What's a Serf to Do?

Total serfdom is coming, and it won't look pretty. We Americans have been pampered for much too long. We cannot understand what it is like to live in the "real" world -- the one that covers the other 90% of the world. The crash will come and a lot of people will bitch about it. Blame will be thrown everywhere.

So, what is a serf like me to do? My wife and I have 401k retirement accounts. These are supposed to be our golden parachutes when we get to the point in our lives that we cannot work anymore. However, during last week's financial turmoil, we lost nearly $100k. Do you know how long it takes to save money like that? We spend 20 years working at decent jobs, trusting the wizards of Wall Street to handle our hard-earned cash. We hope and pray that we can make money by giving some up.

Now we have a $700 billion bailout, payable on demand by all hard-working American serfs. Senators voted for Wall Street. The serfs got screwed.

All the expert commentary on this points to one inevitable end: a horrid financial crash. This means that ALL of our 410k savings will blow away like dust in the wind. So, what the heck does the American serf do to retain some kind of cushion against the depression to come?

My wife and I talked about this. We make more money than most middle-class serfs, but we would lose everything we now have if we lost our jobs. Planning is essential.

Perhaps we could remove all of the money we have left in our 401k accounts, take the insane tax hit, and buy up gold. At the very least, we could use the gold for essentials. It's extreme, but it might be a very good move. After all, we lost more in one day than we would have if we dumped the accounts.

Another idea we tossed around was to move to another country. Just about any country would enable us to survive, but we aren't bilingual and it would be nice if we could communicate with the locals. That limits our choices. Great Britain was considered, then discarded. My wife really dislikes the cold.

Australia? There isn't much else. We know a couple of people who live there -- people we used to work with.

On the other hand, we could probably do well in France, Spain, Italy, or Malta, as long as there was an American or English-speaking community.

The one very bad thing about moving for a serf family is the effort and expense involved. Also, we would essentially give up personal visits to family. Once we become citizens of another country, we would be placed on all sorts of nefarious government lists.

I suppose we could weather the storm. We might lose the house and most of our belongings before the next depression ends, but at least we'll be in the good ol' U.S. of A. Safe from all sorts of mean terrorist thugs that hate is for our freedoms. Yeah, like the freedom to watch our elected representatives construct laws that will completely f**k us over.

Rabid Zealots

Peruse any newspaper these days and you'll find either articles filled with religious exclamations of thanks or whole sections devoted to faith. This by itself is most certainly not a bad thing.

However, all the good intentions and principled verbiage lose their gleam when faith is substituted for common sense. The refusal to open the mind just the tiniest bit and listen to things you haven't heard before is one of the strongest attributes of a zealot. The proverbial step taken over the cliff comes when the zealot begins using ad hominem attacks upon a person who merely states facts.

One finds this common behavior not only in religious discussions, but also in political, technical, and domestic conversations as well. The Rabid Zealot can be found just about anywhere two or more people hold a discourse.

With this in mind, I will now outline a few warning signs which can be used to identify the Rabid Zealot:

• Wide eyes: Zealots are very passionate about their beliefs, and their efforts to convince sensible people to similarly hold a likewise belief in an irrational postulation naturally causes their eyelids to part rather eerily.
• In Your Face: The Zealot often likes to make a point by making their arguments four or fewer inches from your face.
• Feigned Deafness: While expressing a rational argument, you may notice that the Zealot will either focus on something non sequitur or continue their side of the conversation long before you have completed a single sentence.
• Righteousness: The Rabid Zealot always feels more righteous than their neighbor, thus promulgating a sense of unwarranted superiority.
• Irrationality: The Zealot always reveals themselves as something more than just a good-natured debater when they hold to an irrational assumption.

So, the next time you see see someone arguing a point you think may not be correct, take note of their style. Someone who is merely passionate may show one or two of the above-listed attributes, but the Rabid Zealot will show them all.

We Are So In Trouble

Well, now that a court decision has said that the president of the US can indefinitely detain US citizens, we have now entered the world of Authoritarianism. Officially. This means we can expect unending fear campaigns that will surely lead to detentions, disappearences, torture, paranoia, and the rise of institutions like the Deutsche Jungvolk.

Oh, well. The public is so nationalistic, it will swallow any repressive action without question, as long as these actions are couched in fear.

One Semester Down, Fifteen More to Go

I feel OK about this semester. I took two classes directly relative to my degree program, and I aced them both. Yee-friggin-hah.

I've been out of school for so long, I really forgot how hard it was to study for things that you know you will probably never use in your whole life. I also know that I was nothing special in school. I finished High School with a darn good average, but most of that was due to the extremely fun things I was learning. In the years that I had to commit books to memory just to pass a test, my grades were really crappy.

So I was very surprised to get high marks in these classes.

However, I did notice that the students were given huge breaks. Easy tests, lots of extra credit, and extreme leniency towards attendance were common. These kids have it easy.

Now, I'll probably change my mind after the math classes. Har.

I said earlier 'twas the schooled who gained the upper hand.

Cripes. Fifteen more 2-class semesters to go. I'll be in a nursing home by the time I graduate.

School is In

Yes, that's "in", like in "In Like Flint".

Tongue-twisters aside, this here Serf is going back to school. In this fiefdom, 'tis only the educated Serfs who stay afloat.