Why does everybody think they’re so special, why are they convinced the rules don’t apply to them?<\/p>\n
So I decided to run down the hill to get lunch and a few other items at Whole Foods. Now when Whole Foods came to L.A., they took over this chain Westward Ho, whose stores were small and its parking lots compact in accordance with the market’s size.<\/p>\n
Now at this point, Whole Foods has been opening up superstores, with wide aisles, plenty of inventory and plenty of parking.<\/p>\n
But down the hill from me…<\/p>\n
Frustrated me that there were five men in the deli department and not one would help me. I have sympathy, I wouldn’t want to do this job either, but they’re standing around b.s.’ing and what do they say, time is money? We’re all overscheduled and we all want it quick. If you’re selling commodities, the process should be smooth and easy. If you’re selling bespoke items, if you’re selling service, it’s a whole other ballgame. Then you must have enough employees so when I walk in the store I’m helped immediately, although I’m willing to have an experience, to spend some time, to bond with the salesperson, learn about the product. But not at Whole Foods.<\/p>\n
But what really bugged me today at Whole Foods, what I contemplate every time I go to this one former Westward Ho close to my abode, is the difficulty, at some times the impossibility, of getting a parking space.<\/p>\n
Now there were fewer than two hands worth of shoppers in the store. I covered the aisles. But in the parking lot? There were over fifty cars, I had trouble getting a space.<\/p>\n
So what was up with the extra cars?<\/p>\n
Well, this Whole Foods is right by a freeway interchange, so people leave their cars in the parking lot and they’re picked up, sometimes they leave their automobiles all day long. After all, it’s just one car, what difference does it make, everybody does it, right?<\/p>\n
Now when I was growing up, reading about crimes by politicians, I thought enough sunlight, enough press, would radically reduce these illegal acts. But no, every generation comes along with its own strategies to bend the rules, rip the public off. I mean you’re an elected official and doing it in plain sight?<\/p>\n
Now one of the other things that sticks in my craw…<\/p>\n
I don’t know if you’re following this…<\/p>\n
Up to 40% of Stanford students have registered disabilities, they get special accommodations, like extra time on tests. Now it’s one thing if you’re going to a community college, but STANFORD? And at the Ivys and other elite institutions the rate is 20% or more. The best and the brightest get to have a thumb on the scale?<\/p>\n
As Bob Dylan sang:<\/p>\n
“Now each of us has his own special gift<\/p>\n
And you know this was meant to be true<\/p>\n
And if you don’t underestimate me<\/p>\n
I won’t underestimate you.”<\/p>\n
Everybody’s good at something. Maybe it’s not school. Or maybe you should attend a school where the weather matches your clothes…<\/p>\n
But the dirty little secret is most of these kids are gaming the system. They’ve got parents who can pay for a diagnosis, whereas the rank and file don’t have this privilege so they’re squeezed out.<\/p>\n
And now it’s the California Bar Exam!<\/p>\n
Forget that they recently made it shorter and easier, because very few could pass, but now 14% of test takers have registered disabilities, they can be as simple as anxiety.<\/p>\n
I’VE GOT ANXIETY! And believe me, it was sky high when I took the bar exam. A friend saw someone pull over and puke on the way to the test. The bar exam is supposed to be a level playing field, the same rules apply to all. Only now they don’t. Furthermore, if this person needs special accommodation, do I really want them representing me as my lawyer? I mean if they need extra time on the bar exam…<\/p>\n
Of course there are those who are truly disabled, and they need cutouts in sidewalks and other benefits, but that’s not what we’re talking about here, most of these people are gaming the system.<\/p>\n
Then again, it comes from the top down. Trump is against mail-in voting, yet he just voted by mail. What did he say? That he is president, the rules are different for him.<\/p>\n
Don’t we know it, the rules are completely different for the rich, who do their best to not even rub elbows with the hoi polloi. You get an expensive lawyer who knows the prosecutor and the judge and your kid gets off with probation whereas those less fortunate go to jail.<\/p>\n
And concert tickets… One way to keep prices low would be to tie the ticket to the purchaser. But the public doesn’t want this. Because they want to be able to scalp their extra tickets. Wouldn’t be fair to deprive them of this upside, and they’re not like the big scalpers, right?<\/p>\n
Well, the little things add up.<\/p>\n
Want to really protest? Litter. Or maybe smoke. When I see someone throw junk out the window of their car… I mean who hasn’t gotten the message, they know what they’re doing, they just think it’s one little piece of garbage and it doesn’t make a difference, but it does, it all adds up!<\/p>\n
Even NIMBYISM. Don’t want those people living in my neighborhood… So where they should live?<\/p>\n
Or this belief that you should not pay taxes… You drive on the roads, don’t you? You like having a police force and the fire department just a phone call away. Who is supposed to pay for this?<\/p>\n
SOMEONE ELSE!<\/p>\n
Got to be the takers.<\/p>\n
Everybody rationalizes their breaking of the rules, it’s not their fault, but someone else’s, they’re just keeping up with the Joneses, everybody does it.<\/p>\n
And everybody sometimes does do it. Sometimes the speed limit is set too low, and in California they raise it. Not every law is sound. But a ton of them are.<\/p>\n
People brag about cutting corners, getting ahead. And then you’ve got the corporations using their leverage… Microsoft made manufacturers pay for Windows on their computers even if they installed Linux.<\/p>\n
I don’t think life will ever be fair. But it could be more fair than it is today. But that would require us all to agree we live in a society, that we’re in it together. And ultimately we do. You can live behind a wall with a security guard and that doesn’t mean you’re totally immune to crime.<\/p>\n
Everywhere in America people don’t want to wait their turn. I get it, you’re time-challenged, but sometimes to get what you want you have to. But there’s very little you need to have.<\/p>\n
And who can you complain to? Who is going to take up the cause?<\/p>\n
And even if someone did, they’d be seen as a goody-goody, impinging on the rights of others. After all, they had to leave their car in the Whole Foods parking lot because otherwise they’d have to pay for parking at their job. You don’t want them to have to do that, do you?<\/p>\n
Then again, their job might give them just enough hours not to pay benefits, never mind a wage that they can live on.<\/p>\n
The older I get I know there is no solution.<\/p>\n
But that does not mean it doesn’t bother me.<\/p>\n
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