Destructive Symbiosis

Hate.

I hate that word.

Having last year concluded my working career, 41 of my 45 year work career was spent in professions that people love to hate - 25 years in insurance and 16 in government (local). People hate insurance. And they hate government (unless they are getting free stuff from government ... but if they are not getting enough free stuff, they hate government just the same).

In both professions, I worked my way up the management ladder. People hate management. In the insurance industry, my management responsibilities included sales - people hate sales people. And in both the insurance jobs and government jobs, I was head of human resources. Employees hate HR (except when the employees get great benefits ... but when great employee benefits are not expanded, employees hate HR and management just the same).

Why do people hate? It boils down to just one thing - someone is screwing you, figuratively speaking. For if someone is screwing you in the carnal sense, you may love the screwing (but hate the screwer just the same). Too complicated to go into here.

At the heart of getting screwed is the issue of fairness. Something is just not fair. Or, more accurately, many things are unfair. After all, we believe in equality. Why shouldn't I get a pay raise? - I'm getting screwed working at this pay rate. Why did he or she get that promotion? - I deserve it more! Why should some people be extravagantly rich and others barely scraping by? Why should some people have 2 or 5 or 12 homes when others are homeless? Why should some people eat caviar when so many are hungry?

Some people, of course (and sadly), are dealt a very bad hand right from the get-go. They need and should receive help. If life was a fair race, we would have all been at the starting line of life on an equitable basis. But, of course, that is not the case and there nothing that can be done to correct the unfairness, the inequity, of life itself. Nothing can be done, that is, unless you control the government.

So some look to government, which we hate in general, to make things fair. It is easy to think of government as an amorphous monolith. In reality, government is just the group of people, led by mostly narcissistic ego maniacs, who have wrested POWER from another group of narcissistic ego maniacs.

The people that control the government can dole out goodies but they can never, ever, make life fair. These people in power now refer to us as "folks" (how folksy) because, you know, they're just like us (wink!). And so they reach into the Treasury (which is different from reaching into one's own pocket), which is upside down, for fists full of cash (printed whimsically) to give to their political base so they will be loved. But love is fleeting and once the goodies  are taken for granted, government will be despised again until more fleeting love is bought by the Power Elite.

It is this destructive symbiosis that I hate. It is this mutual dependency that I hate. Because, well, it's just not fair.

You are invited to a barbecue. You walk in and you see people congregated in two groups. There is no one you know in either group. Both groups are in polite social conversation - one group is 20 somethings and the other is a middle aged crowd. You are 20 something. Which group do you gravitate toward?

Same scenario, only now one group is predominantly wearing Red Sox gear and the other group wears the Yankee stuff. You are a Sox fan. Which group do you move toward?

Again, same scenario. This time one group in predominantly people of color while the other is predominantly Caucasian, as are you. You gravitate to the Caucasian group. Does that make you a racist?

Let's face it - we all have preferences. And those preferences involve the comfort of identifying with people just like us. Call it an inherent ingrown bias. Perhaps it is instinctual - deep down, a survival instinct. But it's OK - it is not hate. Any and all group identities suffer from this human condition.

So let's recognize it for what it is and let's stop using it for political purposes ... because if we don't we will surely have race wars down the road.

My first blog post :

George Orwell's "1984" was first published in 1949. At the time, TV was in its infancy - broadcasting in color was still years away. Most homes did not have TV's. There was, of course, no Internet, mass media was limited to newspapers and big government was not involved in day-to-day living. And truth had more traction. Orwell's prescient fictional account is thought provoking...

A few excerpts from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia "1984":

The social class system of Oceania is threefold:

• (I) the upper-class Inner Party, the elite ruling minority, who make up 2% of the population.
• (II) the middle-class Outer Party, who make up 13% of the population.

• (III) the lower-class Proles (from proletariat), who make up 85% of the population and represent the uneducated working class.

Ministry of Plenty (Newspeak: Miniplenty)

The Ministry of Plenty rations and controls food, goods, and domestic production; every fiscal quarter, the Miniplenty publishes false claims of having raised the standard of living, when it has, in fact, reduced rations, availability, and production. The Minitrue substantiates the Miniplenty claims by revising historical records to report numbers supporting the current, "increased rations".

Ministry of Truth (Newspeak: Minitrue)

The Ministry of Truth controls information: news, entertainment, education, and the arts. Winston Smith works in the Minitrue RecDep (Records Department), "rectifying" historical records to concord with Big Brother's current pronouncements, thus everything the Party says is true.

Ministry of Love (Newspeak: Miniluv)

The Ministry of Love identifies, monitors, arrests, and converts real and imagined dissidents. In Winston's experience, the dissident is beaten and tortured, then, when near-broken, is sent to Room 101 to face "the worst thing in the world" — until love for Big Brother and the Party replaces dissension.

Doublethink is the act of ordinary people simultaneously accepting two mutually contradictory beliefs as correct, often in distinct social contexts. Doublethink is related to, but differs from, hypocrisy and neutrality. Somewhat related but almost the opposite is cognitive dissonance, where contradictory beliefs cause conflict in one's mind. Doublethink is notable due to a lack of cognitive dissonance — thus the person is completely unaware of any conflict or contradiction.

George Orwell coined the word doublethink in his dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949); doublethink is part of newspeak. In the novel, its origin within the typical citizen is unclear; while it could be partly a product of Big Brother's formal brainwashing programs, the novel explicitly shows people learning Doublethink and newspeak due to peer pressure and a desire to "fit in", or gain status within the Party — to be seen as a loyal Party Member. In the novel, while to even recognize, much less mention any contradiction within the context of the Party line was akin to blasphemy and subject to possible disciplinary action. More certain was the instant social disapproval of fellow Party Members.

My comment: So here we are in 2013 ... are we moving toward 1984 or are we moving away from it? What do you think?