If you ever wonder how Americans can so consistently elect the most venal, mendacious squareheads, look no further than your own boss.
Melvin was a goddamn caricature of this norm - the mean, petty tyrant who heaps abuse on his underlings for sadistic thrill. I hope that cocksucker's choked to death on his own bile by now...
But that's the problem. That's how Modern Slavery perpetuates itself, dehumanizing the guy next to you, encouraging paranoia and cruelty until you've got a whole country that doesn't need a whole lot of convincing before bombing the shit out of a weaker country.
It's a bully culture and it keeps itself going through more bullying.
Melvin was the sort of thing Darwin would call "adaptive." He didn't fill the ocean with cold-blooded cannibals, he just found a way to swim in it. That's the harshest lesson you're going to have to learn: You can't win against the monsters because the system exists for them.
I learned that the way most hard lessons are learned - getting sacked. I refused to drive a delivery van with faulty breaks and no insurance. And Melvin, perfect archetype that he is, didn't even fire me to my face. Got HR to leave a voice message.
Yes, it's horribly unfair. And illegal. But what could I do about it? Sue him or the University? Suing him would eventually mean suing the University - then who wins? The recent college grad with four thousand dollars and a clunker to his name or the entrenched provincial oligarchy?
Yeah, I could've won the moral high ground, but I'd be unemployable in the town - and probably everywhere else - for the rest of my life.
So I moved on. Got another rotten job. The same as you.
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