Lifelesslessons Blog

Where your loyalty lies, there shall your stupidity be also October 25, 2010

“The best things in life are never rationed. Friendship, loyalty, and love do not require coupons.”

There are many times throughout life that a person meets someone new that they are absolutely flabbergasted by. Each time, the flabbergasting increases just slightly. If one “can you believe she just said that?” deserves another, then its easy to see how your tolerance for stupidity increases with every shenanigan that comes your way.

Take, for instance, my latest encounter:

It involved a girl I do not know very well. And these moments always start simply, and morph into something much larger. The girl began to explain to me how she interned this summer at the Disney resort. She had a great job and LOVED the Disney company. Fair enough.

I, however, do not necessarily love the Disney company. It’s not that i don’t like Pixar films (Cars, Wall-E, etc), it’s just that I don’t think they’re anything special. Yeah, when the company started, it was probably very family friendly blah blah. But now, The Disney Co. is a media conglomerate that cross promotes on its many networks, instills independent values in children, creates production studios (Miramax) that can promote rated-R movies without specifically promoting the Disney brand image, and has never done anything for me personally besides providing me with a false image of Native Americans, Blacks, Middle-Eastern’s and countless other ethnicities.

Well, without mentioning the particulars, I told this girl that I did not view the Disney Co. as a favorable company in my eyes.

SHE FREAKED OUT. freaked out. absolutely snapped.

She began telling me about her experiences with the “degree’s that Disney provide” including a “Mouster’s Degree” and a “Duck-torate Degree,” and how these degrees, which i assume are some sort of training, are relateable and recognizable to every major employer in the United States. She went on about how Disney is the BEST employer and how good they treat you, and also, if someone hates Disney, they have something majorly wrong with them.

My rebuttal was quite succinct I believe. I almost said:

First of all, you can’t be serious about these so-called “degrees.” If I’m an employer, and I see that someone put that they have somehow obtained a “Mouster’s Degree at Disney University,” I would probably get out my phone that I got from the game “girl-talk,” call the applicant, and proceed to tell them, “we aren’t hiring, but i hear Narnia needs a city planner. You might want to check them out. And while you’re at it, Andy from Toy Story is now in need of a tutor because he just went to college–probably a more legitimate college than DisneyU.” Futhermore, are you serious? Really, a ductorate? really?

Secondly, I don’t care how good of employer Disney was! That still doesn’t make them a good company. Hell, I’m sure if you were into genocide, the Nazi’s were a damn good employer. Get paid well, lots of respect, and endless power. Mafia wouldn’t be a bad employer either. Let’s get more personal: Enron was probably a good company to work for until everyone found out they lied about their revenues. Shoot, APX Alarm was the sweetest company to work for. They gave you free lunch. GOOD LUNCH! every single day. But wait, then we found out they were supposed to be paying taxes on those free lunches. Then we hear about the summer salesmen and how they scam customers. Still my favorite place to work. But guess what, questionable business practices.

Thirdly, How can you be so loyal to a company (one that vastly underpays you) that you think you feel the need to defend them tooth and nail. Look, I have about four companies that I love. LOVE.

Apple Inc., Best Buy, ESPN, and Jack in the Box.

But hell, say anything you want about those companies and I won’t care. I mean, yeah, I want everyone to love them some 99 cent tacos from Jack, but you can’t win em all. And sure, I’ll recommend an apple over a PC, but if someone tells me Windows 7 is a better operating system, I just agree with them. There should be no loyalty to a COMPANY that makes you this stupid. None. It’s absolutely unacceptable.

And technically, the only TV I watch is ESPN. Since Disney owns ABC, and ABC owns ESPN, I’m pretty sure I encourage Disney more than this former employee. And she’s calling ME a rebel against ‘the best company on earth’? Give me a break, I just don’t think I need to defend a company. It’s not like that company has MY best interests in mind. Not unless my voice means something.

Look, I’m not saying you can’t love a company and their products. I’m just saying that they should love YOU. You’re the consumer, right? You’re the one who they should be serving and defending, not the other way around.

Gosh, I need an Ultimate Bacon Chee right now.