Empathy Dilemma
When one is in a desperate situation or under extreme dire circumstances one tends to feel isolated, abandoned, all alone in their own despondency.

Often others act callous, indifferent, or even contemptuous towards one, subtly implying that somehow one is responsible for bringing about whatever hardship one is experiencing.

Having to suffer attitudes and behaviors like these will cause one to develop a steady animosity towards others, and in the event one witnesses someone else suffering greatly themselves, instead of feeling empathy for that other poor soul one may feel a sense of schadenfreude, figuring "Screw them!!  When I needed help everyone else just left me to deal with it all myself.  They acted like I 'deserved' what I was going through, like I 'brought it about' by my own stupidity or ignorance.  So, as far as I'm concerned, let this poor sap 'figure THEIR OWN WAY out of' their predicament".

                                  A Social Class Lecture
Paul McCartney---one of the world's wealthiest entertainers.

I remember, in 1964, when it was revealed each member of The Beatles were worth at least $7-million each.  And how folks would often comment "No person on earth is worth THAT much!"

However, though, back then the attitudes toward the common disparities surrounding the financial worth of different individuals were more passive, only occasionally wishing they "had that kind of money" and "what they'd do if" they had that amount of wealth.

For the most part, how much money another person earned or had to their name was pretty much really "the business of" that particular individual and not of any concern for most average persons (outside of a bit of vicarious envy).

Of course it should be mentioned that in the 1960s there was considerable prosperity, so even those making low to average wages---as well as upstart business ventures---were usually managing to make enough to get by adequately, and prices were low enough things were somewhat affordable.  
Not to mention there were more choices when it came to the basics, such as homes and residential units, food, furniture, and other essentials.  There were always different price ranges for just about everything one could buy and for just about every place one could live, whether house or apartment---or even rooming houses or weekly motel rooms.  A variety of choices and price ranges for entertainment items such as televisions, radios, stereos, records, books, small appliances, and the like.

And it's a fact that, so long as one is getting by well enough they can afford to be content with just focusing on their own life and needs and desires, they're not going to be as prone to giving much thought to how others are living or getting by.
It's only when the social and economic climate is so discordant and dysfunctional to the point when the disparities between their finances and assets and the cost of living are so great they're in jeopardy of financial ruin anytime, coupled with the possibility of losing their source of a steady income, that people start becoming despondent enough to start thinking about "their place in society", which in turn causes them to start comparing themselves with how a lot of others in the world live, which then leads to resentment and a need to lash out at anyone who appears to be better off than they are.  Even if those "better offs" are more upper-middle-class than wealthy.

It's in such a totally disastrous economic climate one starts hearing disparaging comments and statements about "the 1 percent" or "corporate elite" and others of comparable socio-economic status.
When one's life is a total disaster anyone who is or appears to be doing well is to be disdained and condemned for being "greedy" and "heartless".
It's that need for those who are suffering to find a viable "causation".

In short---how much the average person is or is not concerned with the financial state of (particularly) those in the upper echelon social class range is a good barometer of the overall prosperity of the given culture.
The less the average person really gives a damn about how the wealthy live or how much any one of them is worth, the better off and more prosperous the society.
The more the average person frets and goes on moral outrages about the "greedy rich" and such, the more indicative it is that said society is either experiencing a lot of intracultural conflicts or might even be degenerating and deteriorating.  

CeleBirthdates

Marianne Faithful
She turned 71 today.
I hear she checked out the online dating site OurTime recently.  They found "an ideal match" for her---a certain Michael Phillip Jagger ...

...speaking of The Rolling Stones: Keith Richards turned 74 on December 18th (a week before Christmas)

And 2017 ends with Burton Cummings turning 70 (he was born December 31 1947)

Michael Nesmith turns 74 tomorrow

Is Edgar Winter still living?  If so, he turned 71 yesterday.

Jimmy Buffett turned 71 this past Monday (Christmas day itself).  Too bad it didn't hit me until just now.  Had I mentioned his (then-upcoming) birthday a week ago I would have been able to say "'Come Monday' Jimmy Buffett turns 71"

                                              Final Adages of 2017

Corporations, merchants, and advertisers are a bit like perverts---one molests another physically, the other psychologically


No-one ever seems interested in anything you might have to say.
     ...yet they'll always lend an ear to gossips intent on smearing you

  That man is a social animal by nature is but a curse ...
... it means we're all forced to be invasive and predatory ...

...you can't ask for help or advice without approaching another and interrupting whatever they happen to be doing at the time.

...if you're lonely and desire companionship how do you go about finding another unless you keep badgering one stranger after another, randomly asking each one for special favors they may not be too keen on doing for you?

...you often can not engage in activities of your own choosing without interfering with the activities of another.

If I could only know all, do all, and be all, and be satisfied with just myself, my life would be a utopia.

Responsibility (revisited)

Why I dread it so much any time I need to take care of something:

Most tasks look to be simple enough in concept and theory
...but when trying to carry them out you end up going through more steps than even someone performing brain surgery.

I remember my junior high math teacher telling the class how he "feels really bad for anyone who either can't take algebra in high school or takes it and ends up failing it" because, as he put it, "if one can't understand algebra they'll never be able to fully make sense out of how things work in the real world".

Do I need to mention I'm among those who failed algebra?

                                           Dealing With Others

The misanthropic one explains why he so dreads any time he has to go out in public:

"...too many folks out there who want to punish me for something their mean uncle did to them when they were 10 or 11 ..."

...yes, as if we ourselves don't already have personal issues of our own that chronically plague us ....



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