Saw that Goerge Clooney movie some other day. Now thinking about it, it’s all talking about loyalty. And just so life happens, this again is an occasion I could do some stuttering.
[I fucking knew it… ]
Airlines are pretty straightforward about loyalty: that’s why they call it “customer loyalty program.” The way it works is that if you choose to be a loyal customer, they make you feel real good, real special, real privileged. On the other hand, if you for some reason can’t afford to be a loyal customer – oh yeah, it takes money and time to say the least, they still treat you fairly. Note that fairly is different than equally.
Businesses are motivated by profitability. In case you business laypeople don’t know (or don’t care, for that matter), a service provider can make more money more easily from existing customers than from acquiring new customers. When it comes to people, it’s more complicated. It’s an absolute puzzle what motivates people to be loyal.
First off, people can be loyal to an organization, probably even easier than to be loyal to other people. You hear people say “job security,” but have you ever heard “relationship security”? What Clooney does for a living in the movie is being hired by organizations to fire their employees. When people are fired – or more politically correctly put, “let go” – they tend to respond like this, “after all these years, this is what I got?” They seem to forget the fact that an organization can be just as capricious as people. Who can blame them. We all know too well that people are the most capricous kind of all beings. I wonder if there’s more suicides linked to relaitonship breakups/divorces than suicides linked to job losses – I would bet so though.
[I hear emptiness. Next second, it’s images in my head. Then exactly what I thought would happen happened. Then God forbids, I become emptiness. It’s a fucking vicious cycle.]
Clooney hooked up with this lady who also travels like crazy. It’s very hard to find someone who gets you and almost your entire world. Turns out, lady is married and by definition, very unloyal. When you decide to be loyal, you act, you make commitments. Wedding is a common form. Clooney talked his sister’s fiance who got last minute cold feet into evetually standing up on the altar. I wonder if marriage for himself ever crossed his mind. This new girl at work, who’s the typical perfectionist type, got dumped by her boyfriend – hint, loyal meets unloyal. I think Clooney played the role of an emotional cushion for her. Anybody can say “I told you so,” but few will be there for you to fall back on.
[I can be a cushion, or whatever. Matter of fact, I have been already. Don’t turn me into a trampoline.]
People usually learn it the hard way that payback is a bitch.
Maybe we all should just fly high, high, high up in the air.
