Gah!

How awesome it would be to function like a multinational corporation: make all the rules stack in your favor, offer "customer service" that ultimately services you, to engage in crack pot schemes and, when they fail, ask the Big Bad Government (who you demand keep their filthy regulations to themselves) for billions in bail out. To say, "I'm screwing you over because I CAN, because I offered a service and you wanted it and now you will be subjected to my whim which was clearly outlined in the size .2 font on your introductory packet and it's YOUR responsibility to be educated about the consequences of crossing me, now pay up!" Well, actually, what would be said it, "I'm pretty terrific for offering you these services (although it would take a herculean effort on your part to function without services of this sort from someone) and you're rather stupid for not having more control over your own life so that you don't violate our contract, toots."

I'm becoming an angry left-wing nut in my ripening age.

I suppose I could divorce myself from it all. Never have another bank account, never purchase major electronics, make my own clothes, become one of those people that only take from refuse to survive - what is the term for them? there is one, and I can't even think how to google it..ooooops, no googling allowed in my new life...

How does one get divorced from consumerist capitalist culture? I write this on a name brand computer in an apartment surrounded by mass-produced amenities. Even the food I eat has caused untold misery and hardship on its journey to my table.

Christiana in Demark sounds so appealing - as Diana described it, I felt like a child, wide-eyed, head in my hands, listening to tales of Shangri-la..."really? they grown their own food? they make community decisions based on a direct democratic vote? there's a playground made of found-object sculptures?"

As I am arguing with myself about my personal responsibility versus the bank's ability to continuing charging me fees for no service whatsoever other than having my name in a computer somewhere next to a big negative number, communal living on a farm somewhere far off the grid is sounding pretty damn attractive.