was probably trying to blame me for all her problems, not wanting to admit that she was wrong, that whatever it was was her own fault, et cetera, since nobody wants to admit that they were wrong in the heat of a verbal battle. She's human. She was young. She probably thought she knows everything about everything, and is infallible. That, and she was high at the time.

So what's the fuckin point, you might ask?

                                                                         ...Wait for it...

I don't know!

But the whole insisting that I don't know isn't an answer sounds suspiciously like something somebody's mother said to them when they were a kid, and it stuck with them. It makes about as much sense as other 'Mommyisms' such as, "Do as I say, not as I do." or "Because I said so." So how does a nonsense statement like this continue to survive? A quick google search will give you links to numerous pages concerning this topic. Three of those are from Reddit, (Why is "I don't know." not an answer) The Muse, (What leaders say when they don't know the answer, What to say instead of I don't know) and Forbes magazine (Five alternatives to saying I don't know.) People must really hate to admit they don't know something. I mean, nobody wants to look stupid, right? But for it to become so pervasive it must've been some societally "respectable" douchebag, like a judge or a politician or some other suit that said it. Forbes is a magazine for suits, isn't it? Most suits tend to be windbags who think they are experts on everything; They got a degree, (Which only means that they sat in a stuffy classroom being bored to death and daydreaming out the window for a few years longer than you did,) they wear ties and sit behind desks pushing paper, and can't you just tell how important they are by the car they drive and the cut of their suit?! {These are the douchebags that cut you off in traffic in their Lexuses and BMWs.} How the fuck can someone go to four years of college, get a piece of paper for it, and still be a clueless moron?

I don't know.

If you don't know how to change a tire or a spark plug or your own oil, if you don't know the difference between you're & your, there, they're, & their, where, wear, & were, etc. If you don't comprehend that you are human, that you are not magically better than others just because your parents are rich, or your skin is a different shade of human than theirs, or your brand of religion is different than theirs, you shouldn't even graduate high school, let alone college.

But, this is America in 2016. Welcome to idiocracy gone wild.

And who gives a fuck what "leaders" say? They mostly talk out the side of their faces anyway. Whether it be politics as usual, legalese, banker babble, scientific jargon, etc. They all speak their own language exclusive to their profession, and they tend to look down their noses at everybody they don't consider to be their peers. (Which is precisely why I look down my nose at them, they've earned my contempt by their actions.)  Granted, every trade has its own particular set of skills, and its own lingo, but one trade is not any better or worse than any other, though some folks are better or worse at one particular thing. Why does the janitor get paid the least when he or she does the nastiest job? Why do executives get paid the most when they do the least work? That's ass backwards. I have the skills to build an entire house from the ground up, dig the hole, pour the footer, lay the foundation, frame it, wire it, plumb it, drywall it, paint it, install windows and doors, brick up the outside, and put a roof on it. So why does some suit who drives a desk for a living and never does any actual work get paid more than me? Can anyone explain that satisfactorily? I didn't think so. Paying suits more only serves to artificially inflate their egos so that they erroneously believe that they are more important than those of us who actually work for a living. Placing them in positions of so-called "authority" over others only serves to give them delusions of grandeur.
News flash - they take stinky shits just like everyone else. 
They can find themselves drunk and wallowing in a shit-filled ditch just as easily as you or I can. And one day their corporeal bodies will die and rot. 
In short, they're human, no better, no worse, but equal.

See, I learned early on to question "authority." I could see right thru their bullshit. They aren't gods. They're mortal, fallible, and imperfect humans, just like you and me. They have no actual authority over anyone. When I was a kid they tried to force me to obey, they tried to make me fit into their conformist mold, so I resolved to push back with equal or greater force, or in the event of an inability to push back for whatever reason, to get even. I spent my formative years mostly getting even in whatever way I could. Vandalism, theft, and whatever means of rebellion I could muster. Why? Mostly because my dad was one of those obedient tax-slaves who does what he's told without question, and then takes his resentments over it home with him and abuses his family. He was one of those assholes who says, "You do as I say, because I say so." (And my immediate response to that attitude is, "Fuck you. I'm gonna do the exact opposite just to spite you and prove you wrong, and flip you the finger while doing it, because I can, because fuck you.")

In order for one to have any hope of attaining wisdom and understanding, one must question everything.  Question existence, question religion, and especially, question what right any individual or group thereof thinks they have to give orders, to oppress others, to impose their will and their opinions upon any other individual or group thereof. [Spoiler Alert: They don't.]

Picture being in a courtroom, on the stand, and the persecutor (Yes, I meant persecutor rather than prosecutor, because it is a more accurate term.) asks you a question you don't know the answer to. What do you say? "I don't know." And if the pudgy judgy tells you to answer the question or be held in contempt, you inform him that you already answered the question correctly and honestly, and if he doesn't like it then he can lump it, and you find him utterly contemptible as well. Might be a nice touch as they're dragging you off to jail for refusing to be intimidated if you tell him to go take a flying fuck at a rolling doughnut, and then spit in his general direction.

Therein lies the underlying issue at hand here: Intimidation. I refuse to be intimidated. I'm a dissident. I'm an anarchist. I refuse to recognize any so-called "authority."  They can abuse me, imprison me, even kill me, but they can't make me obey. They can't take my pride and dignity from me. I'll spit in their faces with my dying breath, if necessary. And that's not to say that I have no humility, I do. I realize that I'm human, same as everyone else, and therefore equal. I would run into a burning building to save an innocent child, with no regard for my own safety. Not to try to be a hero, but because it's the right thing to do. I'll make sure that the innocent around me have all eaten before I feed my own face. If everyone felt this way, we'd all be better individuals.

I can't say whether or not I would fall on a grenade to save my enemy, because that situation hasn't happened yet, and it probably won't, therefore.... I Don't Know.

Sunday, December 11, 2016

Pee pot smasher / Tooth gnasher

Pee pot smasher
Tooth gnasher
Grab a chunk and run past her
Two lame mules
Empty of promise

Run for cover
Terrible tunnles
Steel teeth of death
Bone crushing motion
No rabbit left to witness
The tall grass prairie
Mower

All alone
Toothless Puma

Two bits
Won't buy
A cup of dinner

But it's nice
To be loved

The ocean is grey
The ocean is grey

All fall down and
Break the monotony
Two bells tolled
Shattered windows
Pieces of what seems
Bag of smithereens

All the way to  Houston
For a sack
Of golden dreams

Chocolate covered
Coffee beans