Writingbolt's Creation

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I’m sure you’ve heard the term “insurance fraud.” If you have not, you must be one naive piece of meat living under the luckiest rock in your swamp. Insurance fraud is often regarded as something a “citizen” does to collect money they did not deserve/earn; a misuse of an insurance plan for which they acquired access; the equivalent of breaking open an ATM like a piggy bank. But, there is another kind of insurance fraud that keeps so many under a blanket of fear and/or paranoia. It comes in a colorful package with some person or creature trying to be a witty mascot for the branch of a money-sucking business, trying to tell you how easy it is to feel safe and protected, as long as you sign up with him or her. Just hand over your information; hand over your resources, your assets, and they will protect you. They will even throw in a cute blanket or wireless device to continue melting your brain.

Why do I feel like the only person on this planet seeing the problem?

Everyone I know seems unable to resist or stand up to the system that is draining and caging them.

I am sure I’ve discussed this, before, so I don’t want to repeat myself. Use those key words. Scroll or dig through my archives of postings if you’re really interested in reading more. But, I have my doubts about anyone bothering to do that. So, I’ll save my finger strokes.

What prods me to speak up, now, is the overwhelming sickness I feel after too many commercials for “protecting your personal data” and promises of privacy, if you sign up with this or that “protection” company. SO many damn ads for protecting your privacy and personal information. Why? Why?

Why is there any threat?

You know what this sounds like? Bully insurance. Pay the bully so he doesn’t take your lunch money while bruising your body. Reduce the potential punishment by caving to fear and mindlessly handing over some of your money (and information).

Don’t you see? You use your “personal data” to do so many things in this modern world. Ever since human beings first had photo IDs, they became a requirement to do something. Now, it’s similar information being entered into some sort of computer to verify you are who you say you are when you want to access/buy/sell/experience something. Your information is like your legs or arms; you need them to do basic things. And, you are being bombarded with ads from businesses telling you how unsafe your information is without them.

That’s bullying! [Or, crappy business…like a delivery service that can only use a van that leaks oil or gas to make deliveries and then charges customers for patches to cover those leaks instead of finding a more efficient and effective way to do business.]

Those businesses are threatening to break your legs, indirectly. You don’t know they could or would break your legs. You don’t even know if they could be thieves trying to drain your bank accounts and other resources. But, you also don’t have any guarantee they would do you any good, other than that colorful, trying-to-be-witty character acting on your viewing screen. [That feels so strange to say, being a child of television, someone who only knew commercials as TV entertainment as a kid, not something you skirt around on every little wireless device you can find to distract you from living in the real, natural world we occupy.]

Another variation of the bully-insurance scheme comes from the internet-driven phone companies promising to deal with “spam calls,” which is similar to PC internet providers and other companies, found online, offering software to deal with “pop-ups” and “malware.” Why do the threats exist in something created by humankind to act as a gateway/service? Some humans seeking, hired and/or trained to cause mischief are sabotaging the service pipelines.

That’s not even theft; that’s vandalism or arson. The criminals don’t benefit from upsetting business, communication, research or whatever else you might do online…unless they can be hired to use those weapons on selected targets and then hack computers to get some sort of assets. That’s insane. That’s ninja tactics, hiring petty thieves and assassins to steal assets.

Just imagine trying to buy food from a food truck and having to pay pathway fees to ensure you reach the truck without being assaulted by wild animals and thieves, as if any truck vendors could provide such protection…unless they also hired the thieves and set the wild animals loose to threaten you.

Where are the animal control people and police to deal with those threats? Why do the customers of one business have to pay the people who deal with the bullies outside that business? If a thief robs a store in New Jersey, New Jersey police should apprehend the thief and deal with the situation in whatever just fashion they do. Someone pays the police to do their job; I suppose some of that money comes from state/federal taxation. Should the store that was robbed in one state be charging customers in every other part of the country/world to cover the cost that store pays their local police for protection?…even if the store suffers property damage and other crimes the police cannot adequately prevent?

If a business is charging customers fees to ensure/complete business while secretly covering costs for things like police protection, wouldn’t it be more honest to say customers need to help pay the cost of business protection? Not protect themselves against the thieves/bullies? And, if a business (or medical-services office) cannot adequately protect the privacy and information of its customers/clients (probably because they are coerced into putting everything on a computer database which is easier to crack than a steel safe, once you know how to code/hack), what sense is there for the business to continue? Why put everyone at risk of both paying more money and losing their identities/safety by depending upon faulty man-made machines? Does it make sense to store your most precious possessions in a glass house? No.

[By that logic, are we all doomed to collapse and shut down because there is always someone threatening to ruin our lives/businesses? Is this some twisted version of survival of the fittest or just a lack of bully control?]

[Maybe, instead of “passing the buck” and expecting paid individuals to do so many things for us, even if/when there is nothing to be done, we could live our lives on a need-to-act basis and work together to ensure everyone has what they need. If you can help remove a troublesome hornet nest, apply your talents for the gratitude of those you help, including yourself if you make use of the location threatened by that nest, not for a fee. Then you wouldn’t waste time, stress and money on “what if” costs, on insurance schemes. But, that sounds too overwhelming to fully put into action. I understand. And, going with this logic, there would be no police or animal control services, I suppose. We’d have to be our own police and learn to safely relocate bothersome/threatening creatures.]

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So, I could start a business and pretty much charge any price I want to rack up sales by scaring customers into paying “a little extra” for “services” that supposedly benefit them, when, in reality, there might not be any threat, at all; or I cannot prevent the threats but try to reassure the customers by selling them “protection.” No. That last idea wouldn’t work…because paying for something that doesn’t sufficiently do the job advertised only keeps customers from rioting if I can offer a second, “better” plan for even more money that offers more protection. Eventually, I’d have to provide full protection…or lose my customers.

If I *can* provide full protection from threats, at a cost, doesn’t that give me some kind of control/power over the threats? Doesn’t that give me the freedom to operate, to direct, those threats? Why do I need to charge my customers a protection fee, at all? If my business is blocked by an angry hornet’s nest, it may not be easy to relocate. But, can I honestly milk customers to pay for removal or screening of that nest? It seems a little deceptive to charge a protection fee to deal with unexpected complications, especially if I could find a no-added-cost way to deal with those complications. And, if those complications are caused by criminals, where is the justice system to deal with them? Why should customers be forced to pay for crime? I thought crime doesn’t pay.

I suppose, to some degree, all businesses experience upsets and expenses they need to cover, somehow, and may resort to higher prices (to cover the cost). But, wouldn’t it be more honest to deal with such things at the time and place they occur? It’s one thing for a shop to ask for money to help pay for the safe removal of a wasp nest threatening customers from safely reaching the entrance, a wasp nest that might not have formed if the shopkeepers kept better watch over their property/area. It’s another for a chain of shops or online hub/site to charge a regular fee for dealing with those threats when they arise…and expecting that “emergency fund” to be used responsibly.

If customers are expected to tip and pay added fees for “potential” services (meaning services that may be needed, not services rendered in every transaction), that saps the satisfaction of being a customer and will likely reduce the customer supply, whether or not customers cave to pressure to get what they think they need.

The same could be said for shipping and handling fees. That’s the most common fee you’re likely to hear about in all of your online shopping. But, many businesses will eliminate that fee, especially if you spend a certain amount of money. Why? How? How can they eliminate what is otherwise a fee? Because, most likely, the fee is worked into the “retail” price you are paying for your lot(s). You’re not saving anything except a few lines of print on a receipt. Does it make any sense to pay $5 for shipping and handling for one small item but no shipping and handling for a $50 item? If you had to ship that larger load or more expensive item, wouldn’t you have to pay the post office/shipping company more than you’d pay for the lighter, smaller load? Anyone who has ever sold/bought something through eBay knows the truth. Yes. A bigger, larger load costs more to ship. [Thus, there is no such thing as free shipping; just a dip into inflated retail prices to give the illusion of saving money and deceptive pressure to spend more.]

That’s as batty as Daylight Savings Time giving or taking time from you. You’re not gaining or losing anything, just shifting the clock back and forth. If you spend a dollar and get a dollar back, later, did you lose anything? Temporarily you say? That sounds lame. Does that mean someone is going to charge me a DST fee to cure my frustration with time shifts? Is the cure for jet lag the next insurance scheme for travelers as they travel more and cover greater distances, perhaps even further into outer space?

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Now, if you’re like my family and just about anyone else I’ve met, you’re likely to shrug and just go along with this. It’s just the way the world is; just go with that flow. And, if you are, well *fark.* Good luck, cow(s). Cattle on.

But, me? I remain skeptical, distrusting, paranoid (if you must call it that) and just plain agitated. This is a bully scheme. I’m well versed in bully mentality, from a victim’s perspective. And, I’m sick of it. I don’t stand for it. I don’t bow to bullies. I punch them in the face and make those Goliaths regret ever sneering at little David. But, this is one bully I cannot defeat alone. At least, I don’t see the way.

Maybe you can help me. That would be nice. Because, right now, I feel very lonely, like the only person not turned into a zombie after one of those video-game/movie disasters. And, like you, I feel forced to accept something that isn’t safe or right. I don’t like it, one bit. I don’t like catering to bullies. Yet, without anyone to back me up on this, I see no other way (to live). That’s truly sad because it fosters thoughts of deception and theft instead of noble, respectable human decency. It doesn’t make me a better person. It tarnishes what my life could be, the legend I could leave behind in history books.

Imagine Abe Lincoln being unable to credit himself with freeing slaves because he was too intimidated by bullies to put his plan into action. He might have lived longer and avoided being shot at that theater. But, countless descendants would be limited to slave labor, even now, if he didn’t sacrifice himself, in a way. Luckily, he didn’t have to worry about anyone misusing his personal data. Right? He just had at least half the divided country against him, threatening him, not unlike every year in the USA, with the “red states” clashing with the “blue states.” I don’t think Lincoln saw the end of the Civil War (nor did the Avengers in those Marvel Comics). It’s still going.

Let’s get these monkeys off our backs and take back comfort in knowing things like our “personal data” isn’t something we should fear losing or being seen by the wrong entities. It’s ours, like DNA. If thieves are going to take and misuse it, then why do we have to have it, at all? Why expose ourselves to danger that could ruin us?

Is personal data the equivalent of walking around nude, just waiting for something to pinch or violate our most sensitive and private body parts? Would a woman want just anyone to walk up and grab her boobs or stick something between her legs? Would a guy be okay with some snide jerk walking up to him and playing with his “junk?” NO WAY!

Here’s another good question. If thieves are so easily able to access and misuse people’s personal information, what does that say about the services/businesses allowing them to do just that? Where is the security preventing the thieves from misusing “personal data?”

When someone steals a credit card, shouldn’t the thief have to show a valid ID to verify they are the person using the credit card, considering the card is linked to an account which is only for the individual named on the card?

Better yet. Why have something like a credit card, at all? Why give thieves the opportunity?

Well, without credit cards, or, at least, cards reserved to the individuals named upon them and the paperwork that goes with them, we’re back to stick-up robberies in which thieves just pick pockets for cash and things they can sell/pawn. We’re back to physical theft, you could say. Is that so bad?

At least, when you need to spend “precious” money, you deal with a person, face-to-face. You know who’s helping (or not helping) you. You can better evaluate the situation, not just pass off the “troubling stuff” with a wave of a hand and a few long strings of numbers and passwords. You’re not paying to protect what you use to pay others for what you need…that’s a tongue-twisting nightmare of madness.

Some might say, they’d feel safer using that credit card at home or wherever it’s convenient. But, are you safe? And, if you are, then why the ads trying to scare you about your “personal data” and all of the “read this privacy policy,” mile-long business-jargon nonsense? I don’t want to spend the next hour or more reading all of that. No one does. Who knows what is hiding in the fine print. Who knows what’s not in there to guarantee what we need. Who wants to be associated with someone who tells you, in a blunt way, they are not reliable and may steal from you?

[The credit card and online transactions work as long as everyone plays by the rules and pays fairly. But, fair pay shouldn’t require added costs and contracts that more often get ignored than read just to bleed more money and stoke the cold blue or green fires of uncertainty. The credit card, like the internet, could be a convenient portal for business, for interaction, so all of us can get what we need. But, like the internet, credit cards and other forms of business that somehow require/use “personal data” are being misused and making everyone who is not otherwise “protected” suffer.]

Some retail chains pressure employees to promote their own credit cards like cigarettes used to be advertised. I once went to a pool hall (billiard balls) where cigarettes were offered in exchange for handing over some “personal data.” That was crap on multiple levels, the hustle for “data” in exchange for filling the public fun space with toxic smoke and risking countless lives; a misuse of an otherwise recreational venue/business.

If your business is so reliable and worth our investment (in you), you don’t need to taunt or trouble anyone with talk of privacy and securing data. No good restaurant or grocery store says, “Watch out for those wolves at the door; they might eat you…if you don’t buy our special wolf-removing armor.” That’s shady business talk. That is crap. If their business is endangered by wolves, they need to protect themselves or relocate.

In their own way, businesses threatened by “wolves” at their doors are being bullied. And, yes, as good people, we should help them.

This sounds like an old Western. Imagine a grocery store or oasis in the days of the “Wild West,” being threatened by outlaws with masks and guns. Townspeople cannot get what they need because thieves are holding the resources hostage. Who will stand up to the outlaws and secure safe business for the townspeople? In those old stories, some surreal hero would step forward and turn the outlaws into either vulture food or jail turds. But, that sort of thing doesn’t happen in “the real world,” does it? [Not when every potential “hero” seems to need “your buck” to be of service; not when everyone is turning into a private business that needs to protect him/her self from every angle.]

Another way to look at what’s going on is to imagine a world full of vampires (or zombies, if you prefer that crap). If you’ve seen any vampire shows/movies, you might see one not-very-threatening character pondering what the world would be like without mortals upon which they can feed. If everyone was a vampire, there would be no hunt, there would be no fear, there would be a bewildering number of hissing, craving monsters questioning the value of sucking blood from another blood sucker. In essence, I think, the population would collapse upon itself. That’s sort of what is happening with the global economy. Everyone, from a young age, is being prodded to sell themselves and sign up with some form of paperwork nightmare that either steers them toward some sort of financial success or ruin.

No legend tells the story of a vampire’s victim. Heroes might be vampire slayers. But, no one, as far as I know, has told the story of the vampire victim who just goes on living after an attack or who becomes a mindless blob of flesh and bone (after being drained repeatedly). There is no story for that. It’s just…the end…for that person. The vampire gets the fame and, often enough, becomes the figure lusted for by the prey.

So, some people are choosing to be the vampires (or are “cursed” with the power) and choosing to keep everyone else around as prey for as long as that lasts. These “vampires” are not looking out for each other or spreading good human behavior. They are not working with everyone else to keep the world going. They may pitch all sorts of good intentions to get some tax write-off, to deflect some other, larger predator. But, they’re not better people than anyone else…they’re just more inclined to hustle. Is that survival of the fittest? Are the “prey” just…un-fit?

Success or ruin isn’t based upon some plan you sign or small lizard you call your best friend. It comes from something deeper, in your genes. There is a cosmic force at work, even if you don’t believe in a god. There is something in this universe which makes some people more fortunate than others. I don’t see any scientific way to get a grip on or control that. It just is what it is. Some of us are more driven to hustle others. And, some of us are more prone to be…well, naive cattle. But, the way things are, everyone seems open to being cattle to someone else. I would like to believe there is a faction who is neither hustler or cattle, but even with the number of charities and such I’ve seen/heard about, I am not sure who is truly kind and intent on helping all humans, anymore, including myself.

If we don’t retain a grip on our senses and resources, the real thieves of this world are just going to turn us into batteries they can use up and discard. I don’t want to be some idiot’s AAA. Neither should you.

Your life story isn’t told in personal data and receipts. It’s not a few online video clips viewed by a dozen or even thousands of people. It’s worth more than that. And, it doesn’t require being bullied, being intimidated and prodded to doubt in a way that drains you…like a vampire.

Now, I apologize if this was too much for you to read in one sitting. It started out a quick whim with just a few lines worth expressing. But, the more I thought about what I was writing, what makes me so frustrated and angry…and discouraged from living my life to its fullest, the more branches my brain sprouted. I hope this mass of thought serves a good purpose.