Tag: Society

Letters From The Fallen

Dearest Deidre,

I’m not sure where we are going. It was really great to finally see you after all the years had gone by. We have been through a lot together. Yet still you continue to disappoint me. We once had such high hopes, for ourselves, for each other, for the world

Yet these all crumbled over time. Things began so great, but aren’t things always great before they inevitably would fall apart. We lived in a land of perfection, but the perfection we experienced was just the eye of the storm. The storm whirls around us constantly.

I never knew there was a storm for such a very long time. Things were different back then. I was different. We were different. But I look back. And I realize. Things were almost the same. Exactly. To the tee. We may be longer in the tooth, we may be wider in the hips (wait I’m not a chick), we may be colder inside.

Still it remains. That piece of hope that never dies. We see it in ourselves, some days it shines bright, other days we hold it all in wondering if it still exists. Yet it does in me. I hope it does in you but a lot of times I’m not really all that sure.

Someone told me some things about you. I didn’t believe. I was naive. Funny how we can be so jaded, yet so naive. You promised me false hope. You left me with nothing. Little did you know I like nothing. I am invisible, the transparency is abundant. The veil has been cast.

I will wrap this up now. You need to follow your heart. You need to put it back together. My heart has been healed, along with my mind and my soul. Take the time and say hi to Neil for me.

xoxoxoxo
kyren

SO, this letter is not to anyone in particular. It could be read into and picked apart and well you may think you are Deidre. Most likely you still are not. You see the world is Deidre. Life is her.

We start off so carefree and innocent. We have so many hopes. For life. For love. For how we want things to be. But then the ideals in our minds of how the world should be are broken down by people who want to impose a new worldview upon us. We can personally choose to talk to them. Have a debate. Yell at one another over coffee and crumpets.

still even if we choose not to yell or starbuck fuck these people, these people still permeate the atmosphere with their negativity. I feel it everyday. I see it all the time. People that are just completely miserable and don’t do a thing about it. It poisons us.

people that are not free. they also are a cancer. I dont mean people imprisoned. People who build their own prison and never leave. I am never going back behind my own walls of doom. Nor should anyone.

We, as a nation, need to give ourselves more freedoms. Less control over us. We need to be accepting of all people and not have the government run our lives. We need to get national health care, take those stupid fucking drug ads off the tv, prescription ones that is. We need to show fucked up shit like the commercial in the UK with the girl  sending text messages and dying in the car.

Other then that the government needs to back off. Stop printing money. If you are going to print ridiculous amounts of money, please give me some. Or let me rob a bank. Who would miss it?? God knows where the bailout money went. Lining someone’s pockets.

I am disappointed by people every day. It’s crazy. Still the same people that provide the disappointment can bring me hope, joy, and serenity. For that I say nothing. I simply smile.

 

By SpaceDog 

Structural-Functional Theory Vs. The Conflict Theory

Note To Reader:

Before or while reading the following article you must remember its based on a random photography of a “Typical American Family”.

The photo is a simple one, a family portrait.

The Mother and Father are standing side by side with their arms around one another. Positioned in front of them are their 3 children. The eldest child their son, 2 young daughters one around 10 years of age is the middle child, and a the youngest child a girl aged about 5 years. Also in the photograph are the family’s 2 Golden Retriever sitting in the lower right hand corner.

The 2 sides of the photo’s story:

The family in the photograph are an example of an American traditional nuclear family. It consists of a father, a mother, the son (the eldest of the three children) ,and the family’s two young daughters ( the middle child and the youngest/baby) along with two golden retrievers. Now the question at hand is how would this family in the photograph stand up to The Structural-Functional and Conflict theories, what could they tell us about this family?

The Structural-Functional theory would champion the family in the photograph, as the Structural-Functional theory believes that the traditional nuclear family is the only family that provides social institution, social solidarity, shared values and socialization. The biological father is the bread winner/sole income, the biological mother stays at home raising the children and managing household duties, and they have three biological children. The parents are providing (at least as we can tell from this single photograph) the three essential functions of a family which are raising their children responsibly, providing economic support (from the fathers work outside of the house) and giving emotional support. The traditional nuclear family is so instrumental in the structural-functional theory that according to said theory all other family models are considered to be detrimental to society and smooth functionality.
On the other hand, the family in this photograph would detested by the conflict theory specifically due to the fact that it is a traditional nuclear family (though 77% of all American households are not the traditional nuclear family model). Conflict theory would state the problem with this, or any, traditional nuclear family lies in the gross power imbalance between the father and the mother. Conflict theory would say society gives the father more power outside the home as the sole bread winner, but also the father subsequently has more power in the home as the “Man of the house” while the mother is resigned to being a second class citizen who’s only responsibility is to take care of children and clean the house. Not only is there a definite power imbalance between the two parents, but there is also an unfair power imbalance between the family’s three children. Traditionally male children are given significantly more freedom and female children have many more restrictions placed on them. Thus according to the conflict theory all other family types are far more preferable as opposed to the traditional nuclear family.

America’s Social Problems: The Sickness of a Dying Nation

What are the top 10 American social problems in my opinion?

They Are:
1. What The war in the middle East
2. Police corruption
3. Financial inequality
4. Out sourcing jobs
5. The legal system
6. The media
7. The healthcare system
8. The Pharmaceutical industry
9. The Prison system
10. The war on drugs

I will briefly summarize my reasoning behind the issues on the aforementioned list in no particular order. I believe them all to be extremely problematic and detriment to American society none being any more or less than the others.

The number one thing that baffles me to no fucking end is America has been at War in Afghanistan from 2001-2014 and less than a year after the 9/11 terror attacks America forgot about. It was like with previous war such as WWI and WWII where America rallied together as a nation against evil and all that shit. Nor was it like the Vietnam war where ACTUAL BATTLE COVERAGE was shown on the nightly news. The media just transitioned back into ignorant oblivion. Not only that but America was at war with Iraq at the EXACT SAME TIME, SIMULTANEOUS FUCKING WARS. IS that all, NOPE. America was involved in the Libyan Cicil War in 2011 in Libya.  America ALSO is currently at war (and has been since 2004) in North-West Pakistan, War in Afghanistan (AGAIN) 2015-Present, AND from 2014 to present America is also at War on ISIL 2014-Present in Iraq/Libya/Syria and Nigeria. My Bottomline: WHERE IS THE MEDIA COVERAGE and WHY THE HELL DON’T AMERICANS ACKNOWLEDGE THEIR COUNTRY IS STILL WARING IN THE MIDDLE EAST?! I digress for now.

When it comes to the issue of outsourcing its a doubled edged sword to say the least. While the outsourcing of American jobs created a massive nation wide unemployment crisis (that all but eliminated the American middle class.) slowly American corporations are bringing jobs back stateside. Yet while American corporations are bringing jobs back to the U.S. they are paying their employees half or less of their previous salary while working them three times as hard with few to no benefits. In the end American employees are being exploited so big companies can save on shipping costs.

All I will say on the subject of financial inequality is it has NEVER BEEN GREATER. With the near destruction of the Middle Class due to outsourcing, shitty Market, and Predatory Loans America has never come closer to being one of the 3rd world Counties we have Charity Ads for (Think “For just the price of a cup of coffee you can provide food, education and healthcare for….”) Financial Equality has also been exacerbated by the increasing commercialism of the American public for increasing profits. YOUR PAYING TO BE ALIVE. CAN YOU SAY HEALTH INSURANCE?!

The War on drugs has been and continues to be a complete undeniable failure. Even Mexico who was America’s tag team partner after 40 years admitted the war was lost mainly due to the way it was being fought. Drugs are not living things so really how the fuck do you declare war with inanimate objects so to speak?! Dealing with the addiction instead of fighting it (again declaring war upon a disease/mental disorder) We already saw alcohol prohibition not only FAIL SPECTACULARLY but also it had serious side effects like ORGANIZED CRIME because the moral to this twisted tail is PEOPLE WILL DRINK NO MATTER WHAT. It should be painfully obvious that the cliche “those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it” applies here when it comes to the war on drugs. Yet not only has the war on drugs failed so monumentally, but the Big AMERICAN Pharmaceutical Companies along with the FDA caused/created the current Opiate Addiction.

Why You Ask could this happen? Pharmaceutical companies created SYNTHESIZED MAN MADE HEROIN in many shapes and names Vicodin, Oxycontin, Percocet, Fentanyl (patches) and the FDA allowed the Consumer Market to be FLOODED with BILLIONS OF NEW PRESCRIPTIONS without fully examining or learning the problematic issue of addiction they just wanted TO CASH IN AS FAST AS POSSIBLE at the expense of the American Public. I will digress for now.

Accept the AmericanHealthcare System went for helping the sick and injured to TOTAL CAPITALIST MAKEOVER. Patients equal Profits. If you don’t have insurance RAPING YOUR BANK ACCOUNTS while providing LESS AND LESS services. Fucked Up Fact: It Costs $1,200 to $1,500 a DAY to stay in the hospital. THATS JUST FOR THE FUCKING ROOM, THE ACTUAL SPACE and Nothing Else. Hospitals started to charge for EVERYTHING and they charge it all separately. You pay for medications BY PILL hence the joke of the $11 hospital aspirin.
The social problem that I have extreme fucking difficulty examining without personal judgment is the subject of police corruption (which includes police brutality and misconduct as well as corruption and breaking ANY and All was.)
The reason I would be so judgmental on the topic of police corruption is the problem is escalating through out all 50 states of America. Police officers are being charged with planting evidence, thief/robbery, assault, rape and murder.  The COPS have BECOME the CRIMINALS. The cliche for this one is the “If you work with monsters make sure you don’t become one” saying. Thanks to the internet combined with Social Media and the prevalence of Smart Phones equipped with video cameras are exposing rampant illegal police activity increasingly on a daily basis. Also in cases where a corrupt police officer is charged with a crime up to and including murder they are put on paid leave until their court date. THATS A PAID FUCKING VACATION.

Once the police officer ends up in court the prosecutor, District Attorney and the presiding judge all weigh in on the side of the police officer resulting in the police officer being absolved of all charges and sent back to work. YOU GOT IT NO PRISON TIME THEY GET TO CO RIGHT BACK TO THEIR FUCKING JOBS. Virtually none of the corrupt police officers caught and charged with a crime(s) ever serve time in prison unless its time for a sacrificial lamb of a scape goat to “Make an example out of” when the public outrage is at a high. It actually MEANS NOTHING.

Lastly lets address the controversial subject of the  law abiding police officers (referred to as “the good cops”) who have never broken a single law protect the corrupt police officers under the accepted “Code of Silence” This meaning quite simply the good police officers will not report or assist in the prosecution of corrupt police officers no matter how egregious the charges or conduct. So I’m calling HUMONGOUS BULLSHIT THERE. Its a Real Life Get Out of Jail Free Card for corrupt cops.

When it comes to the Legal System all I will say for now anyways. When I got arrested and charged with a Felony I was lucky enough to be able to afford a lawyer with a excellent reputation and connections. The first time I met with him in his office he said the following and I will remember it to the day I fucking die:

“You have to know what where dealing with here. You see there 3 kinds of Laws and there’re Rich People Laws, White People Laws and Minority Laws.” He meant if I had been Rich I’d get off easy, White people can get in trouble, but have the benefit of the court on their side so good chance I wouldn’t serve time and if I was minority I’d be going to jail no if, ands or buts.

As far as the Prison system goes all I can say is Over crowding and inhumane conditions are ongoing problems BUT PRIVATIZING PRISONS a PRISONER FOR PROFIT system your guaranteeing peoples rights will be violated (to keep them in or send them to prison) because your not a defendant YOUR A FUTURE CLIENT/CUSTOMER. CUSTOMER SERVICE AT ITS WORST.

The Media has become a fucking farce. The media stopped doing honest and worthy reporting to cater to the ongoing moronic American Public. The Media humped on wagon with Social Media make both products shittier. Now between biased news, fake fucking news,fluff pieces and FCC it may not have been what America wanted but its what it fucking got. Reality TV was the beginning of the end of all Media. No one cares about the American GI thats killed in the ongoing War, BUT PEOPLE SHIT OVER THE FUCKING KARDASHIANS. Think about it.

America is Cannibalizing Itself replacing the Constitution with Commercialism. Your NO LONGER a citizen of the country of American, you consumer client of American Inc. LLC. The government, the Pharmaceutical companies and Big Business Corporations ARE COMMERCIALIZING EVERY ASPECT OF YOUR LIFE FOR PROFIT.

The America we all came to love is gone, there is no longer an American Dream.

Catalog Of Humanity (The Vile Version)

The once grand city fell into the continuing chaos of decades of decay,

The businesses and those with money have abandoned this sickening city,

The whores loitering outside of the local liquor store looking for love,

The strung out narcotic zombie working the corner cleaning windshields to feed his abominable addiction,

The open festering sores that line the limbs of the homeless,

The panhandler suffering through withdraw from drink or drug fidgeting in the door way of a flea bag motel,

The flop house littered with junkies cooking up and shooting up nodding their nightmares away,

The constant flickering of lighters from the derelict row home windows reminiscent of fire flies as the crack pipes burn on,

The entire city is a cess pool engulfed in the putrid stench of a sewer,

The crooked cops riding around in the streets high on their own brutality like Nazis scumbag sons of bitches,

The dirty little convince stores selling single cigarettes and lottery scratchers to the soulless and the suffering,

The dim florescent glow from dive bars windows beckoning the bums inside for a glass of piss poor beer,

The screaming machinery bellowing like a banshee from the chop shops,

The junkyard dogs chained up in yards of dirt, clumps of weeds, and piles of its own shit,

The pimps perched like perverted gargoyles waiting to be paid by their beaten and broken bitches,

The asshole teenagers from the suburbs driving into the city to prey on the unfortunate,

The drug dealers posting up on the street corners peddling potent poisons,

The gangs who wage an endless war of horror over disputed territories,

The bouncer ejecting a greasy client from the shadows of a back room illegal casino,

The overlapping layers of spray paint so thick one can’t tell the walls original color,

The plagues of rats and roaches devouring the city turning it into shit,

The cold gray fermentable walls of the State Prison looming large casting its silhouette across the southern side of the city,

The now defunct factories slowly rotting away in the winds of time,

The dead Vietnam vet who overdosed in his cardboard condo decomposing as his body waits to be found,

The piles of foul garbage that choke up the entrances to allies,

The deep brown tap water thats murky like mud,

The squatters that inhabit the vast city cemetery emerge under the dark cloak of the encroaching night to forage for food,

The front stairs of the court house teems with lawyers and defendants debating their legal fates,

The Public assistance offices are over crowded and under staffed as the government gives up on the poor,

The sea of condoms that surround the dumpster out back of the check cashing store where hookers trade in dick for dollars,

The methhead on a 4 day bender thats furiously fucking a dead pigeon in the desolate park,

The the old deranged mentally ill man who wonders the streets arguing with himself and losing,

The inhabitants of tent city sit around their make shift fires roasting their catch of stray cats for diner,

The bankrupt arena the city built without proper parking at the corner of Rape and Heroin,

The drunken man beating his kids since he wore out his wife before his tv diner,

The dead and the dying wallowing in squalor and their lost faith,

The cries of an unwanted baby unceremoniously deposited in a garbage dumpster by a terrified teenage mother,

The distinct crunch of empty crack files mixed with broken beer bottles under ones feet as they walk down the street,

The nightly fist fights that break out in the city’s central soup kitchen,

The crumbling churches now just idle monuments to a bygone god,

And this city of shit could be any city, all cities dying from industrial death,

And forgotten by history and humanity alike.

A Catalog Of Humanity (Respectable Version)

The line of movie patrons shuffles forward to pay $20 for the latest CGI travesty,
The mother locked in the eternal battle to control her wildly unruly children as they run around her in circles laughing, yelling in excitement and screaming at disappointment,
The aging 30 somethings that chase trends to help them feel young and relevant,
Hipsters dressed like lumberjacks stand face to face like giant bookends each holding a vaporizer the size of a laptop, and blowing copious amounts of vapor in massive clouds that envelop their entire person upon exhaling,
The homeless man’s faithful dog who waits patiently outside the liquor store as his master pops in to buy a cheap bottle of booze,
The Grocery store bag boy who’s happy to be on cart duty as it allows him to utilize his cell phone,
The Millennial who almost runs a woman over in his massive SUV because he was preoccupied posting what he ate for lunch on FaceBook,
The Latino landscaper hanging outside the check cashing store waiting to cash his paycheck after a long and laborious day that has left him reeking of roofing tar,

The teenaged boy dressed in all black and sporting a bright red mohawk holding the door open for a little old lady proving chivalry is not only alive, but can be found in the unlikeliest of people,
The shrunken old man and his tinier wife who walk to their local diner everyday for breakfast,lunch and dinner for the past 42 years,

The withered old woman wrapped in countless shawls and blankets being pushed by her home health aid as the women rants about how when she was young a world like todays would never have been allowed to exist,
The small child fighting in vain to coax his bulldog to stop sitting stubbornly in the grass to get up and finish their walk to no avail.

The bulldog sitting in the grass without a care in the world sunning himself in the mid day rays as he continues to refuse to acknowledge his child master as he stairs vacantly into bulldog oblivion,
The ragged Tomcat that saunters through the neighbor hood with his large head and giant jowls fully believing himself to be the king of his suburban kingdom,

The sinister senior citizen on the board of the local HOA standing at the end of his driveway glowering in disgust at his neighbor’s lawn for being half an inch too high,
The baby with his family dining out in a noisy chain restaurant that refuses every attempt by her parents to get her to eat because she is severely overstimulated her wide eyes of wonder scanning over her brand new world,

The cashiers that looks like their job has left the bodies lifeless transforming them into mindless drones dragging merchandise across the loudly beeping scanner eyes half shut,

The undying commitment of the college student trying to raise money for a local soup kitchen as he is overlooked by people passing by him on the sidewalk feigning ignorance at his presence, The high school student who is dragging her feet on the way home because her parents know nothing of youth today,

And at the end of they day they go their way as I go mine,
And tomorrow we all will be back fulfilling our daily routine,
And we will see each other again the next day as well,
And we will continue to live our lives side by side never acknowledging one another.

A True Partner In Crime

The question of, in ones mind, what makes up a person’s ideally perfect partner is as old as humanity itself. The journey to find ones soul mate is the undying quest of every human past, present, and future has or will endure. The deeply ingrained desire to find the one person, on an entire planet of people that you were destined to be with keeps people perseverant and imprisoned. Once again I find myself facing the eternal question of what would comprise my ideal partner in and for life.
Now almost all men automatically put physical appearance as the number one trait that they seek in a woman first and foremost. I personally do not. In fact physical appearance comes in dead last on my list. There are a singular of physical trait that I would prefer and those would that my partner and an inch or two shorter than me or as tall as me would also suffice. I’m not one of those macho guys that feel the need to tower over their partner like King goddamn Kong . What I mean is I don’t want to be walking down the street with my partner, and have some idle idiot come up to tell me what a pretty daughter I have. The so called height requirement is not written in stone as I consider all women to be attractive no matter what society dictates. Its all about what I and only I think. I don’t give a rat’s ass about what society says I don’t cow down to advertising dictating the way people should look. Its a futile endeavor that servers more over to make people fell like shit about themselves feeding on basic human insecurities. Bottom line some cliches are cliches because their true and with that said beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Emotionally I look for two primary traits in a woman the first is that she is a passionate. As I am an artist, I appreciate and admire passion for anything in any form. I’m not talking specifically talking not just about physical passion (though I like physical passion as much as the next person), but passion in all its forms. It could be a passion for sports, reading, biking,music, B movies or whatever personal passion fuels that emotional component. I think it goes without saying that my ideal woman would be loving which is the key emotional trait I believe everyone man or woman in the world truly is seeking. No one wants to be with someone who doesn’t actually love them (or act in a loving manner) like someone who marries for money or social status for example.
When it comes to the intellect I would want (or need is a more accurate word I suppose) to be with a woman who has above average intelligence. Just a reminder to readers Intelligence and Educated are to separate animals, you can be quite intelligent without being educated. It does not matter how attractive or loving a woman is if I can’t have an intelligent conversation with her. I enjoy learning about an extremely diverse range of subjects (Buddhism, Troma Movies/independent cinema, and psychological warfare to name a few) If I’m with someone who doesn’t care, understand or can’t intellectually keep up then I know the relationship is going to be a rather ferocious failure.
The personality of my ideal partner would have to be positive as I’m a natural born pessimist, and need a partner who can counteract me negativity with their positivity. She would also need to be out going because I’m an introvert who tends to shun society as a whole, and again I’d need my partner to help provide a healthy balance between the world and myself. She must be accepting, open minded to new things and ideas as I am, and patient as I am an emotionally driven artist which means I can make life complicated, chaotic and be a bit overwhelming. My mother wrote my Wife a letter before we got married letting her know that she was glad my Wife could see my big heart underneath all the candy coated craziness as “I’m not an easy person to live with.” I do not deny it in the least as I’m fully aware I’m difficult to deal with or live with let alone marry. This is why I tell people my wife is my far better half with the patience of a saint with a heart of pure gold (which she needs to handle my daily frantic mood swings along with my constant loud ranting and raving endlessly.)
I truly do believe and feel extremely optimistic that any person has beyond excellent chances of meeting their ideal partner as long as they can be perseverant. Finding your ideal partner can take time, as its a process through trial and error. It can take years even decades, but it can be done as long as a person doesn’t become depressed and abandon all hope during the process. I’m not going to sugar coat shit it can be a grueling task finding ones ideal partner, and its no wonder that people can feel hopeless at times. But if you keep your eyes open and remain head strong through the inevitable failed relationships I fully believe anyone will find their ideal partner (in the end no matter what may occur along the way.) I was one of those people who gave up searching and fell into a sea of self pity, but as soon as I stopped obsessing about finding my ideal partner or if this person actually existed only then I found the my ideal partner. Thus its not only possible to find your ideal partner, but to find an ideal partner with every and all traits physically, emotionally, intellectually, and with the personality you desire as long as you don’t succumb to feelings of failure.
The characteristics I value the most in an ideal partner are intelligence as well as personality, as I can’t be with a woman who is not on my intellectual level because we simply wouldn’t have anything meaningful to talk or debate about, and that is something I can’t do without. Personality is the second characteristic I can’t make any exceptions on because I need someone who’s personality is the exact opposite of mine. I’ve been in relationships with women who’s personalities mirrored mine (which one would think would be perfect but its not) ,and each of those relationships in spite of the fact I thought I had found my ideal partner failed due to the fact we were too much alike. I need my ideal partners personality to be outgoing, accepting, open minded and loving or I know that the relationship is doomed from the start.
So in the end its my belief that everyone not only has an ideal partner with the specific desired characteristics, but that anyone in time will find their ideal partner no matter where they may be. Just like anything, as long as you don’t give up or break down and settle for second best, you will succeed in your quest for your perfect partner as I did.