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About Me
- Think Sheep
- Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
- Now that the Perspectives Magazine is out, this is the place that the discussion continues - share what you feel powerless about, comment on someone else's response, debate powerlessness and apathy, see the unpublished responses, and pretty much say anything you like. Add your articles, comments, quotes, videos, drawings, songs - anything goes. Freedom of speech is a wonderful thing. Let us know what you thought of the magazine - we're incredibly curious. Thanks! ~the Think Sheep perspectives@thinksheep.org thinksheep@gmail.com
3 comments:
" Mental Health Issues. END THE STIGMA! "
- Amanda Carey
I feel powerless about the state of our democracy in Canada. It seem to me that going out to vote every few years at election time is nothing but a superficial process in which the people we elect are allowed to say one thing (whatever kind of slippery jingoism they use these days) and do another thing (which is usually nothing at all). There is absolutely zero accountability for election promises until the next election, when we are free to elect the same, or seemingly similar, liar. Politicians must lie so much because they too are powerless. There is a massive divide between political authority and economic control. There can be no true democracy in Canada until Canadians have true economic sovereignty. This means that people who work at businesses and institutions should run these institutions by democratic means; currently our businesses and institutions have a closer resemblance to the system of feudalism than they do to a democracy. That’s right, just spend a minute and think about it. How much say do you have at your work place, do you have a free vote about what goes on or are you able to elect the officials that preside over you? Private power has become so concentrated and in the hands of so few people that I can see very little difference between it and the Kings and Queens that dominated the lives of people not so long ago. If humanity wants a real change it will have to gain democratic control over the economy. This will mean dismissing fat-cat CEOs whose power should be enough to make anyone who really believes in democracy just plain sick. This will mean getting ourselves past all this mind-fucking commercialization used to isolate us and eliminate any sense of empathy for our fellow struggling human beings. This will mean getting off our asses and actually doing something about. Rights are not granted from a higher power in the clouds up above, they are won through hard and arduous struggle in the world right here and now. We can empower ourselves and make Canada a real democracy only if we are willing do something about it!
- Corey Padgett
I'm responding to Corey's comment.
I own a business that was designed so that the employees and the people they provide services to would be able to make the decisions about how the business worked. The employees voted on the kind of health benefit plan they wanted, their schedule templates, participated in interviews of new employees, could move into and out of roles that gave them new skills without having to give up their primary jobs to do so, take grief leave for their pets, etc., etc. They had the power to change virtually every aspect of their working lives as long as those changes weren't negative for their clients.
Now they've unionized. Why? Because they were promised more money by a union that had no information about our ability to provide higher salaries. AND the employees themselves had access to that information and explanations whenever questions arose.
They have given up their individual voices, their options to change the system on the fly if it wasn't working for them, the schedule they chose for one they rejected multiple times whenever they raised the request for change, the benefits plan that gives them the ultimate in flexibility for one that gives them benefits they have rarely claimed before and will cost them more. They have chosen to move from a flat organization and an individual Voice to a hierarchical, "written in [contractual] stone" set of rules and regulations (which they aren't even aware are being negotiated for). I feel powerless about creating an environment that encourages people to accept responsibility for stating their own preferences and for sharing the best in themselves in return for the best of others.
Thanks for the place to rant -- now back to "negotiations". :-(
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