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 ....



                                      Another site to check out: www.diediehipster.wordpress.com
 

                                                   Musing For Today
When going out in public you'll usually find the outside world to be "everyone else's living room and patio"

      'Tis the season to "help out the homeless"
"The homeless".  Sounds like some kind of cult organization.

If someone is one of "the homeless" does that mean they belong to a club whose members relish wandering around destitute like a band of gypsies, sleeping outside in the open every night regardless of weather conditions, being eternally hygiene-impaired, donning ill-fitting sloppy and dingy garments, surviving on inadequate diet and nutrition, always lacking adequate funds?

It's not like homelessness is some kind of lifestyle.  It could, you know, possibly be a circumstance one finds themselves in when they run out of finances, resources, support from family/friends/acquaintances, and can no longer afford to remain in a long-term dwelling place.

                              Cultural Climate Gentrification
The most dynamic, creative, and passionate people are often also among the most troubled, rebellious, defiant, inquisitive and heretical.

Which means they're also among those most apt to resort to unorthodox methods of accomplishing their ends, to eschew certain social protocols, and have idiomatic belief systems.

Lately the system has been quite zealous in its pursuit of some kind of "social gentrifying" agenda.
It seems the desirable individual is one who is eternally compliant with whatever the current collective narratives are on behaviors, beliefs, viewpoints, speech, and social mores.  They have to be unconditionally "considerate of others' feelings", completely free of any kind of scandal, concerned with staying inside prescribed boundaries wherever they may be set.
Harboring a mindset more befitting Artificial Intelligence than a living emotional human.

However, "dutifully" culling social heretics would also mean discrediting some of the most creative and dynamic personalities who, in spite of their frailties and occasional underhanded endeavors, would still have it in them to offer the world elements which enhance and enrich the overall social climate, the creative/inventive realm,  and collective whole.

To turn everything over to only those who can demonstrate "proper upbringing", "moral purity" and a "society-approved" persona can only result in a social and intellectual climate that's sterile at best, and devoid of any semblance of sentiment, passion or inspiration at worst.

It's not bad enough the world is hell-bent on "purifying" the social climate (gentrification via brand new or remodeled residential and commercial structures) and the internet (with the elimination of Net Neutrality).
They seem to be working the same sort of "secular sorcery" on living humans as well.

Song Analysis: Jumbo

Another one of those quirky songs the "Brothers Gibb" were known for in their early days.

This particular one seems to involve a fictitious children's character who seemingly echos the wishes of the parents.

To most children parents represent authority and worldly knowledge, but not friendship like what they have among their peers and siblings.
And kids also have fantasy heroes from storybooks, comics and cartoons.
So, invent a storybook character hero the kid can believe in and cunningly have his words and advice "coincidentally" align with the similar ones of the parents.

Anyway, that's how the lyrics come across to me.

The Wrong Rights (revisited)

                        Special  Library Etiquette  Edition
So ...
... it's okay to have loud conversations, yell on your cellphone, even use speakerphone when sitting at the computer terminals in the library.

...but, if you're using headphones and the sound bleeds out any, you're told you have to turn it down because it's disturbing others.

Personally, I think it should be the other way around.  However, library standards differ from my own
... especially considering that, when it comes to loud talking, the staff themselves are often among the worst offenders.  And when those in charge are among the offenders who can one turn to?

Perhaps the reason some people have the volume turned up on their headphones is to drown out all the loudmouths and cell phone shouters.