Not satisfied your lot in life. Rename your position.

Hey, it works for business. If you own a greasy spoon and want one of your underpaid slaves to work really hard and keep your other slaves in line, what do you do? Give them a few cents more per hour and a tag that says “MANAGER”.

One of the most amazing examples of this, for me, is the housewife to homemaker to soccer mom to stay-at-home mom. I’m sure I’ve missed a few steps. The thing is, I find it a prime example of how easy it is to be sold a bill of goods. If we can be convinced that we’re somehow superior to those who have gone before us, or even those who surround us, we will remain in an adversarial mindset. Co-operation is the enemy of big business.

If we start caring, really caring, about each other, we’ll all be elevated. It may be harder for manufacturer’s to sell the latest shiny model washing machine for a while, but sooner or later we’ll need a new washing machine and it will even out. In the meantime, life will get better for ordinary people. It’s alright to be an ordinary person. 

Again. Standing back far enough to see a bigger picture

I was listening to some of the comments of ‘ordinary people’ after the release of the Canadian government’s budget yesterday. These ‘ordinary’ Canadians were, of course, citizens who were plugged in enough to be hanging around parliament waiting for said budget to be announced. What struck me was how they, and I dare say, we, respond to what directly affects us personally.

I would be feeling a lot more optimistic today about our degree of enlightenment as a society if even a few students were concerned with the elderly, if health care workers were concerned with, let’s say, the sick. Wouldn’t it be great if someone, anyone, spoke to the plight of the physically disabled who had no one in their life who was disabled. If, and now I know how silly this seems, someone with buckets of money said THEY should be given LESS tax breaks.

Ah, yes. I am a dreamer. Am I the only one?