Accepting Offers

PEOPLE ON FACEBOOK, people on the internet, and indeed people living in the land of freedom and opportunity (the U.S. of America) are doubtless cognizant of the seemingly amazingly infinite variety of opportunities afforded everyone with a social security number. Our email and snail mail boxes are flooded with them, our flat screens scream them at us. Offers, all irresistible. Each offer is the one one simply cannot refuse, the one one simply has to accept. The very moment I walk out the front door of my brick and mortar bank of America, into my email they insert a survey, offering me the chance to rate their performance. How did Missy treat you today? My response is usually to congratulate the bank on not having been indicted by the federal government for a year and a half, on having evidently toned down its criminal activity a tad, just enough to avoid another billion dollar penalty, as a coerced payment for the privilege of retaining its business license. In the United State of Advertising, financial services corporations are criminal enterprises. Check the public record. The very moment some mortgage lender tempts me with low interest high refi, my one true mortgage lender pope up, now is the best possible time for a cash out home improvement refinance, build that deck, its tax time again, low interest, call us before midnight, before its tool late. Who can refuse? Facebook, among the largest criminal enterprises in human history, offers me a never ending opportunity for friendship, the social glue which binds us all together, kind of. As I click yes on one bikini clad babe after another, I wonder how Facebook could possibly have known exactly what I was looking for. People you may know, they say. But how can that be? She must live a thousand miles from me, and has never heard of me. Oh, but we have "mutual friends"! One must take advantage of offers, while they last. Then, just when I'm starting to have fun, up pops a question, coupled with a dire warning: do you know this person? We suggest only friending people you know personally. The disclaimer! Proof of corporate moral responsibility. Listening to Zuckerberg's mealy mouthed explanations and apologies and promises for better Facebook behavior in dealing with personal information in the very near future is, if disingenuous, quite amusing. We Americans all promise good intentions, and that seems to be enough. There is a reason, dear reader, why every third word out of an American's mouth seems to be, well, a bit disingenuous, to put tit delicately. There is a reason we all seem, upon further reflection, if we really think about the actual meaning of what people say, why everybody seems to be trying to scam us, And that reason is: everybody is. WE are. Its all we know. We live in the land of the expression of good intentions, and ulterior motives. Because we are scammed from day one, we become inveterate scammers, often without realizing it. But enough of that. Facebook just sent me another long list of bikini clad babes from which to select future friends, and I must get back to it. Who knows what wonders await me in my email?