Straight up

Almost 20 years ago, Ravenhub worked in the office of a small political group concerned with the situation in Central America. In the morning mail, he got a letter typed on the letterhead of a local organization that viciously attacked the group he worked for. The man who "signed" the letter happened by that very day and Ravenhub asked him if he wanted to talk about the letter and his concerns.

Turns out, of course, that the letter was a fake. Someone had gotten hold of the organization's letterhead and decided to stir up a little trouble. The strategy fell through for one simple reason: the person being attacked decided to talk directly to the person who was doing the attacking. Whoever perpetrated the hoax hoped that wouldn't happen. He/she had hoped that Ravenhub would get pissed and refuse to speak to the "source" of the letter from that point on.

Which brings me to today's post. Today I found out that an e-mail I sent was misinterpreted in a way that was detrimental to me. But instead of talking to me, the people who were bothered by my e-mail acted behind my back to address their concerns. Fortunately, for me, one of the people involved decided to talk to me directly. Which is the only way I learned about the discussions about an e-mail that I wrote.

This is just one of the many ways in which the capitalist system ends up screwing itself. I recognize the corporate protocol in this situation and I'm relatively sure everything will turn out all right for me in the end. But the fact is that the system as it is set up greatly discourages people from reaching an honest and effective solution to everyday problems. It encourages people to talk behind the backs of other people who sit only a few feet away from them. It is a sad, sad commentary on our way of life and a damn silly waste of time.

In my particular line of work, these games mean nothing at all. No lives were deeply impacted by this misunderstanding. Nobody's livelihood is threatened; not even mine. But what a moronic way to interact in this day and age.

I do hope that people have the good sense to rise above this kind of behavior. When they don't, I am not surprised. Just sad at all the waste....