Material Gain?

I like wealth.

I like the free market system.

I like the ability to accumulate as many material possessions as I see fit.

What I don't like is the mentality that one must "Keep up with the Joneses"

Fuck the Jones, solidly and truly.

There are people among us who would lose their shit if their neighbour had a 2005 Commodore when they only had the 2004 model.

When I say I don't like the mentality, I mean that I don't want to personally adopt it. The best source of well priced, nearly new cars is from dipshits who feel that they must update every year.

They can continue on their merry way with my blessing, I will succeed under capitalism because when somebody does something stupid, I will be waiting.

" He who dies with the most toys wins"

Bollocks. And you'll realise that when you're on your death bed and you see that the greatest achievement of your life was to stay one model year ahead of everybody else.

I do not for one second want to be mistaken for some sort of pants-wetting minimalist, who wants to curl his life into the smallest ball possible, and who thinks it's some sort of competition to see who can be deprived of the most and stay standing.

But neither do I believe that owning stuff is an end initself. I like material things only when they help me achieve the things I want to achieve.

For example, the car of my dreams is a twin-cab utility vehicle with a canopy over the tray and four wheel drive. A car like this would do everything I've ever required a motor vehicle to do, and then some.

I couldn't give a toss if it isn't the newest, snazziest or shiniest car in the street because I'm independently minded and set my own standards.

The general population is not like this. They were socialised in high school to look over their shoulder every 10 minutes to make sure that they met and maintained the approval of their peers. Maybe they impressed, but considering that their peers were unlikely to be anything special, how much is their opinion worth?

The man who is able to extricate himself from the congealed mass of the great unwashed and go on his own path will have a more satisfied mind than others could imagine.

Nothing to do? How about washing my floors, coolie!

Gilganixon has posted some rather splendid pro Adelaide material on his blog.

Like him I adore the place, and like him I also hear that Adelaide is "Boring" and that there's nothing to do.

What, other than honest work, education and socialising with intelligent people? The "Nothing" that is referred to is a lack of venues with pounding music and flashing lights. Trust me, you don't want flashing lights - they'll aggravate your ADD.

Our culture has generated humans who do not take personal responsibility for their own happiness.

Slothful little arseholes do graffiti and taunt police in their VL Commodores because they've been given "Nothing to do". What about school, numb nuts? Your community will stay disadvantaged if you don't go to school and get a bloody job.

I don't have a problem with boredom. Last night when I had nothing to do, some jokers from the CFS got their fire trucks bogged and we had to come pull them out. Fun for all, and pulling a fire truck out of a mud pile with a hand operated winch will make a man out of anybody it doesn't kill.

If I didn't get that call out I would have studied a chapter of Mandarin, which I will do shortly after completing this.

If you're bored, do something. If you're smart, don't hang around idiots. If you're an idiot, you'll probably end up where you belong.

An even more disgraceful way to achieve nothing.

Yesterday several bombs exploded in London, interrupting the public transport system, killing 50 humans and injuring 700.

That much shouldn't be news to anybody at this point, except to people who watch four hours of Big Brother a day and probably can't read in order to read this.

My previous post about the futility of Live 8 seems a little churlish today. That concert happened to at least generate some positive sentiment towards economic reforms that might give developing countries a fairer deal. The worst that could possibly be said about it was that it was naive and sanctimonious.

A post has been brewing for a few days about the behaviour of activists outside Gleneagles, where the G8 Summit is taking place. We saw images of people acting like pricks for the sake of acting like pricks. It was a reminder of scenes such as the late 90's "Battle for Seattle", where activists were trying to put on the agenda that which is on the agenda this week. I guess some people are never satisfied.

Today, that behaviour looks like the juvenile irresponsibility it is. It cannot possibly compete with the repugnance of yesterday's events.

The bombings are being widely attributed to Al-Qaeda, although this hasn't been confirmed at any official level. Without knowing who did it, it is hard to say what is meant to be achieved. It seems plausible that there is a connection with the Al-Qaeda network and they want the British to be scared out of Iraq, just like the Spanish were.

Blowing up a train in Madrid worked, and that's positive reinforcement.

The Spanish pulled out of Iraq because the Madrid bombing coincided with elections, and the frightened public voted for a candidate who would give in. Maybe the same could have worked for Britain if the London bombings had been better timed.

Blair has another four years before he faces the electorate again and he is not indicating any intention to allow thuggish intimidation to become a legitimate means of influencing British foreign policy.

My prediction is that this will affect the British in the same way as the attacks on the World Trade Centre affected Americans. The 2002 Cadillac Escalade was in the showrooms on time, Americans kept acting like Americans (Only more so), the US government became even more "Pro-active" with its foreign policy.

The best David could do on September 11th, 2001 was give Goliath a bloodied nose and a bad temper.

The Brits probably won't refer to this as "7-7", but they're hardly likely to pussy out either. The kind of "Resolve" Tony Blair is referring to will be the kind that tells the attackers and the people they represent to go fuck themselves.

A country with win/loss stats like Great Britain doesn't scare easy.