Sick Unto Death

[Mythsaje]

Let's face it. We're disposable. As workers, as consumers, as Americans. The whole system is set up that way, to blend each individual into a faceless, mindless machine of production and consumption to make those on the top tier even more fabulously wealthy than they already are.

If we are injured, ill, injustly treated by the legal system, sent off to war to die for someone else's great experiment, it's all the same to the Powers-That-Be. Few, if any, of anyone above the rank of middle management in any large corporation gives a rat's ass about us as individuals. I used to work for what was, at the time, the 17th largest corporation in the world. I broke company records in my job in both speed and quality, and the corporation gave me no recognition for my efforts.

I work in retail these days, hoping that the public will discover my novels and fall in love with them (why not, since reviewers, editors, and other authors have already done so?) and I am more or less satisfied with one I'm doing because I feel appreciated, if not monetarily, then simply through the confidence and respect of my co-workers and supervisors. Sometimes that's the best you can expect, and it's worth more than anyone imagines.

But is it enough?

As workers, and consumers, we have far more power than we recognize at times. If every progressive, as an example, picked a single day to just stop, to not show up for work, to refrain from purchasing anything at all, to inflict a day of "blue flu" on the economy, a shudder would pass through our whole society, if not the world itself. It would be a minor shudder, to be truthful, but it would be noticed.

We should be sick of being ignored, being treated as disposable humans. Each and every one of us is the cornerstone of this civilization, such as it is. Without us, the workers and consumers, everything grinds to a halt. Capital can't provide service, or build things. It can only provide motivation for US to do so.

They, the enemy, want to eliminate social security, and medicare, and want to leave those who can't provide for themselves at the mercy of their neighbors, to drive them into the questionable arms of their local churches rather than looking after them as they should. If we, the workers, are disposable, they're barely perceived as human, because they serve no real purpose in the grand scheme of things.

It's an affront to human dignity to allow ourselves to be used this way, and all of us should seriously consider what we can do to get the message across that we are reaching the end of our patience with this treatment.

It's not just progressives who have reason to despise this attitude. There are workers all over this country who feel completely disregarded by their employers. And if every one of them was brought into an open expression of this, it would be like an electrical pulse of tremendous force to the very heart of capitalism.

Each and every one of us is important, vital, and worthy of respect. It's a need that transcends race, religion, and gender. And that's a message the Powers That Be need to finally grasp.

[frustrated_lefty]

1. The title to your post is ironic

Soren Kierkegaard, a swede and predecesor to Sartre, wrote of The Sickness Unto Death...which was despair. As you conclude, we must reject despair. Despair is no answer. Hope and perseverance is where we find light at the end of the tunnel.

[Mythsaje]

2. I wasn't aware of that connection

but it WAS what I had in mind, more or less.