there is a lot going on, but the bullshit stands out. there is so much of it. the people you have to deal with. the jobs you have to do. the bills you have to pay. the shows on tv, the music on the radio, the cars on the road, the false smiles, the chain stores, everything reduced to money. no one relates to you with empathy, with decency, with intelligence. in the end, it's all about getting ahead, feeling superior, pretending to be the shit. and what of us, the ones who just want to be left alone? what of the ones who just want to sleep and read and listen to jazz and take walks and do just enough work to survive? what of us? they will shit on us, that's what. they think nothing of us. they think we are demented, that there is something wrong with us, that we are failures, losers, sick. they can't understand us, so they lash out at us in anger. the landlords and employers and rednecks and store owners and drivers and cashiers and realtors and random passerby. all of them. they stare. they smirk. they do what they can in a 1001 ways to make our lives miserable. they put "these colors don't run" bumper stickers on the back of their cars. they make stupid jokes. they buy up all the property. they moan about the old days, when no child was molested and people respected each other's privacy. they leave out lynching and the burning of asian children with napalm. in their day, they had to walk to school. people worked back then, everyone spoke english, people knew how to spell, they wrote letters, blah blah blah.

everything becomes a morality play. good vs evil. root for the home team. oh, tom brady is back, and the celtics signed rasheed wallace. let's all sit around and bash unions, but never the rich. let's tell racist jokes, but never use the n word. it's all code now. let's give each other the wink before we act like assholes. i've seen whitey in action. i know what to look for. he holds back. thinks he's progressive. uses no slurs. wears his pants baggy. goes to a jay-z concert. watches basketball. fuck him. he ain't cool, and never will be. america co-opts. takes the life out of rebellion, and after the blood has been sucked, the redneck jumps in and nibbles at the crumbs of cool.

the whole thing is so redundant. repetitive. tiresome. is it worth the effort? the getting up in the morning? paying the taxes? is it worth it to make the marches? what changes? have we talked to our friends in the albanian community yet? has jim from cambridge switched to kentucky grilled chicken? does he still doubt that all the farms in cuba are organic? did jared israel really need all of that water?

throughout your entire life, the essentials will be constant. there will always be people trying to fuck with you. beware of the boss, the landlord, the spying neighbor, the corrupt politician, the waiter who refuses to serve you, the guy at the dinner party who asks you "what do you do?" the mainstream movie theater, the top 40 radio station, reality tv, nba and nfl refs, the prices at health food stores, rodents, u.s. foreign policy, the overrating of tom cruise, tom hanks, and denzel washington.

beware. it won't help none, but beware.