Schmooz

I guess this coming weekend is the last of the summer - based on calendar and all that. Autumn rolling in. Yikes, I hope there are still apples left on the trees. I'm bad with growing seasons, but I'd like to get out and pick some. You can tell I'm a Northerner, it still seems miraculous that you can pick apples off of a tree. That time in Portugal when I saw ripe lemons on a tree was just nuts - it looked so fake, I couldn't help but think how much work it must be to glue all those fake plastic lemons onto a tree as a joke. Saw oranges that trip too - must have been a February visit, I guess. Fresh fruit in the winter is cool when you come from a land of snow with a short growing season. Then again, my Mom up North manages to grow apples now. Global warming combined with an insanely green thumb works wonders.

Oh yeah - so I was working up to say last weekend of the official summer, and I at least spent several hours on a restaurant patio this afternoon and evening with a big group of friends and vague acquaintences from a previous workplace. It was fun to see some faces I haven't seen for a either several months to a year or two or three. Some potential leads on projects 1 or 2 as well - as always happens when you meet up with old work colleagues. Also saw one guy, who is a nice enough person, but a dysfunctional employee, who is out of work currently. That was kind of good to see. I wish him all the best, and know it's tough for a guy, older than me too, who is looking for work. But he was both a poor manager and had abrasive, empire-building practices in the company... so good that there's a bit of comeuppance out there.

Have I ranted on that point yet? Not likely. I've been thinking, as I read Plato's Republic as well, I might add, that there is a substantial dirth of comeuppance in the world these days. Hell nobody even uses the word much these days it seems, so even the sense that it should be doled out seems to be waning. Well, let me go on record as saying comeuppance is due, DUE, I tell you.

What does The Republic have to do with it? Well, Plato, writing as Socrates, only thinly veils his disdane for the society around him as he works through the elements of his ideal society. He gets a bit foam-at-the-mouth here and there as he describes how people should be and more particularly rulers should be. I get the sense that Plato was a real fan of comeuppance.

Who's Due?
Who deserves it? Two groups of people come to mind - but no doubt I'll think of a few more as I get into a full swing rant.

The first group that comes to mind are all these people living beyond their means. You know them, they are in their early twenties, have a mediocre job at best, and are moving into big houses, with brand new furniture throughout, driving sport-utes everywhere, and going on expensive vacations. They wear logo's as a standard thing - and the guys have goattees and wear sunglasses above their ball-caps. It's the new sweater over the shoulders from 1982, for 2006.

So they are mortgaged and line-of-creditted to the hilt to pay for all this stuff, no doubt. They are saving nothing, and living in better standard than people who have lived less ostentatious lifestyles for 50 years.

So when all the credit comes crashing down and they have to declare bankruptcy - what happens? I haven't ever heard anecdotally of someone having to sell the vehicles, get a bus-pass, and move into a cheap one bedroom apartment because they were living beyond their means. I get the sense that they can declare bankruptcy, get all their bills cancelled, while keeping their house, furniture and vehicles, and start all over again. Oh maybe one vehicle is repo'd but that's it.

Where's the comeuppance?

Okay, the other group I have a problem with are the second generation egotists. There's a whole raft of these guys and girls, who are usually the second generation, sometimes third in a famous family who seem to have everything handed to them on a silver platter. The worst thing is seeing them succeed not because they have any talent, but because their last name is the same as someone who went before them.

First of all, I should declare some bias, in some of those cases - I have trouble with anyeone who goes into the same field as their parent. That just seems so LAME and pathetic. What's a matter, you wanna be your daddy? Can't think of your own friggin career? Does your mommy pick your vocation for you? Okay - that's out, so there's already a jeering point against those that pick the same vocation.

But then to see some yahoo at 22 suddenly on national television because of a famous last name, when there are much more capable 20 year olds, or 35 year olds who have paid their dues and worked their way up from the crummy jobs based on talent - that must really suck.

Okay - lets slam some actual people. Ben Mulroney. (Sorry non-Canadians this part will be a little obscure to you, but google any of these people and you'll see what I mean. I'm sure there are parellels in your country - email me and tell me about them!) In my house, when that twit shoes up on the TV there is an instant scream and we dive for the remote to get him out of our view. Besides looking like some freakish Mila in male drag, or George Hamilton Jr, he's a pompous egotist who is propped up by flunkeys because his father was PM. There are oodles of more talented folk. I haven't been able to watch any Canadian Idol since inception because he's such a symbol of undeserved sycophantic culture in the media.

Then there are Mordecai Richler's kids. Morty old boy, what have you done! Alas, the talented author known to some extent around the world is no longer with us, but he's got these pompous kids with an annoying affectation. I assume they went to some sort of private school and picked up this bizarre fake pseudo British accent that sounds like a cross between - well, I won't go there. But CBC One, our beloved national radio channel, gave one of them - Noah, I think that might be his name? - a show which seemed a total mess of him blathering on in his pompous, overly flamboyant speeches in inane 'listen to me talk about the little people' flurries of observations. And the other of the sons, Daniel used to have a TV show or news bits or something on topics literary which were similarly eyeball rolling. Thankfully I haven't seen much of him lately. No doubt some publisher is churning books out for these guys, when real authors are struggling to get any attention.

Where do they get the support? I guess there are people out there who either owed their parents something big from way-back, or are just genetically sycophantic.

Another few that come to mind are the kids of Stephen Lewis, as son and daughter. Meddling, holier than thou pompous types trying to do international 'look at me save the little foriegners from the big corporations' stuff through lopsided high-school-girl-political documentaries. Their father Stephen is an amazing guy, whom I've followed since I was a kid, and he was what, the leader of the Ontario NDP party I think - but more recently is a selfless crusader of a UN representative championing the plight of victims of Aids in Africa. I guess these annoying offspring in this case are 3rd Generation, as Steven's father David was also a strong politician. But seeing those kids on TV - man the arrogance just exudes from their pores. And I recall expecting them to be fantastic coming from such a strong family. I tried hard to think positively of them, but they quickly eroded any positive regard I felt.

There are other examples and they make me wonder about what causes both the pomposity of the child and the sycophantic support. It appears to be some combination of our times and the difficulty of raising kids in a wealthy environment.

I wonder if it can be done successfully? It seems the best and the brightest are always brought up in hardship. I suppose it's a microcosm of the cliff ecosystem thing I've read about - where challenging environments (e.g. cold climates) produce more resilient people, better tool development, more technology than in southern climates, where there is less struggle. The cliff ecosystem is the model in nature that has similar impacts for like populations of the same animal. As a parent, how do you successfully raise kids, if you've made something substantial of your life? Are they doomed to failure? How do you add challenges and make them gain the perspective of being poor that might have driven you to be a success?

Oh well - I'll leave that there, without getting into the Trudeau kids. So far Joe Clark's daughter appears to have struck out with an attempt at some vacuous local cable access show on something inane. Never saw it, but I'm sure it was glam. I'm surprised she wasn't vaulted immediately to national television at the earliest whisp of interest.

Well, I'll abandon that rant there - I think I've suitably addressed that in this forum where there are likely none who know any of those folk. If any of you 2nd generation egotists google your name (as you must on a daily basis) and find this - why not get a job somewhere where you can succeed on your merits rather than riding your parent's coat tails? And Richler kids - lose the pompous accent. You're from Montreal dammit. You're like the kid on the school bus who gets beat up because he insists on wearing a cape to schoole or something. You don't need to conform like an automaton, but hell, lose the cape at least.

Wrap
Well it's late and technically getting into tomorrow. Yikes, I'm almost missing the deadline for a blog entry per weekday. Oh well.

Here's your assignment for this session. If you live in or near a suitably large town - look in your yellow pages, or google "used book shops" for your town, and note where one is conveniently located. Now go buy a book to read in the genre of your choice. Only pick something that you wouldn't normally read, and see how it goes. As always, I love to hear from lurkers and regulars to the Life Without Practice Blog