Why Pretending To Work Hard Is Now Sadly A Better Way To Get Ahead Than Actually Working Hard

The World's Greatest Cat Can't Help But Be Herself.

Market yourself. Promote yourself. Be unique. Be original. That, my friend, is the key to being a winner in life. At least that's what I've read.

Frankly, I find it all a bit tiring. Wasn't there a time when one could get noticed solely on concrete things like accomplishments and potential? If there wasn't, there should have been. All this showy crap has gotten under my skin.

Not that life is particularly hard for me at the moment. I've just noticed that many Americans don't really work anymore - at least many of those who want to get ahead don't. Sure, they all say they work their asses off, but they don't.

Instead, they act. They create characters which are deemed appropriate for whatever jobs or environments they wish to occupy. Then they make a career out of playing those characters over and over again. Like Charlie Chaplin once did. Or like Charlie Sheen does now.

Washington is the prime example of this victory of the shallow over the concrete, of course. Yet the giant, ugly squid of superficiality has now wrapped its giant, ugly tentacles around all aspects of American life. Look about your work place and, guaranteed, you'll see at least one person getting ahead by simply playing a character who gets ahead.

And we wonder why the good 'ol US of A seems to be crumbling from within. If someone asked me why America is slowly falling like an enormous redwood, I'd answer that, while we used to be a superpower filled with productive people, we're now a waning superpower filled with people who pretend to be productive.

I've never actually witnessed a redwood falling, but I'm assuming the crash is kinda thunderous.