Why Me-First?
The answer is simply…complex. I think I was quite irritated at the moment I first decided on the name. I thought of the people who’ll cut you off to be the first ones seated at (insert name for popular chain restaurant here) for lunch; people who need to have the fattest, most economically- and environmentally-unsound vehicles that they can’t afford, and drive them with no regard for other people on the road; people who’ll blindly follow dogma to ensure their reward in heaven while showing little to no regard for anyone living here on earth; people who only want what’s mine-mine-mine and the rest of the world can stuff it and get out of my way—etc., etc.. Here are two examples of the Me First spirit that I’ve seen firsthand. See if you can come up with examples of your own!
Example A: A U.S. Navy pilot and a Boeing engineer were in a bar in Seattle discussing a Greenpeace member's earlier attempt to douse a naval officer in paint. The engineer was very anti-nuke, and stated this. A fairly heated argument began, and the pilot eventually asked what the engineer did at Boeing. He replied, "I work on the B-2 (stealth bomber)." I consider this to be worthy of a "Me First" because even though this guy was anti-nuclear everything, he was helping to develop a nuclear weapons delivery aircraft. Even if a B-2 never drops a nuclear (or "nucular"--Thank you Mr. President!) weapon, does a person in the engineer’s position find that he’s set values for acceptable and unacceptable body counts which he will/won’t contribute to; i.e., "I’ll gladly kill 500 people at a wedding reception with a Mother Of All Bomb(s), but dropping a nuke is where I draw the line?" He gets a "Me First" because he wanted that $100K/year government-subsidized (and don’t get me started on Boeing…) job, and to hell with his conscience. He wanted to work for Greenpeace, but gee, Greenpeace wouldn’t pay anywhere near what Boeing offered him. If you want to make weapons; fine, make weapons. If you want to be a shoplifter; be a shoplifter—but don’t rant to me about shoplifters while you fondle a pack of swiped Pokemon cards in your pocket.
Example B: Standing in a 14-mile-long queue for an airline check-in counter in Johannesburg, a businessman-type jumped in front of an older Englishman and myself. When the Englishman expressed his disappointment by growling, "Excuse me, sunshine…" the businessman looked offended and asked, "Well…would you stand at the back of that line?" Now was my turn to growl, and I said,"HOW DO YOU THINK WE GOT TO THIS POINT?" Maybe I’m just turning into an old fart, but whatever happened to m-a-n-n-e-r-s? Is it still in the dictionary? Maybe more parents should start teaching their kids about them, rather than letting them wean themselves away from functionality by playing video games while stuffing themselves full of greasy (yum!) goodness.
Geez…what a rant. What I meant to get around to saying is that this blog shouldn’t and isn’t going to be all negativity, all the time. I do have other interests besides hoping and praying that karma is a true thing, and like to think of myself as a fairly positive optimistic person. Unfortunately, this won't disqualify your license plate from appearing on this blog if I see you driving like a moron…
The answer is simply…complex. I think I was quite irritated at the moment I first decided on the name. I thought of the people who’ll cut you off to be the first ones seated at (insert name for popular chain restaurant here) for lunch; people who need to have the fattest, most economically- and environmentally-unsound vehicles that they can’t afford, and drive them with no regard for other people on the road; people who’ll blindly follow dogma to ensure their reward in heaven while showing little to no regard for anyone living here on earth; people who only want what’s mine-mine-mine and the rest of the world can stuff it and get out of my way—etc., etc.. Here are two examples of the Me First spirit that I’ve seen firsthand. See if you can come up with examples of your own!
Example A: A U.S. Navy pilot and a Boeing engineer were in a bar in Seattle discussing a Greenpeace member's earlier attempt to douse a naval officer in paint. The engineer was very anti-nuke, and stated this. A fairly heated argument began, and the pilot eventually asked what the engineer did at Boeing. He replied, "I work on the B-2 (stealth bomber)." I consider this to be worthy of a "Me First" because even though this guy was anti-nuclear everything, he was helping to develop a nuclear weapons delivery aircraft. Even if a B-2 never drops a nuclear (or "nucular"--Thank you Mr. President!) weapon, does a person in the engineer’s position find that he’s set values for acceptable and unacceptable body counts which he will/won’t contribute to; i.e., "I’ll gladly kill 500 people at a wedding reception with a Mother Of All Bomb(s), but dropping a nuke is where I draw the line?" He gets a "Me First" because he wanted that $100K/year government-subsidized (and don’t get me started on Boeing…) job, and to hell with his conscience. He wanted to work for Greenpeace, but gee, Greenpeace wouldn’t pay anywhere near what Boeing offered him. If you want to make weapons; fine, make weapons. If you want to be a shoplifter; be a shoplifter—but don’t rant to me about shoplifters while you fondle a pack of swiped Pokemon cards in your pocket.
Example B: Standing in a 14-mile-long queue for an airline check-in counter in Johannesburg, a businessman-type jumped in front of an older Englishman and myself. When the Englishman expressed his disappointment by growling, "Excuse me, sunshine…" the businessman looked offended and asked, "Well…would you stand at the back of that line?" Now was my turn to growl, and I said,"HOW DO YOU THINK WE GOT TO THIS POINT?" Maybe I’m just turning into an old fart, but whatever happened to m-a-n-n-e-r-s? Is it still in the dictionary? Maybe more parents should start teaching their kids about them, rather than letting them wean themselves away from functionality by playing video games while stuffing themselves full of greasy (yum!) goodness.
Geez…what a rant. What I meant to get around to saying is that this blog shouldn’t and isn’t going to be all negativity, all the time. I do have other interests besides hoping and praying that karma is a true thing, and like to think of myself as a fairly positive optimistic person. Unfortunately, this won't disqualify your license plate from appearing on this blog if I see you driving like a moron…
posted by Woof at 12:15 AM
1 Comments:
Welcome Bloggerhead ..
./thank
ilaiy
Post a Comment
<< Home