Thursday, September 28, 2017

Outraged

Everyone these days seems to be "outraged" about something or other.  I have been searching for something to be outraged about, that I might be a part of our societal fabric appearing to be "normal" in some respect.

I have found it.  Nordstom offered Barracuda predirtied jeans at $425.  But they are sold out.  Do you see the outrage building?

Not to worry, though, they have other filthy-appearing models as low as $148.49, though they do lack some of the panache of the sold-out item.

I labored for a good many years in the construction trades prior to my late-starting career in education.  I am proud to have been a working man.  One goes home at night, dog-tired, jeans encaked in cement dust already beginning to turn into concrete from the activation of the day's sweat, shirt and pants perhaps riddled with metal burns if welding was part of the days work, the whole thing reeking of gasoline fumes from the forklift operating in tight spaces.

Upon entering the mudroom the clothes are shed and one staggers from exhaustion to the shower and relief from the dirt and pressure and tiredness of body, then to stagger to bed and sleep the sleep of the righteous in preparation for another shift on the job.

So someone who spends his days in a boardroom or corner office buys the above named product to emulate a real working man and why?  Because he has more money than he knows what to do with.  It is insulting to every person who builds the sewer tile and the sewers down which his crap flows; to every person who strikes an arc or lights a cutting torch; to every person who climbs a utility pole so he won't have to sweat on the job; to every person who swings a paint sprayer that his much-too-costly Beamer or Benz will look really good parked in front of his 6000 square foot McMansion.

Are you sensing the outrage yet?

Yes, it makes me mad even though I have not gone home caked in cement in several decades.  Show some respect for the people who make your lifestyle possible, Bozo.

7 comments:

Secondary Roads said...

I am not outraged. I'd call it bewildered by foolishness. (FWIW, Sylvia and I were talking about this very topic this morning.)

vanilla said...

Chuck, bewilderment is understandable; but outrage gets the adrenaline flowing, imparting that feeling of being alive! (Just discovered this, coming out of a long affair with bewilderment.)

Sharkbytes (TM) said...

I am just baffled by the price tags on most clothing... not so much outraged. Other things yank my chain. Since I'm back to my blue collar roots (or black- covered with ink) I do spend some time wondering how I am doing a job with more responsibility in 2017 for $9.25 an hour with no possibility of an increase when I was cutting grass and digging weeds for $11 an hour in 1995. I am definitely annoyed that the paper keeps reporting that there is a shortage of skilled employees, yet in the past 4 years I applied for 20 other jobs, all requiring skills I have, and got nary a nibble. I'm no longer looking. I've decided to be retired and poor in a few months.

vanilla said...

Sharkey, baffled = bewildered. Seems you and Chuck have that in common. Given your situation I would be baffled, too.

Secondary Roads said...

The three mouseketeers, Outraged, Baffled and Bewildered. Someone could make a story out of that.

Vee said...

I have often wondered how that look came to be - or the one with shoulder portions left out of blouses. These things don't cause outrage for me, but when I first saw them I commented, "You've got to be kidding!"

It's interesting what adults will do to be "in." We used to leave the "monkey see; monkey do" mentality back in high school (or for the more mature - junior high).

vanilla said...

Chuck, or Bewitched, Bothered and Bemildewed (or was it Bemildred?)

Vee, for a long time a large portion of the population, no matter how old they got, never got past the high school years. Now they scarce get past the middle school years.