Evil Plastic People

A perfect house in a perfect neighborhood, with a perfect car and a perfect dog and 2.5 perfect children.  What could be more evil?

I went to a party the other night.  It seems some people never graduate from high school.  The people lived in one of those fake olde-timey houses built last year in a fake subdivision whose roads weren't even on the GPS, it was so new.  And these fake houses were all 8 feet apart on perfect little lawns all mowed by illegal immigrants.

And they all drove "upscale" Japanese cars and felt they were better than everyone else, because they lived in a perfect plastic house in a perfect plastic neighborhood and drove the perfect plastic car and had perfect plastic kids and a perfect plastic dog.  And they were evil as shit.

Why was this?  It was not something you could put your finger on in three sentences or less.  Just an aura, if you will, and you know I don't believe in auras.  But I felt one there - sort of a charcoal grey with blue, dripping with evil.  Nasty evil people that you should not trust.  And my fight-or-flight instinct said "run like hell."

To begin with, these folks all hate each other - or at least they talk trash about each other behind each others backs.   Why not?  That's what "Reality TeeVee" says you should do, right?   But they all put up the appearance of being friends - for appearances sake, which is, of course, to them, all that matters, in the perfect house in the perfect neighborhood - to have perfect friends.

We all sat down to dinner.  The hostess at least tried to mix things up by using place cards to try to get people to talk with one another.  But the perpetual high school set - and we are talking people in their 50's and 60's here, took the place cards and moved them all around.  The jocks in in one corner, the cheerleaders in another and the cool kids in a third.  And of course, I was stuck at the nerd table.

Sorry, but I left high school far behind a long time ago, and no, I'm not going back.  So I left.

It was not a party I wanted to go to, but rather one I was invited to.  And when I politely declined (after all, I hardly knew these folks) they insisted I come, as I "had to" meet their perfect set of folks.   And moreover, I think, they were just curious to see me.  The feeling was not mutual.  As far as I could tell, the planet would not suffer much if all of them ceased to exist in time and space.  They were just using up valuable oxygen, from what I could see.

Why did they do this?  I am not sure why.  You invite someone to your home, and then make no effort to be nice to them.  I am usually very gregarious and try to get people to open up, the "how to make friends and influence people" way.  But these were odd people - in my book, anyway.  They had their little cliques and wanted to keep them that way.  Not interested in chatting, I guess.

And I guess, that some folks like to validate themselves by inviting people to parties this way - to get others to come to "their" party, where they can snub them, so as to feel better about themselves.  Or perhaps they want to project an image of "having lots of friends" by inviting people to a party that they hardly knew.

You think I am talking shit here, but I've seen it before.  Suzie joins the Parcheesi club, only to be treated like trash by the older members, who feel that Suzie needs to "pay her dues".  So they make Suzie volunteer for all sorts of tasks, and then run down her efforts.  Suzie's only potential reward here is to rise to the top of the Parcheesi club, over time, and then run down the efforts of some other newcomer.

It is like the popular high school cheerleaders who invite the ugly girl to their party, just so they can laugh at her.  Yea, that does happen, I'm afraid.

And unfortunately, women in particular, seem prone to this (more about that in another posting).

But that sort of thing is lost on me.  I am just mystified by the actions of such people - and cannot understand why they live the lives they do.  Paying tons of money to live in identical "upscale" homes in a "desirable" zip code, so they can drive their Acuras and Lexuses and look down their noses at others.

It is phoney.  It is fake.  It is shallow.  It is evil.  And I want none of it.

So why did I go?  A friend went, and I guess I felt I was being supportive.  But my gut instinct said "don't go" and I have learned to trust my gut instincts.  And why my brain tries to overrule my gut, bad things happen.

You don't need a lot of friends in life, really.  The fake idea of having "lots of friends" but actually having fake friends (people you actually hate) or just superficial friends or acquaintances, is just so totally wrong.  But a lot of people do it  - they think it is what life is all about - appearances, not reality.  They are little more than replicants, not real people.

No, you are better off having just a few good friends - real friends, not the fakey kind.  And when it comes down to it, you only only one really good friend.

If you have that, it is better than having a perfect plastic house in a perfect plastic neighborhood, with your perfect plastic kids and your perfect plastic dog.

But funny thing, you'd be surprised how many people want the plastic version of life.  Or at least think they do....