Season's Greetings

Mankind is a fabulous but terrifying creature. We killed every predator in the world that dared predate on us... and then invented a new and more horrific predator to take the place of those flesh and blood monsters: The Corporation. It is inhumane, psychotic, territorial, oppressive, tries daily to enslave and debase us, to strip us of our rights to the work of our hands, of our minds, of the right to ownership of that which we have bought. All Inventions can be used for Evil or for Good, some more easily than others... Fire warms, but also devastates; Nucleics power but also obliterate; but the Corporation... it unifies us, makes us more efficient... but it, like War, strips away our humanity, our compassion, and binds us, life and limb, to service to a master we dare not leave, for if we do, all we have built and earned and sweated for will be lost and we shall die alone and broken. The Corporation is a beast, and like any beast it has its uses. Yet it must be carefully watched, because given the chance it will turn on us, devour us, and leave nothing behind but bones.

Wal-Mart wants you to buy only from them while they oppress their workers and suppliers. Microsoft wants you to have to pay them for every program you install on your PC, whether they make it or not. Coke wants the countries that supply it's ingredients to put the interest of the company above the rights of their citizens. Monsanto wants the government to say that every farmer who's land is contaminated with their Genetically Engineered Corn is stealing from them. Clothiers want you to buy clothes that are made in sweatshops; Media companies want to tell you that you don't own that CD, DVD, Blu-Ray, Book, or Video Game you bought; Oil and Coal producers want you to believe that they aren't polluting the planet faster and faster each year; Pharmicutical and Insurance companies spend billions to convince us that we're all sick and that they aren't actually profiteering on human suffering and misery; and Fast Food chains want you to believe that what they're selling is actually good for you and not really poison in attractive ready to go packaging.

And we fall for it. Because it makes our lives simpler. Because fighting them seems impossible. Because everyone else is doing it. Because without them and their products our lives stop working. Because if we don't work for one of them, or one of their feeder companies, then we don't work period and then we are homeless and hungry. And Because they have made the world, as a whole, a better place than it was before the Industrial Revolution, especially in the First World. But with every passing year they become more a hindrance, more a shackle, more divorced from the idea that they are part of society and more convinced that society is merely there to provide customers and slave labor.

I'm a Science Fiction fan, and have always hated Dystopian Fiction. Partly because it was so much easier to create a believable future where everything sucked than to create a future were things were better, cleaner, sharper... and humanity still had challenges to overcome. But also because such worlds never seemed real to me. Then I grew up and realized that the reason they didn't seem real is because they portrayed Dystopia as a world where everyone lived in misery and everyone knew it. But that's not the real Dystopia. Our world, today, is the real Dystopia. It's full of 7 billion people doing the same thing every damned day, struggling to make ends meet, struggling not to give in to the soul crushing despair, masking the pain with booze and drugs and reality TV. And yes, Dystopia is full of laughter, and gayity and vibrance and joy too, because, in the end, we are humanity. We are a wonderful species. We can find happiness and comraderie and warmth even in the most brutal of environments. We can connect and overcome any obstacle and endure any hardship, when we stand united. So, in that spirit, and out of the ashes of the dreams of 2 million years of star-gazing apes, I wish you a happy festival season and give you my blessings... may next year be less god awful and depressing than this one was.