I Wanna Speak to the Manager

Why do we spend so much time complaining about things that we cannot change? Worse yet, we complain about  things that have already happened. We cannot change those either because they have already happened (duh!).

A great example of this is the weather. "Dammit - it's cold today, so I can't do any nude sunbathing or skinny dip in the pool." In such cases, we shoot the messenger. "Dumb ass weather dude is only right fifty percent of the time. I'm better off flipping a coin. At least that, I can control a little by embellishing the coin flip with a bit of english."

Stranger yet is the field of politics. We piss and moan about the inaction of our politicians and their seemingly random behavior. The two knobs we do have to control our politicians, voting and letter writing, we often do not even  exercise. Instead we leave the control of their behavior to those that have the least interest in our well being, i.e. lobbyists.

Comedians are the biggest culprits. Some of them have built their entire career around the complaint. Every skit I have ever heard by Jerry Seinfeld starts with a "Did you ever notice ....", which is always a complaint about some behavior that he finds offensive.

Perhaps the whole complaining thing is the result of impatience. We cannot conceive of a set of actions that will allow us to affect the change of something, so out of frustration, we complain.

This may all sound like I am complaining about the fact that people are complaining. That is where you would be gravely mistaken. I am just trying to be helpful in pointing out the mote in your eye.

All content copyright of Christopher Hammond