Wage-slavery, Freedom and Work

The Concept of Work: 

The Concept of Work This Presentation explains how the concept of work today has succeeded in killing all possibility for creative work for most people and what we could do if we were in a truly democratic system.

Pause the Slides To read the text: 

Pause the Slides To read the text The slides transition very fast, so pause the slides to read the content at your own pace.

Work Today: 

Work Today When most people become adults, they are required to take up jobs for the sake of earning money. Only a tiny minority of people are able to do work that satisfies them. Man is an intelligent and creative being, but our system forces him to give that up for the sake of earning money. Nothing that cannot produce an immediate monetary return is allowed to survive in our monetary system. Most of the work that many people do is boring, repetitive, and not self-directed.

Self-directed Work: 

Self-directed Work Self-direction means that we are able to feel that we are directing our own destiny—that we have a say in running our own affairs. This is important for our well-being. Today, however, we do not get the sense of self-direction—of having a say in running our lives because we essentially work based on the commands of our bosses. For the sake of our careers, for promotions, we often have to defer to the will of our bosses. Such a system of dependency—the way we were dependent on adults when we were kids—is harmful to us as adults, as we have no choice but to act as kids and our bosses become adults.

Self-directed Work(Part 2):Getting Rid of Bosses: 

Self-directed Work(Part 2):Getting Rid of Bosses As long as we have a system of bosses and the people who are victims of this system of master-slave relationships, no one can be free—other than the people who own everything—no real steps in the exploration of creativity can be taken, and we are all going to be stuck in a system that makes machines out of us and destroys any chance of our becoming creative. A good alternative is to get rid of hierarchies in which one person behaves as the boss and the others behave as sycophantic slave-children eager to please the boss for the sake of a promotion.

The Concept of Self-Direction: 

The Concept of Self-Direction Watch the following RSA video to get an interesting take on the idea of the concept of self-direction: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc Watch the following documentary of workers running factories without bosses:La Toma(The Take) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEzXln5kbuw

The Rot at the Heart of the Current System: Unnecessary Competition: 

The Rot at the Heart of the Current System: Unnecessary Competition For creative work, the concept of competition is not really applicable. This is because creative work is unique. It cannot be as easily categorised as say running a hundred-metre race. So a Van Gogh is unique, as are the paintings of Michaelangelo, but we cannot easily compare one work of art with another, because they are essentially unique. Similarly you cannot compare Tesla's research with Einstein's, say, in quite the same way. One may have a larger impact but they are essentially unique. However, you can easily compare the time two athletes took to run a hundred metres, as what each person does is exactly the same.

Creativity Requires Inspiration and a Need to become Better, Not Money: 

Creativity Requires Inspiration and a Need to become Better, Not Money In a study carried out by leading economists from Carnegie Mellon, M.I.T. and the University of Chicago, it was found that people could be motivated by money only if the jobs done by them didn't require much thinking;that is, they were easy to understand and do. However, when some thinking power was required in the task, the performance of people suffered. What has been found is that once you pay creative people reasonably well to do some job, they no longer care if you pay them more money for their jobs. They care about the work itself.

Creativity Requires Inspiration and a Need to become Better, Not Money(2): 

Creativity Requires Inspiration and a Need to become Better, Not Money(2) Many software developers love to do projects for free, like the linux operating system and the Apache server. They do it for the love of their art, not money.Many people would rather have the joy of working on something they love and know they are in good hands than worry about the transitory nature of their jobs as corporations think of new ways to make their skills obsolete. Many creative people like Einstein never received monetary rewards for their work proportional to the magnitude of their work.

The Opportunity to do Something You Like is the Greatest Reward: 

The Opportunity to do Something You Like is the Greatest Reward There are people who advocate this mad running around for the silliest of reasons for the sake of jobs. My opinion is that the lowest form of human existence is working for an owner for money, being willingly degraded by the boss because he is the one that pays you, and justifying doing the things for which you have no real passion for the sake of surviving. It is my belief that if people are assured a stable living and time for themselves, creativity will be unleashed at a level that our current system, running on the pain of wage-slaves, can never do.

Unnecessary Competition and Barrier to Learning: 

Unnecessary Competition and Barrier to Learning The problem with the current system is that it has always tried to make people expendable . This puts people in a state of constant fear of losing their jobs. The system tries to take the talent of one person and breaks it into units that can be done by say three persons individually, and then it just tells the original guy to get lost, since now the business knows how to replicate that particular skill. This is one reason people who are more senior refuse to train people with less experience, or don't train them well. This system, thus, prevents the free movement of ideas. And can only produce rot in the long run.

Free Software as an Example and Fighting the Rot of the Capitalist System: 

Free Software as an Example and Fighting the Rot of the Capitalist System When knowledge is free, and a person does not lose in the overall scheme of things by transferring his knowledge and skill to others, when sharing knowledge can only lead to better things for all, and not the firing of the person who provided the knowledge, then we can have a good system. So software whose code is open for everyone to see is going to be better, as all people will have suggestions for improving it, and in the long run the best ideas are going to be tested and the software is going to be good.

Free Software Example: 

Free Software Example Since a corporation has to make money with software, it is going to keep the code of the software restricted. So only the key developers are going to see the code. This will lead to bad software in the long run, since the code that could have been improved with the suggestions of thousands of other developers will not get improved. So that is one reason for letting go of the concept of competition in making software. By allowing the free exchange of ideas, we can improve the world for all.

Denying People the Truth: 

Denying People the Truth All the media, all the gurus and the corporations, of course, are engaged in denying the truth to the people. The media is constantly engaged in telling us the reason that we need to come to our soul-less jobs and how we should learn to stand out in the eyes of our boss and learn to please him. They do not tell us that we do not have to show up at these jobs and spend the best part of our day exhausting ourselves. They will not tell you that if three or four more persons were trained, you wouldn't need to spend five days working like a donkey and waiting desperately for the weekend to come.

You Will Never Have a Chance Under the Current Regime: 

You Will Never Have a Chance Under the Current Regime To all those dreams you had as a child, you can say goodbye . Today's system is based on great denials. We are no better than animals kept in cages in a zoo or at a farm. We are used up, chewed and thrown. And the greatest propaganda is that this miserable life is the best that we can get. There is a system where you can be at an equal level with others, in which you can decide along with others like you how much work is necessary and how many people to use to get that work done.

Direct Democracy: 

Direct Democracy Right now when you hate your job, but still go to it for the sake of money, knowing that getting trained for something better is either a waste of money because you need not merely training but experience to land a job, which you can't get because the corporations don't want to hire fresh people—you must realise that praying to the rich to save you by giving you a job is like a deer pleading in front of a lion to spare his life. You are going to be eaten up by this system.

Nothing will Change and It Never is going to be Any Better if we follow the current system.: 

Nothing will Change and It Never is going to be Any Better if we follow the current system. Until all people have an equal say in running the world some are going to be the exploiters while those who are subordinate are going to be the exploited. The only solution is DIRECT DEMOCRACY. Only when we have equal ownership, an equal vote, a guaranteed safety net, can all of us be free. Otherwise, this game is going to continue. Only if we share our resources and power, can a better world be created. You can either choose the current system and be kicked around by it, or you can organise and demand that Direct Democracy be instituted in every country in the world.

Final Note: 

Final Note The world has been organised to keep you in your lowly position. The more you are obedient and compliant, the easier it is for the elite to rule. The current system is meant to deny you the chance to explore your creativity, to deny you the chance to take the initiative to improve your life, to deny you dignity and the right to pursue your own dreams, to deny you the chance to feel real freedom and what it means to own and really live your life. For if you taste what it means to be free you are never going to go back to the servitude that has allowed the elites to lord over you.