I Used to do That for a Living; Landing and Leaving 108 Jobs Introduction, Chapter 1, Chapter 2 | Page 32

Roger Scott Jackson

school already kept me on edge. Overcoming the
inertia of futility was the hardest thing I did every day. I always figured myself as the least likely
of my family to make the cut, to be called with
the saints to meet Jesus in the sky. And that was
in the ‘60s.
By the 1970s Jack’s avowed enemies were
those who advocated equality for anybody who
was not white, male, heterosexual, and Christian. As ever, his most virulent hatred was reserved for atheists. And communists. To Jack
atheism and communism were direct synonyms.
Some folks conflate atheism and skepticism.
Jack was no atheist, but he was a skeptic, even if
he did buy-in to in all manner of superstitions,
conspiracy theories, and tales of flying saucers,
and believed that people were healed by the laying on of hands and the anointing with oil. Skeptical? He distrusted the government, medical
science, the United Nations, corporations, public
schools, universities, his neighbors, his employers, his relatives, and all religions other than his
own. In general, most of what Jack believed was
false, and most what he disbelieved was true. He
rarely changed his mind. He evolved but little.
And evolution was definitely one of the things he
did not believe in.
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