The Perversion Of Strike Action

It seems that I have more to say than what I wrote yesterday about the French and their passion for strike action. I am appalled to see that so many French have the audacity to go on strike and hijack their country while so many of their fellow citizens are just striving to keep their jobs or live in the dread of losing it. How does that sound for "fraternité"? How can you throw in the face of someone that has just lost their job the fact that you're lucky enough to still have one but that you're not willing to go do it? Don't you feel at least a tiny bit of compassion? Don't you realize how egoistic and narcissistic you are?

Democracy works in the sense that a government is elected by a majority of voters and is then in charge of a country until the next election. In most developed countries, elected governments usually win by a very small margin (like 51/49). So, what would happen if all the defeated voters were to go on the streets and paralyze a country? Well, it would be almost like what's happening right now in France. By disavowing (the definition of perversion) the rules of democracy, the perversion of a minority is translating for the world into the perversion of a country. The world, indeed, thinks that all the French are alike, perverted to their core, incapable of sustaining frustration and just thinking that they are more intelligent or should be granted more privileges just because they were born in France. This is not democracy, I call it idiocracy!

The French are known for their tendency to criticize the US. Anyone will tell you: "Well the Americans, you know, they don't know much about what's going on outside of their country. They think we don't have electricity or computers in France, they don't know the name of our President". Well, my wife happens to be Brazilian and believe me, she got the same kind of questions from French people when she arrived in France: "Do you guys have electricity in Brazil? do you have cars? Do you own a computer? Is it true you go to work dancing almost naked in the streets?". Ask a French to name the president of Poland, Hungary, Romania etc... Most won't be able to. And yet, they know so much more about the world than Americans, right?

In my book, I can understand why not all Americans are interested about the outside world, they live in a huge country that is the richest of all. Why would a layperson care about the world? But come on, French people? Can you seriously believe that you as a people are better or greater than the greatest nation on Earth? In my opinion, you are just jealous and too lazy to do anything in order to change things. And your passion for strike action certainly isn't going to help in that regard.

Capitalism, Human Nature, Technocracy, New World Order & Martinis

Today I received in the mail a special invitation from "The Economist" newspaper. It said that I could receive 4 issues for free and then decide if I wanted to subscribe or not. Since I have no knowledge whatsoever in this field, nor am I the least bit interested in it (as I'd rather spend my free time dreaming up new hamburgers), I thought it was a divine sign and that by touching the envelope this invitation came in, I would absorb all knowledge related to economy through osmosis. That being said, I am now in a position to analyse with the utmost subtlety our world and its economy.

First of all, let me state that I am a true believer in the virtues of Capitalism as it is probably the most suited economical system ever invented to this date. Its strength lies in the fact that it is compatible with human nature. Contrary to what great minds and philosophers (who, by the way, never had the guts to venture in the hamburger literature) would like to think, human beings aren't benevolent by nature. They tend to be greedy, selfish and most of all short-sighted. I read Karl Marx (and loved his cousins' movies) and I do think that his theories sound great but they are, in no way, compatible with human nature. Just look at what happened in most communist countries up to now. They have all failed and ended up being eaten up by corruption and laziness (one striking example of this is China... Or not). So, Capitalism in the sense that one will earn according to his efforts works well with us humans. It gives us something to look forward to, a justification for our efforts (just like me writing this blog that no one will ever read).

Unfortunately, it seems to me, that we're about to reach the limits of our capitalistic system. When workers are laid off not because their company is going through hard times but just because their CEO thinks that the shareholders will be happier if the company becomes even more profitable than it already is, the system favors laziness and does not reward hard work. How can you expect to make money by not doing anything? How cool a job is it to be a shareholder? How can we justify letting go of hard working people when lazy people will make money out of it? To me, this is exactly why our system is bound to fail.

So what could we do about it?

Well one idea would be to have every single person on this earth drink Vodka Martinis. This will probably alleviate the burden of knowing that our world is coming to an end.
Another answer would be to try and think of a different or better world order. Why not choose our leaders based on their skills (through a national exam for instance) and not their looks or the promises that they will make and not keep? For this to be possible, we would need to build a system where education is free and everyone gets a chance at excelling through hard work. Wouldn't it make more sense to put the most skilled people at the head of our states? Funny enough, this idea does not sound crazy to me. How about you?

Technocracy does make sense (and I’m not talking about a nation whose national anthem would be a Depeche Mode song).

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