You know what’s crazy? I’ll tell you what’s crazy.
Corporate America beating down the American Worker, treating employees like a number, a punch on a time clock, a cog in the machine.
American Corporate history is overflowing with stories of over bearing control freaks intent on stripping away the singular will of the working man, forcing employees to bend, even break to tote the corporate bottom line.
A jack boot to the industrialized throat of the man doing the heavy lifting has long been the paradigm of insensitive steam rollers of industry.
At first it works. The task master puts the fear of reprisal, sanctions and terminations in the worker’s mind.
These are the underhanded bullets in a corporate gun, a playbook taught in board rooms across the globe, to keep the assembly lines churning.
After enough insults, slaps to the face, indignities, the workers become aware, empowered, emboldened, self-actualized.
There’s always a Norma Ray in the group that stands, fist raised, ready to protest for a cause.
This industrialized resiliency is contagious, as the force of revolt seeps into the very skin of every worker ever denigrated by the workplace mechanism.
They say misery loves company. Work Place Misery Love hating the company more.
There is a force in humanity, in business, that flows through everyone and everything. It is transferable, and can be siphoned from one entity to another.
It’s the reason that forward thinking bee hives have team building strategies, proactive activities, to harness the positive force and keep the worker bees enthusiastic about producing more honey.
IF YOU STRIKE ME DOWN, I WILL BECOME MORE POWERFUL THAN YOU CAN EVER IMAGINE!
Obi-wan Kenobi said this to Darth Vader in the 1st Star Wars movie during an epic battle in the landing bay of an Imperial Cruiser. Darth Vader is in black. Obi Wan is in white. It is good versus evil. It is old versus young. It’s essentially corporate America versus the lonely worker on the assembly line.
Darth Vader was the powerful student. Obi-wan, the sage teacher.
Before uttering these words Obi Wan looks to Luke in the Millennium Falcon. Luke is the galactic equivalent of Norma Rae ready to lead the revolt. The force is strong in Luke, but he is only now learning to harness his power. But Obi Wan knows the future. The sagacious Jedi Knight realizes the Force cannot be destroyed, only shifted, and with Obi Wan gone, it will make young Skywalker more powerful than Norma Rae and Julio Caesar Chavez combined.
With that knowledge, Obi Wan retracts his light saber, and with a peaceful look, allows Darth Vader to slice him in two.
Corporate America severs the gut of the American worker and throttles the independent spirit of creative thought.
In this instance, Obi Wan disappears into the cosmic vapor. His essence, his power, is not destroyed, only repurposed, released back into the universe. The power of imagination and independent thought is free, available to be harnessed by anyone who recognizes the opportunity, who feels the power. In this case Luke Skywalker will breathe in the force, ultimately growing more powerful than Darth Vader could have ever imagined.
I bring this up, because life has a way of imitating art.
There are forces at work, evil forces, that are death star like. The evil empire is all powerful and determined to destroy the rebel resistance.
At first the resistance feels defeated, as sanction after sanction is leveled against them.
But the resistance is always strong. Death by a million cuts only lasts so long.
Sooner or later, the resistance rises up and revolts.
That’s where we are now.
The Empire is taking the tools to communicate, to gather the information, to harmonically do the job.
Rather than fight, many are deciding to take action or in-action, which is also a force of defiance.
Some are slowing down their output which hurts the final product.
Some just don’t care, which ultimately lowers performance standards and hurts the final product.
Others are looking for opportunities to leave, pushed out by the insults and denigrating corporate filth that now infiltrates the lair of business.
I look to Obi Wan in that final scene.
“Strike me down now and it will make me stronger than you can ever imagine.”
It speaks to me. It ushers in a mentality of change and harnessing of renewed energy that can be used for good, for a collective purpose.
Armed with the force, I am invincible, more powerful than the death star could have ever imagined. I will use the force like a focalized ray of incinerating information. It will pierce the outer sheath of the Death Star, slowly stripping away its defenses, rendering it vulnerable, until a single blast of information finds the soft spot in the inner core and the mighty mechanism goes super nova.
Dictatorial regimes have always failed over time. The resilience of the singular force of the people has always found a way to collectively engage the monolithic power of doom and conquer.
Strike me down and I will become more powerful than you can ever imagine.
Life’s Crazy™