you’ve been lied to your whole life, my friend. a simple lie that we all take for granted as truth: ‘work hard and you’ll get ahead.’ the sad reality is even simpler, and all encompassing: ‘work hard, or you will be punished.’
i like to ask the question: ‘if you wanted to stop working, could you?’ and for the large majority of people, the answer is a clear no. no. if you stop working, food will be withheld, shelter will be withheld, medical assistance will be withheld. if this non-working continues for too long, you’ll be locked in chains and forced to work anyway (if you’ve ever wondered at the purpose behind the criminalization of homelessness, there is your answer.)
and what do you get for your work? the bare minimum, the littlest it is possible to give you, just enough to keep you alive and healthy enough to continue working.
if you want the clearest picture of the slave society we live in, simply read some posts on linkdin. people there live in a self created alternate reality of ‘the grind’ or ‘the hustle’ where they all encourage each other to work harder and more, even more than the slavers ask of them, so that they’ll be rewarded with better quality food or a bigger house to sleep in after working their 12 or 16 hour days. look at the numerous posts by people who have just been laid off, as they gratefully lick the boots of those who fired them. how can they be so ingratiating and thankful, literally saying thank you to the people who just cut them off? because they have to. they must be meek and obedient, or no other slaver will take them on. they are all quaking with fear at the thought of being unable to keep working.
this fear is built into all of us by the consistently horrible and disgusting treatment of the poor and homeless. this fear tactic is used to keep the other workers in line. the steady refusal of our ‘leaders’ to pass any kind of healthcare reform or implement any meaningful kind of social safety nets is by design. the whole system falls apart if people aren’t afraid to stop working.
consumerism, capitalism, whatever you want to call this ism we live in, is slavery perfected. because the slaves have all been convinced that they are free. they’ve been convinced that if they just keep working, they’ll be rewarded with more freedom. in reality, the few that are rewarded simply get promoted to slavers themselves, and continue propagating the whole repulsive system, all without being aware of their lack of choice.
what’s the way out? there is none, except complete overthrow of the whole system. not likely? of course not. but to even think about getting there you have to first realize and acknowledge that there is even a problem. so, i’m a slave. i was born into slavery, and will die in slavery unless some miracle occurs. there’s no escape. even if i try to run away and go live in the woods, people will be sent looking for me. i’ll be captured and locked up, maybe not in prison, but in some ‘rehabilitation’ center until i’m back to ‘normal’ with the full understanding that i must keep working.
you must never stop working. it’s the one thing a slave must never, ever do.
Jonas David 