While I was looking through some of my past written works I came across this one. How I could have forgotten about it, is beyond me, other than to say I most likely became distracted by other things. I sent it to a couple of my friends explaining to them I wished I had a place to post it for others to read, which is what sent me on my search that eventually brought me to wordpress. It is quite different from my other postings in my journal, but for me this expresses my more deeper thoughts that become aroused when I find a book which stimulates my mind. So here it is unchanged from its original (2011), enjoy and comment if you feel the desire to do so.
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In a book I have been reading called ‘Faith of the Fallen’, I have come to recognize our own predicament. The story is much about people having fallen into slavery under a falsehood of doing good for the people. Sacrificing themselves and all they have for the good of the people. The common worker almost starves to death while working and slaving hard to only have the money they rightfully earned taken from them in the guise of helping others, and in actuality it feeds the rich to become richer.
I have in essence worked for the same company that has migrated through transformation after transformation with the guise of doing better. In the beginning there was once pride in the work the common workers performed but in some areas the degradation had already started. Workers were threatened with the loss of their jobs if they didn’t perform, and were lectured to and punished when a wrong was committed by only one of their fellow workers. If someone stood up to the unfairness of the situation then rules would be tightened down on everyone and fear would be the common ground on making the common worker keep in line. As transformation came it was with speeches of ‘inspiration’ of how good the transformation will be for all, how it will improve the overall standing of the company, thus providing benefit to the common worker. Transformation over transformation, and year over year, the common worker has never seen improvement on their situation. The common worker continues to be ‘inspired’ by fear. Watching as those they have worked alongside of for years, lose their jobs while others who have no skill be hired in to do the same work, replacing the skilled common worker. We watch with our hearts in our hands, and fear in our throats afraid to speak for fear we will be the next one to be walked out the door and left to rot on the doorstep.
I take away from the book I have just finished a quote which cuts to the core of what we all need to be reminded of: ‘Your life is yours alone. Rise up and live it.’
Large corporations have taken upon themselves the right to enslave us with false testimonials of ‘perform well and you will be rewarded’ because the company will do well and in the same breath they speak of millions and billions of dollars being spent to acquire, expand, take over… Not only in the many transformations of the company I work for have they proclaimed this throughout all transformations but have continued to grow and expand while the common worker sees nothing for the hard work they put in except fear and more fear and the constant expectation that their skill and ability and good performance will account for nothing when the rich decide the bottom line needs to be increased to make them richer.
I proclaim nothing but honesty and the brutal truth. I know of no worker who does not fear of losing their job. I know of no worker who doesn’t see the futility in the never ceasing ‘transformations’, which are really just a reshuffling of department heads to keep the common workers so confused as to who they report to, and cannot tell when another management/director/vice-whatever position is made instead of being eliminated, and know performance evaluations no longer have any merit when the person performing the evaluation hasn’t even worked with the individuals being evaluated.
We are just slaves being shuffled from one slave master to another, with pillow talk to soften the blow of yet another master who will not fight for the value provided by the common worker they have enslaved.
The book ‘’Faith of the Fallen” is the sixth book in a series of which I’m driven to reading the rest of the series. I am quite blown over by the depth for which the author had to have knowledge of the psychology of warfare, slavery, governments, institutions, and of individuals to be able to write a story that is classified as ‘fiction’, takes place in a period I can only classify as ‘medieval’ and yet have reverberations throughout our current period in time. I have yet to come across a current situation that is not represented within the story. I applaud the man for his boldness and understand why it is written in fiction. If he had written this as current history with a call to arms for revolution he would have been jailed without counsel for treason to never be heard from again. It is a sad state of affairs we see ourselves in, not only as a workforce but as a so called ‘free’ people. And I fear it will have to get much worse in order for revolution to occur to bring about change for the better.
© Kate Spyder
Kate Spyder 