This came from the Flops board, written by Cole Hardfax
I watched a biography of Saddam Hussein on the history channel yesterday, and I was particularly intrigued by a segment where Saddam was addressing his congress or legislature or whatever you want to call them. Anyway, there were about 200 of his leaders assembled and one by one their names were called out and then it was announced that: “yes they were conspirators or no they were not”. Those receiving a “yes” were immediately escorted from the room by security. Those receiving a “no” breathed a sigh of relief and those not yet called were sweating, squirming, praising Saddam, feigning surprise and ignorance, and generally acting like men in fear of their life. In the end about 20 men were singled out for execution and Saddam decreed that the faithful 180 would be the ones to perform the act, which they seemed happy and honored to do.
It occurred to me that everyone, on a less tragic scale, does the same thing. Our country will hold elections where 90% of the people will vote away rights and privileges they are not using simply because it affects the other guy. I don’t smoke in public or read dirty magazines, so why should anyone else? However, if the uninformed masses tried to take away my right to fly a private plane I would be very indignant and upset that everyone didn’t come to my rescue.
Companies routinely make unilateral changes that affect only some of the employees, knowing that the rest of the employees will quietly sit by and let it happen. Right now we have people losing domicile pay and overtime pay. For the most part, nobody cares. We had people lose their seats, their retirement, and even their jobs. For the most part, nobody cared. I read on the company board where one of the managers was feeling the sting of the latest company mandate. Again, nobody much cares. And so it goes like it’s always gone.
Until we decide to have a say in our future, we can expect the chiseling to continue. Usually it affects the other guy. Sometimes it catches us. I don’t expect it to change because the unaffected 90% will allow it to continue.
I watched a biography of Saddam Hussein on the history channel yesterday, and I was particularly intrigued by a segment where Saddam was addressing his congress or legislature or whatever you want to call them. Anyway, there were about 200 of his leaders assembled and one by one their names were called out and then it was announced that: “yes they were conspirators or no they were not”. Those receiving a “yes” were immediately escorted from the room by security. Those receiving a “no” breathed a sigh of relief and those not yet called were sweating, squirming, praising Saddam, feigning surprise and ignorance, and generally acting like men in fear of their life. In the end about 20 men were singled out for execution and Saddam decreed that the faithful 180 would be the ones to perform the act, which they seemed happy and honored to do.
It occurred to me that everyone, on a less tragic scale, does the same thing. Our country will hold elections where 90% of the people will vote away rights and privileges they are not using simply because it affects the other guy. I don’t smoke in public or read dirty magazines, so why should anyone else? However, if the uninformed masses tried to take away my right to fly a private plane I would be very indignant and upset that everyone didn’t come to my rescue.
Companies routinely make unilateral changes that affect only some of the employees, knowing that the rest of the employees will quietly sit by and let it happen. Right now we have people losing domicile pay and overtime pay. For the most part, nobody cares. We had people lose their seats, their retirement, and even their jobs. For the most part, nobody cared. I read on the company board where one of the managers was feeling the sting of the latest company mandate. Again, nobody much cares. And so it goes like it’s always gone.
Until we decide to have a say in our future, we can expect the chiseling to continue. Usually it affects the other guy. Sometimes it catches us. I don’t expect it to change because the unaffected 90% will allow it to continue.
