Stickybuffalo.com

I’ve been busy lately, but that’s not prevented me from attempting to post. I’ve started what, five, six posts in the past week or so that just never came together? Part of the problem is that everything just seems remote and blurred-together lately. The problems all seem big, and distant, as well as played-out from a commenting standpoint; so I’ve not really felt a compulsion to vent about something.

And then when it comes to one of America’s current brief fixations, unions, the issues feel even more abstract.

Despite having a mechanic and a teacher for my parents, I didn’t grow up with any direct union “presence” in my life. And now I’m a 32 year old freelance graphic designer; the other day I was unexpectedly confronted with the possibility that I’m arguably one of those much-ballyhooed “knowledge workers” in some sense, even.

So the fights playing out over unions are of interest to me, but it’s a very abstract and hypothetical interest.

On the other hand, if unions themselves feel like a foreign concept to me, the belief and expectation that I should really resent them draws even more of a blank stare. The Economist bloggers have written some outstanding, thoughtful posts recently, but some of the less-congenial among their number, and obviously others as well, seem deeply convinced that public sector unions are not only an atrocity, but one which really is or at least ought to be the object of the average person’s outrage, too. Almost instinctively, it feels like.

Sorry though; personally, just not getting it. Apparently I’m supposed to begrudge them the fact that they have higher wages, compared to people who have lower wages, not to mention their guaranteed pensions which I obviously stand no chance of ever getting near. Resentment is not really my reaction, though.

I mean, I believe that we should all, in a prosperous society such as we have here, benefit from a reassuring welfare state “safety  net…” but how would taking this away from those who’ve managed it actually help me? I might, maybe, in some hypothetical scenario, save $18 in taxes perhaps? Gosh, uh, “woo” and “hoo?”

Meanwhile it seems like teachers, and cops, and even DMV workers at least provide something of a useful service. If we’re to fight over a privileged group of people who are taking too many benefits without paying in their fair share, then call me myopic but… personally I have a hard time seeing past the “leadership” at the banks and automakers and other bigcos which hoovered up wealth far beyond anything that even the most overtime-padding desk cop could imagine, all while running their companies and the economy into the ground, at which point they received a further, direct bailout from taxpayers… with the issue of what, if any, useful service they provide still a question which I don’t believe has been adequately answered.

Of course, America is apparently not interested in having that argument right now. Yet, the funny thing is, even the argument taking place about unions isn’t really about what it’s supposed to be about.

I think the idea of whether society needs or wants to continue honoring promises which governments have made to unions is at least legitimate, if only within the context of a broader discussion about fair distribution of profits and burdens. But while bloggers and pundits may be diverting themselves with a small isolated piece of such a discussion, state governments and unions are actually fighting over the efforts by state governments, and more specifically by Republican governors, to basically “decertify” unions, as one observer memorably phrased it the other day.

So the larger “budget/deficit” debate, which is context for this fight, is basically a sham and a shambles, and the fight over unions features an equal disconnect within itself between the official theme of the conversation and the actual realities… honestly, is it any wonder then that I feel disconnected from this farce?

I wish the protestors well, even allowing for whatever extent they might be acting out of fairly narrow self-interest. And I think Republicans are mostly shameless scum (this does seem a bit needlessly over-the-top; on the other hand I have no trouble imagining such naked supervillain-stooge behavior from Kasich as well), but what else is new, right?

It feels a bit like the time for talking is just past, right now. People are going to go right on talking of course, as though if we just emphasized “civility” and “listening” and “searching for common ground” enough some win-in solution would emerge which would sell itself, to everyone. Meanwhile though, the genuine actors in affairs have basically determined to just fight it out; the mobs have all “gone to the mattresses.” Unless there’s something substantive we can contribute, the rest of us probably may as well just step back a while and let things play out, while we try to stay out of the way and avoid becoming collateral damage.

Hardly cheering, but then reality doesn’t recognize any obligation to reaffirm our hopes or dreams.

I'm mostly including this gratuitously, just because it makes me laugh. Though the sentiment represented is obviously still playing a big role in current affairs...