Cocoa Pebbles And The Farce We Call Civilization

 

 Started August 8, 2026

On the way home from work yesterday I remembered we were almost out of milk. And since part of my recovery plan from surviving another day at my job during hellish levels of South Carolina summer heat and humidity is enjoying a bowl of Cocoa Pebbles cereal; I knew I had to make a “short” side quest to the grocery store.

So, I chose to visit the Lowe’s Foods grocery store about two miles from my house. Since I was only picking up a gallon of milk I intended to use cash. Small purchases with a debt card just mean added fees and another pain-in-the-ass when it comes time to balance the checkbook.

Years before while visiting Key West I got a bit of a lecture from a clerk at a t-shirt shop about how how his store gets hit with different fees when debt cards are used. That on small purchases the debt card fees cut the profit margin to the point he might as well just give stuff away for free. The look on the store clerk’s face was one of genuine annoyance and pain.

Fucking banks. But since my purchases were just a couple of Key West bumper stickers I sheepishly put the debt away and pulled out ten bucks to buy the items.

But anyway, returning to the present I pulled the jug of milk out of the cooler and proceeded to the checkout. As I walked up the aisle I had pleasurable dreams of getting home, pouring Cocoa Pebbles into a bowl followed by the milk.

Dammit! My local Lowe’s Foods only had two full service checkouts open and the lines for both stretched somewhere from fifty to a hundred meters. Yes, I and totally serious. Now my local Lowe’s did have four self-checkout kiosks but in the infinite wisdom of corporate America they only take debt cards!

Fucking banks. So that should explain my strange and disjointed mention of the Key West t-shirt store.

As much as I would have loved putting the milk back and driving to another grocery store that just didn’t make any sense. There was a Publix a little over a mile down the road. But when you throw in the hassle of it all I decided to just suffer through and take my place in one of the checkout lines.

That’s when I noticed the lady at the cash register.

She was at least in her later sixties to early seventies. No, I’m not being unkind or exaggerating. And she was obviously new to that job. And since I’m a bleeding heart, social justice warrior, my assumption was that this lady was working to to make ends meet. This lady was catching Hell scanning items and figuring out how to input codes for things like fruits and vegetables. No one in this wide world would be able to convince me that poor woman was behind the cash register because she “wanted to stay busy during her Golden Years.”

Watching her I remembered some McDonald’s hamburger place propaganda from back in the 1990s. The suits in charge of the hamburger clown ran a series of commercials trying to recruit retired folks work for them saying a job there was a fun way to stay busy and meet people.

Holy fucking shit, the visuals during these commercials showed healthy gray haired folks flipping burgers, taking orders, and mopping the floors with huge inane smiles. The only older folks I ever saw working at McDonald’s back then were people struggling to perform the most basic tasks.

As with the older lady at the checkout at Lowe’s Foods it didn’t take a sociologist to understand I was seeing desperation.

How much money did the US Government spend for the war in Iraq? Last I heard a conservative estimate says four trillion. How much has been spent “fighting” Iran since that deranged pervert living in the White House last declared total victory?

Always plenty of money for war but don’t say a damn thing about diverting funds to help folks. They’ll call you a communist out to destroy Jesus, capitalism, apple pie, and all that other crap.

Eventually the checkout line moved enough for me to pay for my milk. I walked back outside knowing I would soon be enjoying my precious bowl of Cocoa Pebbles.

Hey, don’t give me any grief over my Cocoa Pebbles. Our world and country has been an absurd parody itself this entire century. With the rich and powerful manning the controls of the crapfest called civilization all each of us lowly plebs can do is find whatever solace is available.

Personally, I want to hang bastards from lamppost. But I get told that’s too extreme.

Captain Capitalism Has it Tough

 

About a month ago while surfing Reddit, I stumbled upon a post that linked over to an article where some billionaire I never heard of was upset about how the general public viewed people like him. There was a picture of this pillar of early twenty-first century hyper-capitalism with the article and it was pretty much what I expected.

The picture showed a white guy dressed in what was certainly a very expensive suit. The suit was a dark blue, the tie he wore was the standard Trump-approved red, and to finish off the statement of style and privilege his smile showed off an array of blinding white, perfectly symmetrical teeth. If American capitalism could convince Marvel Comics to create a superhero for the rich it would be this guy. Add a utility belt with pouches for credit cards around his waist and a cape he could then fly off to defend the downtrodded men and women fighting off the threat of evil socialism.

But that was the point of his article.

Usually I would have just read the comments by Redditors who both summarizes crap like this as well as offering up opinions. I guess curiosity got the better of me and I read the article.

Initially, Captain Capitalism started off whining about how disrespected he and his cohorts are by the general public. That their lives are tough and stressful because the well-being of the economy rests on their shoulders. People like him are “job creators” who work to expand the wealth of society.

Yeah, sure Skippy. Tell me about how tough things are for you.

I didn’t look into this guy’s background but being a billionaire makes me think you don’t have to worry about a place to live, putting food on the table, or finding a doctor. Unless he gets stressed out about deciding whether to take his personal luxury jet to summer in the south of France or to take it to New Zealand and enjoy winter in the southern hemisphere.

But Captain Capitalism biggest grip was how he felt common folk didn’t have a stake in the success of the economy. In the article he didn’t use the word “parasite” to describe those of us who deal with daily concerns like paying the mortgage and buying food, but it was heavily implied.

I’ll give the Captain one gold star for almost acting human. At least he didn’t mouth off like another of his brethren I heard back in the 2010s who thinks rich people should be awarded more votes in elections because of their importance. Yes, I mean that. Some rich guy I saw on CNBC believes that while the hoi polloi should be allowed a single vote in our democracy they should have some higher number. CNBC guy didn’t suggest a how many but I’m sure it would be high.

I’ll be honest, in the space of about twenty-five years I’ve moved from being a Colin Powell-Republican to independent centrist to now being a socialist. I am beyond sick of seeing working class folks, who have a real stake in how the economy and society works be played off against each other.

I’m sure in coming centuries historians will write about how bizarre it was that the vast majority of American society allowed the rich and powerful to manipulate their fears to keep power.

I’ll tell you the folks that have a legitimate claim to being vital to society. I saw a documentary once that showed the plight of the homeless in the bright sunny paradise of Hawaii. I don’t know which island this documentary took place but the local government had allowed these folks to build an old fashions shantytown someplace. We’re talking plywood and cardboard constructions with many of them having roofs covered by a plastic tarp.

This shantytown had a designated leader whose job it was to keep everyone in check. These folks had to always be on their best behavior. If drunken brawls broke out or if trash started to be noticeable the cops would come in and tear the place down. Which is damn funny since these folks have no other place to go. Affordable housing in the rest of the United States is already as rare as a Bigfoot sighting and in Hawaii it’s even worse.

Not that my opinion matters, but I despise the rich elites. The real people who have stake in society are those folks who fight everyday to keep a roof over their heads, put food on the table, and be able to have healthcare good enough they don’t have to fear getting sick or injured. The closest Captain Capitalism will ever get to encountering people living in that Hawaiian shantytown will be as drives over to one of those exclusive country clubs to play golf with his buddies.

In a much better world those golf courses would be taken over with the land being used to build affordable housing. But hey, that’s just me.