Three thoughts

1. Is loyalty reasonable? More specifically, is it reasonable to be loyal to any individual or organization that has repeatedly and consistently shown a flagrant disregard for the well-being of others each time its own ability to profit was at stake? I suppose what I really want to know is why anyone would claim we have a duty to work hard for people, companies, churches or nations that have repeatedly made choices that only benefit a few people at the top.

Maybe the question should be whether or not we should even bother offering such a personal service as loyalty to an institution. A person can be held responsible for their own decisions. At least, in theory, anyway. But each day brings another example of how individuals, acting in the name of an institution (Enron, Merryll Lynch, Snow Brand Foods, Mizuho Bank, The Catholic Church, The United States Government...), found a way to line their own pockets while leaving their trusted employees twisting in the wind.

For some reason people are raising a stink about whether or not we should include the words "Under God" in the pledge of Allegiance. Why isn't anyone asking what and who we're being asked to pledge allegiance to? Forget whether or not you want to say God gave America its power as a nation, who is going to use those powers? And who are they going to fuck when they use them? Because these days if Bush is making a decision, someone is going to get fucked. Do you think its going to be "the heads of businesses that keep the American economy running" who take it in the ass, or do you think it's going to be someone who can't make a six-digit contribution to a campaign fund?

In all fairness, it's not just Bush and Company who have continued to ask for loyalty while preparing to use and discard the people below them. In almost every industrialized nation, there is some case of a person in power using their position to further their own ends, regardless of what it does to anyone else. Maybe we've finally reached a point where there's enough people on the planet that their individual value was fallen due to increased supply. Does it really matter if ten people in Japan get liver damage from imported fen-phen diet pills, even though the companies that make those specific chemicals have been aware of the toxicity of their products for years? Or does it matter that American grain tariffs on African nations will cripple their abilities to compete in that "free and fair" global marketplace, delaying any possibility of an improvement in the standard of living?

Honestly, who gives a damn if products kill people, ruin our ability to breathe, or wipe out entire communities with regards to working, saving money, or being able to buy food? Who gives a damn? I'll bet it's not anyone who's asking you to pull together, remember "family values," or to focus on a large-scale anything.

2. It is really humid in Fukui right now. I can literally watch paper curl up on my desk.

3. Does it matter to you what I look like? Do you care?