Employment Is Paid Slavery

Employment Is Paid Slavery

slavery [ˈsleɪvərɪ]

n

1.     (Law) the state or condition of being a slave; a civil relationship whereby one person has absolute power over another and controls his life, liberty, and fortune.

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003

In my recent exposure to being a member of the unemployed, I’ve had a lot of time to think and analyse employment as a component of society. Employment is not a choice, it is a necessity to survive. An income must be derived in order to meet the basic needs of human life. These needs are water, food, shelter, and, depending upon climate, clothing. Beyond that, everything else is a luxury. http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_are_the_basic_necessities_for_the_survival_of_the_human_civilisation#ixzz1NEzpe3sk

In order to obtain these core components of human life, goods or services must be rendered and remuneration supplied. This generally means being employed in order to receive a stable income to sate these needs.

Why then, are so many of us forced to work in jobs or roles we have no satisfaction in? For the simple need to source financial assets in order to support our basic life requirements, and our extended life desires, wants and needs.

Using the definition of slavery above, life has power over us all. To sustain our lives and lifestyles, we need to work.

Making a brutally honest observation, look at life in Ethiopia, and similar African countries. Hundreds upon thousands lose their lives in tragic and painful manners due to starvation. Life has the power. Without money to buy food and water, this is the result. This is the consequence of ignoring human needs at their most primal level. Without demeaning the obvious tragedy that those less fortunate than us are forced to deal with, let’s relate slavery to the middle class Australian.

Most of us have houses, mobile phones, televisions, cars, fridges and so on. To have these objects, we need to pay for them. To pay for them, we need an income. The more prestigious and superior your assets and articles, the more you must pay to enjoy them. It is, to a degree, hedonistic activity. Deriving pleasure from enjoying these articles that in reality add no substantial value to our daily life.

By writing this down on my laptop, using electricity to power it, I’m indulging in an activity that is hedonistic to me. The more of these activities I have, the more I must support them with money. If my laptop were to be taken away, I would survive. If my access to water and food were taken away, I wouldn’t.

Why then, should we support these devices by working in an unfulfilling and unrewarding job? What do you derive pleasure from?

From working a 60 hour week at the office, 70 including travel, so you can be paid $80,000 a year, have the big house, the car, the pool.

Or do you derive pleasure from working 40 hours a week where you’re paid $50,000 a year but you can spend more time at home to enjoy those few assets you can afford on your reduced salary?

We are all slaves to life. And our employment dictates the degree to which we are trapped in this cycle of pleasure and pain. We could all get by working for reduced salaries, living in smaller houses, but would it make you happy?

All you need is food, water and shelter , right?

Who Is The Real Terrorist?

Seeing the news break over the death of Osama I was left feeling somewhat empty. The man who engineered the September 11 Twin Towers atrocity has finally seen his life come to an end after being relentlessly hounded for ten years.

After seeing images of jubilant Americans celebrating the death of Osama, I couldn’t help but draw correlations to those of the Afghanistan and Middle Eastern people celebrating the loss of American life.

It is ok for the Western media and its people to celebrate the death of this terrorist who has taken countless innocent lives, yet it is not ok for those in the Middle East to celebrate the death of those associated with the American bureaucracy?

Don’t get me wrong, not for one moment do I think that Osama and his follower’s acts of terrorism are anything less than despicable forms of cowardice and violence against those who can’t defend themselves.

Having said that, how are America and her allies actions any different when they drop countless tonnes of ordinance from their fighter jets that result in civilian casualties?

That’s ok, that can be brushed off as collateral damage can’t it? Swept under the rug away from the Western world that is so preoccupied in the death and chaos caused by Osama that the “collateral damage” is almost acceptable.

Between 2001-2003, over 3,100 Afghanistan civilians were killed as a direct result of NATO bombing runs.  2,752 died in the attacks on the WTC.

Once again, I am not condoning Osama’s actions, yet we need to take off the blinkers and understand from the perspective of the Middle Eastern nations why there is so much hate and contempt for us Western countries.

No one can win this war on terror.

Not so long as America and her puppets continue to meddle in the affairs of these nations.

Not so long as there are evil men and women who wish to do harm to the weak and vulnerable.

The celebrations the American’s engaged in following Osama’s death were akin to those of the Afghan’s when American troops are killed. Think of the contempt you feel for the Afghani’s as they rejoice in the death of American soldiers. The way they gloat and yell and jeer for the end of American life. Now think how the American’s carried on, and how these images were broadcast world-wide. Now think what the terrorists are feeling having seen such delight in the faces of those they consider their enemy.

No one is right here.

There is not one condonable action in the 10 year window that this “war on terror” has spanned. From the gutless acts which resulted in the atrocities of 9/11, to the retaliation from the US of A in search of “weapons of mass destruction”.

My argument is that we as a Western country are quick to frown upon the celebratory acts of the Middle Eastern nations at the death of our soldiers, yet we quickly pick them up and engage in them when the situation suits. We are not as unalike from our perceived enemies as we may think, and each side sees validity and justification in their cause and action.

Terrorist acts are in the eye of the beholder, what the 9/11 tragedy is as a terrorist act to us, is the same as NATO air strikes on civilian neighbourhoods in Afghanistan. Don’t be so blasé and quick to judge the thoughts and responses of others before indulging in your own hedonistic activities.