Who's it going to hurt?

The problems with society, the work and community people do and make to solve their own problems and to keep the problems of other people to a dull, ignorable roar, is, I think, the origin of Philosophy.

Which I love.

Animals, as you may have noticed, often struggle quite a bit to keep body and soul together. And they seem very peaceful. Who hasn't heard of the wise spirit animal, guiding us deluded humans? Which is totally a joke, because we have a spirit animal too, and it's called a human.

The human spirit, however, is mostly out of a job. And that job is to keep your shit together while you scramble, hungry and tired and cold, to keep body and soul together.

Because of every metaphysical and physical advantage, brought about by labor saving devices and techniques, your human spirit isn't working so hard. Because the food? plentiful. Shelter? Clothing? Way more accessible, all around the world, than it has ever been before in all of the ages of man. Since before he solved some of the problems of keeping body and soul together, and gained a bit more free time to figure out what else could use some improvement.

But solving the problems of society seems like much easier work than, say, doing the work that the old or new solutions entail. So people who want to get in on a good deal, "less work", totally throw their oar in. And this is great. Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery.

But a Good Deal, my friends, may not be your work. Because for your work to matter to you, you have to love it for itself. Whether you are good at it or bad. Whether you share it with anybody or not. Whether you have the guts to go for glory. Or not.

I see fraud as the biggest problem our society has. That's deception, whether unintentional or knowingly practiced. We're all familiar with self-aware fraud. Stealing, Lies, Cons, and, like it or not, humor.

Jokes are an intentional subversion of expectations, but you laugh because you get the hoax too. Timing? What, you expected something to happen at a specific time? Fooled you! I totally get humor now, in a way that feels deep, way down deep all the way through to my boots. Fart Jokes? Hilarious!

A lot of people who have the sorry luck to know me well might be surprised, because I have been slow to catch on to the joke. I had a three second rule of my own. Clarica laughs three seconds after everybody else. And let me tell you, that is a new joke added onto the old joke, and everybody laughs again. Timing isn't everything, but it is totally the easiest kind of humor. And the reason I had a three-second rule, my friends, is because I didn't have a lot of expectations. And, hopefully, I still don't. Because I love that about me.

But I've finally achieved fluency in English, my second language (but first spoken. more on that later). And now I know what most other people expect, and I am in on the joke. And the reason I am in on the joke, is because a humorist's best work is already in the public domain, like it or lump it. It's called fair use.

Now I love the public domain, and I also totally respect private enterprise, because I totally want to have some, welfare and corporate welfare and tax breaks and credits being what they are. I am not eligible for much public support unless I declare myself to be totally incompetent, or fear (or show) that I might be a danger to myself or others.

Neither of these options have really been that attractive to me, and lord knows that I could well have a lot of trouble proving to the powers that be that I am totally incompetent, especially now that I feel like I have a purpose and am totally going to town with it. Three weeks ago? I could have totally nailed it. Depressed, unemployed, almost out of savings from the best mostly boring job a girl like me could ever get. High-risk for a variety of other reasons, and not entirely sure that I wasn't a failure.

Which I totally was not.

But that aside, I have totally digressed from my original philosophical point, fraud is bad, to a different one: social support is good and we're doing it wrong.

We get self-aware fraud. It includes hypocrisy, which most people hate but I totally love, because it is the most self-aware form of accidental fraud. Which I have come today to tell you all about, although you all totally already know, one way or another.

And accidental fraud is self-deception. Have you ever thought "Who's it going to hurt?" Well, I'm telling you now, it's definitely going to hurt you first. And possibly more than anybody, because self-inflicted pain is damage you cannot ignore. And who else is it going to hurt? Find out, because that shit is karma. And karma is a bitch.

And I am totally ready to cast the first stone. Even if I am not, as they say, without sin. I've shoplifted. I've lied. I've had self-deception piled on self-deception mixed up in self-deception so deep it's taken 39 years to dig my way out.  Which makes it far easier for me to point out your errors than she or he who is without sin, as they say.

I've known some of those without-sin people. They rock. They are competent, and cheerful, and careful, and usually guile-less. But they don't get fraud, way down deep, like I do. I get it. And I'm not done with it, I'm sure. But please don't fall for it anymore.

I know you know better. Because the thought, "Who is it going to hurt?" passed across the transom of your mind. Stop there and find out, or back up a little if you have to. Don't blame the company or the government or money for this problem, my friend. This problem is mine. And this problem is yours.

Fix it.