The Silly Season begins (a.k.a. “I really hate the holidays.)

Well, it is  hump day on this lovely fall day in late November, and it is filling me with fear for my sanity.  Why is that?  It’s what I call the beginning of “The Silly Season.”  What, pray tell is it?  Well it’s the time of the year where people lose all sense of reason and silly behavior results. 

A prime example:  People standing in line at major retailers to get “bargains” for Christmas.  I wrote this last year on November 30, 2013:

“Well, it’s the day after Black Friday, and as predicted there was violence across America as people stood in line to get *supposed * deals.  Myself, having worked in a retail environment (the back office of a department store chain over 20 years ago) knew that the “Black Friday” phenomenon is a case of catering to the fears and subconscious greed of the general public.  The fear of not having the latest and greatest things, and the greed of most people in general (the “I’ve got mine, now fuck off” mindset.)”

Well, it’s gonna get worse, folks.  A shitload of people are up in arms (mainly retail workers) because some major retailers are forcing their employees to come in ON THANKSGIVING DAY!  What the fuck, don’t these fucking greedheads realize that people want to spend Thanksgiving day at home with their loved ones?  You don’t see the fucking Walton family going into the fucking office on that day.  You don’t see the higher-ups at Sears-Kmart (who have threatened their employees with termination) or Macy’s going into the office either. 

And now with the added shopping day, more people are going to be short tempered and greedy.  They don’t give a fuck about the people who are forced to work on Thanksgiving Day and be away from their families.  They just want to satisfy their need to be there and score some “bargains.” 

And now another quote from last year:

“The so-called “Zombie Apocalypse?”  It ain’t coming folks.  It’s already here, and unless more people shake off the barrage of advertising and soundbites that mass media feeds us, then we are truly fucked.”

Wake up sheeple.  You’re better than that.

-30-

© 2014, Dean Basler, all rights reserved.

Addendum: I just read this story on the website Addicting Info, where Walmart is refusing to pay a $7,000 fine in the trampling death of an employee in 2008.  This tells you how uncaring Walmart is when it comes to their employees.

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2014/11/26/walmart-still-dodging-7k-fine-for-2008-black-friday-trampling-death-video/

Navel-gazing after work:

It’s less than a month before my 56th birthday, and while I was on the cattlecar on the way home, listening to Yes’s “90125,” I started to take stock of myself. These are some of the conclusions that I am making of myself. (I may be talking out of my ass.)

I might be a bit agoraphobic. I don’t like being outdoors during the daytime.  I do feel a bit of anxiety when I am out in public, that is why I have to do something to relieve the tension.  Most of the time, it is reading a book that I carry in my backpack.  Sometimes, it involves listening to music on my smartphone with ear buds in so I can shut out the world.

I am claustrophobic, I don’t like being closed in. This poses a major problem for me, because I have to depend on the cattlecar to get home from work. The one that I take is always packed full, and with some of the worst examples of so-called humanity that you will ever run across. Again, the music on my smartphone with ear buds helps in that regard. If I don’t hear them, then they don’t disturb me.

I am misanthropic.  I have disdain for people in general. Most of the people that I come across in my day to day life are so below me on a mental and emotional scale that I cannot feel any empathy for them. (Again, the cattlecar reinforces my misanthropy.)

Other conclusions that I have realized about myself:

I have become a creature of habit. Everything in my life has to be preprogrammed. From when I get up early in the morning, to when I get home in the late afternoon, everything has to follow a set pattern. Otherwise, I will not be able to function properly.

I hate taking time off from work.  Yes, I get three weeks of vacation off every year. I don’t like taking vacations. If I am not at work, then I am not accomplishing anything. I am slacking off. That also goes back to my agoraphobia. I hate traveling. When I am out of the house, I prefer the shortest distance between two points. I have to have a goal when traveling outside my comfort zone. (Things such as grocery shopping or buying specific things.  No diversions, no off the wall side trips. Point A to point B, that is all I want.)

I have become less tolerant of other people’s behavior.  Yes, I will be polite to everyone, but when confronted by someone who falls outside my concept of normal, I may be polite on the outside, but on the inside I will be screaming “ARE YOU FOR FUCKING REAL?”  It takes every shred of self-control to prevent me from bitchslapping them upside their heads with a two-by-four.

Have I become more of a headcase, or am I a product of this dystopian world that we live in now?

-30-

© 2014, Dean A. Basler Jr., all rights reserved.