People who don't pay for... what they benefit from... rarely give much thought to the actual price of 'free milk'.
Free Milk
Geez there's a lot of 'free milk'...
I.
The first... is breast milk.
I wager that that is not where your mind travelled from 'free milk', but here we are. Nourishment for every animal in the order Mammalia. A condition of living required of mammals born. Because life is more than 'the moment' of conception and 'the moment' of birth. Life is
what is necessary for living.
II.
The second... is the proverbial 'cow'.
The reducing of a relationship or 'situationship' to a corporeal course without the ostensibly limiting boundaries of defined conditions of union and disunion. As if a hypothetical cow's milk 'given freely' as is oft sawed, simultaneously diminishes such milk's preciousness and
disdains such cow's self-determination.
III.
The third... is a portion of a 'free school lunch'.
For expressly sustaining persons, a 'free milk' is an element of a 'free lunch'. Not because it is essential; mammalian milk is not essential beyond infancy. But rather because supplying students based on income eligibility
'free milk' for a payday is how livings are made.
IV.
The fourth... is the fruit of 'milking'.
Which is not a thing, though, right? Because milkers being entitled to the proceeds of milking, is inconceivable. No milker is owed
'free milk' from nursing breasts or 'free milk' from mythical cows or 'free milk' from 'free school lunches';
because the take from milking should be paid for. Like lunches that aren't free.
V.
'Free milk' makes the world a little better and 'free milk' makes the world a little worse. Free milk is how mammals sustain their young through early dependency, after all.
But milking points for rewards. Milking opportunities for gain. Milking fear for power. Milking people because the juice is worth the squeeze. This, here, isn't
free. Like rides that aren't free.
More
There's so much to say about free milk, the 'fruit' of milking. For some of you: it's something you cannot now unsee, because this, here, is making the world go 'round.
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It's adding fee upon fee to purchase after purchase. Not for the sake of receipt transparency. But for a ruse of justification. As if greed isn't baked into a nickel here and a dime there and a dollar passed on to foot the bill of 'the costs of doing business'.
It's employer after employer expecting more and more of employees. Not to advance decency. But for a bottom line that reads like an excuse to retain masochists: 'do more with less'. As if no condition of employment cannot be borne by a stalwart soldier.
It's hats in hands outstretched from yesterday to tomorrow for charitable gifts upon gifts. Not to save the whales or cure myalgic encephalomyelitis or solve homelessness. But for a pretense of philanthropy. As if backpacks for backpack drives and raffles for prize drawings and toys for toy drives are acts of humanitarian selflessness.
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It's why cynicism feels 'reasonable'. It's why nihilism feels 'sensible'. It's why milking is a narcissist's squeeze of choice. Because the juice is
'free milk'.
M
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Annotation
When you do not pay for what you benefit from, how many beats are you likely to take to calculate the real cost of what's 'free'?
From milk to power... I wager that the number of beats is none.
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(i) The nearsightedness of beliefs on 'entitlements' is that few people who benefit from 'free gifts' for example, acknowledge
that their sense of entitlement is not dissimilar to the sense of entitlement of demanders of 'free lunches' and 'free rides'.
(ii) As to what is 'said' about 'cows' and their 'free milk',
while many 'cows' are advised to protect the pricelessness of their 'milk', many recipients of 'milk gifts' are advised to take what's 'given' without self-recrimination. Why pay
for what can be had for 'free', no? As if 'milk taking' is unobjectionable but 'milk giving' is shameless.
(iii) It's one thing to insist on 'no free lunch' for anybody. It's another to insist on eligibility criteria and policy restrictions
to deny nourishing students. Else a sense of entitlement to a 'free lunch' be encouraged rather than quelled, of course.
(iv, v) Speaking of double standards (see (ii) above), though some material gains amassed through some criminal enterprising may be recoverable,
the take from milking fear for example, is unlikely to be seized or forfeited. Because being anything but human is obviously impossible and... it's only human to squeeze for juice
and power.
(vi) 'fee upon fee to purchase after purchase', 'employer after employer expecting more and more of employees', and 'hats in hands outstretched from yesterday to tomorrow for charitable gifts upon gifts' are illustrative of milking and by no means exhaustive.
Needless to say, the world is a little better when milk is 'given freely' per self-determined will... but such take from milking is not 'free'.
(vii) To be sure, it is not surprising that main character energy and narcissism are having a moment. Nor is it surprising that cynicism and nihilism are having a moment
Nevertheless, what feels 'reasonable' and what feels 'sensible' does not dictate what is reasonable and what is sensible. So long as you cannot now unsee this, here -
a ruse of justification will never pass for receipt transparency; an excuse will never pass for decency; and a pretense of philanthropy will never pass for saving the world.
etc.
M
One is not a hypocrite for wanting to deprive the growing of free substance while acting as the champion of all that is not yet to be. No, to call them a hypocrite gives them bedrock in that their belief might mean something. Instead, they’re liars. They use fanciful words and empty rhetoric to deceive one and all of the fact that they all and one don’t care about the sanctity of life or of children, born or unborn. So, why do they do this? It’s simple – power and control.
ReplyDeleteI cannot bring myself to think that any being should benefit from the milk of a mother of another species who is forced to mass produce a beverage while her children are sold to slaughter.
ReplyDeleteThis country was created on the notion that free doesn’t mean better and that if you really want to achieve greatness, you need to work for it. Look at all the greats, they were given nothing and look at what they achieved. It’s time to make things great again. And that starts with telling those that want things for free to get a job and earn it. Boo Hoo if your kid can’t have a free lunch because their parents didn’t do what they were supposed to. They knew what was expected and didn’t do it so of course the kid was going to pay for it. They should be happy that they learned a valuable lesson so early in life. Cheers!
ReplyDeleteI always find !@#$tards like you so !@#$ing funny. I am willing to bet my next !@#$ing paycheck that you were given every !@#$ing thing in life but think you are !@#$ing better because your !@#$ing parents exploited someone else’s !@#$Ing hard work.
DeleteThere is a myth in free anything that it creates big government and wastes your precious resources. The contrary is that the side that wants everything to cost money, your morality to be regulated, and for business to get rich wants big government more than the other side. It takes big government to make sure women are not able to escape birth, children cannot read that which would lead them to be educated, adults are restricted to travel where they want for fear they might do something not in line with belief, and to make sure that the laborers don’t get out of hand to their corporate masters. It takes big government to bail out failing institutions, to allow the rich to abort bad ideas while the poor are forced to live with theirs. And you wonder what side is godly and which is not?
ReplyDeleteI grow weary of the conversations around merit and that hard work will be rewarded. Maybe on a distant planet but not here. Especially with so many who are willing to just take and take, to lie and lie, and to conform to get along. In the end, one must wonder how many times you will fall for the same thing over and over again before you realize that there can only be so many people in a system who just talk and talk before it falls apart when the people who do just leave to pursue a place where their freely given thoughts, ideas, and work are appreciated.
ReplyDeleteIt’s funny that… the smartest pupil… that I ever… had has always… been eight levels… below where he… should be because… he won’t be… who you all… want him to be… but when he… leaves you all… want him back… as your decay… is no longer… stalemated.
DeleteDo not worry the energy needed to be a nihilist, cynic, and main character is next to nothing and requires no worry about whom it burns, as long as we are all entertained. The future is so bright, I need not shades as I would rather just stare at the sun.
ReplyDeleteThe human invention of shame to shape society through anxiety, hunger, and loniliness is unique to Earth, except in the case of Jupiter.
ReplyDeleteCareful how you cast your power every 2, 4, 8 years as many will willing take all of the power and after they get it will give nothing in return other than elevating a few like you (but not really) to positions of token representation to keep you where you are.
ReplyDeleteI do not believe that all that is free is bad. Air can be pretty cool. Water is amazing when pure. Search lets me find as many great ideas as bad. The Internet helped to topple more than one regime. Ideas are powerful and so fun to read. Yet, we live in a place where rather than setting things free, we want to stick a price tag on them and make people pay for them. It's one part control, another greed, and another division. Maybe if we spent more time focusing on not shaming the free, acknowledging the power it can have, and using it for good, maybe just maybe we could actually fix some things instead of just leaving them broken or in trash for the next shiny thing.
ReplyDeleteHow is the... air down there...
DeleteVery good thank you. I am always happy for the fact that hot air rises and cold air sinks.
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