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Sunday coffee musings: Dirty work and American assholism [1]

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Date: 2023-11-26

A friend of mine just read this book and told me about it:

Quick take: doing soul-crushing work corrodes your soul, and being forced to or agreeing to do things you know are wrong degrades your morals.

John Oliver's recent piece on the shit-show of the dollar stores is a good case study. https://www.themarysue.com/john-olivers-last-week-tonight-new-episode-takes-on-dollar-stores/

I'm also reminded of Michael Pollan's description of Polyface Farms, where they periodically hand-slaughter their free-range chickens humanely, they all do it together in a day, only to fill orders. Contrast that with the soul-crushing work of cutting the heads off chickens in a factory slaughterhouse all day, every day. Unsurprisingly, other investigative journalists have exposed worker abuses in this industry, including firing and rehiring illegal immigrant workers and charging them for fake documentation; the employers are never punished of course.

Turkeys are probably the same, but I enjoy one once a year anyway. Driving home on Thanksgiving weekend, and just in general, you can't help but notice how many asshole drivers there are. Sorry for the profanity, but it succinctly describes the personality on display: selfish, entitled, greedily acquisitive of every advantage, large or small, and unconcerned with others: they'll do whatever they want to get whatever they want, and everyone else doesn't matter. And when anyone suggests otherwise, their response ranges from derision to open hatred. No matter how much they already have, they feel deprived and aggrieved, blaming everyone else for their perceived injustices.

We have an epidemic of assholism in America! We're about to re-elect the king of all assholes to the Presidency, despite all sane reasons not to. How'd we get here? I wonder if the soul corrosion of dirty work has something to do with it. Although certainly technologies have contributed, like the internet, which allows you to spew bile anonymously w/o consequences, saying things you'd never say to someone's face, and the automobile, which gives you hundreds of horsepower at the tap of a toe while you're sitting on a sofa inside a metal box, again mostly dealing with others anonymously. But does driving bring out the asshole in everyone, or do we just have more than we used to?

I've been an asshole. I usually try not to be, but it's kind of contagious; once everyone's doing it, you're drawn in. Game theory says that most people will have the best outcomes when everyone plays by the rules, and cheaters are shamed and punished. But if cheaters get away with it, they'll have an advantage, so their numbers grow. So a lack of accountability may be contributing, especially when we see it in our "leaders". If everyone's cheating, only suckers play by the rules. We all see the rich cheat and get richer; it's hard not to be cynical.

Conversely, those who have no stake in society won't play by the rules either. If I were born poor and black in the ghetto, and realized that society had labeled me a loser from birth, why would I care what "the man" wanted me to do, if I can't benefit from it? Why not be a drug dealer - what other path to wealth do I have? The question is why now we have an increasing number of fairly privileged people who seem to have no care for the greater good. I understand that lots of working-class whites are hurting economically, but the bad behavior seems to get even worse as you go up the food chain. They live in complete denial that they benefit from a functioning society. Like this:

I remember when I first came to California as a student, I didn't have a car, so I saw the pedestrian and cyclist side of things. When I later got a car and drove around with all the winding roads, pedestrians, and cyclists, I had to be in a Zen state to not hit anyone, and I felt good about it. It was certainly more challenging than driving back home in my wide, car-centric suburban streets, or the big Midwestern city grid, where pedestrians dash and take their chances.

One of countless examples on Friday: I tried to not be an asshole when I saw a semi in the right lane trying to pass a very slow dump truck, and the car/SUV drivers passing were being assholes, so I held back and let him in, felt good about it. But the guy behind me of course got peeved and then did a quick Z-swerve to pass us both up. We were all going 75, already over the limit, so he got up to ~95 to do this little slalom. One might think me showing a good example would cause him to slow down, but in this case, my trying to be considerate just inflamed the hemorrhoid. I'm a liberal; I don't like police brutality, but every time I see an asshole driving in a way that endangers us all, I fantasize about him getting pulled over, harassing the cops, then they drag him out of the car and beat his ass. And I have no sympathy for him, he had it coming. Truck driving is dirty work: be considerate to truckers, they’re just trying to do their job, probably under considerable stress. Also be mindful of the laws of physics, if not traffic laws, dumbass! Semis can’t stop & go & turn as fast as cars.

My favorite vlogger has much to say about how car centrism has warped society: Not Just Bikes

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