Letter of Apology from the Shanghai Metro: Another Failure of the Worker State

This morning, my coworkers and I enjoyed a significant delay on the green line of the Shanghai Metro. Apparently there was some kind of accident. Not only did it take a lot longer than we were used to to get on the train than we had experienced until this morning, the train only let us off several stops after our intended destination. On our way out of the station, a small mob formed around some of the metro staff who where handing out pieces of paper. It seemed important, so I made sure to get one for myself. The following link includes scans and an explanation of the document: http://www.sinosplice.com/life/archives/2012/08/09/letter-of-apology-from-the-shanghai-metro. In short, if you are late to work because of a delay on the metro, you can present this letter to your employer as a valid excuse.

Despite the terminology I often hear in the US, China is not a communist state. A “communist state” is actually an oxymoron because the absence of a state is part of what defines a communist society. Officially, China is a worker state, meaning that the working class has taken control of the state and is using it to progress toward communism, at which point the people will just abandon the state. But if the workers really are in control of the state, why do they have to present a note to their employers if they are running a little late? After 64 years of the People’s Republic, that is some dismal progress. Clearly, these notes are great little examples as to why the state is not a viable means of achieving worker liberation and communism. I am going to frame mine and hang it up in my cubical.

There May Just Be a God After All.

When I was in the eighth grade, I went on a field trip to a Mosque in New York City. Once there, we took off our shoes and sat upon the soft carpet within the high-ceilinged, elaborately patterned building. An imam sat down in front of us and did his best to educate us on the rules and customs of Islam and, in accordance with jihad, attempted to convert us. I agreed and disagreed with the various ideas he espoused and ultimately decided that I would keep the religious status I was born into. One of the ideas that I disagreed with was that the tornadoes which caused a lot of damage in the Midwest, just before our visit to the Mosque, where the work of God trying to tell mankind that gays are bad. I disagreed with this notion for several reasons:

• His argument that gays are bad was based on his belief that nature is full of opposite pairs. His examples upholding the natural arrangement of male and female included positive and negative electric charges, day and night, and that animals never gay it up. The latter point is wrong, and the imam only managed to point out that homosexuals are different and different is never automatically bad.
• God doesn’t actually have it out for gays because San Francisco still stands while homophobic Jesus-lovin’ Bible belt inhabitants get Dysoned every few weeks each Spring.
• Bad weather has surely occurred prior to the advent of Homo sapiens.

However, the weather and seismic events that occurred in Burma and China make me consider that divine intervention is afoot. Like I said before, bad weather isn’t new, and neither are earthquakes. It’s the timing of these disasters that makes my ears prick up. In Burma, we have the military junta attempting to tighten its grip on the people by holding a false referendum of an illegitimate constitution. The junta has no intention of changing Burma’s status as a virtual slave state. The recent typhoon has served well to highlight the greed and cruelty of Burma’s leaders as they try to save face. Meanwhile, journalists languish in Chinese prisons, while the government paints a pretty picture of the Olympics and looks away from the atrocities in Darfur and Burma. Perhaps an intelligent designer is trying to point out that the governments in question are up to no good.

Of course, I would never wish such ordeals on anyone and I don’t actually believe that God is intervening. Everything I’ve pointed out is merely circumstantial. That said, there are some problems in the world that need to be fixed. Therefore, I propose the founding of a philanthropic mercenary organization designed to remove cruel and unjust leadership. Bruma’s junta would make a good first mission. Our philanthropist mercenaries would swoop in and quietly subdue and capture the unwitting junta members and promptly liberate Aung San Suu Kyi allowing her to form the government per the election in the early nineties. These events would proceed in a single evening, of course, and the deliverers of justice would certainly wear snazzy uniforms.

Taken from Sillof’s Workshop.

Surely, if any organization is going to be successful at regime change, it would have to be a stylish derivative of the Justice League. Afterall, the job can’t be left up to the likes of Mr. Bush.