Look at that, another first installment! This one is going to be a series where I discuss things, you guessed it, on the drive home. In this episode we'll be discussing B.J. Novak's film Vengeance. The first half of the episode is spoiler-free and then I give you a heads up, a sign-off, and then things get spoiled. Thanks for listening and, as always, check out this podcast's companion blog at kaptainkhadijah.tumblr.com for show notes!
Hey yâall...
Yes itâs me. After a long break, Iâm back with a new episode and another day on the island. First of all, Happy Fall! I hope everyone is getting through the current retrograde season as best they can. Me personally...Iâm a survivor, letâs just say that. Anyway, Iâm glad to be back on the mic! I hope you all are glad to listen to me again. I had a great time recording this and editing it (at least the last half, the first half is admittedly a bit slow) so I hope you have a great time listening.Â
Yâall know I typically wing the show notes cause I still havenât looked up what specifically needs to go in it so letâs see...what to say...I really have been watching a lot of movies this year so even if itâs not in this specific style, do expect to hear more about movies from me. Oh! Speaking of hearing more from me, like I say in this episode, do not fret, an update episode is coming. Iâll tell yâall all about what Iâve been up to and what not. I just had this file on my laptop and I didnât really have it in me to edit an hour long episode this time around so I figured Iâd try something a bit lighter for now. But the update is coming and the long episodes are returning, donât worry about any of that.Â
If you enjoyed this episode and you want to tell me about it or support me, hereâs how:Â
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And, of course, you can dm me on any platform about booking a tarot reading if youâre interested! I still do those, yâknow.Â
I step aside so Grover can look through the large triangular window at the top of my tower. Outside is not one, not two, but very many people with an assortment of weapons all glowing that special Chosen golden glow and all spearheaded by who I thought was The Singular Chosen One.
âLooks like an army, Master.âÂ
âYeah...I thought The Chosen One was a small poor village girl. You know...low in resources? Lacking support? How does she have an army?âÂ
âLooks like...they are all Chosen? Iâm sorry Master, I didnât know that was a thing.âÂ
âMe neither. Do we still have the dragon?âÂ
âWe do.âÂ
âOkay, unleash him and tell him to fire at all the little gold people.â As Grover ambles away to the balcony where we keep Hershel the Dragon, I open the window and lean out to wave my arms and get the attention of my childhood bestfriend turned mortal enemy. âLily!âÂ
The Lead Chosen One stops and her army stops with her. Theyâre still far enough away that they havenât encountered the moat around the tower yet, but close enough to hear me. âYou canât stop us Darwin! This ends here!âÂ
âIt doesnât have to end like this! Grover can still keep Hershel on his leash! Surrender and we can put this behind us!âÂ
âItâs our duty to rid this land of evil! And...youâre evil! Besides, we have a dragon too!â At Lilyâs command a child runs away from the pack of golden people and as she runs I watch in stunned silence as she morphs into a golden dragon. One much bigger than poor Hershel.Â
âWell fuck...â I mutter to myself as I scratch my head in confusion.Â
Lily smirks in triumph as I rest the crossbow back against the wall and close the window. If I had fired the sneaky shot I had been planning, the dragon would retaliate much sooner than weâd be ready for. I leave the window and quickly go upstairs to the balcony. âGrover! Leave Hershel, theyâve got a bigger dragon-child!âÂ
âA what?â Grover says as they motion for our resident giant, Grimm, to reclip the large heavy metal chain keeping Hershel in place back to the wall.
I pat Hershel in sympathy as he whines at the restraints being put back on him. âI know boy, Iâll take you for a ride later and weâll go to a nice big village and you can just go nuts okay? I donât want to see you die out there though, thatâs all.â I turn back to Grover, âyou think theyâll jump me if I try to go out there to negotiate?âÂ
âProbably...you should bring backup just in case.âÂ
âI mean...if thereâs this many Chosen Ones I really donât think we stand a chance, regardless. They really threw me with that dragon stunt.âÂ
âIf they have a dragon, thereâs no telling what else they have. Should we just run?âÂ
âWhy couldnât there be this many Evil Ones if thereâs this many Chosen Ones?â I throw my hands up and walk back through the balcony doors. I hear Grover following behind me as I walk down the stairs to the bottom of the tower. No doubt, the army is crossing the moat right now. Our time is running out.
âMaybe there are?âÂ
I stop on the stairs. Thatâs a thought. âI mean...surely thereâs gotta be, right? Why would there be this many Chosens if there werenât as many Evils?â I rush to get down the stairs even faster. When I come to the ground floor, I look out the window to see the last of the army crossing over the moat on trees that look to be just recently plucked from the forest surrounding my tower. Fuck theyâve got some strong ones. âLily!â I call out of one of the windows, âWhereâd you get this army?âÂ
âThe Chosen Ones were brought together from across the land by The Almighty Universe! Weâve gathered together to defeat the Great Evil One! Which is you!â Lily calls back.Â
âOh...okay!â I duck back inside and close the window. I turn to Grover and usher them towards the hidden tunnel exit in the back of the tower. âYou go back up and get Hershel and Grim. You guys meet me at the Trigon village, this tunnel leads to the tavern there.âÂ
âAre we going to find the other Evil Ones, Master?âÂ
âYes and we need to be quick about it. I know Lily and once sheâs got her mind set to something thereâs no stopping her. Sheâll chase me down to the end of the Earth and everybody behind her will follow no matter how long it takes, sheâs that good of a leader. Always has been.â As if on cue, the door to the tower rattles in its hinges as the army closes in on us. âEnough talk. Go, Iâll see you at the village. Love you. Fly safe.â I kiss the top of Groverâs head and send them on their way before opening the hidden door and jumping down into the escape tunnel. If I can be half as good a leader as Lily, weâll at least stand a chance against The Chosen Ones.Â
Iâm not from the US so I could be wrong about this, but if I understood correctly, supreme justices can hold out until they die, which could take decades, or they can retire at a strategic moment so a Republican president can replace them, right?
Which means this problem isnât over in 4 years, probably not in 8 years, and unless the Democrats keep being in power (preventing an old supreme judge from retiring under a Republican) until at least two Republican judges die, this isnât over in decades. Beyond getting very lucky, thereâs just no end in sight, right?
Biden and whichever president comes after him can pass some laws to counteract some of the things SCOTUS does, but effectively, this shit can just keep going and going and going and going and there is nothing voters can do about that, right? Nothing can stop it unless the system changes, right?
If I understood all that correctly, than that is dark and awful as fuck. I am so sorry for you all.
Also, that should be dominating the conversation. People who still suggest that voting is going to fix things should be laughed out of the room. There has never been a more pressing time to talk about actual radical system change.
A constitution change can create finite terms for supreme justices so they would eventually be forced out. (This is unlikely to happen.)
Getting rid of the filibuster and then adding a full 3 extra seats to the SCOTUS can re-establish a balanced supreme court. (One of these steps might happen, all of them is unlikely to happen.)
I hear you (and as a politics nerd I am fascinated) but also, that literally means the system changes.
So if weâre talking about the difficult roads of system change, then letâs talk about what sort of system change we really want to see, right? Cause it seems to me like this isnât the only part thatâs broken.Â
Iâm really annoyed by the people in the noted going âweeeeeell you shouldnât be telling people not to vote because it can still achieve minor local things :( :(â.
Like,
I didnât even say that. I said people who still suggest that voting is going to fix things should be laughed out of the room.Â
It seems like all the things people are suggesting in the notes that might fix things are things the Democrats do not want to do.
You can not actually vote for any candidate that does want to fix things because your system exists of the âletâs make everything worse partyâ and the âletâs change nothing and make worse normalâ party.
Like, if your plan is to change the Democratic party from within (despite, ya know, the DNC being designed to prevent that) until they start being more willing to fix thingsâŠand hope that after the years or decades that it takes to get there (if you ever get there), you will still have enough rights left to actually survive and do that voting thingâŠ. good luck with that. That doesnât sound like the most realistic plan to me.
From a Gay Black Americanâą POV, our best bet is to prioritize local votes for the right candidates and utilizing the community around us. This country has never been designed for us, and from what I've experienced, we've been living like that for a while. The key, I think, is to band together more than anything. And not necessarily to fight back, but moreso to sustain ourselves so we can begin to exist outside of the current system.
My theory is that the more we do this, the more the system (and this includes the conglomerates) will adapt to try to keep us within their power. You see the beginning of it with the corporations trying to align themselves more towards "the right side of history", despite being a blood sucking entity. They understand that the general public is less and less for the bullshit. They know that we're generally dissatisfied with life as-is. And that we're getting closer and closer to saying "to hell with it all". The Great Resignation is also an example of people making a move that says "no more" and the companies have to just scramble for solutions. Therefore the landscape of the workforce is changes. So we know that our actions will force these entities to adapt.
The good news (and this might be a bit "out there" for some) is that I truly believe we're headed towards this outcome whether we want to or not. The things that are happening are just creating too many dissatisfied people. That's too much energy hoping for a change, for a change not to come. It's coming. And we're not even done experiencing the fallout of the pandemic! Or the pandemic itself! And if you'll notice, most of these big events just push us towards each other more than anything. So....it's really only a matter of time before the system does actually change.
this looks like the kind of place a troll would live and if you were tracking down said troll, it will always hold a feeling of eureka and relief when you found this place.
But beware, it's not as bright as it looks.
the 'will people feed you' discourse rn is very funny and hopefully a wake up call to some of the rude freaks scattered out there across europe, but I do want to note that the cultures we're talking about are cultures of the affluent. literally everywhere I have visited, working class people share food as a matter of course. everywhere I have visited, working class people push drinks and snacks on you the moment you walk in the door. there's a layer to this conversation that only exists among people who have the choice to be miserly and unaffected by their neighbours behaving the same way.
the first time I experienced being completely shut out of another family's mealtime, it was when I was a teenager on an exchange trip to the netherlands. I was staying with this family, and literally reliant on them for food and housing. The day I arrived they explained to me what time mealtimes were, and that I would not be fed unless I arrived at the table on time. One morning I was running a little behind because I had trouble figuring out how the shower worked, and when I came downstairs my hosts were already eating. They hadn't set a place for me, and they all ignored me and continued conversing in dutch. When I timidly tried to serve myself, they gave me look as if I had just walked in off the street and started raiding the refrigerator. They were an intimidatingly affluent family.
one morning the mother had to drop me off early at my work placement, before the building opened. I was sitting outside on a wall for like 50 minutes by myself with nothing to do, and an older lady running a food cart nearby started chatting to me (she wanted to know I was okay, because I was like 15 and not in school, and was very interested to hear that I was on exchange from scotland). she offered me a free breakfast, and when I said I'd already eaten she gave me a drink and a packet of crisps to keep for lunch, and kept trying to make me try fried things that were apparently dutch specialities but were way too much for me at 8am. she was very sweet and funny, and had infinitely more in common with the poorer dutch students who I would meet at a separate pan-european thing later than with any of the kids or parents around the upper middle class academy we were paired with that year. people are people everywhere, some are just more inclined to worry about appearances than others.
Thereâs a sort of, âdo for yourself and Iâll do for myselfâ that unnerved me about learning to navigate upper-class friendships and homes. After thinking about it for years, Iâve come to the conclusion that itâs ultimately about maintaining independence and avoiding the class shame of appearing to need others â but the effects manifest as a bizarre standoffishness, an artificial separation of âyoursâ and âmineâ. The class standards they impose on themselves, are imposed on guests.
I was initially baffled that, for instance, family members or friends who come to visit you are often expected to stay in a hotel or at an AirBNB, not at your house. âBut you have a whole-ass houseâ, I would think. âOr floors. And blankets. Lots of things. You can put them in your beds and sleep on the floor, if they donât want the couch.â Often, they would have guest bedrooms, but these bedrooms were not offered to most visitors. So, youâve literally got an EMPTY BEDROOM FOR GUESTS, but no?? You expect them to house themSELVES? Elsewhere?? On THEIR dollar? Thatâs so expensive! Also, to my mind, frankly rude!
I also noticed that my wealthier friends never pick up groceries for each other. They never call or text each other like, âyo, Iâm at X, do you need anythingâ. I think they would risk confusion at best and deep offense at worst, if one of them got a wild hair up their ass and tried it. Itâs too personal, implies some degree of inter-reliance.
It makes relationships look and feel artificially constrained.
This is all completely accurate to my experience too. I think a major cultural absence in wealthier social circles is the concept of ongoing reciprocity / gifting relationships. For me, and for more or less everyone I've ever met who grew up poor, it is a normal and natural gesture of closeness to offer resources when you have them and to accept resources when you need them. It's a way of saying that you trust somebody - either you trust them to have your back when you need it, or you trust them to care for you without ulterior motives. I'm talking about small costs, grocery money, meals here and there, maybe a movie ticket if everyone is going and one person can't stretch to afford it this month. Nobody keeps track of the expenses, you just remember who you have built those relationships with, and you share in return when you get the opportunity.
Larger costs tend to be more difficult, and that's because often it's impossible to be sure that you will ever be able to adequately reciprocate. As a teenager I had one friend in particular who was much more wealthy than the rest of us, and he was a wonderfully kind, warm hearted, generous person who would often offer to pay for entire outings or trips on his own so that the rest of us could participate. And it was really, really awkward, because what was a small gesture in his eyes was something that the poorest of us knew we could never pay back. He might not have cared about keeping track of the cost, but we would never be able to forget it, and that would upset the balance of the reciprocal relationship. I don't think he ever really understood why we would turn him down, it's nearly impossible to explain what a strong instinct it is when you have grown up with that dance culturally ingrained in you.
All of that is to say that I think my friend's behaviour ultimately comes from the same background as the people who go through the world hoarding their resources. When you have never been in a position to need a strong relationship that afforded you emergency childcare or a meal of pizza and beans once in a while over, idk, a ski trip once a year, you can't understand why big sporadic gifts are turned down. You can't understand why your poor friends keep insisting on paying for their own gas or trying to do you favours you can easily afford yourself. You can't understand why kids expect to eat dinner with you (because their families would feed your kids, if they ever needed it, and your kids will never need it).
I also noticed that my wealthier friends never pick up groceries for each other. They never call or text each other like, âyo, Iâm at X, do you need anythingâ.
Why did I not realize this until now
my "friend group" had a HUGE falling-out last semester, literally friendship-ending level stuff, because a couple of us would routinely ask if we could tag along to the grocery store when someone else was going there, or to get a ride to the pharmacy ~5min away from campus. There was so much going on but somehow this was the last straw.
Asking to carpool was being seen as unspeakably rude entitlement and I could not for the life of me understand why until I saw this post
don't go to an expensive private college on abnormally high scholarships, kids. "You're being given a practically unheard of amount of scholarship money" = "You will be the poorest person at this school."
But all this is making me think about how my American Economy is collapsing and America in general is transforming before our very eyes. I do sincerely think that eventually we will see the rise of interdependence as an answer to the eroding of capitalism. So that being said, I think this type of culture thatâs talked about in the post (and the general hyper-independence of the west) is one of the things that will lead to the fall of the upper-class and the rise of, well, everybody underneath them. Although they have generational wealth, all that is based off of the continuance of the system the wealth was built in. Even whatever current societal currency they hold is all dependent on that society being upheld.Â
So say that society and that financial system were to become so unstable that itâs replaced with something thatâs practically the inverse of what they know? In what I assume is the new societal standards weâre headed, being rich is practically two strikes against you. Add their inability to hold empathy with anyone not like themselves and they just wonât last long. Because where I believe weâre headed is exactly what lower-class people were literally bred for.Â
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