These armies of bureaucrats serve a corporate system that will quite literally kill us. They are as cold and disconnected as Mengele. They carry out minute tasks. They are docile. Compliant. They obey. They find their self-worth in the prestige and power of the corporation, in the status of their positions and in their career promotions. They assure themselves of their own goodness through their private acts as husbands, wives, mothers and fathers. They sit on school boards. They go to Rotary. They attend church. It is moral schizophrenia. They erect walls to create an isolated consciousness. They make the lethal goals of ExxonMobil or Goldman Sachs or Raytheon or insurance companies possible. They destroy the ecosystem, the economy and the body politic and turn workingmen and -women into impoverished serfs. They feel nothing. Metaphysical naiveté always ends in murder. It fragments the world. Little acts of kindness and charity mask the monstrous evil they abet. And the system rolls forward. The polar ice caps melt. The droughts rage over cropland. The drones deliver death from the sky. The state moves inexorably forward to place us in chains. The sick die. The poor starve. The prisons fill. And the careerist, plodding forward, does his or her job.
Monday, July 23, 2012
Chris Hedges: The Careerists - Chris Hedges' Columns - Truthdig
Chris Hedges describes those who make possible the great crimes of history, the enablers as it were, the people who make the trains run on time, collect the data, manufacture the arms but never think, never ask questions, never challenge. I have felt this way about "profession" civil servants all my life, which is why I was obviously not a good one.
These armies of bureaucrats serve a corporate system that will quite literally kill us. They are as cold and disconnected as Mengele. They carry out minute tasks. They are docile. Compliant. They obey. They find their self-worth in the prestige and power of the corporation, in the status of their positions and in their career promotions. They assure themselves of their own goodness through their private acts as husbands, wives, mothers and fathers. They sit on school boards. They go to Rotary. They attend church. It is moral schizophrenia. They erect walls to create an isolated consciousness. They make the lethal goals of ExxonMobil or Goldman Sachs or Raytheon or insurance companies possible. They destroy the ecosystem, the economy and the body politic and turn workingmen and -women into impoverished serfs. They feel nothing. Metaphysical naiveté always ends in murder. It fragments the world. Little acts of kindness and charity mask the monstrous evil they abet. And the system rolls forward. The polar ice caps melt. The droughts rage over cropland. The drones deliver death from the sky. The state moves inexorably forward to place us in chains. The sick die. The poor starve. The prisons fill. And the careerist, plodding forward, does his or her job.
These armies of bureaucrats serve a corporate system that will quite literally kill us. They are as cold and disconnected as Mengele. They carry out minute tasks. They are docile. Compliant. They obey. They find their self-worth in the prestige and power of the corporation, in the status of their positions and in their career promotions. They assure themselves of their own goodness through their private acts as husbands, wives, mothers and fathers. They sit on school boards. They go to Rotary. They attend church. It is moral schizophrenia. They erect walls to create an isolated consciousness. They make the lethal goals of ExxonMobil or Goldman Sachs or Raytheon or insurance companies possible. They destroy the ecosystem, the economy and the body politic and turn workingmen and -women into impoverished serfs. They feel nothing. Metaphysical naiveté always ends in murder. It fragments the world. Little acts of kindness and charity mask the monstrous evil they abet. And the system rolls forward. The polar ice caps melt. The droughts rage over cropland. The drones deliver death from the sky. The state moves inexorably forward to place us in chains. The sick die. The poor starve. The prisons fill. And the careerist, plodding forward, does his or her job.
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Many of the careerists or corporate bureaucrats that I know are followers of Ayn Rand.
ReplyDeleteYou are right. There are very few of us who are not complicit at some level or another. 22 years in the military - Vietnam vet - I have done more than my share to add to the chaos. I buy from Walmart - what can I say?
ReplyDeleteIf there was a Hell we would all burn there - along with God.
the Ol'Buzzard
I saw this first hand in my two months back in Va...30 minutes from Wash D.C.....except everyone was working for the government...they live in a bubble back there..they have no idea...
ReplyDeletep.s....they call themselves "private contractors" but all the same...
ReplyDeleteI think we are all guilty of aiding and abetting, which was really Chris's message. If we don't fight back with Gandhi's non-violent resistance, we are allowing them to get away with it.
ReplyDeleteDo you think the Occupy Movement is an effective way to fight back?
ReplyDeleteOccupy has certainly brought economic inequality to the attention of more people. It is OK to talk about it now. That is positive. It also revealed the establishment for what it is - highly violent and extremely repressive. Lessons learned on both sides will not make it any easier next time. I think the history of union organizing in the coal industry will be repeating itself if further progress is to be made. When it gets that rough, only the truly desperate can afford to fight as it will mean loss of everything including freedom for many and life for more than a few.
ReplyDeletethank you for this helpful conversation.
ReplyDeleteChris Hedges, Bill Blum and Noam Chomsky are three authors I follow to learn what is really going on.
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