Member-only story
We are conditioned to be victims, desperate and powerless. But that’s not necessary.
For a variety of reasons, people largely do what they are told. There are authorities who must be obeyed. Sometimes what those authorities require is reasonable — you’d do those things anyway. Sometimes it’s a hassle. You do those, too.
Why do we obey? We live in a society, and live by the rules of that society. Disobedience may be punished, and criticized. You may be ostracized for refusing to obey. This is true whether you are taking a knee during that national anthem or trying to kidnap a governor. Whether the rules are sensible — “don’t kidnap people” — or overbearing — “don’t protest during the national anthem” — rules are everywhere.
But more than government rules, we are most regularly and personally regulated by employers. They determine what time we get up in the morning, when we eat, and how we spend most of our days. We submit to them and they control our time — which is our lives.
This is true in pretty much all countries, and under all economic and political systems. Our unquestioning submission is crushing. We try to distract ourselves from our subjugation with ideology — often the ideology that justifies giving away our lives. In America, we use the myth of financial success, with accumulation…
