Karōshi

We all become food for a complex food web at some point, my intention in offering this here is that we may make out choices deliberately, not through being subsumed by an extractive system or exploitation. If we acquiesce in the face of our oppressors, nothing will be left for future generations. It is time to act as if the next seven generations matter.

In the course of watching a foreign film this moon (month), I was introduced to the concept of working one self to death. It came up in two other ways that didn't make much sense at first. The third time as they say was the charm. It brought with it a profound sense of awareness. Although we often hear about people in the United States of America who work 'til retirement and then keel over dead two weeks later, we do not have a word for people like them or, in fact, those who cross the veil while working. The irony of learning about karōshi now is that the whole threadbare sack of shit we have been handed is unraveling faster than the lying media bastards can patch it back up. The jig my most lethal friends is up! Corporate welfare pig, be advised. Your reign is coming quickly to a close. The age of the water bearers is upon us and from now on, truth will be your ration.

Remember the lying that has gone on about how we cannot more equitably distribute wealth because comfort would act as a dis-incentive to work? Listen up, Rethuglicans. Japan, where the difference between entry level wage earners and CEOs is miniscule compared to U.S. standards, workers are working themselves to death. Especially mid-level managers. True, and in such startling numbers that, the Japanese recognize it as a social health care threat. We continue to be fed a line of bull so thick with rumor and innuendo, class warfare and bigotry engendered by hatred, that those who profess to know how the economy works have to be either the best liars or most ignorant souls ever to walk upon the planet. Truth is that even when the differences between rich and poor are lessened, there are those that, with laser focus, seek to achieve wealth. This, in our culture, is code for "live beyond their means". Chasing dollars or yuan, whatever you call it, hardly matters

The mantra that equitable distribution of wealth would sap our productivity and undermine worker's motivation to earn has been repeated so often, it passes for truth amongst those of little conscience, those who would foist their reality on whoever they seek to oppress, those whose self-righteous indignation fills the media, buys the representatives and guides the debate in print, on the air-waves and in the digital realm. If you look into the facts behind wealth distribution, say through the CIA World Factbook, you will see a trend. The more equitably the wealth is spread, the more likely one would want to live there. Strangely, the U.S.of A. ranks forty-first worst, of the 136 countries on the list. Forty countries distribute their wealth more unequally than we do, but they include some of the least likely countries to want to emigrate to (unless you are relatively high on the income ladder already.) The one percent really stick together wherever they are.

I have written at length about Calvinism and the preoccupation with the lie that the poor deserve what they get. The time has come to create a new mythology that acknowledges that those lies were to placate the conscience of five century old oppressors. If you think that the whole world should be more like Botswana and Lesotho, or Namibia, just "keep on believing" as Journey said. See how that works for the next several decades. If life in Norway, Denmark and Sweden look better to you, then never let the sun set without adding your voice to the worldwide chorus that calls for more equitable distribution of wealth!

I mourn the familiar workaholics everywhere, especially those who pay the ultimate price. I have compassion for those who have lost loved ones to this disease. My own father pushed beyond the limits of health and sanity in his own employment and because he cared so much for others, he was willing to do anything to help the people he loved to get all that they wanted, not just what they needed. The blessings that come from moving up the financial ladder, when they also carry the curse of death, are not only hollow, but in the end, hardly worth the price we pay. Karōshi is the ultimate corporate welfare. No executive salary is worth having the stain of death on one's hands. We have to seriously question the entire system that subverts human life for no purpose other than generating wealth for the already wealthy beyond measure.