n a t b s

the void that connects us

it is what it is

a weekend in reality

before returning to the madhouse

Stupid corporate pablum.  What does that even mean?  Doesn’t that sound like something a facist dictator would say regarding some kind of mass execution? And why are they telling average employees, the grunts, about srategic goals?  It’s some misguided attempt to get us interested in the broader funtioning of this company.  But no one cares about that, you know why?  Becuase if the comapny saves $50million this year, do we see any of it?  Not a dime.  We still get our regularly schedualed paltry raises.  When ____ was talking about all these savings and thanking us for our hard work in achieveing them, I really wanted to say “So, we all get big raises now right?”  Becuase that’s how it should be.  Somehow the rich man convinced the poor man that helping him get richer was good for him.  It’s not, the rich man is greedy and he uses people.  The poor man should see that.  It’s as plain as day.  WE ARE BEING TAKEN ADVANTAGE OF.  Ownership essentially boils down to taking things and keeping them through violence.  And it leads to exploitation.  It’s a platform for exploitation.

As black children went to school [during reconstruction], they were encouraged by teachers, black and white, to express themselves freely, sometimes in catechism style. The records of a school in Louisville, Kentucky:

TEACHER:  Now children, you don’t think white people are any better than you because they have straight hair and white faces?

STUDENTS:  No, sir.

TEACHER:  No, they are no better, but they are different, they possess great power, they formed this great government, they control this vast country…. Now what makes them different from you?

STUDENTS:  Money!

TEACHER:  Yes, but what enabled them to obtain it? How did they get money?

STUDENTS:  Got is off us, stole it off we all!

-A People’s History of the United States

One fact disturbed: whites would run off to join Indian tribes, or would be captured in battle and brought up among the Indians, and when this happened the whites, given a chance to leave, chose to stay in the Indian culture. Indians, having the choice, almost never decided to join the whites.

-A People’s History of the United States

Arawak men and women, naked, tawny, and full of wonder, emerged from their villages onto the island’s beaches and swam out to get a closer look at the strange big boat. When Columbus and his sailors came ashore, carrying swords, speaking oddly, the Arawaks ran to greet them, brought them food, water, gifts.  He later wrote of them in his log:

They…brought us parrots and balls of cotton and spears and many other things, which they exchanged for the glass beads and hawks’ bell.  They willingly traded everything they owned…. They do not bear arms, and do not know them, for I showed them a sword, the took it by the edge and cut themselves out of ignorance. They have no iron. Their spears are made of cane… They would make fine servants…. With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want.

-Christopher Columbus, from A People’s History of the United States.