THE TRUTH ABOUT OLD MEN - Chapter 16

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

The dictionary definition of the term "hurrah" deals with exultation, excitement and celebration. The words “hubbub”, “commotion” and “fanfare” are mentioned in further definitions. But in the old west the word "hurrah" carried a different meaning. It was used to describe something that can be done to a person by another person or a group of persons. To wit...when you can "buffalo" a person, screw him in the brain, numb his ability to reason or bring him around to an unrealistic course of action by getting him all worked up, you have "hurrahed" him.

Hurrahing people is an effective tactic in modern corporate life. It's performed at sales meetings when we wish to energize the team beyond what their individual enthusiasm will inspire. It's used in sports challenges to inspire athletes to perform past what their own energies make possible. Nowhere in modern American life is hurrahing more often or more effectively employed than by politicians.

The hurrahing of humans is vital to the conduct of governments and companies in a competitive society. And wherever we see an individual who cannot be hurrahed, we work to eliminate him from the herd. This explains why intelligent young bosses do not hire old men. The hurrah factor relegates to inconsequential any sound evidence contrary to the goals of the person doing the hurrahing. When a boss asks for 110-percent of your effort it will not work to explain how percentages work. It is better to launch a victorious fist in the air and shout, "Yes!" Allow yourself to be hurrahed.

A very large part of the reason the U.S. remains at odds with much of the world is that its citizens are so vulnerable to the hurrah. Here's a serviceable example:

It's September 22, 2009. The President of Bolivia in an address to the United Nations made the statement that "Capitalism is a danger to the planet." The comment came during a discussion about the environment. His remarks ran repeatedly on the conservative Fox TV network. Americans hearing this believe it to be Communist propaganda driven by political ambition. They stop listening to the argument after they hear that our economic system is dangerous to the planet and, therefore, human beings in general. “How could that be?” the Fox Network asks. And the hurrah begins.

Unfortunately, the President of Bolivia does not speak English and is unable to explain his remark or express the line of logic that leads him to the conclusion that capitalism is dangerous to the planet. What might he say in defense of that remark if he were able to converse in English, if he were an articulate man and America was willing to listen to his defense of the statement?

Here is a fabricated address to the world by the President of Bolivia (insert your favorite commie), explaining the contention that capitalism is a danger to the planet:

Ladies and gentlemen of the world, the systems of government and economics in use around the globe have all been formed independent of any consideration about the future or survival of mankind. Each concerns itself only with the security and prosperity of those individuals living within its borders. Those people employed by a typical corporation functioning within a capitalist society rely upon the agenda of the corporation for guidance in the conduct of their business activity. From the presidents and vice presidents of a corporation all the way down to the workers on line there is one inviolable edict -- profit to the corporation.

In many industries, for instance the gas and oil industry, pursuit of that profit can result in damage to the environment. The employees of a corporation in that industry understand the dangerous potential of the company's pursuit of profit, but they are all powerless to regulate control over the corporation's activity. Every single employee who loses focus on the pursuit of profit will lose his job and cease to be part of a possible solution that would replace profit with safety of the planet as the corporation’s first responsibility. Instead, those employees rely on the government to create controls that keep the corporation's activity within a tolerance that considers risk to the environment. With that presumption made, the employees are free to push their activity in pursuit of profit to the limits of whatever control the government imposes.

The government, itself, however, is composed of lawmakers who must be elected in order to create the laws which limit the activity of corporations. Each of these office holders relies upon donations to their reelection campaigns and support from major industries and their unions in order to remain a part of the decision making process. This means the people making the laws that control the corporation’s activity must make only laws which please the corporations or they lose their jobs and cease to be part of the equation.

For these reasons the limits designed to protect the environment that are imposed by the office holders on corporate activity allow those corporations to move beyond what is safe for the environment and all the human beings depending upon its purity. After that is done the corporations push those inadequate limits to maximum tolerance in order to produce profit for share holders. Wherever this dynamic is not at play, someone loses a job and ceases to be part of the capitalist decision making process. Therefore, when capitalism is properly functioning, the environment and human beings who depend upon it fall at risk. And now you understand why I say capitalism is dangerous to the planet.

In essence, the makers of law work for the corporations and the corporations are less interested in the environment than they are in profit. In a dictatorship the head of state and maker of law is not at the mercy of profitized corporations and is, therefore, free to consider what damage might be done the environment as a result of the laws he creates. That will not, necessarily, bring about security for the environment, but it is not a certain world wrecker in the manner that capitalism is.

The President of Bolivia is correct. Why are American's unable to see it? Americans only know what their media tells them. The media depends upon advertising dollars to function. The advertising dollars come from the corporations who are less interested in environment than in profit. Violate that system and you will cease to be part of the media. Quid pro quo.

The "American people" consist mostly of people younger than the old man. They can be hurrahed...by the media, by the corporations, by the government and by the elected officials who are being paid by the corporations. And so there is a merry little circle of insanity that administrates the affairs of modern America. The biggest danger to this system is not Bolivian dictators. It is not whistleblowers, corporation busters, newspaper columnists or talk show hosts. It is the people who cannot be hurrahed -- chiefly, the old men who have crossed the "bullshit threshold" and cannot be counted upon to join the rest of the sheep in a mindless parade across the crest of oblivion.

It is this insulation against bullshit the old man enjoys which makes him a poor employee. When a 12-year old sales manager stands in front of his team at sales meeting time and energizes them with slogans, cheers, charts and charm he is relying on the team's vulnerability to bullshit to make his program work. A smart sales manager chooses only personalities for his team that can be hurrahed. Any old man past being hurrahed is a danger to his plan -- a rotten apple in the bullshit barrel. The team must be exorcised of such personalities. In other words, despite laws to the contrary, the sales manager must find language and cause to prevent old men from joining his sales team. The equation works the same in every division and department of the company. If you are an old man who MUST find work, bring pom poms to the interview. Grin with enthusiasm when the company's unrealistic goals are outlined. Mouth positive platitudes and recite the principles of team play at every opportunity. Look as stupid as possible. It will improve your chances of being hired.

By the way, and in the spirit of curmudgeons around the planet, anyone who thinks this examination of the Bolivian President's statement about capitalism being a danger to the environment makes me a communist, should insert his most magnificent member into his least attractive orifice and go fuck himself.