Almost Sunset

Modern Dreams about Ancient Times


A dream following five family members. My father, my daughter, and two other folks riding with me while returning home from some kind of event.

In this dream they somehow convinced us to stop for fancy coffee. An establishment fairly close to home. The time was later afternoon, early evening, post exciting outing. We were going home to relax and get some rest. Our point in stopping was to get a refreshing drink and cool off. 

We parked and everyone walked in. The counter was shaped like something from Tetris. Long stretch then a right angle, and another long stretch parallel to the first. This design had a series of registers in different directions. Everyone got in line for their cashier like the rows to sit in on a roller coaster. Each person standing up to order. No drive-thru. In the lobby, I was speaking with my father out amongst the booths. The gals went through the line, placed the order, and then went to the restroom.

The twist came after they returned from the restroom. When called up to the counter, they grabbed individual drinks, quickly pushed in a straw, and started sipping. These three headed out the door and to the car. 

 

 

Three folks with drinks, two without; Ironically, the two people who would never have stopped in the first place, and paid for the affair. Neither had a beverage prepared (or a mistake had been made). To solidify this could only happen in a dream, in the time they'd left and returned from the bathroom, the line was approximately 150 people longer. Like a rush to the subway just after 5pm.

From the front register, out the door, and toward the road. About 50 yards of customers on foot and just talking while standing in line. Like they were waiting on turnstiles to let them into an event. As if it where 1980, they carried on with the people surrounding them, no electronic distraction. Another sign this couldn't happen today...

Meanwhile, it never occurred to the girls in our party, to wait a few extra moments for everyone to be served. Like the Twilight Zone, only the younger guests we arrived with were rude. After speaking with employees, no resolution seemed to be ahead. Yet, we are not heading down the road while two key issues remained.

One:  money. Where is the money we paid with or the value we paid for? This was a courtesy stop where preferable options are admittedly lacking. 3/5 items was simply not good enough...

Number two:  concept. In the dream- everyone had an appearance of less than 40 years old. The sun was going down while they were lined-up on a conveyor belt masked as a designer caffeine experience... Why?

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Free enterprise has allowed some large price increases over the last decade. This is true with event tickets and it's certainly the way to climb a modern caste system for coffee. Previously, anyone, who can scrap what used to be change together, can feed their addiction for caffeine. Today, it's a high-priced vanity. 

Consumption and image are key ingredients in this wasteland. Now, this was absolutely a dream. No one got to stay in their car and go through the line. Furthermore, this white noise seemed to roll over the line as if it was one continuously happy conversation between assorted customers. This sort of stranger-less atmosphere is a culture of the previous century.

This is not what modern times are like. Folks don't speak to the next person in line as they used to. They also stay in their car and put more carcinogens up into the air. Pushing the carbon footprint into the Earth just a little bit deeper. Exiting a vehicle seems to put a person's health in jeopardy. As if they are in Jurassic Park.

 

 

To make it further ironic, it was happening as the sun was beginning to go down. A refreshing espresso drink in the afternoon. That's where reality came back in. Folks actually drink high concentrations of caffeine, for pseudo relaxation, at these late points in the day.

Imagine that someone hands you a cup of coffee or a shot of adrenaline. Y'know... so you can take it easy for a while. If you're not reading something like this and laughing to yourself; while re-examining choices; maybe your sense of humor has been replaced by corporate values.

There should be a place in your mind where you feel compassion for others. Your receptors can pick it up when it's given back to you. People who partake in absurd amounts of consumption are upsetting balance with nature. Passion and profit merely coincidental because they share no relation.

As human beings, we wind down to get some rest and move into tomorrow. Sure, folks could illogically  speed into the driveway and slam on the brakes before running inside the house at the end of the day.

Here were young folks lined up as if they were going to the bar. These tenders serve a stimulant with exaggerated pricing. The opposite of happy hour deals- uppers instead of the depressant nature of alcohol to loosen up.

Other folks will have those extra carbs from alcohol before they go to bed. The classic late night spots are serving alcohol. We even had to put laws in place in many parts of the country to let us know when to stop serving alcohol, because it's so much fun. Coffee is served anytime. Whenever you find something open 24 hours, they've got it. 

This is because those pick me up, stimulants, are excellent for anyone who is trying to get to their destination or trying to get the day started early. Back when I worked in restaurants, I can remember offering folks a last glass of tea following dinner. They would turn me down. Then explain drinking a caffeinated drink would keep them up at night. Perhaps that was the fuel behind my dream. To juxtapose this carnival like atmosphere where a sucker is born every minute. A dream of this franchise in a big farmer's market gravel parking lot... Out of place.

Folks lining up (in great numbers) to consume beverages priced by negotiation. Like the concessions at modern venues which cost multiples times the amount of a menu pricing locally. Perhaps the dream pushes the situation further - happening at the end of the day. Whilst the purpose of the caffeine is unclear and seems inevitably unhealthy. There's always vanity to fill in for lack of reason.

There's a variety of reasons for someone to consume something to stay awake. Doing it for recreation is different. As much as getting your hands on; some morphine or the variety of other designer opioid experiences. We know the side effects of sleep deprivation and have cliches for methamphetamine users.

I heard the comparison of someone who had been caught various times with marijuana- to someone who has alcoholism. They joked that if they had been caught using alcohol as many times recreationally, or possessing alcohol, they wouldn't be a criminal at all. The laws on driving were changed from DWI (Driving While Intoxicated) to DUI (Driving Under the Influence). Though, I am unaware of any convictions about coffee, any substance could be behind the prosecution of an impaired driver.

Various documentaries have been made about the fast food industry needing some sort of conscience in their business. Engineering a courtship to children through their kids menu and psychologically getting their foot in the door, so they'll keep coming back their entire life. Most especially as adults, to bring their kids to feed the conveyor belt. 

 

 

This has a slight detachment from what we know about the cigarette and pharmaceutical companies. I've never seen criminal or civil proceedings that determine franchises to be negligent about their menu. Though some have tried to argue nutritional negligence or find a settlement...  This has only led to government requiring ingredients, allergies, and calories to be more visible.

So far, no one in open court has been able to parlay the quick service restaurant industry's psychological agenda into an industry shifting verdict. On the surface, it appears to be thoroughly clear what they are offering to you and what it does to you. The court system has taken a 'buyer beware' stance. 

People just don't care. Meanwhile, we've rewritten transportation safety so that seat belts are required by law. Helmets required to protect the people risking the safety of the head that will be cracked open... Warning labels are put onto boxes and disclaimers are developed by legal departments. 

A person driving a car above the speed limits can suffer penalty. Someone harming themselves can be involuntarily committed to a psychological evaluation. However, poor diet or financial decisions are not obvious grounds for evaluation or guardianship.

Companies want to be able to have a barrier of protection from litigation. After all, some customers may be unaware of the in-your-face tactics. We have criminal proceedings for multi-level marketing and known money schemes. With finance and eating, the disclaimers alleviate any penalty for the establishment. Consumers are responsible for being fully aware when making choices. 

When it comes to irresponsible consumption, we've let consumers and the free market decide how they want to spend their dollars. It is not illegal to be a caffeine addict or an alcoholic. We know that it's socially irresponsible and toxic for your health. 

However, this is where the abortion arguments overlap. Being able to do anything you want to your property [body]. Anything on the premises can be asked to leave. The mind decides what, if any, parts of the body are trespassing. If you want to get rid of a pimple that you have, you can destroy it. Cancer cells or something you want to cosmetically change are open to surgical procedures. 

Human history has shown us there is an audience for convenience. Folks willing to fight for the existence of the option, good or bad. As if we should have the ability to create or destroy at will. This is the ultimate sense of entitlement. Sure, there's a higher price echelon for the rebel experience. Where someone else does all the work. Have you eaten until your life is at risk? We have several surgical options to change your appearance and take away weight. Life saving operations to salvage the vessel.

Remember in school, if you took from someone else that is plagiarism. Students are not allowed to copy another's work or to buy anything to turn in as their own. Even if you cite something, it must appear on the bibliography. Adults who have money buy intellectual property. This means that they now own even the original idea. With artificial intelligence laws have yet to catch up with the technology and prevent cloning images [likeness]... with writing templates encouraging the use of AI to fill in messages or develop content the user is otherwise incapable of.

Having the ability to pay somebody else to do the work is a luxury. There is no income qualification like with a credit application. People who earn less can still cash out on the high prices for these affairs. Essentially gambling their liquid assets... Obviously, people with less resources cannot afford to pay as often and must do for themselves or without altogether. Just remember that they have access and this is the fundamental freedom of self-destruction.

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It may occur to you, that businesses who convince people with lower incomes to trade their necessity money for recreational activities are irresponsible. Evangelists were traditionally villains when tricking someone into sending money to a television preacher (instead of paying the light bill).

Though it may have happened, I couldn't find any clear example where a home was lost because someone was addicted to fast food menus. To my knowledge, there's not a spoof documentary or even a comedy show sketch where someone turns to a life of prostitution to buy their Grande lattes. This is good news for barista public relations. Though budgets are bled dry, they seem to never flat-line. Addicts find resources an average person cannot morally choose. Even the lowest collar workers hooked need a ticket on the caffeinated express.

Power is an abstract idea that enters the central nervous system. Many explanations find their way to the masses: profits for stockholders or money spent lobbying to maintain a free market. The ability to choose. Equate this to the ultimate skeptical question, "What if?"

Suppose we just drop the building code and stopped inspecting things. No more handrails you see. Everyone responsible for a cane, a friend to help or just not coming up the stairs... Would a business think of the handrail and voluntarily implement them, probably. All sorts of businesses exist for niche customers with ingenious accommodations.

Our standards are written into a code so that we can hold people accountable; providing care for each other. Does this make the climate change? Of course. Handicapped wildlife have a lifespan proportionate to their physical ability. Humans have found ways to prolong the darkest of situations with grave effects on the economy. 

Earth has a finite amount of land: for growing crops, animals, housing, and waste. The quality of air, soil, and sea is affected with every action. Think of this like your home. If you let the subfloor rot or the plumbing go bad, where will you get clean resources? From the outside... Are people hoping we can import from another planet? 

Freedom is supposed to be the ultimate idea. However, we have a global club with an increasing membership and there's less to go around. The planet never changed. We are working from the same number of resources as before. Technology can grow food in less desirable places, where you must re-route the water supply to irrigate and then ship harvests from farther away. This is where we trade the ecological balance - taking down trees that clean the air to build houses and farms.

Fresh sources of food for a reckless number of people- that keeps growing. The food is transported with greater pollution than locally sourced food and the packaging is here to stay. We need more land to dispose of it. Our packing's final destination determines if will further harm the air, soil or water quality. Stacking people on top of one another and then importing all of the community's needs... Does this sound like responsibility? If it were a cheeseburger, the stack would collapse from the abundance of items. A recipe for disaster...

We have attempted to set standards for the quality of food. Because we are getting the food from people whom we do not arbitrarily trust. Yet, the overwhelming need means inspections and quality control are unattainable. After all, we don't trust one another anymore. Stacked with the irresponsible chemistry used to enhance crops, our risks are in reality, out of our control. Manufacturers are not our neighbors- are they?

Most of the places in the world are inhabitable by importing the elements necessary to sustain livable conditions. Why would you have a country you cannot support internally? - Now, why do you have a community you cannot maintain without the help of outsiders? Apply this same question to your home. Folks do not aspire to possess the skills to develop or fix aspects of their domain. Food is also a commodity they trade or pay for unlike the history of communities responsible for their own farming.

In reverse, the argument is tied to a fundamental set of resources: land, water, and air. A man who has the knowledge to maintain his dwelling and forage food: will... survive. When people leave the responsibility to someone else and try to hold strangers accountable, the world suffers. Consumption destroys the balance of humans with nature. This is inevitable as we conquer the land once occupied by animals or plant life... In excess: larger people living a life propped up by medical technology further straining the ecosystem.

Extra land is needed to house the record population. The issue with freedom versus climate quality comes from consumption. Less people can live modest lives of natural length which keeps disaster to a minimum. As the amount of manufacturing increases circumstances change. Water quality is destroyed by dams and dumping. Escalated farther by citizens, either before or after, they've shared the water with industry. We know that most of these interactions threaten quality of life, specifically from factories through the folks, and ultimately every species deals with the aftermath.

Worldwide- the lack and then abundance of rain causes sinkholes, landslides, and flooding. This global game of Duck, Duck, Goose is broadcast around our planetary media. Watching our big circle of humans lose the lottery of environmental chance as we all partake in altering the flow of natural resources. Citites on the edge of the ocean see the streets flooded, later washed away.

Attempts to bring all of this into balance led to restrictions. Crunching the data to come up with formidable ways to live as free as consciously possible. However, the irresponsible science projects or maliciousness of the past reduces future options. Living with limits - is the only sustainable future. However, this is akin to removing the freedom of all choices. However, we know seem to agree that speed limits keep us from destroying ourselves... Because control is largely an illusion and life is fragile.

Seems so strange that we know the reckless side effects of farming and pharmaceuticals and yet dollars make decisions in government. Yet, people as individuals must choose to inhabit places and do business with these reckless industries... and the cycle continues despite the clarity of science.

However, nature remains the dealer in this game. Birth rates fall and neurological issues have changed behaviors which will shorten lifespans or keep population closer in line with avoiding ecological disaster. Mother Nature's elemental defense system push the technologically vain toward a cliff of family values and the gravity of decisions based on selfish consumption. There is a reason solitary confinement, excommunication, and isolation destroy human spirits... Each of those situations is out of balance with conditions necessary to survive and repopulate for the future.

Unless- we accept that the planet will fight back and become less inhabitable,  we don't truly understand that this lottery of resources we're playing will drive inflation and destroy any possibility of having a comfortable life. Limited resources means that lives of excess will deteriorate the existence of those less fortunate. For industry, each piece of the Earth, and every commodity we manufacture is harder to acquire. We regulate people and corporations, hypocritically, almost comically, as a veil for hidden commerce.

Even the best communities will face the inevitable chance of natural disaster because the world around them changes the climate. Weather patterns have become increasingly less predictable. Conflict almost destroys the environment- this is well-documented through the history of war and pandemic. From the uninhabitable rubble of battle to the unlivable consequences of weaponizing biology. No matter how perfect any piece of the planet was... from the glaciers of untouched mountaintops to the creatures destroyed on an ocean floor of oil... nothing is unaffected by our need for gratification. We can melt that ice and deplete those fuel reserves. Things the planet will resupply, in time, with or without us...

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Creative minds may correlate the vanity of social media with these spending trends. Saying that there's a clear line between celebrity behavior and the fans who imitate it. Ordinary people who need to increase their budget to live like their idols. Ignorantly leaping off that precious edge of balancing ecology, to attain gravitational vanity. The impact of which is fatal.

This new part of history where adult-themed photos and video attempt to be morally rationalized means of income. Compromising not only morality, but the psychological essence needed for family and extending our civilization. We are losing ourselves, but it depends who you ask - whether they're voluntarily along for the ride.

Why do people need to make larger amounts of money? Consumption. There's a desire to not only be part of the conveyor belt, but to get a more prominent place in line. Each purchase is a medal earned. Precious, irreplaceable elements of the Earth, our of values, and trading a little bit of the future away each transaction.

It is clear, these behaviors socially divide people. There's a demographic making less money and more efficient with their choices. Often leading a healthier, more socially and environmentally conscious, lifestyle. The aptitude at play- separates the able from the payable. It costs more to be ignorant. Unable to fix things in your own home? Then pay someone... No reliable transportation? its for sale... The same with clean resources such as water or food.

Tutors exist to help with different levels of skill. Someone with less cognitive ability might need an advanced tutor on a regular basis. Another person might head over to the writing lab for help editing the final version of a paper. Services are available to seemingly all levels of intellect. Some to establish foundation, while others seek feedback. Debates are still part of the culture in spite of so many people turning off conversation completely. Is this a reflection of the birth rate decline and mental health struggle of modern times... no doubt.

Throughout the ages, people have gathered at the proverbial watering hole - where everyone is equal with alcohol, but now coffee? The old cliche describes how 'business' happens at the bar. This narrative has a cousin in the caffeine industry. Where if you can afford a drink, you're in the target audience. Many interviews and dates happen in the lobby of cafes. Bars were regarded as a local gathering place. Though, their counterparts have attempted to borrow some of the entertainment aspects. These poetry and performance evenings are designed to attract the business that the liquid alone cannot.

Nearly 40 years ago, my coffee experience began with my grandfather going to the same barbecue restaurant almost every morning... 'til he died. Each day he ordered a black coffee. This was to get out of the house, socialize, and start the day. This traditional gathering of adults for breakfast is repeated in a variety of environments all around us. The simple chatter of town folks talking. Sometimes known as: solving all the world's problems.

Those gentlemen from Tom Brokaw's "Greatest Generation" were opposite in nearly every way from the youth in my dream. They spent their money differently and had very little concern for coveting their neighbor's goods. Recreational spending was quite rare.

I laugh every time I think of this advice from my father. I was telling him what projects I had going on and which tools I needed to buy. He made it very clear that I should save my money and borrow [from him]. Saying that once he passed on, well "this is yours anyway..."

My life choices do not follow the same path as others in my family. I understand the concept of specialty coffee shops. But you can buy a coffee maker for the price of a few visits to a chain. What I mentioned earlier about plagiarism is because schools want to see your original work.

As an adult, you could grow up to be a country music star who purchases songs written by other people. An actor so to speak, who portrays the words of others through action or song. Inevitably sharing some of the credit while enjoying an inflated lifestyle. Much like the figureheads of politics or business; amassing power beyond the point of vulnerability.

My intention is not to discourage people from recreational consumption. But, we live in an ecological system where the climate continuously changes because of our consumption choices. In the dream there was far more environmental responsibility going on. The way that you had to get out of your car in the past.

Food operations still exist where you can pull up and park your car. They bring the food out to you and the engine doesn't need to remain on. The drive-thru is a little different. Plenty of debate is still out there about the cost of electric vehicles and their environmental impact despite the reduction in fossil fuels.

Automobiles have a maximum efficiency, that is what determines the miles per gallon on your sticker at the dealership. The car traveling under favorable conditions, with each of the systems inside operated normally would achieve the advertised miles per gallon. However, most times are not under the ideal conditions. If you're running the air conditioner extremely high,  have items plugged into the power outlets, and you're driving with passengers the efficiency falls. 

 

Driving at higher rates of speed often burn gas inefficiently. Law enforcement uses tasers to shock someone's system and incapacitate them. This is a quick turnaround. A Starbucks drink could do the same thing to somebody, it just processes through their system a little slower. There's a rapid high and then a crash. The same is true with many products based around energy.

Perhaps you're conscious that each day money is spent unnecessarily to consume. Once it is spent - it cannot be in your savings. A person could easily draw the mental connection to tie this into wealth or the inheritance left to their children. Yes, I'm saying that your grandparents who did not live with these excessive spending adventures - were able to stretch their dollar farther and to provide a greater family security for the generations after them.

The newer mantra of not being able to spend money when you're dead has become an obscenely selfish future. This also depletes or nullifies the advantages of inheritance and 'generational wealth.' From this, an oblivious or willfully negligent question seems to come up. Where did all the money go and why is this generation having a harder time than previous ones with the budget... Mentally strained and less intelligent, but how?

The spending choices are inefficient and lack redeeming value. People still seem to value experiences - I love to watch the long lines each period of the year where a fair comes around. Folks park their cars in one big lot and they siphon through the gates to have this less available experience.

In the same vein, I don't understand the season passes to theme parks. As if there's nothing else to do with time and opportunity. Much like the idea of excessive jewelry or luxury items.This entire dreamscape was about balance. Much like eating out pitted against the skill of preparing your own food.

Apply this to coffee or alcohol. The ABC store or grocery store will sell you what you need to be an amateur bartender/barista. You may see hypocrisy in me advocating the same behaviors from home which I'm calling irresponsible in public. That's not my intention. Excess is the point of no-return.

Improving the efficiency is the goal. Doing it from home means that you're spending money in your neighborhood. Shop locally, leave your car in the garage and the environment benefits a little bit with each of these choices. Yes, it would reduce the size of corporations and shorten supply chains. Our ability to produce would hinge upon local climates, indirectly or not, restoring accountability.

These are intended to be modest considerations. Keeping money in your community and improving the quality of life around you. There's an argument that these corporations possess proprietary information which you could not duplicate. Perhaps, there's no chance your items will taste as delicious as theirs. Yet, a great many folks are going to tell you that home cooked meals top anything you could ever buy in public... From the neurological to sentimental aspects which industry can't ever produce.

The fundamental attitudes of aptitude and skill are something I did not address head on. Does this really need explanation? We have a Food Network on television. Also, an abundance of online resources to duplicate what happens on food menus around you, in the comfort of your own home. We've seen a tradesman perform a skill and do our best to fix things independently.

Shows and film used to feature silly or pompous characters who needed eccentric accommodations. These were the bad guys who needed special ingredients for their menu items. When it wasn't made to their liking they'd get upset with someone and make them do it over again.

Fast forward, and the greed coupled with arrogance from those classic situations is, seemingly, a behavior to be imitated. It's good to be the king... As if it's healthy to mistreat other people and exploit everything around you. These situations are still wildly unhealthy for the people in the environment around the person mistreating the opportunity. Consciously or not throwing things back into a formula for servitude.

My rather absurd dream could be encapsulated pretty swiftly: I'm traveling with my father and between us we know better than to stop. But, we're generous and we accommodate younger folks who are asking a favor of us. In the course of our stop, they end up with designer drinks and bad service- which leaves the men with a void. 

Poor habits of culture with consumer lines that are unbelievably long. Where people who are young and have the opportunity to be doing something wiser or more efficient... Instead occupy a caffeine cattle trough. Naive or willfully ignorant to embrace the neighbors in their space. Yet, they're standing shoulder-to-shoulder with someone they likely never will again. Missing all sorts of stories and neurological ingredients which are unique to each situation.

In older times - in the dream - everyone's speaking to the people around them as if they're all part of a community and accepted neighbors. A behavior which only exists in flashbacks to yesteryear.

Just before I woke up, we were having a discussion about how we wanted to get either the drinks we paid for or something of equal value. Like a refund? The more I thought about the abstract idea of value, the clearer it became there was no value they could give me for the price they were asking.

 

What it actually costs someone's lifestyle to give up. To let somebody else do the work for you. To pay an excessive price to the detriment of your future heirs. This may be the ugliest transition in the course of human history. A modern culture debating which pieces of our world are authentic and which ones we can identify or label without regard to absolute value. Devoid of nature and part of the transactional cancer taking us away from who we were to a place we will never be.

There's a larger discussion on changing behavior to be more responsible with the world we live in. The goal would be to improve the environment or ecology of our planet. The reckless choices destroy the economy of the people coming after you. Not because it costs more to live in a hotter more unstable world... 

This is more simplistic: Every dollar you spend, is a dollar you no longer have to do something else with. Whether that is to improve your community, to give it to your children or to morally vote for people who respect our species. Vanity may cost a presently known quantity, yet an increasingly larger piece of the puzzle of existence as time passes. Bargaining with the future, as Matt Damon [Steve Butler] describes in Promised Land, "where we are now; where we are headed... we might be betting more than we think - everything that we have is on the table - and that's just not ours to lose."

Markets or enterprise: operating in a land of freedom is ideally good for everyone. Yet, the monetary influence of ignoring regulation or settling thereafter... is after all how the idea of America came to be. The overthrow of tyranny. A situation which is inevitably resurfacing as time goes on. This is the nature of man through hierarchy and power.

 

Financial settlements come out of these situations because those are profitable businesses. This doesn't happen when businesses close down or go bankrupt. Market everything with enough slack to pay down the liability which will be uncovered later. Keeping enough of the profit up front and post-litigation to maintain the advantage.

All this is possible through consciously engaging the public. Habitual and wild-eyed customers who refuse to change behaviors. Even though they are financing the tactics which are detrimental to the health and social fabric of society.

So if you open and establishment in the free market where your product contains addictive substances... The accountability comes in where you educate customers to moderation. The balance of responsibility where establishments cut off people who are or are believed to be inebriated. Perhaps companies could or should -  redesign their business to eliminate the addictive elements. Why would they...? This is their secret ingredient.

Drug companies paid out record settlements because of the price fixing. After intentionally turning people into addicts, they drove up the price to increase profits. A large portion of this business was done at buildings with a drive-thru. It sounds so familiar to my dream. Pharmacies supply a pill bottle with your name printed on a label; same as the drive-thru caffeine labeled individually to deliver your fix.

So many of the people affected by the opioid crisis are the same demographic that you see frequenting specialty food/beverage establishments. This is because an insatiable urge is quieted with what waits inside. Economical vampires offer products which perform a dialysis of the customer's independence of substance and the ability to ignore desire, forcing the fiendish side to choose.

The faithful line up for someone wearing the symbol to distribute the goods. In a world comprised of limited resources, companies develop sloth like ways to extend the existence of patrons indifferent to torturous lack of wealth and painful quality of life as they age beyond previous records.

Consider the seemingly endless accommodations needed for people with special needs. Especially with regard to the investment of consumption. Resources we could use to help those around us are spent in a trance-like habit which crashes as the stimulant fades. If the justification is that you're paying for caffeinated memories, then honesty is a problem. Sure, people need to perk up for responsibility... But, that is not the purpose of these businesses. Coffee pots in the break area perform the same functions without malice.

Short-sighted as the dream may come across from either side - there is a greater responsibility when operating or engaging with a business. The definition of psychopathy is the sacrifice of long-term goals for short-term satisfaction. Those people lined up to enjoy today's delights as the debt to the Earth exceeds our ability to reconcile with the environment of tomorrow.

Pyrrhus of Epirus detailed his victory over the Romans as one which would ultimately lose the war. Man has industrialized the planet to accommodate our wishes. Changes to the world around us that may have already tipped the balance and cost our descendants their way of life. Perhaps, even paving a road to extinction.

Looking at the practices of medicine, servitude, and mechanisms... we know that guilt accompanies the flashbacks to a past where we naively treated both people and habitat poorly. Yet, we have the foresight at present to alter methods which are causing irreparable harm. Still, most folks fail to take accountability or educate themselves to the forthcoming bankruptcy of their species.

Nature will settle the debt for us. Anyone ignoring the pandemics and mutations of the world will learn... As folks often forget- that while we may control our actions, the world around us determines the cost.