Slavery Is Thriving Warren Buffet Bill Gates Invite Millionaires To Share Wealth
Posted: Thursday, June 17, 2010
by Michael Gaffley
flatlinetochange
I was doing a book talk about my book, "Flatline To Change: Identity, Reality, Conflict, Engagement, on a university campus when one of the faculty members noted that I did not mention the African slaves. I replied by saying that I did not know about African slaves. He was perturbed to say the least. I told him that I knew about a proud people in Africa who were enslaved by people that looked like him. We have become great colleagues and now understand the difference between African slaves and people from Africa that were enslaved.
Slavery is alive and well in thriving in America. Corporate America has just maneuvered a change in the profile of the owners. Ownership is still the operative word. Even if we euphemize the term slavery and call it indentured servitude, slavery itself has not changed. It just looks more modern and more acceptable. We have just changed the furniture and fittings but it is still the same tyranny. The world is still not free and accessible to its peoples. Instead of a global village to be explored, we are perceptually speaking, chained to a torture chamber called a workplace. We have moved from individual slave owners to corporate slave owners. People are still enslaved. Whether they are forced to earn a living through prostitution or whether they are working on an assembly line is not the issue. Making the distinction between blue and white collared workers is not the issue. The issue is the divide between the haves and the "have nots"; corporate America on Wall Street have and individual Americans on Main Street have not.
Some slave owners are wealthier than others simply because they are in charge of bigger corporations and conglomerates. Some are touted as too big to fail; but they do. The majority of Americans have almost no rights in America. Not only are they controlled by corporate America in the workplace, it also seems like corporate America is running America.
Look at how one corporate slave master is treating the people or slaves who are being victimized and are suffering as a result of the oil spill. BP is not being held accountable enough for the pain that they are causing and that real people are experiencing. Just think about how much capital BP has amassed off the labor and sweat of its slaves if setting up a 20 Billion Escrow account looks like putting your change in the offertory plate on a Sunday, once in a while.
Modern slavery or corporate slavery in America is doing nothing different than the individual slave owners of yore. People are still paid less than what they need to live a decent lifestyle; the only thing that piles up for modern day slaves are bills. Slaves are forced to rob Peter in order to pay Paul. Poverty is a symptom of slavery. The form of slavery is immaterial; the consequences are the same.
Slaves are forced to work for multiple corporate slave masters at a time, in order to make ends meet while the corporate slave masters have so much money that they are invited by Masters Gates and Buffet to share 50% of their wealth with charity. I again say that slavery causes poverty.
Slavery has eroded the options, the choices and the opportunities for Americans. Americans have almost no possibilities that exist that give them the opportunity to exercise choice. There is nothing to choose between or among. Corporate slave masters are in control of American lifestyles, policies and politics. Corporate America have not only caused the economic meltdown that eroded jobs and are now causing one of the biggest disasters in the Gulf it is dehumanizing Americans. If I cannot choose I am not free and I am not authentically who I am supposed to be. What choices do I have if I have lost my job and there are no other jobs available? What are my children seeing? What are they experiencing because corporate slave masters have impeded my ability to provide because they own the land, the seed, and the laborers, at will? Corporate America sets the rules and dictates the game.
Corporate slavery has not just annihilated or hijacked my ability to choose but it has also erased morality from our lifestyle. People en mass are not asking what is right and what is wrong, what is good and what is bad. We are all caught up in the frenzy of cutting costs in spite of it cutting life, lifestyle and any legacy. The need to survive at all costs, no at any cost, is a laser focus for a majority of decent, believing, hopeful Americans. We forget that if we win the rat race that it will only prove that we are rats.
Thirdly corporate slavery has cancelled the bright future of our children and youth. Without the opportunity to teach my children that freedom implies freedom to choose because there are no options and without a moral compass, we are doomed. It is becoming more and more difficult to admonish my children to do the right thing. Even their courage is being denied.
We have to break this stranglehold of corporate America on decent, aspiring, genuine Americans. America has talent; do not stifle it. Americans still have a dream; do not let the nightmare continue. Americans have hope; do not discourage it. I am at the point in my life, where, I am to use a perfect Afrikaans saying, "gatvol", enough. "Gatvol" means that my receptor has no more capacity to receive. It is full to the brim. We have lived an honest life. We have avoided crime, drugs and licentiousness. We pay our taxes. We are patriotic. We have national pride. We are proud to be Americans even if we are fighting wars with no end in sight. We take care of our families and neighborhoods. We got an education. We are gainfully employed. Our slave masters have monopolized the game to such an extent that no matter how hard we try, we will never win......God forbid! We have to revisit the pain that is caused by corporate America. A radical mindset change, a radical paradigm shift, a radical understanding of "gatvol" is imperative.
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Top-level comments on this article: (9 total)I think this is an absolutely brilliant article, Michael, thanks. I think that corporate slavery occurs globally, not just in America. In a way the global crises are forcing people to develop different value systems, which I believe will result in more independence of mind.Great to have you weighing in Jennifer. Thanks
Good article Michael, yes we are slaves to corporate AmericaThanks David. Your support encourages.
The poor and middles class has been crushed since Reagan, and the prisons increased to keep the wealthy safe. If we ever wake up to how we are being manipulated, watch out. These kind of articles help, but we need many more of them.Your comments are encouraging
Excellent Mike! Keep em comin..
Good article. Isn't it amazing that we find the world leaders talk about it but when it comes to being correct in my opinion anything is acceptable. Of course there are many forms of slavery not just the physically captive. Yes anything goes in this world and if "it works for me" and enriches me, who is to say it isn't right?" The new age thinking.,Robert thank you for reading and responding to my article
Here is the paragraph that sliced it for me: "Corporate slavery has not just annihilated or hijacked my ability to choose but it has also erased morality from our lifestyle. People en mass are not asking what is right and what is wrong, what is good and what is bad." This is one of the most powerful SearchWarp articles ever, no exaggeration. Thanks, Michael, for taking the time to craft this. Interesting thing is I am in the process of writing an article that deals with morality and multinational corporations. ~mogama~Mogama I know that I am in great Searchwarp company. Your comments inspire
Though I share much of your stinging rebuke of the corporate world it frustrates me that an alternative is hard to come by. I see the "slavery" element of corporations, but what's the alternative? We know it is not socialism or communism, since those have proven to be even more brutal forms of crudity than capitalistic corporatism. What's the alternative? Again, thanks for a great piece. ~mogama~Collective bargaining is a start. Negotion is imperative. No deal should be handed down.Collective bargaining is a start. Negotion is imperative. No deal should be handed down.Collective bargaining is a start. Negotion is imperative. No deal should be handed down.Collective bargaining is a start. Negotiation is imperative. No deal should be handed down.
THank you for you much appreciated comment
I was turned off by this article as soon as you stated "Enslaved by people who look like you." So I assume you were talking to a Spaniard or a Portuguese. Or perhaps an Arab? No, you were talking to an average white man. Ignorant people blame slavery on all whites when only certain European nations were involved in it.Thank you for reading my article. I appreciate your comment. I explain what happened and by whom in Berlin in 1884. I know my history in my book. I cannot give a history lesson in one article.
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