WE, AS A SOCIETY, ARE LOSING SIGHT OF ONE ANOTHER AS HUMAN BEINGS

[Orwellian_Ghost]

Now we are human commodities

By Chris Maser

12/30/07 "ICH" ----- The corporation, it turns out, is an invention of the British Crown through the creation of the East India Company by Queen Elizabeth I in 1600, which, being the original, transnational corporation, set today’s precedence for big businesses. The East India Company, "found India rich and left it poor," says author Nick Robin. The corporate structure of the East India Company was deemed necessary to allow the British to exploit their colonies in such a way that the owner of the enterprise was, for the first time, separated from responsibility for how the enterprise behaved.



When People become Commodities

We, as a society, are losing sight of one another as human beings—witness the Wall-Street money chase in which numerous, large corporations discount human value as they increasingly convert people into faceless commodities that are bought and sold on a whim to improve the corporate standing in the competitive marketplace. After all, market share translates into political power, which translates into higher profit margins, both of which exacerbate the corporate disregard for people, the rampant destruction of Nature, and the squandering of natural resources.



There was a time when people were valued for what they were as individuals. Although American workers have long had an enforced workweek of 40 hours, there currently is an insidious infringement into personal life due to pagers and cell phones, which allow corporations to "own" employees 24 hours a day. Businesses seem to have no moral compunctions about calling employees whenever they choose—"for the good of the company." For those who would choose to live by the corporate proverb, "for the good of the company," the Families and Work Institute said that in 2001 employees are more likely to:

• lose sleep
• have physical and emotional health problems
• make mistakes on the job
• feel and express anger at employers
• resent co-workers who they perceive are not pulling their weight
• look for different jobs
In the workplace, these feelings translate into more injuries and thus more claims for workers’ compensation, increased absenteeism, higher health insurance and health-care costs, impaired job performance, and greater employee turnover—all of which are counterproductive and costly not only for employees but also for employers.2



Because consumption and consumerism dominate social discourse and political agendas of all parties, consumerism hogs the limelight at center stage as the prime objective of Western industrialized societies, which, in the collective, are known as "consumer societies." Within these consumer societies, the purpose of consumption is: variety, distraction from daily stresses, pleasure, power, and the status that one hopes will bring with them a measure of happiness and social security. None of this comes to pass, however, because people themselves are increasingly seen as economic commodities. How can a commodity find security from another commodity? In this sense, the marketplace satisfies only temporarily our collective neuroses, while hiding the values that give true meaning to human life.



http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18977.htm

[flashl]

1. K&R n/t

[The2ndWheel]

2. How we've made ourselves into abstractions

Part 1 from the same author.

http://www.culturechange.org/cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=141&Itemid=1

In discussing how I think fear subverted the sharing, caring way of life that most hunting-gathering societies enjoyed (replacing it gradually, insidiously with a life ruled progressively by acquisition, competition, subjugation, and fear itself), it is important to remember that mine is -- at very best -- a grossly simplistic notion of what might have happened, beginning with the development of language.

Development of Language
Of all the gifts of life, language is one of the most incredible. Through language, we can create, examine, and test concepts, those intangible figments of human thought and imagination. Concepts, such as love and fear, can only be qualified, not quantified; only interpreted, not measured. And concepts can be reinterpreted hundreds, even thousands, of years after they were first conceived, uttered, and written. Language thus guides thought, perception, and our sense of reality by archiving knowledge—and our cultural sense of fear.

Knowledge, in turn, is the storehouse of ideas, and language is the storehouse of knowledge. Language therefore allows each succeeding generation to benefit from the knowledge accrued by generations already passed, as well as their perceptions of love and fear. Language is a tool, a catalyst, a bequest from adults to children -- that based on love is a gift, whereas that based on fear a curse. Moreover, language allows each generation to begin farther up the ladder of knowledge than the preceding one. Language is an imperative for our survival because the tenets of society are founded on it. As well, our understanding of Nature, and our place therein, is founded on knowledge conveyed through language. We simply must understand one another if our respective societies are to survive.

[warren pease]

3. Fighting over the scraps left by...

[Orwellian_Ghost]

4. This goes way back

Let's go back to the enclosure acts, which seized land which, under feudal law, was accessable to the lord and the peasant equally. As peasants were driven from the lands, income from the land, which was the prime source of poor relief. dwindled and the agricultural community was taken to pieces and reconstructed, much in the way the US is now trying to do in Iraq.

The wage system, as well as the market system as we know it, came into being as a result of the industrial revolution. An early abuse was that the capitalist found that he could hire three children and one woman for the same amount he would have to pay a man. This system, which made men dependent on their women and children for a living, resulted in numerous deaths and injuries to the women and children, many who worked for up to 15 hours a day.

The obvious solution is to abolish the wage system, since it leads inevitably to abuses. The market system can go too, and other means found to meet our needs, based on a human scale.

[Old_Growth]

5. K&R n\t

[blues90]

6. we are so far past the true value of human and animal life

And in my view this is do to the so called progress man claims is the greatest thing since sliced cheese . When people worked their own land to survice and had claims on land they were much better off being self sufficient and more open minded to help eachother out because it was a trade off where everyone benefitted .

People have fallen into this trap that personal items make the person and that we must have heros and payed entertainment in order to feel satisfied/ justified and to have a goal no matter how false and illusive the goal may be .

I don't see anyway of ever turning this around unless most of the planet is turned into glass and we are forced to begin again .