Kaptain's Log

“Yes, Master?” 

“Come here.” 

The “getting it done in an unconventional way” method.

The “it’s not cheating to do it the easy way” method.

The “fuck what you’re supposed to do” method.

The “get stuff done while you wait” method.

The “you don’t have to do everything at once” method.

The “it doesn’t have to be permanent to be helpful” method.

The “break the task into smaller steps” method.

The “treat yourself like a pet” method.

The “it doesn’t have to be all or nothing” method.

The “put on a persona” method.

The “act like you’re filming a tutorial” method.

The “you don’t have to do it perfectly” method.

The “wait for a trigger” method.

The “do it for your future self” method.

The “might as well” method.

The “when self discipline doesn’t cut it” method.

The “taking care of yourself to take care of your pet” method.

The “make it easy” method.

The “junebugging” method.

The “just show up” method.

The “accept when you need help” method.

The “make it into a game” method.

The “everything worth doing is worth doing poorly” method.

The “trick yourself” method.

The “break it into even smaller steps” method.

The “let go of should” method.

The “your body is an animal you have to take care of” method.

The “fork theory” method.

Which means this problem isn’t over in 4 years, probably not in 8 years, and unless the Democrats keep being in power (preventing an old supreme judge from retiring under a Republican) until at least two Republican judges die, this isn’t over in decades. Beyond getting very lucky, there’s just no end in sight, right?

Biden and whichever president comes after him can pass some laws to counteract some of the things SCOTUS does, but effectively, this shit can just keep going and going and going and going and there is nothing voters can do about that, right? Nothing can stop it unless the system changes, right?

A constitution change can create finite terms for supreme justices so they would eventually be forced out. (This is unlikely to happen.)

Getting rid of the filibuster and then adding a full 3 extra seats to the SCOTUS can re-establish a balanced supreme court. (One of these steps might happen, all of them is unlikely to happen.)

I hear you (and as a politics nerd I am fascinated) but also, that literally means the system changes.

I didn’t even say that. I said people who still suggest that voting is going to fix things should be laughed out of the room. 

It seems like all the things people are suggesting in the notes that might fix things are things the Democrats do not want to do.

You can not actually vote for any candidate that does want to fix things because your system exists of the ‘let’s make everything worse party’ and the ‘let’s change nothing and make worse normal’ party.

My theory is that the more we do this, the more the system (and this includes the conglomerates) will adapt to try to keep us within their power. You see the beginning of it with the corporations trying to align themselves more towards "the right side of history", despite being a blood sucking entity. They understand that the general public is less and less for the bullshit. They know that we're generally dissatisfied with life as-is. And that we're getting closer and closer to saying "to hell with it all". The Great Resignation is also an example of people making a move that says "no more" and the companies have to just scramble for solutions. Therefore the landscape of the workforce is changes. So we know that our actions will force these entities to adapt.

the first time I experienced being completely shut out of another family's mealtime, it was when I was a teenager on an exchange trip to the netherlands. I was staying with this family, and literally reliant on them for food and housing. The day I arrived they explained to me what time mealtimes were, and that I would not be fed unless I arrived at the table on time. One morning I was running a little behind because I had trouble figuring out how the shower worked, and when I came downstairs my hosts were already eating. They hadn't set a place for me, and they all ignored me and continued conversing in dutch. When I timidly tried to serve myself, they gave me look as if I had just walked in off the street and started raiding the refrigerator. They were an intimidatingly affluent family.

I was initially baffled that, for instance, family members or friends who come to visit you are often expected to stay in a hotel or at an AirBNB, not at your house. “But you have a whole-ass house”, I would think. “Or floors. And blankets. Lots of things. You can put them in your beds and sleep on the floor, if they don’t want the couch.” Often, they would have guest bedrooms, but these bedrooms were not offered to most visitors. So, you’ve literally got an EMPTY BEDROOM FOR GUESTS, but no?? You expect them to house themSELVES? Elsewhere?? On THEIR dollar? That’s so expensive! Also, to my mind, frankly rude!

I also noticed that my wealthier friends never pick up groceries for each other. They never call or text each other like, “yo, I’m at X, do you need anything”. I think they would risk confusion at best and deep offense at worst, if one of them got a wild hair up their ass and tried it. It’s too personal, implies some degree of inter-reliance.

Larger costs tend to be more difficult, and that's because often it's impossible to be sure that you will ever be able to adequately reciprocate. As a teenager I had one friend in particular who was much more wealthy than the rest of us, and he was a wonderfully kind, warm hearted, generous person who would often offer to pay for entire outings or trips on his own so that the rest of us could participate. And it was really, really awkward, because what was a small gesture in his eyes was something that the poorest of us knew we could never pay back. He might not have cared about keeping track of the cost, but we would never be able to forget it, and that would upset the balance of the reciprocal relationship. I don't think he ever really understood why we would turn him down, it's nearly impossible to explain what a strong instinct it is when you have grown up with that dance culturally ingrained in you.

Why did I not realize this until now

my "friend group" had a HUGE falling-out last semester, literally friendship-ending level stuff, because a couple of us would routinely ask if we could tag along to the grocery store when someone else was going there, or to get a ride to the pharmacy ~5min away from campus. There was so much going on but somehow this was the last straw.

Asking to carpool was being seen as unspeakably rude entitlement and I could not for the life of me understand why until I saw this post

But all this is making me think about how my American Economy is collapsing and America in general is transforming before our very eyes. I do sincerely think that eventually we will see the rise of interdependence as an answer to the eroding of capitalism. So that being said, I think this type of culture that’s talked about in the post (and the general hyper-independence of the west) is one of the things that will lead to the fall of the upper-class and the rise of, well, everybody underneath them. Although they have generational wealth, all that is based off of the continuance of the system the wealth was built in. Even whatever current societal currency they hold is all dependent on that society being upheld. 

So say that society and that financial system were to become so unstable that it’s replaced with something that’s practically the inverse of what they know? In what I assume is the new societal standards we’re headed, being rich is practically two strikes against you. Add their inability to hold empathy with anyone not like themselves and they just won’t last long. Because where I believe we’re headed is exactly what lower-class people were literally bred for.