Culture Change Letter #27
from Sustainable Energy Institute
Mr. AmeriCop, inmate/warden - The daily grind in a society mentally ill
by Jan Lundberg
What does it mean when a funeral is not well attended by family members? When only one member of a branch of the family attends, and that person ironically may be in the worst position to travel?
Is it the same syndrome when another family member is unaided at a time of need, or suffers neglect after a lifetime of giving to her family above all else? A "free society" with those common phenomena and worse may not be so free.
Besides the possibility of a feud, what is indicated in the U.S. family by a poorly attended funeral or a neglected elder is that members are caught up with the daily grind a.k.a. the rat race. Money and the self have become all important. People's many problems most often have to do with economics or personal health. Yet, doing something about whatever causes a problem is what is called for.
People by now have a sense that doing it implies something deeper than working harder or waiting for a chance to vote against George Bush. The deeper options are so rarely revealed in the corporate mass media. The mass media chant (along with the other main institutions of U.S. society) "Stay with the daily grind!" However, that is not the only option.
When we consider the fact that the global economic system is destroying the planet's biosphere and is far from equitable, we can take the view that what challenges us is social mental illness unprecedented on a mass scale. The word "sane" derives from the French word for health. Insane = unhealthy. Apply the concept to society as well as the individual.
With this scientific approach we can further dispense with the blaming of individuals and personalities, who unfortunately may have gotten poisoned by the culture and cannot easily act with compassion or ethics toward loved ones. The culture supports the vicious, unforgiving economy and supplants humane values with narrow, materialistic aims for the sake of individualistic "security."
The daily grind is sold as a lifestyle of responsibility and self-fulfillment. More and more so, that's a sales job, a sham. Not being able to see this can be a result of victimization, propaganda, or psychological denial. Compassion and cooperation are abandoned in favor of pure personal interest. Refusing to see this, hiding one's head in the sand, is a form of insanity. Others are affected unfairly by one's denial of the insanity of the daily grind.
There are severe social and ecological implications for embracing the daily grind. It means giving up on freedom and human potential for real community. It leads to acquiescing to capitalism and government and all the associated downsides. A tragic and wasted life is in store for the person who overdoes what he or she "should." Work is a variation of slavery, when one is reluctantly spending the bulk of a lifetime doing something tedious, lacking in meaning, and when it is for the primary benefit of another person ....[Read remainder of article at http://www.culturechange.org/e-letter-27.html#bmk]
*************************************** " Lisa, if you don't like your job you don't strike. You just go in everyday and do it really half-assed. That's the American way"- Homer Simpson
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