Pie Driver Musings

November 2002

My Co-Workers Call Me a Tree-Hugger and I Just Smile
By Pie Driver Dave
Posted November 6, 2002

Today, in light of an aborted political discussion on the merits of the newly-elected GOP Senate, I was called a "Tree-Hugger" by a co-worker because of my liberal political leanings. I won't go into details of my specific beliefs, but suffice it to say that in the office this term is one of the more affectionate ones used to describe me. I try to keep my mouth shut most of the time for just this reason.

Yet the changing political climate and the growing power of the Bush administration makes me question what seem to be self-evident problems in our government. I believe Bush is pushing the war in Iraq to make money for both his military-backed friends and his associates in the oil business. I see a corrupt vice-president who has used the system for his own political gains without every stopping to show his credibility or explain why he should be allowed to give his business partners a blank check from the Army. I wonder how the Secretary of the Army can say he had no idea what was happening when he ran Enron, and then still be held responsible for running the largest military force in the world.

No matter my frustration, though, I still feel powerless to do anything about it. So I spend a lot of time trying to feel better about the world and understand my place in it so I don't go mad and do something rash and stupid that would ruin my life and the lives of my loved ones. Like a good, faithful American, I go to work, I buy gas for my car, I use my credit card to buy things on Amazon.com. I may not be part of the problem, but I'm certainly not part of the solution.

Then yesterday I read an interview with Chuck Palahnuik, the author of Fight Club, and he said, "You're not any stronger because you watched Titanic." He was talking about mass produced "Art" and how it doesn't contain any tangible experiences.

But a lot of people I know (some of whom I love and respect) would counter that "Sometimes I just want to turn my brain off. I don't want to always have to watch something that makes me think." It's unfortunate but true - people need something to dull their minds.

No matter what I say and think about art, how I believe that we should all be willing to take everything into account, and that mass producing art for the sake of mass producing it just makes it easier for people to dull their minds, the truth is that people will stand in line and buy tickets to The Titanic 2 - The Second Try if it helps them deal with their pathetic little lives and all the questions to the universe that they will never get answered. They use up all their brain power at work and they just want to come home, turn on the moving pictures, and tune out.

So when a coworker of mine calls me a tree hugger, I wince, but then try to appreciate that this man has fully accepted the destiny given him. He doesn't *want* to understand how the car he drives contributes to the poisoning of the earth. He doesn't *want* to worry about how the computer equipment he uses then throws away is filling up our landfills and leaking mercury into the ground which then causes brain damage and cancer. He doesn't *want* to consider for a moment that the leaders of our great country don't actually have his best interests in mind, that the leaders of our country have one specific interest - their checkbook - and that everything else is just part of the system that gets the money into the checkbook.

For him to take all of these ideas and ideals into account would be too much. He has a tough enough time paying his bills on time! He has his family to worry about! Work is a major burden that takes up most of his physical and mental time, consumes most of his thought. Other than that, he likes to listen to music, see movies from time to time, maybe watch some TV, maybe exercise. And the rest of the time he likes to take drugs, which help him forget about his burdens.

See, I don't believe that most people actually choose their political affiliation - I believe it chooses them. Whatever lenses of perception we are born into, we then use those to view the world as simply as possible. And depending on what sort of reinforcement we receive growing up, we place our bets along side those who seem to have our best interests at heart.

That the political system does not inherently have our best interests at heart is not something American citizens want to believe. We have the best country ever! We won World War One, World War Two, and the Cold War! We have what can be loosely construed on a local level as a democracy, and our gas is really, really cheap. What else can an average citizen want?

During the aforementioned brief political discussion, one of my co-workers said, "Democrats want to give money to people who don't work." How do I counter this? Do I sit this person down and explain that the Republicans just want to entrench systems that make business profits flow more freely? Do I try to instill some of the humanitarian aspects of The Communist Manifesto and how trying to help our fellow man does not make me a bad person? Do I try to explain that boiling down a political party to one issue is not the way to vote?

To be honest, I don't know what to do. As I said, most of the time I just keep my mouth shut. If I sat down with one of these people, I think I could fairly and calmly counter nearly any support they have of the Bush administration, yet I flounder a bit when three people start yelling these sorts of comments at me from all sides and I have to just say, "Well, it's stupid to talk politics at work," which is true too.

No, I don't know how to make myself feel better right now. I guess the one thing I have over the others is an understanding that no matter what happens, I'd rather be a Tree-Hugger than Someone Who Voted For Bush.

Pie Driver
Musings

They Call Me Treehugger
-Pie Driver Dave

They Got Smart Bombs...
- Wally Banksia

Thinly Veiled Facism
- Wally Banksia