The (Other) CCCP and Cultural Inflation

[mjpc88]

One of the things I stumble across all the time as an Uber and Lyft driver in Charlotte is how often people say, "There's nothing to do here," or "I don't know where to go for something. Do you have any suggestions?" or just the raw amount of gossip and drama which comes out of people's mouths. On the other hand, there's tons of people who say, "Why would you want to go anywhere else? Everything you could possibly want is here," or "This place is so different from 20 years ago. It used to be a cesspool. Now, it's paradise."

I worry all the time about this because I honestly don't see a difference between these two groups. Some are winners, others are losers, but they all played the same game of wanting to get lucky. This is what I call cultural inflation. Merely referring to skill, effort, or pursuit is looked down upon as too difficult to be bothered. People will admire you for having it... for a little while. Then, they'll get bored and scurry away. It creates this odd bystander effect where everyone expects the other guy over to come up with the next big idea, but nobody's willing to think themselves because everyone wants to be captivated, seduced, and enticed to spontaneously stumble across what makes sense.

I blame a lot of this on the local CCCP: https://www.charlottecentercity.org/about-us/

How they thought it was a bright idea to name themselves this, I don't know. You'd think they'd have a little more business savvy than to use the exact same acronym as the Soviet Union since Charlotte is the second financial capital in America after New York, but maybe it's a marketing ploy to lure people in. Maybe it's a tribute to the local city government that's loaded with leftists too.

I doubt it's working though since reviews aren't the greatest for it... although they do suggest a feminist undertone since the feminist rating is the highest among the bunch: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Charl ... d-80.84468
https://www.indeed.com/cmp/Charlotte-Ce ... rs/reviews
https://www.glassdoor.com/Overview/Work ... .11,57.htm
https://www.yelp.com/biz/charlotte-cent ... -charlotte

https://www.inhersight.com/company/char ... y-partners

I say that especially since the overseeing Mecklenburg County Manager is on the Board of Directors, and she somehow managed to get the "Businesswoman of the Year" award from the largest local private university despite running a government department: https://www.wbtv.com/2021/03/25/mecklen ... oman-year/

Deconstruction is a helluva drug, amirite?

It drives me nuts because the night life here any given week is loaded with people who just want to get drunk, get high, and get laid. It's debauchery at its finest, and those who partake are often part and parcel with those involved with the executive echelons of big finance. There is no social sophistication at all. Again, that's cultural inflation. Don't use your imagination to come up with something intriguing to do. Just water down popular hobbies which have been around for the past few generations over and over again until everyone's too lazy and they fall for the lamest jokes and just want to be around others who are good looking...

...but hey, success is all about who you know. Do we really need studies about this anymore? Isn't it common sense how if you don't network, you're nothing by now? Likewise, isn't that the point of feminism - to put subjective feminine social skills especially empathy first?

What are people empathizing over though over debauchery?

I say this especially because I can't tell you how many times I have a 35-45 year old woman in the car who regrets her life choices. She's a single mom. She's recently divorced. She never knew true love. She's well to do but not doing well.

She's 13 going on 30 or 14 going on 40. She has plenty of experience but never grew up. She learned the hard way how living it up to get to the top by holding nothing back gave her nothing to hold onto.

To call her bipolar would be an understatement. I've had women in the car go from crying tears of sorrow to tears of joy more times than I can count. All the same, I've had the stubborn sort who don't want to admit what they've gone through. They just accept it for what it is and don't even want to hear the slightest about how things got screwed up because they treat you like a "know it all" who "told them so."

The job I do is so sad in this regard. It's about playing dumb a lot of the time and making them laugh by insinuating little by little what's the truth but not actually spilling the beans because they enjoy being teased. I don't like teasing people because I don't like being teased. I like dealing with people who are upfront before figuring out how to make the most of what we have to offer and then putting a plan into action. Wasting time to prove you're not desperate and can defend information is an opportunity wasted from acquiring more information and making something of that information...

...which really drives me nuts in this job because there really isn't much to defend. If anything, first impressions are everything. You have to break the ice and if you want the most out of the trip, you have to go go go for the 15-20 minutes you have to share.

It's a weird thing about Charlotte. It's not like Raleigh at all. The city has so many newcomers constantly arriving and it doesn't subscribe to the slower way of life, but it still has so many people who want to hold back, be sarcastic, and play dumb. They even play dumb about playing dumb...

...or maybe they're not playing anymore. That happens sometimes with older people. They played dumb so much that they forgot what they were playing dumb about. Feigning ignorance becomes ignorance from bad habits.

I see this a lot when dealing with bankers. They like me because I can talk their language a lot, especially the ones dealing with Lloyds of London. If we talk merchant banking, customs brokering, or supply chain management, they like how I get them. Then, I start talking about globalization and how things were in the 2000s with Thomas Friedman and The World is Flat before how they transitioned to today...

...and that's when it hits. I talk politics too with passengers a lot. It's gutsy since you can get bad ratings if you do it wrong, but if you do it right, you're practically guaranteed a $10 tip for 20 minutes of work on top of a fare. That can turn a $20 hour into a $60 hour if you do it over and over again.

I talk about how globalization and free trade were right wing positions 15 years ago and now anti-globalism is all the rave. I ask them how they think that happened. We talk about networking and office politics and why social responsibility became more acceptable. We talk about the jockeying for status, how principled people were abandoned for not being fashionable, and how executives threw their lot in with social responsibility to be as marketable as possible while avoiding associations with pariahs.

That's when the passengers start asking if I used to be in the business since I know as much as they do. They say I sound like an insider, want to get my Linked-In, and ask for a business card or my resume...

...or they wish me the best of luck because they can only imagine what I went through to fall so far so "admire" me for not totally giving up. Then, they "pity" me for not having a family or kids like they do.