Wednesday, April 23, 2008

false rewards


the job market. That is the name of the beast.

It lures you with its false rewards. It cajoles you with its promises of a future better than the past. It is big, it is overpowering, it is compassionless, and its out to get you.
Eventually it will eat you. It will chase you down, corner you, and open its mouth: you will crawl in willingly. You will listen to those beckoning from within its belly who only want to share their misery. "Come in" they will say. "There is comfort in here: job security, a salary." It is as the machine in the Matrix. In return for a comfortable, predicatable, safe future, you give up excitement, danger, and choice.

Well, The market, It has found you. It has you up against the wall, I know. You are terrified. It opens its mouth. You hear the voices. You begin to sweat and tremble. "Why", you ask. "Why me? This was not supposed to happen to me. I had dreams of a life full of excitement, of danger, of 'life'. I ran from you. I hid from you. how did you find me? Please....No." You plead with the beast. you beg it not to take you. You reach behind you and feel a wall. You look up and see empty blue sky. Noone is there. The loneliness is overwhelming and a horrible feeling comes over you: the worst feeling you have ever felt. You begin to feel that it is innevitable: that you have no choice: that giving in is your only option. Your knees begin to buckle and the fear begins to push you towards the gaping mouth of comfort, security and boredom.

Finally, a hand touches your arm. You are startled. you look to your side. I am there. I have been there the whole time. We are all there together. We see eachother.
"No", we say. "not today. Not us. We may go down: we may get beat, scraped, scared and trampled by the beast, but we will NOT walk in willingly."
The beast is always there, beckoning us to come: calling us to give up. We will not.
We will fight our way off this wall; we will choose our own future.

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