Plongeurs/Sheeple: Locked in Debtors' Prison(ZT)

Plongeurs/Sheeple: Locked in Debtors' Prison		2007 5:42:03 PM
A light-hearted rant with many a semblence of truth... APlongeur is one of the slaves of the modem world. Not that there is anyneed to whine over him, for he is better off than many manual workers,but still, he is no freer than if he were bought and sold. "Atthis moment there are men with university degrees scrubbing dishes inParis for ten or fifteen hours a day. One cannot say that it is mereidleness on their part, for an idle man cannot be a plongeur; they havesimply been trapped by a routine which makes thought impossible. Ifplongeurs thought at all, they would long ago have formed a union andgone on strike for better treatment. But they do not think, becausethey have no leisure for it; their life has made slaves of them."--- a fitting description for many mortgage holders who, thanks tospiralling house prices, are committed to monstrous loans they willspend the rest of their vital years paying off so they can have a poolto decompose by at 70. "Our system has one outstanding way ofholding men in place - it's called a mortgage," says Australian authorand psychologist, Steve Biddulph. "When you go for thatvital interview at the bank you walk out with a hundred thousanddollars. It's a miracle, but something else happens, something theydon't tell you about. You leave a testicle behind! "Thebank manager keeps it in a jar in his safe, along with all the others!If ever in your life you get the urge to do something risky, exciting,different or adventurous, chances are you will not because you don'thave the balls to do it! "Somehow, to be a free man, you haveto escape this trap. You could live in the country where houses costless. You could stop competing with your neighbours and drive theoldest car in your street. You could give your children more of yourtime instead of a private school education. You could take a year offand just think it all over!" As any of you with a mortgage knowall too well, taking a year off to reflect on your part in themachinery of life is about as likely as your bank manager droppingaround to iron your shirts or walk your dog; the trap has been sprung. Now,committed to a lifetime of work or facing the humilation offoreclosure, the average...(mortgage holder) becomes the perfect docileconsumer, which is just how the big boys like it. In his book Down and Out in Paris and London,writer George Orwell recounts his experiences as a "plongeur" ordishwasher working in one of the City of Light's grand hotels. Orwellcompletes his analysis of the life of a plongeur with the conclusionthat his labours are "useless" and serve no purpose but to keep himexhausted and unthinking, which also could reasonably apply to theaverage mortgage holder. Fear of the Mob The mob are such low animals that they would be dangerous if they had leisure; it is safer to keep them too busy to think. Fearof the mob is a superstitious fear. It is based on the idea that thereis some mysterious, fundamental difference between rich and poor ...but in reality there is no such difference. The mass of the rich andthe poor are differentiated by their incomes and nothing else, and theaverage millionaire is only the average dishwasher dressed in a newsuit. "From this ignorance a superstitious fear of the mobresults quite naturally. The educated man pictures a horde of submen,wanting only a day's liberty to loot his house, burn his books, and sethim to work minding a machine or sweeping out a lavatory. "Anything,' he thinks, 'any injustice, sooner than let that mob loose." "Hedoes not see that since there is no difference between the mass of richand poor, there is no question of setting the mob loose. The mob is infact loose now, and - in the shape of rich men - using (their) power toset up enormous treadmills of boredom ... " Now, back to work! link