Employing the Elderly

by the subway philosopher™

 “There is a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can’t take part; you can’t even passively take part, and you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you’ve got to make it stop. And you’ve got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you’re free, the machine will be prevented from working at all.” – Mario Savio, 1964.

Great words, inspiring words, words that infuse the waves of history and humanity with dignity and honor. But a question is thereby raised – who exactly should do this? Me? I prefer you, without any doubts whatsoever. I’ve got better things to do, such as kicking back on my porch with a cold one. But hey, wouldn’t you know it, there are a lot of useless eaters old folks hanging around these days doing nothing much in particular…

Mr. Savio was part of a significant ongoing protest at U.C. Berkeley, asking fellow students to put their bodies on the line and stop the machine that oppressed them – in this case by demanding that the administration “lift the ban of on-campus political activities,” among other things.

Berkeley succumbed a few months thereafter. One of America’s elite intellectual institutions bent the knee, and all others followed suit. In hindsight, we might have taught our youth the value of an apoliticized enclave, a refuge from the swamp of grift and graft, a respite from the vanities of ideologues, or the luxury and even necessity of a somewhat anarchic but non-violent arena in which to present conflicting ideas and uncertain facts reflecting the world as we know it. But we didn’t.

Students are in some ways an excellent choice for the work of both politicking and machine-clogging. They’re energetic and healthy, idealistic and bright. Supposedly. Maybe not so much anymore. Students are also disposable – they’ve contributed nothing productive to the world as of yet. There are lots of them too, always a good thing from the cannon-fodder perspective.

–          A modern angel of death.

As Mr. Savio no doubt discovered the hard way, rebellion has its price. In the current surveillance age, any youthful rebellion or even resistance to the status quo, dodgy or otherwise and however slight, can and will destroy a young life, the alleged malfeasance hovering eternally over the poor sap like an angel of death in the form of government records, social media, corporate and advertising databases, credit and employment history and ratings, un-cautious tweets, search-engine results, and on and on it goes – a lengthy laundry list of socially and technocratically enforced conformity to the politically-correct.

Students thus might well be advised to dodge the pitfalls of today via classic means – keep a low profile, find a productive way to make money quietly , avoid women, corporations and government, and passively resist the machine by whatever means become available.  In other words, the smarter kids won’t be doing any politicking or machine-clogging whatsoever if they know what’s good for them.

Interesting that in the 1964-65 Berkeley protests, the left was demanding so-called free speech. Now the left is oppressive, and the right allegedly seeks freedom (no doubt before it in turn oppresses). Obviously, there is still, and always, a job that needs doing. Who’s going to do it?

Position Available – Start Immediately (EOE): Machine-cloggers wanted, no pay, poor prospects, diminished quality and duration of life.

No one in their right mind would go for such a gig. But someone’s gotta do it – humanity depends on it. The obvious rational conclusion: old folks should take on this work. They’re teetering on the discomfiting edge of personal annihilation  anyway, so naturally they’ll want to go down with a bang. At best the aged are self-financing; at worst they’re a massive drain on the coffers of humanity, sucking dry the labor of an ever-diminishing productive class, leeching off the body economic and social to a degree no self-respecting Eskimo Inuit would ever stoop to.

So what you should do, once you hit 70 or thereabouts, is take on the control machine, the smug, self-satisfied do-gooding bureaucrats, technocrats and corporate hacks who concoct rules for you to follow, who wallow in violence by proxy, who seize an ever-increasing cut of your labor both when you do and when you don’t comply with their pseudo-utopian schemes. How much of your income, property and dignity can they confiscate before you get pissed off? How many rules before you become their humble servant?

–          All you old folks are gonna die soon, get over it. It’s time to take one for the team.

You old-timers, if you’ve survived this long you’ve gotten your money’s worth, so get with the program. You’re gonna die soon anyway – get over it. It’s time to take one for the team. Mostly you’ve worked hard and had it okay, except for when you got fucked over by the controllers, be they bureaucrats, corporations or women (all of whom translate into lawyers and the light-speed disappearance of your rights and hard-won assets with distressing consistency). So put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and make it stop.

Leaving behind a nice fat clog in the machine, or even a small one, ain’t the worst way to go. And don’t worry about what your kids think – they’re just waiting for their inheritance anyway.

Great Big Disclaimer: this writer and this website do not support, promote or endorse violence. Violence is okay only if you work for the government.

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