Destructive Symbiosis

Hate.

I hate that word.

Having last year concluded my working career, 41 of my 45 year work career was spent in professions that people love to hate - 25 years in insurance and 16 in government (local). People hate insurance. And they hate government (unless they are getting free stuff from government ... but if they are not getting enough free stuff, they hate government just the same).

In both professions, I worked my way up the management ladder. People hate management. In the insurance industry, my management responsibilities included sales - people hate sales people. And in both the insurance jobs and government jobs, I was head of human resources. Employees hate HR (except when the employees get great benefits ... but when great employee benefits are not expanded, employees hate HR and management just the same).

Why do people hate? It boils down to just one thing - someone is screwing you, figuratively speaking. For if someone is screwing you in the carnal sense, you may love the screwing (but hate the screwer just the same). Too complicated to go into here.

At the heart of getting screwed is the issue of fairness. Something is just not fair. Or, more accurately, many things are unfair. After all, we believe in equality. Why shouldn't I get a pay raise? - I'm getting screwed working at this pay rate. Why did he or she get that promotion? - I deserve it more! Why should some people be extravagantly rich and others barely scraping by? Why should some people have 2 or 5 or 12 homes when others are homeless? Why should some people eat caviar when so many are hungry?

Some people, of course (and sadly), are dealt a very bad hand right from the get-go. They need and should receive help. If life was a fair race, we would have all been at the starting line of life on an equitable basis. But, of course, that is not the case and there nothing that can be done to correct the unfairness, the inequity, of life itself. Nothing can be done, that is, unless you control the government.

So some look to government, which we hate in general, to make things fair. It is easy to think of government as an amorphous monolith. In reality, government is just the group of people, led by mostly narcissistic ego maniacs, who have wrested POWER from another group of narcissistic ego maniacs.

The people that control the government can dole out goodies but they can never, ever, make life fair. These people in power now refer to us as "folks" (how folksy) because, you know, they're just like us (wink!). And so they reach into the Treasury (which is different from reaching into one's own pocket), which is upside down, for fists full of cash (printed whimsically) to give to their political base so they will be loved. But love is fleeting and once the goodies  are taken for granted, government will be despised again until more fleeting love is bought by the Power Elite.

It is this destructive symbiosis that I hate. It is this mutual dependency that I hate. Because, well, it's just not fair.