Helluva Way to Run a Railroad

This is a helluva way to run a railroad.

— Leonor Loree

When civil engineer Leonor Loree took charge of the dilapidated Kansas City Southern Railroad in 1906, he stood before investors and described the railroad's broken-down operations in detail.

"This is a helluva way to run a railroad," he concluded.

I can now say the same of the online art-supply retailer Jerry's Artarama.

The company recently misdirected a $66 shipment of supplies I ordered.

The shipment was sent to my former address (by default), and when I phoned customer service—within two minutes of placing the online order—I was told Jerry's could do nothing to reroute the package. The package wouldn't ship for days, but, when it did, it would ship to my old address. Like it or not, that's they way the system works. Get over it.

I was on my own to recover the goods, too, I was told. Jerry's was officially out of the loop; and if I involved the company further in the matter, there would be hefty fees billed to me.

I have since located and the misdirected package and it has been returned to Jerry's; but no refund has been issued. I'm out my time and trouble and $66.

Every contact with the company's frontline employees suggests to me that Jerry's corporate culture is toxic.

At Jerry's:

• Everyone clearly is a helpless slave to internal systems, hidebound policies, and an iron-fisted supervisor;
  
  
• Problems must not be acknowledged;
  
  
• Customers—even so-called VIP ones—are annoying, not to be trusted, and always in the wrong.

In the past three years, I have spent several thousand dollars with Jerry's. You'd think someone would know that, in the era of CRM. Perhaps someone does, but doesn't care.

In any case, henceforth I'm a loyal customer of Jerry's competitor, Blick. 

Jerry's is on my s-list.

Forever. 

I plan, as well, to tell fellow artists about my lousy experience with Jerry's at every opportunity.

Helluva way to run a railroad.

POSTSCRIPT: Goodly subscribes to the fairness doctrine, and in that spirit will afford the president of Jerry's Artarama, Mr. Ira Goldstein, his two cents. 

He kindly wrote today in response to the above:

"I am very sorry for the events that occurred that have left you unhappy with Jerry’s handling of your recent order. I assure you that I take all of customers' concerns seriously. 

"I have reached out to our customer service director Steven Gilmore to look into your order and find out where the disconnect was that derailed your shopping experience with us. Steven will reach out after looking into the details.

"Jerry’s tries to set ourselves apart in artist product offerings, our prices and most importantly our service. Sometime things occur not by design and your email will help us to fix what occurred in the future and right this for you to the best of our ability. I would like to thank you, for contacting me will help us make sure this does not occur in the future."

POST POSTSCRIPT: Mr. Steven Gilmore phoned me to apologize for the customer-service failure and suggested that Jerry's computer system sent the package to my former address out of "overzealous fraud protection" and that Jerry's employees could not redirect the shipment once the system decided where it would go. He promised I would receive a refund of my $66.

UPDATE AS OF NOVEMBER 28: Jerry's has refused to refund me the $66. I contacted the company by email to tell them to keep it and buy the CEO a box of cigars.

UPDATE AS OF DECEMBER 14: I shared the post above with famed marketing guru David Meerman Scott, who reacted forthwith: "Customer service should be an opportunity to build fans. Clearly Jerry's is not doing a good job."

UPDATE AS OF DECEMBER 25: I received a full refund from Jerry's. Unsure why, but I have no complaint. Perhaps Mr. Scott's remark sped it along. Looks like there is a Santa Claus!

Boobarians

The German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche thought historians were like crabs, because they always "look backwards."

Most Americans never look backwards. Unless some grievance is concerned, they don't give a fig about the past—or know anything about it.

I've been devoting time recently as a volunteer to an historic preservation nonprofit, and so have been reading and thinking a lot about Americans' grand indifference to history. 

I've learned, among other things, that the American Association for State and Local History published a research paper recently that plumbs the depths of that indifference.

To inform themselves, the researchers interviewed 13 professional historians and 20 adult citizens. 

They found that, on the whole, Americans consider history merely the random concatenation of events—without significance.

(That history and its teaching have become headline news this week has nothing to do with Americans' passion for the subject, but only some people's hatred of others.)

Specifically, the researchers found that Americans share these eight beliefs:

1. History comprises the acts of a smattering of great figures. Martin Luther King, for example, solely crafted the civil rights Blacks now enjoy. (And the Freedom Riders were—who cares?) 
   
   
2. The great figures were nearly all White and male; the acts of lesser figures don't merit consideration. (Sorry, Elizabeth Cady Stanton.) 
   
   
3. Dredging up unpleasant parts of the past is a drag, and to be avoided. (Sorry, Crazy Horse.)
   
   
4. History is factual (transparent, indisputable); and historians are just news reporters. The news that most historians report is simply "old news." (The news that mavericks like Nikole Hannah-Jones and the late Howard Zinn report, on the other hand, is "fake news.")
   
   
5. Evidence-based history is just "historians' opinion," not the truth. (Sure, the truth is out there—but only Mulder and Scully will ever find it.)
   
   
6. History is useless; a dead-end hobby. (Sorry, Ken Burns.)
   
   
7. Learning history is all about memorization. (Why bother when you can Google it?)
   
   
8. Teachers of history get worse and worse all the time. (No surprise. Our schools suck, in general.)  

Odd though it may sound, the researchers concur with belief Number 8: teachers of history have let Americans down. "The K-12 education system fails to teach the skills necessary for students to engage critically with the past," they write.

And while they suggest ways for future historians to tackle these eight detrimental beliefs, the researchers are clear about the intractable nature of the problem educators have created.

As critics a century ago said of America, we're a nation of boobarians.

Smoke

Be sure where books are burned, people will also be burned.

— Heinrich Heine

This week I found a used copy of the famously-banned Stranger in a Strange Land on Thriftbooks and gave it to a sci-fi fan who's never read it.

Were it to grab his attention, that act would put me in the sights of right-wing ideologue Rabih Abuismail, the Virginia school board member who is calling for objectionable books to be burned.

Why book burning is the go-to act of the self-righteous is well understood.

Book burning (also known as libricide) fills the need to terrorize a mainstream culture and represents a baby step toward genocide.

Why Mr. Abuismail, a purported Christian, feels compelled to murder fellow Americans escapes me. 

But have no doubt that's where he and his mob of right-wing brothers and sisters are heading.

Where there's smoke...

Tom

Many a man has found his place in the world because of having been forced to struggle for existence early in life.

— Napoleon Hill

Joining the 9-to-5 workforce as a rookie, as I did in the 1970s, can be unnerving.

You immediately learn that it's filled with people like Tom.

I remember encountering numerous Toms in my first 9-to-5 job. 

Jovial, assured and smug, middle-aged Tom glides through his job, the very model of self-confidence. 

Without enemies, Tom gets all the rewards, all the perks, all the bonuses and the big trip to Mexico.

Tom's in control of his destiny.

But within five minutes of getting to know Tom, you realize he's unoriginal and vapid and completely complacent. 

He's pleased by his place in the organization; works minimally; and remains only truly passionate about golf and that new blonde in accounting.

We wonder today, what's wrong with our economy? Why won't Gen Y'ers and Z'ers accept all the plentiful jobs available—and stick with them for more than a year?

We look all over the place for answers, when the answer's obvious.

Gen Y and Z weren't raised, as Boomers were, to tolerate—even celebrate—the Toms of the world.

Boomers were raised to put up with chronic bullshit; to accept that the workplace by nature was discriminatory and that "both cream and scum rise to the top;" and—most importantly—that the Toms earn their comfortable stature in the workplace by dint of tenure, obedience, and affability—and nothing more.

Boomers' parents, children of the Depression who came of age during World War II, taught them those beliefs.

They taught Boomers that struggle at a young age was the law of success; that, in the words of self-help pioneer Napoleon Hill, "far from being a disadvantage, struggle is a decided advantage."

Gen X'ers and Z'ers, on the other hand, were taught Trophy Communism. Struggle is anathema to them. 

As a result, they want it all, and they want it now. 

Gen X'ers and Z'ers are contemptuous of the Toms of the world and content to "sit out the economy" until all the Toms retire.

The Committee on Lunacy

In 1883, Pennsylvania formed the Committee on Lunacy to supervise the state's treatment of the the mentally ill.

The Committee was particularly focused on the way asylum-keepers were handling the "criminally insane," who in the 19th century were housed with the general population of lunatics.

The Committee, which succeeded in building separate institutions for the criminally insane, was eventually disbanded, but the time has come to reconvene the group—and give it national oversight.

I'm calling on you to volunteer your time and join the Committee on Lunacy 2.0.

Our mission is simple: to find ways to isolate the criminally insane from the rest of the population.

Although dangerous lunatics abound, under our committee's immediate consideration are four persons of particular interest:

• Republican Congressman Paul Gosar, who posted a video to social media that depicts him killing Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and attacking President Joe Biden with a sword.
  
  
• Teen vigilante Kyle Rittenhouse, who pleaded not guilty to six charges of first-degree homicide in the shooting deaths of two protestors in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Rittenhouse was armed with an AR-15.

• Rapper Travis Scott, who incited 50,000 fans to stampede the stage at a Houston concert last weekend, resulting in the deaths of eight people. The victims were trampled to death.
  
  
• Former President Donald Trump, who in the final year of his administration promoted his bellhop to run the Presidential Personnel Office (PPO), deputizing the 29-year-old to ferret out political enemies. Trump aides compared the PPO under the bellhop's control to the Gestapo. (Before his promotion, the bellhop had been fired from the White House for concealing large gambling wins from the FBI, but Trump promoted him anyway.) 

I you wish to join our committee, please send me an email. 

Please note, you must be able to silly-walk.