ranty, rant, fucking rant, rant.

[maelorin]

I have a personal interest in poverty, particularly 'hidden' poverty in Australia.

Imagine graduating from university with very marketable degrees but finding that no matter what job you applied for, you always came second or third. That despite 'having a lot to offer', nothing is offered to you. For years.

Meanwhile, colleagues have progressed in their careers. Acquired assets, private health insurance, paid for holidays. You have been living on social security benefits and whatever work you can find. Your average annual income barely breaks the tax threshold. Your colleagues have all passed through several tax brackets.

One day you meet up with one of them. They have 'chucked it all in' for the simpler life. They talk about how great it is to have time now to do things, to go places. They ask what you've been up to, having regaled you with stories of the corporate ladder, annual holidays, and mortgage payments.

My former classmates, most of whom considered me to be one of the stars who "would go places", can barely believe that I am poorer now than when we were at uni together.

I'm frustrated and angry that I am unable to 'get on with my life' because I rarely get opportunities. The few I get expect me to compete with others without recognition that I start with a disadvantage. To disclose risks prejudice beacuse people are 'uncomfortable' with difference, to not disclose risks prejudice because they don't know why they're 'uncomfortable'.

Meanwhile, I am left to watch my peers buy homes, cars, clothes, holidays. Sure, they complain about the hours they work, and how stressful it all is.

A few have chosen to back off, to 'downshift' their careers. They revel in the extra time they have now to enjoy the things they have accumulated through working.

I have lots of time on my hands. Time to think, to wonder, to worry, and to hope. And to stress about not having anything meaningful to do all day.

I still want the nice house, the new car, the stuff. But most of all, I want the chance. The chance to be live most everyone else. To be able to pay for things, to be able to answer the question "what do you do?" with something better than "ummm". I want a life, a future.

And frankly, right now, I have no fucking idea what I'm supposed to be hoping for in my future. Our government is planing to "phase out" the aged pension, I have no superannuation or savings, and no way to any, and the only reason my annual income breaks the tax-free threshold is because I manage to luck my way into the occasional short-term, poorly paid 'job'.

This was not the life I expected. Not the life I worked for. Not the life I was told I would have if I went to University.

Right now, I'm angry, I'm depressed, I'm unemployed, I'm lonely, I'm very, very fucking angry. My personal debts are double my annual income, and going up, and I can't see how I can do anything about it. A large chunk of my pitiful 'income' goes into satisfying the well-paid fucks that I'm 'making an effort' to throw my money at them. I can't even cover the interest.

Frankly, I'm getting sick of hearing how well WE'RE ALL DOING. How great 'the economy' is doing.

FUCK 'the economy'.

WHERE'S MY FUCKING LIFE! I WANT MY FUCKING LIFE, YOU FUCKING COCKSUCKERS!

Comments

Re: dear god, surely i can think for myself on this one?

[maelorin]

there are fundamentalists in the so-called traditional churches, just as there are fundamentalist sects within the broad religious family called christianity.

i'm all too well aware of the complexity of the christian collection.

fundamentalism has several distinct meanings, certainly different usages"

"In comparative religion, fundamentalism has come to refer to several different understandings of religious thought and practice, including literal interpretation of sacred texts such as the Bible or the Quran and sometimes also anti-modernist movements in various religions.

In some ways religious fundamentalism is a modern phenomenon, characterized by a sense of embattled alienation in the midst of the surrounding culture, even where the culture may be nominally influenced by the adherents' religion. The term can also refer specifically to the belief that one's religious texts are infallible and historically accurate, despite possible contradiction of these claims by modern scholarship.

Many groups described as fundamentalist often strongly object to this term because of the negative connotations it carries, or because it implies a similarity between themselves and other groups, which they find objectionable."

i'm not intending to disparage the man, i'm concerned about the impression his statements have made about him, and how he intends to go about this important job.

but more importantly, i'm concerned about the growing trend of the increasing profile of individuals with strong religious views - not because they have strong views, but because ther eis the appearance of a pattern. the appearance of a thing is (very often) far more powerful in politics than the thing itself.

Re: dear god, surely i can think for myself on this one?

[(Anonymous)]

People who say they intend to carry out "God's Will" scare the fuck out of me.
Josef Goebbels thought that Adolf H was divinely ordained.
The creeps who blew themselves up in Bali and in London proclaimed that they were carrying out Jehovah's (or YHWH's or Allah's) will.
The dip-shits who claim that AIDS is God's justice upon an sinful world (mainly upon a queer sinful world of course) regard the supply of condoms and the use of retrovirals as against God's will (and of course they would know).

It reminds me of a recent commentary after Nietzsche - "God is not dead - He's just busy creating something much less ambitious". A good Jesus Follower friend (a Uniting Church MOW, no less) tells me that God has never said "Whoops!" - I find that hard to believe at times, for example after hearing one of Fred Nile's fulminations or after reading another of Eine Kleine Johnny's lawyer-speak platitudes or after listening to Tony Abbott, that fine example of a former seminarian.

mary