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Egg Salad

[Re: Corporate Mofo Eats Lunch]

I used to work with my hands, I thought working and producing validated who I was, I thought I was contributing, I thought I was more secure when the fruit of my labor could not be denied, it had substance, it was real. Then I found myself removing the chemical toilet from a Lufthansa 737 at 2 o'clock on a Saturday morning, strange how the choking cloud of shit-smelling dust changed my perspective on life, for a brief second I found my self on a high point in my life, I could see my future and it
was more of the same.

I went back to college, got a job with a big American corporation and worked, married, child, buying a house as we speak. The dignity of the working class is a fallacy, if you are waiting for a paycheck you are working class, busboys to engineers we are all in the same system. Waiting for the paycheck, paying the bank, paying your bills, and frightened of what will happen if you lose what little you have. I really do enjoy your website, it gives me a new perspective on my little work a day life, I have it pretty good and if I loose it all tomorrow its easy to start again.

—Aidan Boyce

Amen.

More Hypocrisy!

Last year's report on the World Economic Forum continues to generate controversy. Here's an e-mail exchange Ken had with a reader from Oz:

Hello Ken,

I am writing a quick feeback piece on your article ''Corporate MoFo goes to the
World Economic Forum'. The entire piece was very curious in that it seemed to say
very little except deride people for something which it appears you know little
about. Were you attending the demonstration to discover what the WEF is or why
people would be crazy enough to stand in the cold streets of New York over a group
of elites meeting? The article seems to suggest you wish to see what was going on,
but ...

'I was disappointed. The WTF protests were not what I had expected. I went in
expecting clear-cut right and wrong, easily articulated reasons for why
globalization is bad and what we have to do to make the world better. I thought I
would find the stereotypes I'd read about: brutal police, Gandhi-esque protestors, a
battle between the Rebel Alliance and the Evil Empire. Good against Evil. Instead, I
found people: stupid and falliable, sometimes heroic, but just people. And, I came
to realize, the people inside the Waldorf-Astoria were just that, as well: people.
Some want to do right. Some are too stupid or lazy to care. And some just want to
think of new ways to make a buck.

I realized something else, as well: If you're going to stand for a cause, you ought
to be able to articulate what exactly you stand for. Political decisions should be
reasoned, not taken because you're afraid not to accept the empty rhetoric, or,
worse, because you're transfering your suburban resentment for Mommy and Daddy onto
some shadowy authority figures.'

The impression I get from the above is that you wanted black and white, but you got
just normal shades-of-grey people. Why would you expect black and white in
anything, unless of course you take your views from the mainstream news bites?
Surely, being a person who believes in corporate slavery and our empty consumer
culture, you would have more sense than that.

I agree that people who stand up for a cause should know what they are standing for,
however, just because you didn't get the detailed answers you expected doesn't mean
they are wrong. How can you be so arrogant as to assume you know why these people
were out there? Oh, sorry you interviewed a couple of stray protesters. For what,
2 minutes? Maybe people in NYC are too cowed to protest, does it make it wrong for
people from other areas to make the effort to come in and voice their concern. Was
it a NYC affair, no others need apply?

Also, your concurrence with our friendly Officer Smith was a little beyond the pale
for me. 'See how they like it in Afghanistan' I think was your quote ... with which
you agree? Is this the US, bill of rights, freedom of speech that sort of thing.
Or is this somewhere where people are not allowed to disagree, conformity is
expected. I thought the purpose of this website was the Howl, to break free from
conformity?

I attended an anti-WEF demonstration in Melbourne, Australia in 2000. Your article
has made me angry primarily because of its similarity with the dismissals I
encountered there. I have studied the World Econimic Forum from a perspective of
similar international business associations and their supposed benign 'non-policy
making' approach. The problem with these institutions is that they align business
and political elites with similar frameworks for the mutual benefit of the rich and
politically powerful business leaders with the policy making leaders. Both are
advantaged by having a private organisation outside the oversight of community
groups. The collusion of these business and political groups is what is engendering
this empty slave like existence that seems to be the purpose of this website.

If I have gotten the wrong impression or you want to discuss something, email me.

Take care,

IanMSN 8 with e-mail virus protection service: 2 months FREE*

My reply:

First off, I find it kind of unintentionally hilarious that your e-mail
is being sent courtesy of Microsoft, complete with ad at the end.

Re-read the article, and maybe some of the rest of the site as well. I
am extremely critical of modern liberalism--more so than I am of
conservative ethics, which are so self-evidently stupid that they don't
even bear commenting on (though, I have to say, conservatives do have a
gift for snappy catchphrases). In my heart of hearts, I feel that the
entire duality of "left wing" and "right wing" sucks donkey balls, but
since I certainly fall more into the category of the former than the
latter, I feel I have the right to critique my own side.

To wit, I feel my side is utterly lacking in anything resembling a
plan, a coherent philosophy, or street cachet. All we have is spoiled
suburban white kids who see throwing rocks at Starbucks as a substitute
for throwing rocks at Daddy. Then they either (1) graduate and take
corporate jobs in order to pay the rent (as I, much to my dismay, have)
and allow McWorld to run their lives (as I haven't); (2) go into
academia and become more irrelevant than even I have; or (3) work at
the food co-op or East-West bookshop and live in their parents'
basements. I feel that if there's going to be any social change, it's
going to be from folks like Russell Simmons organizing the black
community, not from honkies with dreadlocks.

> The impression I get from the above is that you wanted black and white,
> but you got just normal shades-of-grey people.

Not so: I was out there for hours looking for shades of grey, but all I
got was black and white.

> Why would you expect black and white in anything, unless of course you
> take your views from the mainstream news bites?

I, personally, don't, but everyone else seems to want to live in a
Manichean world.

> Surely, being a person who believes in
> corporate slavery and our empty consumer culture, you would have more
> sense than that.

Just because I want an alternative to jihad or McWorld doesn't mean I
have any common sense.

> I agree that people who stand up for a cause should
> know what they are standing ;for, however, just because you didn't
> get the detailed answers you expected doesn't ;mean they are
> wrong. ; How can you be so arrogant as to assume you know why these
> people ;were out there? ; Oh, sorry you interviewed a couple of
> stray protesters. ; For what, 2 minutes? Maybe people in NYC
> are too cowed to protest, does it make it wrong for people from other
> areas to make the effort to come in and voice their concern. Was
> it a NYC affair, no others need apply?

People came from all over. There was no correlation between distance
and articulateness. Maybe it was the cold.

> Also, your concurrence with our
> friendly Officer Smith was a little beyond the pale for me. 'See
> how they like it in Afghanistan' I think was your quote ... with which
> you agree? Is this the US, bill of rights, freedom of speech that
> sort of thing.

Cops have opinions, too, and I respect them. I refuse to see police
as the enemy. Also, remember that our freedom of speech wasn't given
to Charlton Heston on Mt. Sinai: It was bought with blood.

The problem is, there is a very real class difference between the
protestors, who were mainly from middle-class, white-collar
backgrounds, and the police, who are from working-class backgrounds.
Too many people see the police as the "other." I think, also, having
grown up in the ass-end of Brooklyn and known police officers
growing up, I can empathize with them as more than just "pigs."
There are good cops and bad cops, like any other type of person, but
most are just trying to do a job and go home to their families.

> Or is this somewhere where people are not allowed
> to disagree, conformity is expected.
> I thought the purpose of this
> website was the Howl, to break free from conformity?

Well, you seem to be pissed off at me because I don't conform to
your idea of what a good liberal should be.

> I attended an
> anti-WEF demonstration in Melbourne, Australia in 2000. Your
> article has made me angry primarily because of its similarity with the
> dismissals I encountered there.

I would hope I'm more nuanced than some stupid right-wing pundit from
Oz. Or at least funnier.

> I have studied the World Econimic
> Forum from a perspective of similar international business associations
> and their supposed benign 'non-policy making' approach. The
> problem with these institutions is that they align business and
> political elites with similar frameworks for the mutual benefit of the
> rich and politically powerful business leaders with the policy making
> leaders. Both are advantaged by having a private organisation
> outside the oversight of community groups.

That paragraph is a prime example of why THE ASSHOLES ARE WINNING. Do
you actually expect people to wade through sentences like, "The
problem with these institutions is that they align business and
political elites with similar frameworks for the mutual benefit of the
rich and politically powerful business leaders with the policy making
leaders"?! Guess what--most people aren't your political science
professor!

And with regards to said back-room dealing, guess what--that is how
99.9% of the world is run, and has always been run... or did you think
we actually live in a democracy? There are ways to make the world more
fair, but there will never be a level playing field. Socialism can't
do it; feminism can't do it; enviornmentalism can't do it. Sometimes,
all we can do is live our OWN lives as stainless steel rats in the
system.

> The collusion of these
> business and political groups is what is engendering this empty slave
> like existence that seems to be the purpose of this website.&nbs

Well, if that's so, then I certainly hope they give me some fucking
money!

> IanMSN 8 with e-mail virus protection service: 2 months FREE*

Seems Bill Gates seems to have to get his two cents in there, too...

And He Likes to be Known as the Angry Young Man. . .

Ken Mondschein's rant "The Hypocrisy of the Left" birthed a lot of comment and controversy. The article was like a Rosarch test: Some readers thought it was an endorsement of their own political beliefs, whatever they might be, some thought it was a cry for help from a liberal losing his religion (as it were), and some saw it as an exercise in existential angst.

Here's this week's rants:

Ken Mondschein sure pissed a lot of people off with "The Hypocrisy of the Left." I loved it because to me, it talks about the hypocrisy in us all. The readers responses topped it off though. . . I find significant humor in those that will defend their idealism at any cost, not the least their own dignity. The sad part to me is those that cannot (read will not) see their own flaws. Please don't take this for a partisan shot at the left, I find enough (hypocritical) idealism on both extremes to make sure that I remain independent in my thinking and my voting. Well done. . . You have a new fan.

—Bob McMasterson

Of COURSE "Liberalism is a rich person's luxury. If you don't have to worry about where your next meal is going to come from then you have time to think about other things and actually enjoy life. There is nothing wrong with that at all. in fact it's a good thing. This loon wants us to remain like the monkeys for the rest of eternity. . . fucking whoever we get our claws on and eating the dirt we can scrape off the floor.

I for one believe in PROGRESS. In the ability of humans to transcend the limits of bestiality. Yes humans are animals...but humans also have a BRAIN that they can USE. Humans make art and can appreciate the simple fact of being alive. That is what makes humans a step above most other animals. We have the ability to consider our existence. . . "Why are we here?" and we can create all kinds of reasons to be here. . . whether it's to let animals live or to let the poor remain wretched.

humans can make choices. We don't rely solely on instinct. . . We can THINK. Obviously this conservative young man does not like to THINK for himself. He'd rather be a MONKEY. Why change? Let's just stay Darwinian animals fighting each other for that last scrap of bread (or that piece of ass). I don't know about you but I like to think that the human mind allows us to go one step beyond the limits of flesh.

Sure sex and gluttony are great. But there is a whole host of things beyond those animal instincts that a human can appreciate and understand. If we can think of it why in the world should we ignore it? What's wrong with making PROGRESS in our society to innovate and renovate? To continually improve our world so that everyone can have the same shit we have here. Why condemn the rest of the world to poverty if we can bring them to our level by, for example, conserving our resources? I hate republicans.

On the article "Hypocricy of the Left":

I'm sorry, I am a liberal. This guys views do not speak out to me in any way. I love eating meat and I love my life in America. I am environmentally friendly in any way convenient for me. I feel we should spend more resources developing new sources of energy to end our dependence on oil. I certainly do not like the policies of Bush and Ashcroft which cater to big business, religion, and the development of a police state.

This article does not speak out to me at all. If this guy is for real, maybe it's true that there are leftist "wackos." However, this guy does not speak for the mainstream liberals, as much as Pat Robertson doesn't speak for the mainstream conservatives.

—Christopher Brian Eargle

"Liberalism is a rich person's luxury": So my question—is liberalism then a good thing, or an inherently silly thing?

From your article I get the sense that non-rich people (third world country folk and such) use the world as a tool for their survival, because they must (or they will die), and therein damage the world. But rich people have the luxury of pretending to reuse resources and therefore not hurt the world—but really this is a farce. So my question really is: Is this bad because it is hypocritical (i.e. we should just admit that we use the world as a tool to perpetuate our exisitence), or is it bad because we are really hurting the world?

I guess I could ask my question another way: Deep down in your heart, do you feel that the earth is more precious than human life? You state at the end of your article that we should become compost—is this because the world is better off without humans, and since it is more precious, and that less human life is a good thing? And if this is so, shouldn't you want the children you mention in third world countries to be starving and dying—as the world will then be better off?

Truth is, I'm really disgusted by everything lately. I'm starting to give up hope.

Which is, of course, exactly what "the bastards" want.

BTW, I read the "Off-the-Grid" articles; I liked them. I was kind of curious if wiring and electrical information on splicing into power lines was going to be included, but I suppose its for the best that it wasn't. Electrified and cooked neo-hippies and post-modern antagonists aren't what the world really needs right now.

Regarding your loss of faith in the world at large, I really suggest you begin with yourself and try to find meaning within your own life. Personally, I had to start the process pretty slowly, by gradually cutting off "recreational pharmaceuticals," alcohol and pot, and diligently attending a kung fu class (making sure to find a highly competent instructor of proven lineage) and meditating.

The real struggle is trying to fight off twenty-plus years of bullshit that's been slathered on and into your mind, body, and psyche-it's not the sort of thing that can be done simply or quickly—in an effort to get at the glimmering spark of "you" beneath all that excess poo.

Once you've found meaning within your own life, your purpose and role as regards others becomes much clearer. I'm out of the country right now, but when I return, I have no illusions about running for local office in wherever I end up, and I'm aiming for a city council or school board position. Fuck, I'm as tired as these asshats that run everything as much as the next person; I'm just sick enough of taking their shit to do something about it. I do have the luxury of being out of the country for a few years yet, though: hopefully it'll give me enough time to complete in some regard the personal growth I've started in time to be able to really execute action I've otherwise only viscerally thought about.

...

I suggest you find something you've always wanted to do and then do it with as much passion as you can muster. My chosen "path out of the shitpile" was personal growth and mind/body/soul interaction and strengthening, achieved through kung fu (real, traditional beat-up-the-wooden-man Praying Mantis Boxing) and its trappings, but everybody needs something different. And I'm no monk, either: I eat meat (especially to help recover from physical injuries), I philander a little too much (bad for the chi), so I haven't rejected the world or embraced any man-on-the-mountain-esque method of living. But I can honestly say that I'm about as happy now as I was when I was on top of the world as a senior in high school. I'm still the dork who plays roleplaying games, but now I'm also self-aware and in the best shape, intellectually, spiritually, and physically as I've ever been in my life and I'm loving it.

Finding meaning within my life was as big a revelation as I've ever had to date and whatever it takes for you to find that, I really, really recommend you go out and grab it.

...

Finally, regarding the "no hope" thing. I suggest you try to figure out what you think is wrong that makes you feel so powerless, and then blast the shit out of it with whatever tools you have on hand. I'm more than willing to dispense free, over-the-internet-so-I'll-never-know-if-it-works advice.

—S Peter Cordner

P.S. I'm only 24. I don't want to give the impression that I'm some guru or something, or even that I have a clue. I do have a good idea of what went wrong for me and how I fixed it, so I'm hoping that whatever helped me can give you some perspective.

Based on the arguments in http://www.corporatemofo.com/stories/021010hypocrites.htm, am I to infer that because millions of people don't have choices that I should forgo mine?

—Carrie Trimble

Here's Last Week's Angry Feedback

Republican no, Libertarian yes.

—Bill Cook

Thank you for the epiphany. I sent the link to the Opinion Journal (Wall Street Journal) http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/. They love this kind of thing. So do I. Saw it on FARK.

Best,

Scott Parker
FARK reader
Atlanta

I was reading an article today that I found rather disturbing. It made up entirely of poor points, and lacks any basis for existence [sic]. I hope that you will take a look at it too, and work to change such amateur content.

URL

Best article I've read in a long time. Thanks for putting things into perspective and keep it up.

Thanks,
Andrew Amelia
SCSA, SCNA, MCP

I would like to say great article to Mr. Ken Mondschein for his article, "The Hypocrisy of the Left." It was well written and really, it rings very, very true. I went to one of the most liberal bastion of education in this country, Oberlin College, and it was, well, I wouldn't say sad, but it left me shaking my head, but it was well _____, for lack of a better term. I mean, most of these pseudo-hippies come from rich families and when you see the cars behind some dorms, they are Beamers, Mercedes, Lexuses, and all the high class vehicles. And there are those in California who are liberal this and liberal that, but there they are driving the SUV's. But what most people, liek Mr. Mondschein points out, are idealists rather than practicalists. Having grown up in the DC area, I was exposed to politics at a very young age and so when I got to Oberlin, it was all I could do to shake my head. I mean it is great that this country gives us an opportunity to learn and to think freely, but please do so with reality in mind. . . . But I have to agree with the author in which we as human beings do not have to worry about the daily struggle of surviving. I mean, would we have the time to decide if we are vegetarian or carnivores if we had to always worry about if we were gonna be someone or something else's next meal?

But yeah, I have always used this example when trying to explain the same point that the author makes. Jean-Jacques Rousseau said to the effect of how does he know his hand is there. He sees it there but how does he know it exists. Classical example with someone with too much time of their hands (no pun intended). Well Mr. Rousseau, too bad I was not around cause then I could show you that your hand really does exist. Give me a sledge hammer and put your hand right there. If it doesn't exist, then you will keep you hand there while I bring the sledge hammer down on your hand and then you won't feel the pain.

We as human beings, in 1st World countries do not have to worry about the next meal and so forth. How lucky we are that we can sit around and complain about the evils of the world and not do anything about it but at the same time, feel that we are doing something about it by bringing the issue to the forefront.

—etk74

In my opinion your article is based on two fallacies and a contradiction.

1. Morality - Hypocrisy is wrong (and as suggested by your article, detrimental), therefore we must change our ways.
2. Liberalism can't be measured on a continuum, there are no extreme ends (those which we consider extremes may well end up being mirror images, or even the same), which we may use to place ourselves into.

Contradiction:

If we weren't around, we wouldn't have to suffer anymore. (Actually, I've just realised that this is both a contradiction and a tautology, isn't logic great!)

I realise your article is more tongue in cheek than you might have originally intended, but it's an interesting point you're making.

—Andy Herbert

I've heard this before, and you had me convinced for a while, until you got to the part where "Humans have always done things this way. It's the way we are." Well, although I am sure there are plenty of American liberals who behave in the manner you describe, it is unfair (to say the least) to characterize all members of the American left that way. It lumps you in with the likes of Ann Coulter and other neoconservative cranks.

It is a fact that, although Brazilian farmers are cutting down the Amazon rain forest for reasons of survival, Americans who drive those butt-ugly monstrosities known as SUV's are at least equally responsible for the resulting greenhouse effect. Furthermore, SUV drivers, by their profligate use of fossil fuels, more than half of which come from countries that hate our guts, drive up the price of gas even for those who choose to drive more sensible vehicles (notice I didn't suggest we all ride bicycles to work), and are a contributing factor in the sort of terrorism that took place on September 11, 2001.

Those who bring reusable grocery bags to the store do so out of a concern that the plastic bags currently in use will still be around hundreds or thousands of years from now in landfills that are quickly filling up and hard to replace without arousing the wrath of some Republican NIMBY hypocrite who just discovered environmentalism the day they decided to dig a new garbage pit within 500 miles of his house. The ugly-assed homemade protest signs he and his friends erect on the sides of every major highway into town probably pose a greater public eyesore than the new landfill would.
Humans might have always done things a certain way, but humans are also capable of changing the ways they do things. For example, for 99.999% or more of human history, slavery was the rule, rather than the exception. Now, it is the other way around. Democracy was the exception, not the rule. Now the day can be seen (with a high-powered telescope, but still...) where this situation is similarly reversed. The same thing can also be said for environmentalism, or at least, I hope so.
For commentary that makes sense...
http://www.way2muchsense.com
New issue every Monday at noon.

What the fuck does your article have to do with voting republican???? Your little story is about ALL Americans and what pigs we are. Liberal & Conservative are equally guilty when it comes to gluttenous [sic] behavior.

—C. Broderick

To Ken Mondschein or whoever.

"Hypocrisy of the Left": I never really got the point of that article. Was it this -> "Liberalism is a rich person's luxury." If that's really what the guy wanted to get across, he failed. He failed on the level of offering evidence or logic, and he also seemed to lump everyone who eats healthy into one category to say we need to vote republican. That's embarrassingly absurd.

How does my diet make me a liberal? I eat organic vegetables because they are more nutritious than inorganic, bioengineered, and over pesticide/insecticide sprayed vegetables. Bioengineering creates bigger, less healthy food. The main reason I don't eat meat is because meat blocks up the human digestive tract and causes illness, pain, and death. Another reason is that stock animals are fed the least healthy foods sprayed with the most harmful chemicals, and antibiotics and hormones are pumped into the animals. For the same reasons I don't drink milk.

But on an even easier note for the extreme clueless, do you have any idea the kind of torture commercial stock animals go through? Do you care? Do you have any idea how inefficient meat production is? If we used all of the land for organic vegetables that we use for meat production we could easily feed those starving countries you mention. We wouldn't be polluting the land as much either. And more importantly to me, we wouldn't be feeding people garbage food that leads to situations like cancer, heart failure, colon failure, liver failure, the inability for the human body to properly defend itself against disease, etc. I'd rather eat the food from other countries that you call swill, instead of the processed garbage that pollutes fast food restaurants and the like.

Help me understand the logic when you were saying that you should eat shrimp because other countries are happy to get whatever they can. I just don't get it. You didn't even try to explain it either. You can have leaps of logic like that in an article. I question your validity in choosing a political party if you write articles like this in support of one. Maybe even you will someday be enlightened when you find out that our corporations are increasingly using other countries' land and citizens to produce garbage food that makes a few people billionaires, makes much of our population sick, hurts our economy by moving the production outside of the country and denying us those jobs, and paying very aggressive wages in those other countries. Are you saying that we should vote for an entity that supports and enforces those situations or what?

I was sent the article by someone who thought it was a joke. I don't think author was an idiot or anything, but he definitely came across as ignorant about the subject material. If he was trying to say that people who eat healthy do it for the wrong reasons, that's a bad assumption. If he was trying to say that some people out there eat healthy for the wrong reasons (I've never met one) then he can get by with that. But personally, I don't care why someone eats healthy, as long as they eat healthy.

So what is your point? Maybe you should write a new article that isn't an uneducated rant.

—Brook

Corporate MoFo:

Ken Mondschein has this one wrong. What he's decrying is first-world apathy and the need for otherwise "good" people to feel like they're not the ones screwing the planet over along with a substantial portion of the inhabitants, not anything to do with the 'left'.

The sort of hypocrisy Ken's describing is not a problem of the left, it's a symptom of the first world's citizenry's apathy and the common misperception of their inability to affect change. Its a condemnation of 'quick-fix' (and usually misapplied) solutions to a matrix of complex problems executed by people who have a distinct lack of vision regarding their place in society and their responsibilities as a citizen in a democracy that happens to be the largest military and economy on the planet.

Ken fails to comment on real, practical things that have come about from the "left" (left, defined these days to be: "those who think helping other people involves actually helping them rather than telling them to help themselves"). One example that I'm sure a night-owl Village prole would be familiar with is fair-trade coffee, a rather simple method of ensuring that our jack-booted footprints in the developing world are a little less deep.

There are less practical, more theoretical considerations to be made as well: "(are) we into macrobiotics and yoga and meditation and all that shit because it makes us more evolved as people, or because it suits our idea of the way we ought to be?" What a crock of shit. If the discipline to actually DO yoga and meditation were existent within someone, they're obviously past the initial, 'holy-fuck-this-is-cool, ergo I-am-cool' stage of self-exploration and probably willing to execute the more meaningful things in life Ken's article ignores. If your life hasn't been effected by yoga and meditation, then there's a good chance you're just the sort of superficial jackass Ken's making fun of in the article in addition to the fact that you're probably unaware that the local health club isn't where you're going to learn how to meditate or learn quality yoga, and that sometimes you actually have to "try" when you want to learn something rather than a once-a-week one-hour-at-a-time method of self-improvement. But what the fuck does this have to do with the left anyway?

Its easy to bash the liberal pansy version of the "weekend warrior" (that is, the "weekend activist"), but this hardly constitutes "The Hypocrisy of the Left."' Its only an illustration that more and more, people are buying into some Madison Ave bullshit like its God's Honest Truth rather than looking deeper past the surface for real methods of executing change within themselves and their community. This isn't a problem with the 'Hypocrisy of the Left', its a problem with a culture that's allowing itself to be mesmerized into an agitated mental frenzy unable to coherently focus on anything substantial.

This article takes what could have been an interesting topic, namely ways that an inarticulate and somewhat cowed populace can execute meaningful change within the context of their own neighborhoods and lives, and turns it into the sort of angst-ridden cynical essay of the kind and quality found in high school literary publications. Try harder.

—S. Peter Cordner

Well I just have to comment on this article. I undoubtedly earn more than Ken Mondschein. Yet, I still ride a bicycle as my main form of commuting (don't own an SUV though I could easily afford it); I drink "fare trade" [sic] coffee; I hold ethical funds as the majority of my stock portfolio; among other habits I've developed. We all make decisions about how we choose to consume and go through the world. Some of us choose to limit the damage we do or even try to do a little good. It's often misguided or impotent sure. However, who is he to dump on people for making the effort? Ken Mondschein strikes me as the kind of person who, rather than making an effort to change the situation around him, would prefer to sit on his ass and mumble a pretentious whine to try and seem important while privately saying, "Well it's not me so who gives a fuck." He'd likely then bitch about the price of gas while driving his SUV to work. But now I'm mimicking Ken in making unfair judgments.

Hope my criticism wasn't as much drivel as the article.

Cheers,
Duncan Rice

The final insult, that last twist of the blade, is the necessary moral repugnance to claim that not only are you too much of a hypocrite to realistically align your actions with your ideals, but to actually go the extra step to try to dissuade others from trying to change the world. I agree with the article completely, we are all a waste of carbon that seems determined, if not programmed, to destroy ourselves. My generation takes the larger human project a step further by practicing preemptive worthlessness. At least we can save ourselves from becoming worthless middle-management tools like the geez-o-crat boomers are doing. What's so funny about peace, love, and understanding? That you can co-opt it's opposite and convince people that at $19.99 a pop they are doing something other than indulging in their own dim view of global responsibility. I am reminded of the Horero from Gravity's Rainbow. We should all aim to have a zero birth rate so that we not only terminate ourselves, but terminate as well the prospect of future bourgeois dim-wits. Just my two cents.

—Jonathan C. Schultz

Dear Editor,

I'm a busy guy, but when I'm eating lunch at my desk I try to do something completely different than work. I happened on your article through Fark and was so dumbfounded by the incomprehensibility of it that I had to shoot youa hello. I save, for some reason, William Safire articles that make absolutely no sense, and an alarmingly large percent of the time, this is the case. The problem is where do you save little clippings of unbridled stupidity? I find these Safire articles in the damnedest places for this reason. In my year 2000 tax envelope, my fishing box, between the good cloth napkins in the sideboard, mixed in with recipes, you understand. I expect someday I'll find this article somewhere like between the pages of the owner's manual of my car or someplace. Please don't take this as a negative though, I was so confused by your mission statement that I will probably become a lifelong reader.

Best regards,
Jack Krim

Now you should write a piece about the hypocrisy of the Left opposing a war against a brutal totalitarian dictator that would put in place a liberal democracy with freedom of speech, press, religion, women, etc. That would be a good one I think.

—Steven.Barnett

Ken,

You're right. You should feel guilty. It's obvious that your low income status comes with a big parental safety net, so whine away. While others are trying to affect positive change you should just keep on telling everyone to feel guilty. I would say that YOU and those like you are really what's wrong with the left. Your cynical fatalism is worse than useless; it encourages inactivity as the only option. Why do you get to speak for the left? Oh yeah, you write for this sassy lil blog. Keep it up, rich boy. I hope it at least gets you laid, coz it sure doesn't get you respect.

—John Connolly

If you make it to LA I'll take you to this great all you can eat Brazilian BBQ. They keep bringing the meat till you're ready to spew copious mounds of half digested flesh across your table.

Then they bring out the dessert tray.

—Ryan

Amen.

—Evan Desjardins

This has to be about the most stupid, idiotic, piece of crap I have ever read. And thats a lots. [sic] The guy even looks like a moron. Total crap.

—Dave Ambrose

Nice rant!

if you are ever in Nashville, allow me to buy you a steak!

—Bart Campbell

You need a right-wing, gun totting, beer swilling, red neck for some fair and balanced reporting from right of center.

And I, as it happens, am just the guy for the job.

Below is an e-mail I recently sent to a writer for those uber-lefties at www.YellowTimes.org I realize that what I say means nothing to them, and that my opinion is dismissed out of hand, but if for even a moment I can get under their skin and really make them hate me I have done my job.

Simpering fool!!

I and my fellow "repub's will crush you under the heel of our compassionate conservatism.

Starving artist?

Guest correspondent?

Yellowtimes columnist? (I particularly like this one due the fact that Yellowtimes takes itself so seriously. "We are a paper of record." "Our opinions matter too" "Politicians bad, except for some ultra-left leaning demos." "Israel bad.") Blah, blah, blah.

You and those like you would make good fertilizer for my genetically modified Monsanto corn. It's not so much that you spew bullshit as it is that you are full of it. But I digress. It is America after all and I guess you have a right to free speech and assembly. But it doesn't mean I wouldn't like to swerve my Dodge Power Ram into the lot of ya' the next time I see ya' parading around protesting something.

So, lets look at what we have here.

1) A rambling, incoherent, fact deficient letter that would be better at home in the pages of your local high school. Where at least there is an excuse for un-educated, stupid children to write drivel such as this because of the mess that the demos and the unions have made of education.

2) A poorly thought out theory on how to bring about change through some half baked plan to stir the generally pacifist left into some kind of "uprising" because the repubs have gone off the deep end with their "fascist" plans for America."

OK, whatever you say.

I am.

Smug, arrogant, self-serving, dedicated, and most of all not willing to take yours or Yellowtimes points of view seriously due in large part to the fact that yes, I have been brainwashed by the more conservative or hawkish elements in this country and feel at home labeling anything I don't agree with as un-American, anti-capitalist and just down right wrong.

And yes, I will happily march off to war, pull the trigger, and face down the whole of the world to protect the Norman Rockwell image of America.

Don't feel guilty for what we have here in America.

Greed is good. Weapons that can fly up the ass of some goat herder ten thousand miles from here are good. 99 cent burgers are good.

Idealism is bad.

Regards,

Ryan

Humans are hypocritical by nature. It isn't limited to one ethnic group, political party, regional lucky bastards, etc. Humans are just hypocritical. It's entirely pointless to single any group out for it.

—Anna R. Dunster

To whom it may concern,

I am writing this in my home office on my corporate letterhead e-mail under the pretense of my bullshit VP title that I have because I own 20 percent of the still too new to be profitable company whose fine logo is listed above.

I am an avid reviewer of FARK.COM and I have not heard of Corporate Motherfucker yet. Today there was a link on FARK to your Hypocrisy of the Left. I spent my high school and college years as a hard line Democrat and my professional life as a hard line Republican. It all comes down to how much taxes I pay every year. Sad isn't it.

So, anyway, I read your article and it was like you drove to Indianapolis and kicked me in the head as hard as you could with a steel-toed boot. You summed up the uneasy feelings I have had for YEARS. What am I doing? Should I be an environmentalist? Should I not care? Why are there so damn many commercials?

I just want to say you have done a fine job and I now consider myself a 100% pure Corporate Motherfucker.

Thank you for opening my eyes.

—Dan Parker

Ken Mondschein wrote, "Middle-class people in this country live better than Roman Emperors."

No, they don't. The chariots of Roman Emperors weren't stuck in twenty-first century traffic twice daily, five days a week, so they could spend forty to fifty hours in their office/store/cubicle at the Forum; they didn't wash/fold/iron their own laundry, care for their own children, cook their own meals, or clean their own homes. Anyone who would rather be a middle-class person in this country than a Roman Emperor is a fool.

Who's the hypocrite? In America even the poorest of the poor can afford fast food daily and VCRs and TVs. I don't know of any other industrialized nation that can say that. However, who's always being told that it's there job to give more to end world poverty? The RICH! Why? Because they have the money right? Bill Gates gives as much money to charity for education and housing as a lot of other states. [sic] Damn those rich people for having so much money. . .

—Allen Hayes

Hey what's up? I read your article and liked it. That's not my reason for emailing you. Your article was discussed in the website brunchma.com (once there, 1st click on boards, then go to forum "wax intellectual," and then you'll see your article as a topic.) It would be interesting for you to discuss, debate, or what ever at that cite. [sic] Email me if you can. Thanks for reading what I wrote.

PS—this board needs republican support

—georgejoshio

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