Confusing net worth with self-worth

We are living a truth stranger than fiction. I didn’t even question it when I saw a man dressed like Ignatius J. Reilly crossing Hwy 82 the other day, complete with matching plaid pants and jacket and hunting cap— earflaps down. He carried himself with an ignorant level of confidence, crossing as the signal indicated but never once looking at the traffic.
Speaking of ignorance, our coxcomb-elect is on a tear lately. Trump’s promises and/or threats (either way— lies) are coming fast and furious these days. Suspension of disbelief, to say the least… and while I feel myself caring less and less, (just like ol’ Ignatius) I do think we’re nearing the finale. You can feel the tempo increasing, and historically when society gets this top-heavy it’s time for the pitchforks to come out. Of course, nowadays it’s a lone shooter with a 3D-printed gun instead of an angry mob carrying farming tools.
Meanwhile, the scripted media is busy reminding us that murder is wrong. But we, the people, already know that. We’ve been living our lives according to the rules of polite society, playing the game fair and square and losing ground anyway. We are not the ones conducting ourselves in a disgusting manner of unaccountability and greed. A manner that puts on gross display the two tiers of American life: those who are punished for their crimes and those who are not.
If Brian Thompson had been held accountable for his insider trading deals, he would’ve been safe and sound, locked up in jail. Instead, he was shot and killed on the street in New York and the police arrested Luigi Mangione, using excessive resources and charging him with terrorism. I do feel for the NYPD. I’m sure the pressure to lock someone—anyone— up was intense, but how many people are shot in New York City annually? Why was this case held in the spotlight like no other? Because from down here it looks like an amped up judicial system for the Gotham elite and the same old slack for the rest of us.
Most Americans are just trying to live our best legal life, but as more and more of us fall through the cracks of a system that is completely rigged for profit, and with guns being so readily accessible, the good life seems surreal. And if Trump is never held accountable for his words or actions, what will happen to the rule of law? How far will these folks follow their naked emperor, all the while shaking their money-makers.
You know what makes a lot of money in America? Jail. There are more people in prison in this country than any other, and Trump’s pending white house re-entry has caused the US prison industry to boom on the stock market.
“…shares of multibillion-dollar private prison companies CoreCivic and Geo Group—which are Immigration and Customs Enforcement contractors—are up 76% and 75% since Election Day, respectively.”
Recipe for a criminal: lack of opportunity, desperation, poverty; all the elements Trumpublicans foster. They urgently care about unborn souls, but not so much after birth. They try to prevent education and acceptance whenever it relates to individuality because those are sure-fire ways to build self-esteem. They cut programs that could prevent average people’s suffering, meanwhile feeding our tax dollars to the very CEOs who cause our ailments. Trumpublicans are so busy hustling for his favor— ignoring people’s basic needs for shareholders’ sake, while creating financial insecurity with every law that takes away personal freedom— that they’ve forgotten we outnumber them. And not by a little.
So, it’s only a matter of time before desperation brings the pitchforks out. I have no doubt this story will contain a revolutionary ending. Trump’s plan to make mad money at the expense of everyday Americans will fizzle and smoke, just like all his other failed ventures. America does not suffer fools for long because no one is above the law in this land of the free and home of the brave where a person’s worth is defined by their actions, not their bank account.
“Nature has sometimes made a fool; but a coxcomb is always of man’s own making.”—Addison