As most of you (that is, both of you) know, we are trying to sell our house and move to another location. The process of selling a house was always fraught with Donkey Dust but nowadays it is even worse. I can understand that there is a sequence of events that must happen, but it is so blown out of proportion that an honest person is completely lost. You see, no one in this “game” is honest. No one says what they mean and no one speaks directly to the person who they mean to hear the message. Communication is all but non-existent. Instead, there is a chain of people between buyer and seller that pervert the message. Do you remember the child’s game called “telephone”? This is where each person whispers the message into the ear of the next person and finally the message gets to the last person. But, because of all the people in between the first and last persons, the message becomes all distorted. Well, that’s what it’s like trying to sell a house. Of course, there are those individuals that can’t speak clearly and they need an interpreter. I’m not talking about foreigners here. Then a middleman may be the only way to get things done, but, if there are two relatively intelligent people who are trying to transact a deal, then the middlemen are a hindrance.

Then there are the institutions that are involved in any Real Estate transaction. They include banks, insurance companies, inspectors, appraisers, bug investigators, etc. From what I’ve seen in the past few months, all of these entities act like they are doing the customer a favor just to talk to them. I get the impression that they do not want the customer. Everyone is treated like a criminal who must prove beyond any doubt (reasonable or not) that they will fulfill their obligation – and give their first born as collateral. Mmmm, maybe that part is not a bad thing. It used to be that a company would welcome a prospective customer, work along with him/her and help iron out the details. It was called “service”, something that is entirely lacking these days. Decades ago we were a manufacturing nation, we produced all the things needed for living, and we had pride in ourselves as a people and as a nation. Then we were told that we are changing to a service nation, in which the emphasis was on taking care of the customer – it never took hold – there was never any real “service”. Then we were told that we are in the information age. What a crock; information was always available if the person took the time to seek it. So now we have no manufacturing, no service, and useless information (what good is information if a person doesn’t use it?). I say we now are in the Slug age. This is where most people just sit around like slugs on a log.

Now I know what Diogenes felt like. Okay, for those who are looking at the screen funny, Diogenes was a character from long ago who’s quest was to find an honest man. I guess even in the days of the ancient Greeks people were just as dishonest as they are today. It is very frustrating to act honestly and with alacrity and then find yourself so far ahead of the other people (slugs) involved in the transaction. An honest person does in minutes what a bureaucrat does in months. What’s the point in dragging something on for months? All it does is piss off everyone and the deal may go sour because of it. It is frightening to think that some of these bureaucrats may be ambulance drivers, or surgeons. How would you feel if you were in need of medical services and you had to depend on bureaucrats? Actually, that is the case because very, very few people care about others’ comfort or lives. Why do they call them “emergency rooms” when a person in dire need has to spend hours sitting, waiting to be seen? How many people die needlessly in emergency rooms because of endless paperwork and other bureaucratic nonsense?

There are endless examples of stupidity in our society. All that is necessary to cure this stupidity is to just stop doing what we are doing and to act honestly with each other. But then all government workers would be out of a job. I think this cure is too lofty for our society; we are heading in the wrong direction. We are getting more dishonest all the time. I’ll bet that Diogenes is still searching for an honest man.

One of my favorite examples of stupidity is the “paper reduction act”. This is the process by which they use ten pieces of paper to tell you that they are saving one piece of paper. Are they kidding? Do they really think that people are stupid enough to believe them? Probably not, bureaucrats of any stripe don’t care enough about people to consider the effects that are put upon the population. That’s probably why the bureaucrats keep screwing up things; they never look down to see who they are stepping on.

Since we in a declining society, the “end” can’t be too far off. I don’t know how we will destroy ourselves, but it is inevitable. My guess is that we will continue to ruin our own society, thus turning this country into a type of third world toilet, while the other nations of the world take over the task of manufacturing, etc. America will be given away little by little while other nations become strong doing what we used to do when we started this country. What of the people of America? Well, by the time the balance of power shifts to other nations, the American people will have been dumbed down to the point of not even noticing what is happening to them. Hell, most people in our country don’t see it happening now! So says Sam Post.