I was going to whinge about Statists and collectivists again, but decided not to. In this post, I shall spin a yarn of a fictional ecommerce outfit and the dealing some of the staff had with trade unions.
Some of the regressive 70s throwbacks (can regressives be anything other than throwbacks?) decided it would be a champion idea to form a union in a fictional house of wares. And they did. All the poor, oppressed workers gave their dues to their rep every single week. Happy, happy, utopia the workplace now was, with the red flag flying high.
But, the evil capitalists being in charge, of course at some point they would upset the working man, probably by flicking their fat-cat cigar ash on the broken body of some sacrifice to the corporate jackboot.
Given I would be very strict on contract enforcement, some on the shop floor decided, quite rightly, they needed more muscle than they had themselves. To the rep-mobile, Robin! But alas, he was nowhere to be found. When quizzed over this, the reply was We don’t understand it. He is always there every Friday night in the pub when we hand over our dues.
To misquote Homer: It is only funny because it is (not) true, or, perhaps, It is only funny because it happened to someone else.
That was an entirely made up story. I made it up in the lab. It may come to it that it is in poor taste/will get me in trouble, so it may disappear like said supposed Union rep in the back street boozer.
Then I got to thinking (apropos that I do, nothing more than that) about my political development. You know the old saying not a socialist by 19, you don’t know where you heart is, not a conservative by 40, don’t know where you brain is. Well, I have never been a socialist. And it isn’t as if I come from a privileged background. No landed gentry here. Everything I have today, I have worked for myself. I digress. As per usual. I was thinking, you see, why haven’t I ever held left-wing views.
I remember, when about eleven or twelve, reading some odd magazine article (where, I don’t know) about anarcho-capitalism. And thinking: wow, that is genius. Seriously. Whether this influenced me or not, I don’t know. But certainly I never could see the point in any misguided misanthrope who was forever using the weasel word social. The point that people had to look after themselves, and not be ever reliant on Big Government (oh how strange that what they meant by Big Government back then never envisaged what we have today. They would think that parody, and could never happen except in some dystopian future.) Does that sound heartless? Won’t someone think of the children who fall through the system? sigh
Or maybe I am just a thran, mardy bugger who won’t be told.
It’s a magical world, Hobbes ol’ buddy
Reminder! Satdeh approaches! (It may have been and gone by the time you read this. Which, of course, is a lie. That satdeh will have gone, but there will always be another approaching. Never stepping over the same river twice. Are we there yet, Mr Zeno?
[1]As quoted by me to one of the NewNewWork (big) bosses.
