How can you live with yourself when you intrude upon other people's privacy so casually? Can't you find honest work? Do you have no respect for old age?
"...what appears in the miser as the mania of an individual is in the capitalist the effect of a social mechanism in which he is merely a cog."--Marx, Capital One, p. 739 (Penguin edition)
This morning at 9am the phone rang. A woman did not identify herself, but directly asked to speak to my mother. That is, at the first step, rude and intrusive---rude because she did not identify herself, and intrusive because her phone call was both uninvited and unwelcome.
Call that (yet another example of) the presumptive vulgarity and disrespect at the foundation of Capitalism.
Reflecting upon the way that I spoke to her, I reach the following conclusion: I was poorly prepared for such blythe rudeness. I have been poorly brought up. I was (so it seems) taught to begin a conversation with a certain minimum of politeness and respect.
(Indeed, after I had graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (with a Ph.D. in Philosophy) I was briefly employed by a branch of that university which engaged in fund raising. It was a disgusting job, on all levels. We were actually encouraged like a bunch of idiots to have cheer-leading sessions prior to manning our phones. I could not believe the bizarre enthusism of the assembled workers as they cheered and grinned like fools drunk on conformity to the boss's orders. And, then I committed the great crime of allowing a conversation to end.--And my boss was, of course, spying on me.----An elderly lady politely explained to me that they were having dinner, and this was an incovenient time. She was polite, did not accuse me of anything and simply said now was not a good time. However, the boss who was listening to me did not like that. I was supposed to ignore the woman's words. And that is, at the very first step, RUDE, impolite, disrespectful. Most offensive of all was my boss's use of the word "morals" as if it were a sort of individual choice of apparel or spice......"We wouldn't want you to do anything which went against your morals." What an obnoxious twisting around of reality! As if I had some bizarre preference for respecting people!
On the contrary, here was a supposedly respectable institution engaged in the most basic disrespect.)
Those who make these intrusive phone calls follow no such elementary rules, and have no respect for anyone who picks up the phone. Theyare pushy, pushy, pushy---and, essentially, do not actually listen to what you tell them, except insofar as it will allow them to push themselves further into your the space of your home.
A further thought occurs to me: It is computers anD the internet which have made possible the aggressive and obnoxious behavior which I experienced this morning. These rude individuals only exist because the information---in violation of our basic right to privacy and free association,---which the internet and computers have made possible allow them to "target" us.
Twelve years ago I remarked that the internet could be a site of class warfare--it was not inevitable that it should benefit us. ( http://www.mundanebehavior.org/issues/v2n3/lovas.htm ) I was correct but unimaginative. Today I would like to say: The internet is becoming, more and more every day, in every way, an enemy of the people.---But that would not be accurate. More accurate would be the Socratic view, that the Internet in and of itself is neither good nor bad, but its goodness or badness depends upon the goodness or badness of its users.......and insofar as the Internet (and everything else) is in the hands of the .01 percent, who are greedy and ruthless....... (even if "trapped" within the walls by the laws of motion of the capitalist system, and seeking profits as if their lives depended upon it.....).... well, what do you expect? What else could happen?
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