Work = Slavery...

(This post leaves out, deliberately, the issue of work, slavery and poverty in the third world)

Did you know, realise that...

A long time ago, we lived in small groups, we spent time together and individually doing what was needed to ensure we had food, shelter and something to protect our bodies from any harm exposure to the elements might cause...

Then, somehow, things changed...

 

 

 

 

I guess his/her parents just don't work hard enough

Just because we've been doing it this way for thousands of years, doesn't make it sane, sensible, right...

I've been having a dialogue on whether or not people should have to "work" for a living...

I don't think so...

As you can see from the quote above, Buckminster Fuller didn't think we should have to either...

Nor do many philosophers and economists...

I've been thinking about this idea on and off for almost 20 years...

What brought it to the forefront of my mind again the other day, was my decision to stop my public education advocacy/activism...

Most of the reason was because of where things stand now in that arena, and my inability to control/handle my frustration at what I see as teachers' refusal to fight for their profession, their jobs and the wellbeing of their students (see previous blog entry Closing Doors...)...

A smaller part of the reason relates to the fact that I had turned my advocacy into a full-time UNPAID job, and I wasn't getting any nourishment/support back from it - either to help live in the material world or emotionally/spiritually...

As I wrote on a Facebook status update: 

"One of the things that is kinda hard to process right now is that I've been asking for donations both on my blog and on MisEducation Nation for a while... 

I've been asking:

IF you feel you've received anything of value in my writings/efforts AND

IF you have enough for yourself and your loved ones 

THEN would you please consider sharing something of what you have in excess with me and the boy... 

The blog gets around 250 page views a day, often more...

50 people a month (600 people over the year), giving a one-off $20 donation over a year, would be enough to keep me and the boy housed for that year...

I've had a couple of people recognise my efforts on the blog and honour the energy exchange with a donation, which has been lovely - THANK YOU...

Because of my efforts, MisEducation Nation has reached 1300 "likers" over two years, with those numbers continuing to grow at the rate of about 10-15 a week, so those people would only have had to give $27 once to keep me financially viable for three years...

Was what I was producing/offering worth $27 once in every three years, to each of those 1300 people, to the larger world?

It's bitter sweet, now that I've announced my decision to quit public ed advocacy, to have lots of people on the page, talking about how much the effort I put in made a difference, how they spread what I posted to other arenas, how it actually did change perceptions and how much they value my passion and voice, how much they will miss it etc...

No one translated that appreciation for the value of the work into even a small donation.    In fact, when I first asked 18 months ago, someone castigated me for having the temerity to put the idea forward at all...

here: What's It Worth To You?

and I have some very robust ideas around the issue of volunteering... 

here: Volunteering - Service Or Exploitation? 

Put into the circle what we can, take out what we need...

What I do apparently has value and yet it's not valued enough to warrant an energy exchange that allows my son and I to house/feed/clothe ourselves? 

How are we going to move forward as a world, if this doesn't change?" 

It seems to me that people have been conned into agreeing, even welcoming, living as slaves in this world...

From a spiritual perspective, I agree that one of the reasons we're here on this planet, in this reality, is to be of service to others...

AND I agree that there is value in carrying out tasks with mindfulness, that the most humble activity does have sacredness to be found within it...

AND...

There's a lie we've all been brainwashed with, that there is "nobility", "dignity" in working... that if you have to, you will do anything to survive, to provide for your children, up to and including cleaning other peoples' toilets...

Do we really believe that?  That there is dignity in cleaning other peoples' shit, so we can buy a crust of bread for our children?

Our world is being raped and pillaged to such an extent by the oligarchs and we have such a high degree of technology operating now, that there are insufficient good, satisfying jobs with dignity left for all of those who need/want them...

People with PhD's are working two and three jobs as service workers in coffee shops, restaurants and supermarkets, just to pay the rent, never mind being able to pay off their student loan debts...

Real under/unemployment in the US stands at around 30% and in European countries it's even higher, with youth unemployment reaching 60% plus...

We can't go on this way.   We can't keep pretending that we can "grow" our way out of this - one cannot have infinite growth in a finite system (the earth) - the environmental and social damage/cost is enormous...

AND there are ways to change this...

The Abolition of Work is an essay by Bob Black that puts forward the idea that no one should ever work.   He gives a brief background on where this thinking comes from and why this is something we need to consider at this point in the development of our human existence.

Robert Theobald also thought we ought not to have to work... In fact, he said:

"My goal is to create a situation of full unemployment - a world in which people do not have to hold a job.  And I believe that this kind of world can actually be achieved." ~ Robert Theobald 

For more information, go here: Basic Income Guarantee

All of this is possible - we just have to start thinking about and DOING things differently...

For example, we need to consider a shift to a resource-based economy rather than hanging onto one based on money...

And we have to stop using and extracting resources out of the earth to go to work, and to make more and more stuff we don't need...

Buckminster Fuller agreed with François de Chardenedes that petroleum, from the standpoint of its replacement cost out of our current energy "budget" (essentially, the net incoming solar flux), had cost nature "over a million dollars" per U.S. gallon (US$300,000 per litre) to produce.  From this point of view, its use as a transportation fuel by people commuting to work represents a huge net loss compared to their earnings.

He also said that during the 1970s, humanity had attained an unprecedented state,  that the accumulation of relevant knowledge, combined with the quantities of major recyclable resources that had already been extracted from the earth, had attained a critical level, such that competition for necessities was not necessary any more. Cooperation had become the optimum survival strategy. "Selfishness," he declared, "is unnecessary and hence-forth unrationalizable... War is obsolete."

~ Buckminster Fuller

Think about this next time you're standing in the supermarket (or any store) thinking about buying soap, or shampoo, or beans, or dishwasher liquid or milk or any other consumable:

Why do we allow businesses/profiteers/corporations to use slave labour here and in other countries, to make large quantities of one item, then use millions of dollars packaging and 'branding' it as different products, so that we believe the lie that we're being given choice, and then we spend more or less money buying it (depending on our "station in life" and our own illusory fabrication of who we think ourselves to be)...

How much did the slave "earn" to make that product?   How many hours at minimum wage do some of us have to "work" to "earn" enough to buy it?

How many hours do you have to "work" to pay for a roof over your head, clothes on your back, food in your belly and the means to get you around in this world (seeing how the layout of our cities/communities now makes access to services and resources difficult)?

What happens in our world, if you don't "work"?  Eventually, you have no home, no shelter, no warmth, no food, no clothing, no cleanliness, no medical care, no recreation, no leisure activities...

And yet, the United Nations declares that, amongst other things, we humans each, by virtue of being alive, of existing, have a BIRTHRIGHT to food, shelter, medical care and education... 

Ironically, it also states that we have the RIGHT to dignified, meaningful, work... NOTICE - nowhere in the Declaration does it say that the two sets of rights are connected - that we must work for our food, shelter and other necessities of life...

LYRICS:

I want to break free
I want to break free
I want to break free from your lies
You're so self satisfied I don't need you
I've got to break free
God knows, God knows I want to break free

I've fallen in love
I've fallen in love for the first time
And this time I know it's for real
I've fallen in love yeah
God knows God knows I've fallen in love

It's strange but it's true
I can't get over the way you love me like you do
But I have to be sure
When I walk out that door
Oh how I want to be free baby
Oh how I want to be free
Oh how I want to break free

But life still goes on
I can't get used to living without living without
Living without you by my side
I don't want to live alone hey
God knows got to make it on my own
So baby can't you see
I've got to break free

I've got to break free
I want to break free yeah

I want, I want, I want, I want to break free  

(The David Mallet-directed music video, is a parody of the British northern working class soap opera Coronation Street. Mercury's character was loosely based on Bet Lynch, while May's character was based on Hilda Ogden. The video also depicts the band in what appears to be a coal mine and features a segment with the Royal Ballet, in which Freddie Mercury portrays Nijinsky)

I guess I'm back at my starting point...

• I have value - I'm an expression of one of the infinite potentials of the life force

• What I contribute to life has value; I change the world just by being in it

• I have a UN-stated RIGHT to the necessities of life

• At some point in time, ownership of the resources necessary for living passed from the community to a few people, who then demanded we pay/work for access to and use of those resources

• There isn't enough 'work' to go around and what there is, increasingly doesn't pay enough for people to buy the necessities of life and to live with dignity

• Our planet can't support more of us 'working', when 'working' really means using up resources to make junk we don't need to keep a broken, artificial economic model going

So - how about it? 

When will we all throw off our worker chains

and claim our freedom?