Somebody Else

It looked like a gaffe when I first saw it, so I searched for the transcription and/or video of the full original speech.  I found myself liking it; it affirmed a thing or two that I already believed, that greatness is not achieved in a vacuum, that the general on a white horse, raising his sabre victoriously in the air as a shaft of light beams down on him only became what he was because of the various ingredients, the foot soldiers, the Flemmish archers, the bajillion pounds of canon, the God-given rain that allowed thousands to fall before the 800 that he pulled together into a vast, glorious, successful enterprise.  Cool.  Power to the rocking individuals, baby. I mean, individuals are *hardworking* and *intelligent* except that one dude who swore to me up and down that I'd like Twilight, I have no idea what that was about, but yes, even he was hardworking.

Then the President blew it with the phrase, "If you have a successful business, you didn't build that."  Even then I was willing to give him a pass.  It was an extemporaneous phrase, people sometimes say extremely retarded things when they talk all extemporaneous-like, for example all those times that I implied that I was a harlot when all I wanted to say was I was hungry...there is a significant difference between the word "ravished" and "famished" and a glib delivery just makes it worse.

I figure, Mr. Prez probably meant to put the word "alone" in there somewhere.  You know?  Like, "You alone didn't build that," or, "you didn't build that alone," or the grammatically dubious but still well intentioned, "you didn't alone build that."  Unfortunately, he just kept right on talking, "...somebody else did.  Somebody else made that happen."  Okay, somebody else did that?  Maaaaaaaaybe. I mean, workers are hired to build a building, so ya, somebody other than the person who had the idea for the building did that.  The "somebody else made that happen?"  Deario, that's the dark desert highway that mummy should have told you never to travel because that negates all ingenuity, all vision, all.....everything.

It solves the "greatness is not achieved in a vacuum" conundrum by removing greatness.  Because who made "it" happen the most?  The gainfully employed person with the hammer who follows building plans very well (and who, by the way, is an awesome guy, and did a great job, and I love him to death) or the person who decided "you know what would be cool?  Permanent bouncy castles" and then set about getting it done?

Or maybe the Prez is trying to imply that all people who own successful businesses didn't build them from the ground up 'cause they're all dishonest, and did to "somebody else" what the Eeeeevil Edison did to all 'round nice guy (and only occasionally plagued with lapses of insanity) Tesla - it really was a dirty trick.  Yes, some businessmen steal other businessmen's ideas and leave them in the dirt which is bad.  I watched The Italian Job, I know the real story behind Napster. But since political campaigns are supposed to be all about smoozing people for votes, it might be a misstep in judgement to go about it by insulting the same people you're planning on taxing lots after your re-election.  Let's pretend ol' prezzy boy is smarter than that.  He does that a lot, but I'm sure he has a benevolent reason behind it, like maybe someone told him right before the press conference that a kitten would die if he didn't say something nasty about Fox news, Republicans, rich people or non-racially disadvantaged people (who totally got themselves born white on purpose, the little jerks!) at least once during the speech.

Mr. President then went on with talk of government roads and trucks and whut....?  He's the "somebody else"?  Dear boy, a decade ago, I didn't even know who you were!  (Maybe I'm extrapolating a little too much, but when he talks about the government, he's usually talking about himself.) Okay, yes, the government did take over the contracting of the private sector to build public roads, like a century ago or something and airplanes.  Ya, I'm not a boy, all I really know about them is that clouds are prettier when you're in one so I'll take your word for it and the same goes for trucks but the basic argument that the government is responsible for the rich, so the rich should be responsible for everybody else, but only financially only because otherwise I guess we're reinstating the feudal system, well, it doesn't sit well with me.  I'm trying to imagine how that "asking the rich to give a little more" thing is going to go down.  Do they get formal invitations with party hats?  "You are cordially invited to a fundraiser to get our mandatory healthcare system off the ground"  I kid.  I'm a kidder.  I know what "asking" means 'cause I have a dad who used to "ask" me to clean my room.

What I would like to point out is that back before the government made it its business to give us these shiny highways and airplanes and trucks and stuff, businessmen were still capable of success.  When they needed a road, they hung out with other business men and smooth talked them until *poof!* gentlemen...we have transport.  Again, I'm talking out of my hat on a weak area, but if such things were not so then all those Westerns with Eeeeevil businessmen buying people out to build a railroad or a business or some other eeevil investment need a bit of revamping, and I liked those Westerns!  Anyway, it's different now 'cause if something's wrong with the road but it's still kinda driveable, it'd better be in a good city; otherwise nothing ain't happening (sniffity, oh Pueblo...I weep for you).  As for the trucks that have been allowed to drive freely on the shiny roads...I'm really glad that taxes on petrol are such a high percentage of the actual price, because otherwise the shipping system in the private sector would be *really* complicated.
I guess what I'm trying to say is, "thanks, sweetie, thanks for the shiny technology, but I think probably we could have done most of it ourselves...but you're just so cute behind that podium.  I can't stay mad at you!"

Before I close off, I just want to say: my thanks to the people who invented the Arial font, and the people who invented the non-serif-based font-system, and also the google empire, and whoever invented the keyboard, and the laptop, and also Al Gore for taking the initiative in creating the internet, and the government for inventing either Al Gore or the internet.  Honourable mention for the contributions of Nickolai Tesla and Thomas Edison to the harnessing of electricity.  If anyone is annoyed by my comments, just remember:  I didn't write this post. Somebody else did that.