The death of “Unabomber” Ted Kaczynski once again reminded me that his “manifesto” about how technology was progressively making life unbearable was, yes, crazy, but he had a valid point. [You may consider today’s post a second installment to this one, from 2017]. I have long believed that the up-tick in seemingly random mass shootings is the predictable result of those who inject technology into our lives just because they can, selfishly making just getting through the day brain-killingly complex for people somewhere in the lower third of the intelligence scale, and a lot of people who are better off than that too. At some point, the anger and frustration reaches the point where you want to grab a rifle, find a tower, and start shooting.
This is essentially what happens to Sweeney Todd in the Sondheim musical of the same name, as he explains in the show’s first act finale why serial killing is logical:
We all deserve to die
Tell you why, Mrs. Lovett
Tell you why
Because the lives of the wicked should be made brief
For the rest of us, death will be a relief
We all deserve to die!
I began reflecting on both Ted and Sweeney when I tried to register for the Massachusetts Bar before they suspended me for non-payment of my 2023 annual dues. You have to do it online, and one reason I was late was that I hate the Mass. Board of Bar Overseers website, which always breaks down.
First, the site makes you log in. It wouldn’t let me, even though the password was correct and supposedly filled in automatically. The BBO can’t be bothered to have the feature that lets you see the letters and numbers so only little black dots appear. I had to ask to “reset” my password. Since I couldn’t see the figures, it took two tries to match the the thing, and then I was transferred to a page informing me that I could not move on to filling out my dues sheet until I had completed a “demographic survey.” I’m tempted to put it up: you wouldn’t believe it. If you didn’t type in a date in the right format (I eventually realized that tiny print AFTER each question told you what was acceptable) the question would register as “incomplete” when you selected “Done” at the end. The survey asked me to choose my “preferred” race and ethnicity from umpteen options and also asked which “sex or gender” I “identified” as. (In the comments section, I wrote that who or what I chose to have sex with, or not, and how, was none of the BBO’s business whatsoever.) The survey form was clumsy as well as insulting, it kept flagging reasons a response wouldn’t be accepted, and it took so long to load when it finally passed muster that I thought the program had broken down.
Finally I was allowed to move on to paying the lousy 200 bucks, but first I had to hunt for new items secretly added into the form even though the information I have entered hasn’t needed changing for a decade. Again, if I missed one, the website told me to go back and check. Finally, after several false starts, I got to the payment section, where I had no option but to use PayPal. I hate PayPal and closed my account in protest, but I was given no choice here.
After slogging through another four annoying screens, I finally reached the total sheet, which, I noticed, hid a $50 “voluntary contribution” that I had to opt out of. I fought this dues trick when it was used in paper billing by the Association of Trial Lawyers of America, telling the executive director (my boss, who later fired me for being obstreperous) that it was unethical, which it was and is. His argument? It made the association a lot of money. I bet the cyber version works even better.
Remember, these are both organizations run by lawyers.
Once the PayPal process was almost complete, I noticed that the fill-in credit card data from last time was still good, so I finally pushed what was supposed to be the final button…and the site suddenly announced that my address was in Vatican City. I’m serious. I tried to backtrack, and I had to log-in once again, with the first two times not working. Then I was sent back to the registration form I had just completed. Again, I checked my address–no, the Pope was not a neighbor—and worked my way back to the final click.
And was back to Vatican City again. At this point, I had been fighting that website for over 90 minutes, and thinking about that tower. I tried to locate a tech support number on the website: there wasn’t one. I called the phone number, and an infuriatingly slooow recorded voice eventually said that nobody was available and that I should call back later.
I did. The woman whom I reached after three branches of a phone tree first gave me the apparently mandatory lines about being sorry for my inconvenience, but also said that she couldn’t do anything about the website. I asked her if she would let me put her on speaker and talk me though the myriad screens so I was sure the problem wasn’t me. Grudgingly, she agreed. This time, PayPal didn’t send me to Vatican City, but three times in a row, I ended up at a black screen with a dead “Continue” button.
Is this really how the Overseers want to treat bar members, I asked? The process this time had taken another 40 minutes, added to the previous 100 or so, and I was no closer to paying my dues. Where was the IT assistance? “He’s not available today,” she said. “This is the number of the general counsel so you can register your complaint..” and she cut me off.
So I called back. I went through the phone trees again. This time I reached a different woman, and recounted the whole experience. She was refereshingly candid. “I don’t know why we use Paypal, and you’re not the first member to have trouble with it. Yes, the website sucks, but I can’t fix it. What I can do is send you a paper form—I’m sorry you’ll have to fill out the survey and registration form again, but you will—and you can mail us a check.”
Total time elapsed: just short of three hours…and my accomplishment was being able to register without technology.
But wait…there’s more!
My sister wanted to save money on her super-duper smartphone deal with T-Mobil, and persuaded me to let her add me to her account, while I took over her old smartphone, which is about 50X more complicated than any phone I’ve ever held in my hand. This required Apple to assign a new number to the phone, which I took possession of today.
When I called our office line from my sister’s house, caller ID said the caller was “Pete Fountain.” Apparently Apple has a problem interfacing with Verizon.
They all deserve to die….
Ethics Alarms 
“When I called our office line from my sister’s house, caller ID said the caller was ‘Pete Fountain.'”
At least you can play your clarinet instead of having to listen to muzak the next time you’re on hold. Or you could if you were still alive.
Yeah, it was that last part that squelched any excitement about being connected to Pete.
H. L. Mencken comes to mind too.
Hands already spit and black flag ordered from Amazon (their website at least works).
I was going to send this separately but it seems to fit here:
https://www.dexerto.com/tech/amazon-shuts-down-smart-home-after-delivery-driver-mishears-racism-from-doorbell-2174902/
-Jut
It does, but that deserves its own post.
I am concerned about the veracity of the claims made by the individual who had this problem. The Amazon delivery driver was able to complain about something he thought he heard – loud enough to get through his earphones – that was racist.
I just can’t wrap my mind around how this much power bestowed on the delivery driver.
And since when does an Amazon delivery driver ring the doorbell? The Amazon delivery drivers that come to my house are ninjas; never seen nor heard.
The neighbor’s dogs bark at the slightest stimulation: for grocery deliveries or the wonderful other neighbor who wheels my garbage out to the curb for collection, my housekeeper, my caregiver, and my nurse. (Yes, I’m in poor health.
For my Amazon driver, everything. For everyone else, the bark.
A few years ago I was banned from making comments or asking questions by Amazon. The message I get reads:
“We apologize but Amazon has noticed some unusual reviewing activity on this account. As a result, all reviews submitted by this account have been removed and this account will no longer be able to contribute reviews and other content on Amazon. If you would like to learn more, please see our community guidelines. To contact us about this decision, please email community-help@amazon.com.”
I have emailed community help and explained I reviewed their community guidelines and do not believe I violated them. I have done this five times and never received a reply.
I did a chat exchange with Amazon’s account help department. During the chat, I detailed my futile attempts to get community help to respond. They told me there was nothing they could do. The service rep told me I had to email the community help department. I responded you do realize how ridiculous your response is, don’t you? They said there was nothing they could do.
My crime which doesn’t violate their community guidelines? They won’t say but it happened right after I criticized the Amazon search engine results. Reminds me of Kafka’s The Trial. I go out of my way to not use Amazon but sometimes they are the best option.
“my boss, who later fired me for being obstreperous” = Goals.
I work for a completely virtual company. We have employees in 9 different states. We recently changed our corporate name. The change had to be acknowledged by the IRS before I could make changes elsewhere. That took 7 months. I now have to register that change with the DOR and UI of each state. That’s 18 different agencies all of whom have their own online portals, each completely different from the other, which requires navigation unique to each one. Eighteen of them. It doesn’t help that my company is in the business of designing custom websites (beautiful, technologically current ones at that.)
I keep tequila under my desk.
I swear the websites of technology companies are WORSE than the average website. It’s like they think if you are a tech person you ought to be able to handle 404 errors in the pages yourself or something.
I do open the debugger to see what my company did to the webpage sometimes, but knowing what someone did wrong doesn’t actually help if you can’t access the backend to fix it. It just makes what you grumble about more accurate.
I would love to live in Vatican City. The apartments are sumptuous and the decor is the work of Raphael, Michelangelo, and Bernini.
I have noticed a very annoying trend of websites strongly encouraging or forcing visitors or customers to engage in online surveys, this is also a trend of after service follow-up emails sent from companies, like auto repair. I categorically refuse to take surveys of any kind. I will not add to what I consider a statistical pile of utter bull shit “science” that professional statisticians, companies, political PACS, politicians, non profit organizations, etc, and the government use to try and manipulate the public. Here is what I say to bull shit “science” surveys…
…and I mean that very sincerely.
The Massachusetts Bar would get an ear full for force me to take a survey as a requirement to renew my registration and then force me to use PayPal as the only acceptable method of payment. After I verbally give them an ear full over the phone for this policy, I’d send them a letter.
I have a PayPal account that I use routinely with my family but I never use it for anything else. All online transactions, without exception, are done using one credit card that I have specifically for online use. If a website doesn’t take the credit card I use for online transactions then I go elsewhere.
I’ve never even been sure what the hell Paypal even is. Mrs. OB was tin the credit card business for over twenty years (American Express). Why does anyone need another processor to take a part of the transaction.
Other Bill wrote, “I’ve never even been sure what the hell PayPal even is.”
You can link PayPal directly to your bank account so it “kinda” works like an online debit card funnel point that transfers funds relatively instantly without going through credit card companies, that’s direct access to my bank accounts is exactly why I refuse to use it for online purchases.
Thanks Steve. I’ll stick with credit cards. I get way too many phishing emails about “your [my] Paypal account having been this that or the other.”
I thoroughly enjoy a good vengeance story… Sweeny Todd might be the most tragic of them, but give me a good Count of Monte Cristo any day of the week. But that’s just me.
I’m rather fond of the “Kill Bill” movies and “I Spit On Your Grave.”
I’m gonna go with the real-life story of Charles II ordering his minions to dig up the grave of Oliver Cromwell so the corpse could be drawn and quartered,
Vengeance may best be served cold, but that’s a bit too cold.
A couple of years ago I was using the BATFE website to file a Form 1 (to build a NFA weapon) and get the required tax stamp. I dutifully worked my way through all the pages; each page requested information that had to be entered before the software would allow me to go on to the next. After completing all the pages and making the required payment, I hit the “Submit” button. I also saved a pdf copy of the completed application. As required, accompanying fingerprints were submitted by mail, and I was expecting the approval process to take eight to twelve weeks.
A couple of weeks later, I got an email message from BATFE, stating that my application had been cancelled and my payment refunded because I had failed to complete one page of the form. I pulled up my pdf copy and checked it; the page in question was complete in every respect. I called the customer service number and, after being passed to a couple of folks with no clue, explained the situation to a very nice lady who agreed with me about how the software “should have” made it impossible to advance past an incomplete page. I even offered to email her the pdf copy. She seemed genuinely flummoxed as to what had happened to get my application rejected, and promised to look into the issue, but told me that since my payment had already been refunded I would have no choice but to resubmit the application (as well as a new set of fingerprints).
Twelve days after I resubmitted the application, I was pleasantly surprised when I received the approved application with the tax stamp affixed. (I had never known of anything like this approved in less than a couple of months.) I really think the initial rejection was just a bug in their software, but my more conspiracy minded friends think it was a “cooling out” process to discourage applicants without the determination to see the process through.
As far as Kaczynski is concerned, his “Industrial Society and Its Future” did raise a lot of valid points, and he really hadn’t experienced full impact of the social media phenomenon nor the budding nightmare of AI. We ain’t seen nothing yet!