Pamela's Blog 1

Published on Friday, May 1, 2009 by Nas2EndWork.org

“You Know How I Know You’re A Slave?”

by Pamela Satterwhite

03.28.10 Addendum *

“Slave,” according to Websters:

1: a person held in servitude as the chattel of another: bondman;

2: a person who has lost control of himself and is dominated by something or someone;

3: a mechanical device that is directly responsive to another;

4: drudge, toiler.

Need we also define ‘servitude’? Or are you willing to grant the point that we are all slaves?

No?

I first began to notice my slave-status laboring in arenas where you might think I’d feel exhilaration because I was working for “change,” i.e., in non-profits.

In his book Blessed Unrest, Paul Hawken sees the proliferation of NGOs and CBOs as evidence of “the future in the present,” as C.L.R. James used to say. This is because he’s only ever been the boss of one. I doubt he’s served in one. I’ve served, and I know better. I know that as long as corporations dominate our polity and economy, their amorality, logic, and organizational tools will continue to dominate as well. And their domination ‘reads’ “success” to the confused. Who, after all, in this power-worshiping non-culture, doesn’t want to ‘win’? The horror stories I can tell you of big, bad overstuffed bosses in kind and gentle non-profits may not surpass similar stories from the for-profit world, but they reinforce status quo and suppress hope nonetheless.

In one job I had, I was hauled into the boss’s office on my second day and reminded that I’d better watch my step, because my first three months were strictly probationary, so… “So…what?” I wondered. Why are you threatening me? You would think in the non-profit world the reality that everyone wants to do their best – to shine – would be taken for granted, that the big stick would not be wielded there. Not so.

The truth is, as long as corporations rule, as long as we are not individually free, there’s no hiding place from the big stick. No respite. No safe harbor. No reprieve.

Before I worked for non-profits, I’d primarily occupied disposable jobs – waitress, receptionist, usherette, hostess. I oddly felt less a slave in jobs like these because I wasn’t submerged in the role. They no more defined me than whatever stupid uniform I had to don to perform them. They could not clip my wings because I never showed them.

But the lure of the non-profit was work that you cared about, that you hoped would make a difference. So I unfurled my wings, stretched to my full height – and got shot down every time. Or, shot myself down. That happens too. When the lure of recognition is dangled in front of you, it’s all too easy to trip over yourself trying to reach it. Either way, you’re a slave. You let the job define you, limit you, mutilate your essential soul.

You think the job doesn’t do this to you?

You know how I know you’re a slave?

Because when you’re “at work,” you don’t listen to your body when it speaks – when it asks for movement, or touch, or sleep.

Because when you’re “at work,” you think other people’s thoughts, say words others want you to say, even when you don’t believe them.

Because when you’re “at work,” you censor yourself automatically – you don’t even have to think about it anymore.

Because when you’re “at work,” you realize other people’s dreams – while your own are cut loose, lost…adrift.

Because when you’re “at work,” you can barely see your own dreams, as you stand, chained and anchored in the shallows, your feet sinking deeper into the muck, ‘til you’re stuck.

Do you ever try to see them, your dreams? Do you ever wave sadly and wish for better times? Do you even bother to watch them drift away?

We lead such busy lives.

* 03.28.10 Addendum

We on the Left have a really hard time...keeping our eyes firmly locked on the real prize...

...while we devote our days fighting for our "rights"......

...the earth is snatched from our sights overnight...

If we were to look long...

...I think we'd see......

...that all the hard work we do for a salary...

...is ultimately checked...

...by the financial industry...

...which bides its time...

...finding it fun to be patient...

...waiting to see its long-term "vision"...

...come to fruition.

If you recognize the Abyss...between our success and theirs...

...how do you imagine it can be repaired...

...with air?...

...with fragmented efforts unfolding haphazardly...

...in which the left hand never knows what the right...

...has in it...?

When will we want with as much ferocity...

...as we feel for our paychecks...

– and the chance they advance to "get seen" –

...the earth that feeds us...?

...the only thing that can free us......

...fill the cavity caused....

...by our addiction to "jobs"...?

...And the "fellowship" you think you feel...? –

...at that happy conjunction with your 'function'...?

...when "the system" says "you're done"...

...the boot in the ass will reveal...

...it ain't real....

Nobody in a job can do anything but their job...that's the whole point. "A future freedom without bosses" is in no one's job description. If we want it, we have to work for it....And the only way we can be free is if we embrace across the categories (individual freedom is premised on general freedom...and vice versa.)

(From: Countering The False Sweetness)

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Pamela's Blog 1

Published on Friday, May 1, 2009 by Nas2EndWork.org

“You Know How I Know You’re A Slave?”