They Own You
I quit my job today. Yes, this is a rare personal story from me on this blog. I don’t normally talk about myself, I would rather focus on the wide generalities of politics and current events. I’m not going to go into detail, but conversations with friends got me thinking about some things. The way we look at employment needs to change. I’ll admit that maybe even I hadn’t considered some aspects of labor that my friends brought up. So here are the 5 top reasons why they own you, and how to fight for your liberation.
- Two Weeks Notice:
When you quit a job, you are expected to give two weeks notice to the company or firm. Why? Well, they say, it’s just common courtesy. While that might be, why should we accept that? If a job lays you off, do they have to give you two weeks notice? If they fire you, do they have to give you two weeks notice, or two weeks of pay to help you transition to another job? No, of course not. They own the capital, they decide the rules. They own you. You are expected to defer to them in every way. Reject this premise as unequal, unfair, and wrong.
2. Disrespect
At any job, you are supposed to treat your employer with deference and respect. Ask yourself if you get the same in return? They might fire you if you become ill, and cannot work, and have to call in sick at the last minute, but many jobs think nothing of demanding you work extra hours at a moment’s notice. They’ll find a way to punish your insubordination if you don’t. This is also because they own you, they own your labor and the fruits of it.
3. What Your Life Revolves Around
We have this idea in Western society that one is defined by their job. When people ask “What do you do?” The answer is: “accounting” or “I’m an electrician” or “I work in construction.” Why is the answer never “I play with my children, I love to bowl (badly), I watch anime, and enjoy fine literature.” Why? Because your job owns you. It defines you. It defines you because you let it define you. Don’t acquiesce to this subjugation of who you are. Fight back by defining your life in your terms, not theirs.
4. Commodity
To the capitalist, you are nothing more than a commodity. Just like materials, buildings and other tools of the trade, you are a dumb animal who simply goes through the motions as you provide them with more money. They don’t care about you as a person, they don’t care about you at all. They are interested in one thing, and one thing only. The money you can produce for them. They don’t care if you can’t make ends meet on the pittance they give you. As long as you are still working, they don’t care. They want ever more production, ever more performance, and will squeeze you to the last drop, or until you drop. You have become a mindless commodity, a cog in the wheel of another’s success.
5. Capital
And finally, the reason they own you is the same reason they own everything. They own your mind. They know that you fear not having enough money to survive, and so you will settle for less than you are worth. They hold all the cards, the power. Funny thing is, it’s mostly psychological. They can’t control you, yet they do, because you allow them to control you. You yield to their power and wealth, hoping that if you debase yourself enough they’ll let you have a slightly bigger piece of the pie. They really won’t though, not if they can at all help it. Everything they own was built by workers like you. They didn’t do it, they didn’t have to. They own the buildings built by construction workers. They own the supplies made by factory workers. They own the raw material dug from the face of the earth by workers sweating in the hot sun, hands blistering, back aching. They own the political system that keeps the economic slavery in place, giving them the power to exploit you. You sit back and take it, because you cannot imagine a better system, because, after all this is just the way things are.
It doesn’t have to be this way. We workers, are the ones who produce wealth. We workers are the one’s who have the power to create, to innovate, to learn and to grow. We workers are the ones who hold all the potential power in the world. What is potential power? It is real power, real energy. When you grab a swing on a swing set, hold it high in the air, ready to release it, that is potential energy. All it will be is already stored in that material. It is waiting for a push.
Likewise, we already have the power to create a better, fairer, and more equal world. We have the material, we have the energy, we have the numbers, we have the technology, we have the brains to accomplish what we want, what we need. That possibility is suspended high above our heads, and we’re being told we’re powerless to release all that potential energy, powerless to turn it into a torrent of kinetic energy that will swing us to new heights that we’ve never soared to before. It’s a lie, and don’t believe it. All it really takes, is a push.
So push goddamnit.
Workers of the world, unite.
