We're All A Bunch Of Kholops

It's true. In case you're unfamiliar with the term, Kholops are like serfs, except instead of having its etymology based in French and Latin, it's based in Ukrainian, like me.

It's no secret I'm not a fan of the corporatization of the world and the incessant bureaucracy that such a life entails.Workers and company owners nowadays are far too removed from each other, in my opinion. I mean in the literal sense, too, not just financially. Let's say you're a regular worker at a regular company, you might have as many as 3 supervisors. There are supervisors, managers, operations managers, department managers, so on and so forth. This system would work fine for me. In this system, you can, on a daily basis, interact with your superiors and work together. Unfortunately, this is merely the beginning; this is serfdom.

After the initial supervisory tiers, there are the corporate social orders. There are district managers, regional vice presidents, area presidents, presidents, executives, CEOs, CFOs, CBOs, CCOs, CMOs, so on and so forth. When is the last time you met any of these people in your company? How accessible are they? At a company with tens of thousands of employees, how can we expect them to care for one person?

We're all familiar with the concept of being just a number. I suspect this concept has its origins in prison, since prisoners are often prescribed numbers. Large companies, too, have to treat their employees in this manner; it's inevitable. I can't imagine knowing more than a hundred or so people well, so how could a CEO of a large company be expected to know anything about its employees, even their names?

In that same sense, workers are merely numbers, replaceable by cheaper workers. This is a big part of the current unemployment crisis. Businesses can be very picky about who they want to hire and how much they value them. People have to accept massive pay cuts because if they don't, someone else will. But then, how does that make us seem if we are so willing to devalue ourselves? What does is say if we are not only willing, but begging, to be another number, so long as that number isn't adding to the unemployment rate?

We are kholops, and large businesses are our lords. We work for them, they watch over us, but they are responsible for us. If we mess up, it's on their hands. As such, we are replaceable. In feudal times, Lords could sell or kill their serfs much like they can, and do, now in a figurative sense.

Financially, it's like each job level represents a social order, with pay increasing exponentially the higher up the social ladder you find yourself. Workers earn peanuts and the upper echelon of the company earns thousands of times what the soul of the company earns. I don't like this and neither should you.

This is why I love small businesses. This is why when I have money, they get it. I may hate telephones, but I can call the owner and talk to them, most of the businesses here even encourage it. When I walk into a store, the people there are earnestly engaging because they love what they do; it's not only their livelihood, it's their lifeblood.

I hope we can break down these walls that have been created. Every wall that's fallen has started with a small stone being removed.