Rat in a cage
Life is cubic
In modern society, the proletariat is born for the cubicle. Our education system runs like an indoctrination factory; stifling creativity and conforming free-spirited children into fearful, command abiding, corporate robots who are taught subservience over sovereignty. In naked capitalism, the corporate machine is a soulless enterprise. The machine does not know you nor does it want to know you. Its chief concern is to maximize its bottom line. If you cannot contribute to its objective you better find another master or improve your skills to be worthy of your current one. The machine does not honor anything except a pay check and a promotion provided you jump through enough hoops and faithfully tow the company line. Corporations fail to realize that humans are not robots. We get depressed, anxious and demotivated. The corporation minimizes dissidence by swiftly replacing one worker for the other. Each year, the corporation purges its bottom performers. The threat of lay-off keep the employees in the jaws of debilitating anxiety.
From the top to the bottom every person in an organization is replaceable. The corporation is a concrete jungle; the dominant thrive while the meek strive to survive. This Darwinian ‘survival of the fittest’ philosophy encourages workplace politics and rewards Machiavellian behavior. It is no surprise that sociopaths tend to rise to the top of most corporations. The rule of capitalism is simple; either you conform to the system or the system spits you out. There is no middle ground. Ironically, the biggest supporters of capitalism are the cubicle-dwellers. It is human nature to believe in myths rather than be confronted by harsh realities. The reality is that spending the majority of your life in a windowless-box surrounded by artificial plants and light is not conducive for the human spirit.
Man loves order, craves for it and despises chaos. Man will go to any length to establish order, even at the cost of his own independence. Corporations provides illusionary comfort in the form of a steady pay check. In exchange, it robs you off your time. Life is simply borrowed time. Financial freedom is a worthy endeavor for most of us, but the route to financial freedom seldom comes from cubicle work. Most jobs pay just enough to keep you working but not enough to keep you motivated. A growing population, wealth inequality and the rising cost of urban living has made asset creation a hopeless dream for most of us. Gone are the days, where you could retire by the age of 60 and set sail into the proverbial sunset. Today, if you are not clever with financial planning, you will probably work till your last breath. The 40-hour work week is also another convenient lie. The reality of the 9 to 5 job is that it is not 9 to 5. Sleeping, commuting, meal prep and getting ready for work accounts for atleast 12 hours each day. In the end, we are left with only 4 hours of our personal time. This 4 hours of personal time is typically drowned in some leisurely activity to keep us from realizing the mundane reality of our lives. Every year the 2 weeks of promised vacation is an escape from the drudgery of modern day work. Every weekend is seen as an escape from the misery of one’s existence. It is not Mondays’ that suck, its your job.
The majority of workers are trapped in a cubicle which ironically resembles a rat maze. A rat maze for the rat race. Some may escape the cubicle and get a corner office with a view. A rat cage with a view. Can everyone escape this prison? No. Frankly speaking for the masses, reality is and always will be confounding. People would rather be tied to a monotonous and safe existence, rather than take risks, be honest with themselves and pursue what they really enjoy. “The corporation is the most efficient system to propel the economic turbines of our society.” We as a society have accepted this proposition as an irrefutable fact. Capitalism realized that the best kind of slavery is voluntary slavery. Trick a person in believing he is not a slave whilst achieving voluntary dependence. Pay him enough money that he can survive but not enough that he can quit.
Like bonded labor, debt and the lack of monetary freedom or safety net keeps the worker perpetually tied to the system. They say the average person has less than 3 months of savings to live off on. This fact is abysmal to say the least. A hundred years from now we might look back at capitalism and simply shake our collective heads. How could we sacrifice the best years of our life, helping others achieve outcomes divorced from our own realities?