The Fundamental Incivility of El Paso, Texas, Citizens of the USA, and Capitalism

Half past two.

A dog barks

I cannot concentrate.

A few hours ago there was a thump-thump-thumping noise.

The residents of El Paso Texas behave towards each other with a fundamental lack of respect.

They can possibly think this far: I paid for it.--But they can think no further.

El Paso, Texas is a sterile place.

Every other house walled in, or fenced in, with guard dogs.--A medieval frame of mind.

Not a city!--Not a place where people have come together to share their skills

and thereby prosper.

Instead, a place of pettiness and fear.

The dog barks.

And I hope that tomorrow or the next day I will find a job in a civilized country.

"I'd love to hear from you!"

"How are we doing?" said the little counter sign in the local coffee shop run by a large corporation...
"Comments? Questions? Praise?"

"I'd love to hear from you!"

And below it, the manager's business card, with the bold bright company logo.

Well, actually what I'd like to say is: What the hell kind of country is this where people throw away other people's socks? I once left a pair of socks--brand new socks--in the bathroom. Let's not go into details, but I had been trying them on... and rushing off to catch a slow and inefficient El Paso bus I forgot them...And they were new. Either someone took them or someone threw them away.

So, what kind of country is this? Either stealing or throwing away someone's socks!

That indicates a fundamental lack of disrespect!

Get me out of here!!!

I'd just love to hear from you! (Really?) Debra Satz does comment about the work of Arlie Hochschild as follows:

....Arlie Hochschild has found that the sale of "emotional labor" by airline stewardesses and insurance salesmen distorts their normal responses to pain and frustration.

(Debra Satz, Why Some Things Should Not Be For Sale, p. 226, n. 27; referring to Hochschild, The Managed Heart.)

Is such emotional contortionism really necessary to survive in the "land of the free"?

get me out of here

Oh yeah, and now that I think about it: There are the little medals pinned onto the caps of the people serving assorted beverages. Medals! Like the military! Sorry, that is just a waste of resources. Did someone say that capitalism by its very nature is wasteful?

And is somebody on twenty-four hour call to hear that the milk wasn't really low fat or some other inane complaint?

Isn't there something more important to do with twentieth century technology than create a space for me to complain that my skinny laté isn't skinny enough?

Talk about encouraging pettiness and egocentric desires! Can our outlook possibly become narrower? Talking about crowding the public space with egocentric desires! But the desires are limited, aimed at simulacrums of happiness, not the real thing.
(Do you really want me to say "simulacra"? Ha Ha Ha!)

Get me out of here!

What I didn't Say

It was, I suppose, about two months ago that I visited Vienna...

and at night or in the morning in my room in the hostel I marveled at the silence.

No cars.

No booming stereos.

No barking dogs.

I reveled in the quiet, in the calm. I was in heaven.

But now I am in hell.

Since my return to El Paso I have suffered every day with the noise.

what kind of country is this?

What sort of people are these who don't give a damn if their barking dog disturbs their neighbor or their pounding stereo robs someone of their sanity?

They are "Americans".

GET ME OUT OF HERE

What I didn't say: when I called the police to complain about a noisy neighbor...

NOTE

Why are people this way? Markets do it. Capitalism does it.

See Robin Hahnel, "The ABC's of Political Economy", Pluto Press, 2002, Chapter Four, "Markets: Guided by an Invisible Hand or Foot?"

Ugliness

El Paso is an ugly place.

There is not a day when I am not subjected to barking dogs.--Dogs that bark as I try to read. Dogs whose barking destroys my attempt to concentrate.

And then there are the dogs who throw themselves at the fence which prevents them from biting me as I walk past....

According to the American fantasy world, the secular religion of consumerism and phony freedom, buying dogs is an expression of one's personality, a free choice to enter the world of consumer products, an essential part of the domestic image: house, family, pets.

Yet this world is equally a world which enslaves the home owner. A person with a mortgage doesn't want to go on strike. And when you need pets, fences, etc., etc.,...You work to pay your bills and go around in a vicious circle.... apparently without noticing it.

Oh yes, dogs are sweet, loving, care for you, give you the love no one else gives you.

All that is true. But that's not enough to make a life. It's more like a momentary distraction from the lack of respect you have to live with in the vast majority of your life.

Get me out of here! This is as close to hell as I wish to come.