Corporate America's Creed
Posted by Tricia Harris at Wednesday, October 17, 2007 10:43 PM and is filed under Corporate America LLC,Cultural Wasteland 
We take pleasure in daily calls of doldrums,
incessant meeting murmurs,
cascades of nothingness.
It's an upside down awareness, really.
Dr. King said, "Someday somebody somewhere somehow has got to have some sense". (or something to that effect).
So we ask ourselves,
"Does anybody have any idea what we're doing here?
Does anyone truly give a damn about what we're discussing?"
We need the fix. What else do you expect? We wake up bored with our existence & dulled senseless by the stupidity of it all.
& when we think about what we do to exchange our time for money...
...we feel a quiet festering boil that rises, but never quite erupts 
So we distract ourselves...since "the most obvious facts are the most easily forgotten".
We take up hobbies.
We learn to enjoy the sport & gamesmanship of corporate politics.
We build kingdoms & fiefdoms & — yes, even thiefdoms.
We create silos to guard our turf.
We don't differentiate between allies & enemies.
We aren't self-aware of our interconnectedness.
We are people dumb when people smart matters most.
We walk around in blindfolds, bumping into each other, giggling hysterically.We are forgetful of the people that make us what we are.
We are wasteful of resources God & man made.
We sell human dignity for dollars.
We care about the bottomline, not the PEOPLE who draw the line on the bottom.
We are bored..
so we make business into sport,
PEOPLE into pawns,
movable parts,
expendable pieces.
PEOPLE into pawns,
movable parts,
expendable pieces.
We are Corporate America. This is our creed.
~ Tricia
This is so true! I am so glad I am not the only one that feels this way. People get caught up in the none sense and include you in the game of life, WITHOUT your permission. Changing your life forever with no regard of if it is for the good or the bad. So long as they stay on top.
Excellent point Tricia!
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Bren,
I suspect that the majority of people feel disenchanted with everyday business practices considered the norm. Well the norm ain't normal if we apply a humane, common sense rule to how one human being treats another. I say declare war on the inhumane and the nonsense! Viva la revolution! (I may be feeling a little radical today).
~ Tricia
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Tricia, you have hit the nail on the head and said what must of us corporate-ites secretly think about our jobs. Just imagine if we focused our skills and energy on what we were truly put on this earth do. Maybe, just maybe experience true joy, peace and self-actualization. Not just paying the rent!
Your future politician,
F. Diane Burdette
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This is so true. Me and coworkers are dealing with this right now in it's most frustrating form!
I've learned to detatch and know that this is not the only job on the planet.
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I am so ready for the great escape. I have so much to offer an employer. The BS that my manager and I go through is so ridiculous that I cannot even talk about it. I dread getting up in the morning, I am late everyday and completely demoralized by the end of the day. I go to bed and wake up and go through the same thing all over again. This place is beneath me, I feel like I am in jail and my best talents have been wasted. What is worse is that I am afraid that that I may be spoiled for the next opportunity.
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Johane,
I think the real question for you, and for all of us, is the same question that Dr. King asked a group of high school students 6 months before he was assassinated. In his speech of the same name he asked, "What is your life's blueprint?" He explained that just like a house under construction, we must have a blueprint that guides our life building.
Dr. King said, " Number one in your life's blueprint, should be a deep belief in your own dignity, your worth and your own somebodiness. Don't allow anybody to make you feel that you're nobody. Always feel that you count. Always feel that you have worth, and always feel that your life has ultimate significance."
He went on to say, " Secondly, in your life's blueprint you must have as the basic principle the determination to achieve excellence in your various fields of endeavor. You're going to be deciding as the days, as the years unfold what you will do in life — what your life's work will be. Set out to do it well... And when you discover what you will be in your life, set out to do it as if God Almighty called you at this particular moment in history to do it. Don't just set out to do a good job. Set out to do such a good job that the living, the dead or the unborn couldn't do it any better...if it falls your lot to be a street sweeper, sweep streets like Michelangelo painted pictures... "
Of course, Johane, before we can " sweep streets like Shakespeare wrote poetry ", we must first find a street worthy to sweep. Spend some time with yourself and figure out what makes you lose yourself in your talents. Then figure out how to get paid for it so that you can sustain your life and your brand of art. It's a tall order, but if you do it right (openly & freely, putting God first), the journey is as satisfying as the destination...if ever we really arrive.
Break away from all that binds, Johane. Just break away. Live free of anything that makes you feel demoralized. It's simply not worth your worth. Know that you know that you know...and then live like you know! Feel your "somebodiness". No one can take that away from you -- your talents cannot be robbed no matter how flagrant the foul.
Faith, Hope & Love,
Tricia
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Bravo, bravo! Trish you have definitely tapped into a festering, unfulfilling vein that so many of us fall into, (or should I say, fall victim to).
Corporate America is nothing more than a modern form of sharecropping where few will ever break free to fully realize their potential, (and the resulting rewards, including economic independence and a sense of true fulfillment and purpose). I am at a crossroads of sort, where I'm, again, mulling over a critical career decision. Should I go ahead and step out and attempt to make it happen on my own, or go back to the doldrums and robotic thud of corporate America, (just to get that safe and steady paycheck every couple of weeks)? I definitely needed to see this so that I am encouraged to keep my nose to the grindstone and make it happen; AWAY from corporate America, doing my own thing!!!
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Good Lawd! You are a self contained think tank. I love it! Another kindred spirit who understands that she is trapped in the mirage … Ironically, it is worse for people like us who recognize it. I am admittedly a bit jealous of those who fail to see the irony and absurdity of their “reality”…. life is easier that way.
I'm still playin' the game though.... crazy. Okay, enough deep musings til' Monday. This is "valuable" corporate time...
The blog is killer. I need more time to peruse later.
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JD,
Well considering your great gifts, kind sir - I'm thinking we should break inside the mirage and fight our way out....freeing all who are trapped and blinded by the dumb-down. What do you say?
If "they" wound us, as an immensely talented musician sings, " You've got cuts and I've got sutures, for when the Band-Aids come undone"... we can call out...
"Attention everyone! Anyone who is basking in absurdity and backstroking in ironic reality
PLEASE GET OUT OF THE POOL! "
If you think it's worth trying, I'm game. We just need a 10-point plan and our rebel natures on full release!
¡Soy lista cuando eres listo. Nombre la fecha!
~Tricia
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Oh, the depth of it all. It's even a bit depressing. Thanks for articulating, T.
We'll have to continue the conversation about converting that higher, creative, collective intellectual human capital into practical, eco-socio solutions. What counter-culture can compete with the production cost efficiency of corporate resources while also fulfilling the more tangible hierarchy of basic human needs?
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Really liked the creativity and I think the topic is very relative today!
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Corporate life is not the only way -- it is the easy way. The illusion of stability and rules to follow.
My advice is to strike out on your own, use your talents, strengthen your weaknesses, trust in yourself, and take the calculated risk. It sounds crazy but shed yourself of material bonds. Isn't it funny that debt is also called bonds? there's a reason...
Chose instead to invest time in people and be generous. Do not suffer distraction from your path. Above all, don't allow yourself to think like a victim lest you become a victim.
Yes, I'm following my own advice and my happiness is immeasurably greater.
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I am in agreement and similarly suspect that a good number of people feel disenchanted with everyday business practices. Much like Ron’s comments it is easier to “ allow “various” unsupportive paradigms to exist: Iraq war, cold war, big biz , multi-national corporations, standard, predict-reality...You get the picture.
Tricia speak out, rally us …Let’s not accept the creed, rather let’s participate and collaborate in and with crafting a new one (missteps, successes and all!)
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So where do we start? No truly, where do we start? We all want something more and we...I'll say I don't move. Can't or won't? I know it's won't because of what we have to lose. Direction is never clear when you have so many different inputs in life coming in your way. Manage a family, manage a role within a company, but all that is truly second to acting on making a difference in the world to the many that need it, to the many that feel it, and even to the ones that don't. I personally feel trapped by my own prison of conformity but I feel that the tide is turning. Like many of you, I am restless. Restless to do, act, be more than what I give today. I've learned that fear is the most debilitating enemy to mankind. It leads to inaction, acceptance, and social disregard. We say we can't, but know we can. Dr. King knew, he could and did. Many have visions but few have will. His and many others that have come before have put down their ambitions and truly served a greater good. In that calling, they find a greater purpose, a greater title, a greater kingdom than this world has to offer. I know its true and so do most who subscribe to thoughts manifested in this blog.
Can we make indifference go out of style? Can we make caring a contagious fire in our hearts? At the very least can we rise up and create awareness so that other that follow can react to that awareness, just like those that followed Dr. King rose to the occasion to make the changes that stemmed from the initial awareness brought forth by his lifetime. Until a formal and unified outcry for benevolent change is made against social injustice, acts against love, crime against our children, we can at least affirm that in our own paths, we will be soldiers of God's light and defend truth with humility, love, and accepting of all persecutions that come upon us. Every day is a chance for change. Let us keep a watchful eye for opportunities to put forth into action the change that we all desire.
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So where do we start? That is the question, isn't it Tony? Let me echo your words, "WE want something more" and yet "we don't move". Why is that? We are restless. What's more, we have a capacity that exceeds the wildest dreams of generations before us. Our sensibilities are progressive. We possess sophisticated and intuitive knowledge. And there are enough of us ideal for Dr. King's "creative minority", the group of people that can drastically alter the conditions of humanity on a macro and micro level. On top of that, we make more money than 99% of the world's population. So why don't we move?
Your phrase "prison of conformity" is interesting. We are imprisoned. Self-imprisonment and institutionalized imprisonment. In order to liberate ourselves, we have to first wake up from our slumber. We are sleep walking through major social revolutions. Our Humanity is taking a beat down by Greed & Gluttony. Our society is a runaway train with tracks that run in a circle locked inside the walls of conformity and prosperity for a few. Your comment is on point with Dr. King's expressed need for "creative maladjustment". He said,
"This hour in history needs a dedicated circle of transformed nonconformists. Our planet teeters on the brink of annihilation; dangerous passions of pride, hatred, and selfishness are enthroned in our lives; and men do reverence before false gods of nationalism and materialism. The saving of our world from pending doom will come, not through complacent adjustment of the conforming majority, but through the creative maladjustment of a nonconforming minority."
The creatively maladjusted asks the question, "Can we make indifference go out of style? Can we make caring a contagious fire in our hearts?" I think we can. I was just thinking over the last few days about how to market a rebellion. I am as serious as the day is long. Can we create the strategy and build out the capacity and infrastructure for a rebellion? Or I should say a framework for rebellion to enable and galvanize the revolutions necessary to wipe out major social ills? I have grown convinced that we can do it. The only real question is: WILL WE? And yes, only if by "God's light".
"Everyday is a chance for change", right Tony? So let's first figure out the maze. Read this: 23 Tools to Brainwash and Influence People Through Media. It's perspective widening and speaks to the self-imprisonment and institutionalized oppression of mind that permeates our culture. Let's chat more, but soon, as Dr. King reminds us, "In this unfolding conundrum of life there is such a thing as being too late. Procrastination is still the thief of time." I am mindful that its been a month since I first posted this blog.
Let's take Procrastination out of the equation all together starting now. Thanks so much for your post. Keep talking.
Faith, Hope & Love,
Tricia
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I like the way you think, Tricia. I'm adding your blog to my feeds, and Technorati favorites.
I keep hoping that eventually all of us who see the truth so many others are blind to will be able to speak with one voice (maybe through the internet), so that the corporate giants, the government, and all the rest who are burying their heads in the sand can no longer ignore us.
It will take time - but every connection we make is a start. Keep up the good work!!
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