Rise

[H2O Man]

54. As a young man,

I worked in a factory. It was part of the defense industry, and the plant made a heck of a profit. However, for no good reason, the supervision would institute "rules" that -- at best -- treated the workers like itty-bitty school children. These measures degraded the workers, and reduced them to non-thinking cogs in the machine.

I've never had a problem with rules per say, so long as they are intended to improve some aspect of daily life. But I haven't been willing to accept mistreatment. So, when groups of workers would initially complain about some new rule or another, I'd ask what they were prepared to do about it? Generally nothing, of course.

That complaining was part of the process that leads directly to acceptance, and then to becoming part of that abusive system. More, it leads to a curious dynamic: people who accept degradation will reach a point where they become hostile if anyone treats them with respect. At some level, they are aware that they have lost all self-respect, and resent it if anyone reminds them of that.