Dec 25

 Christmas. I didn't sleep through it all. Just  half of it.

In the news today, more rumbles basically slating the NHS for doing a piss poor job. Another analysis piece that has linked a massive ramp in people getting sick over the pandemic and proceeding years, and then, either scaling back their work, or dropping out of work entirely. This is the third full on piece I have seen riffing on the economic data analysis that dropped a month or so ago.

People not working nakes the rich people very unhappy. Because. Workers generate the money for the rich. No work. No money for the rich.

Less workers and all that. Lower GDP. Lower taxes. Lower profits.

That shit won't stand.

To fix the "slacking" of the proletariat, government advisors are now suggesting that they need to up health care checks, fix those sick and get them back to work. Or at its darkest. Just get the sick back to work, healthy or not.

The elephant in the room - sometimes pointed out explicitly, sometimes left implicit - is that the NHS by failing to get it's shit together is now having a massive effect on the economy. If everyone is sick - because of long waiting lists, or the delightfully nuspeak "excess deaths" - then nothing gets done. The thing that is supposed to be fixing that - the NHS - is not fixing that. Gobbles money. Shits the bed. And now worst of all is in revolt and wanting to be paid more. Paid more. To not be effective. Ooh. Lead balloons.

You can feel the knives circling for the NHS. Some of them no doubt sharpening at a glorious capitalist opportunity to privatise and monetise the NHS, but also, some of them absolutely have a point, and the 70 year old system at this point, has probably accreted itself into a dysfunctional corner it can't get out of. Like too many layers of paint on a valve. The function of the valve has long since been lost. It's not lost amongst those in power and also the common prole, that the NHS of late has been largely a shit show of epic order.

In darker more manipulative advice, the government advisors are also suggesting that particular older people be given a financial health check as well as a physical health check, to let them know, that yeah, you don't have enough money to retire. You might have had enough money pre pandemic. But post pandemic, you don't.

How they know this is left a mystery.

In fact, they don't know this, they are guessing. Not even that. They are being manipulative.

I got the same shtick from Andy about working an extra day. How's the money. Are you ok on the money. I wouldn't mind if you wanted to work an extra day for money.

Yeah. No.

Oh well. I'd just actually like you to work an extra day.

Ah ha. The actual motive.

Which, unless I am mistaken, is exactly what the government are gearing up to do here. Manipulating by instilling financial fear. To get them back to work. Earning money for the super rich. And getting those taxes in.

They genuinely don't give a fuck if people are well set for retirement or not. They don't give a fuck about people on welfare. Or the underpaid. Or the cost of living. Or helping those raising kids. And the timing of the announcement - back to back in the same breath with, how do we get people back to work, reveals their true intention. How to convince people to go back to work. Ah. Tell them they need more money to retire.

There's no care in there. No concern for welfare. Just a grubby fucking, get the proles back on the line.

Lovely.

You can blame the Tories for putting it so bluntly. No care. Just get the wage slave class back to slaving. But. You'd find the so called left wing of the UK, Labour, parroting the same line. Just with a layer of bullshit in the way about caring about people, but still, having exactly the same fucking policy, for the exact same intent. Because in the end, no matter the colour of the suit, it's all about the rich people stupid.

Western politics is all about having a single choice. But dressed up in a different colour with a different tone of voice. But in the end. It's the same choice. In fact. You can probably attribute this single choice to all modern politics. From Russia, to China, to North Korea, to Iran, to Saudia Arabia. The only difference with the Western version, is the illusion of choice, and, also, a tiny, tiny possibility of actual change. Blink. And you'd miss it.You can see countries like Russia have kinda clocked the fact. And assembled their own bullshit version of the, kinda sorta looks like a choice, actually isn't. Except they're unpracticed at it. And their attempts are transparent. And have a tendency to just say fuck it, and go back to the far easier method of not even hiding the fact you have no choice.

Eh. Meh. I predict grim times ahead for the UK. Not because of the economy. But because of those in power getting unhappy that the proles are not working as hard as they could be. I suspect a squeeze from both ends - a raising of financial burden on people, so that any money or pensions they have no longer are enough, forcing people back to work, and for those without any of that, they are going to need to work harder and longer, double and triple jobs, and also a much more ruthless health metric, that is willing to throw sick people under the bus and eke out their last energy working. So long as it generates an uptick in GDP.

Late stage capitalism is going to bite back. It's not going to just roll over and die. It's going to try and work you to death.

But it hasn't formed up just yet into a concrete plan. Perhaps it will just dissipate with the wind. I really doubt that however.

Else wise.

The pattern I have observed as a general truism, that people end up calcifying into an irrational state, somewhere around middle age, continues on undaunted. People learn and grow, quicker when they are younger, and slowly, slowly, it tails off. Unevenly. In some places they may be trained to learn. In others. They ossify. And it's mostly about the ossification. The turning of pliable, adaptable people, into solid lumps of unyielding bone. They get stuck with their own bullshit. Even seekers of truths. Switched on people. They all in the end succumb to the same bullshit. The lies they tell themselves that everything is A OK. That this is how it is. This is normal.

It's not a healthy acceptance. It's not an understanding of the actual objective - or as close as you can get - things going on. It's just a swallowing of the bullshit and convincing yourself it's cool.

People in the end, fall far short of getting to an enlightened, aware, wise state. And collapse somewhere around the fuckwit stage. Their journey only half complete.

It seems to be almost universal. It seems to be THE thing that shapes people in their 30's and above. Their final form. Flawed. Fucked up. Irrational. Human.

There's a funny meme. Where God turns to an angel looking for praise at his new creation - man. The angel retorts that God has just fucked up a perfectly good monkey with anxiety.

I find a parallel in that meme. I don't think humans handle their own intellect very well at all. I think in the end, it makes almost everyone, flawed and crazy to some degree or other.

As I've said before. Evolutionary dead end. A specialisation too far.

On the smaller scale, it is immensely disappointing to see person after person fail to reach their potential. Every single person has so much potential. So many failures. Splat. And that car crash usually comes into focus by the 30's.

How can you avoid it ?

Keep an open mind. Question everything. Keep an eye on your own bullshit. But open mind. Learn. Adapt. Be prepared to correct old mistakes. Keep on moving. Be aware of hyprcrisy in yourself.

On that cheery note, I shall bid you a Merry Christmas. Take it easy. Turn off the brain. Smell the flowers. There is a zen in turning off that higher functioning, anxiety ridden, monkey brain, and instead just relying on the simpler, flower smell good, animal brain. Stuff your face. Snooze. Basics done. Happiness achieved.