Let us Make a Slave: A Rant About Corporate Skullduggery
The word slavery usually brings to mind the atrocities inflicted upon Africans who were stripped from their homes and shipped to the Americas and other parts of the world in millions in the 16th century. To others the world slavery might invoke the stories from scripture and ancient history about groups of people who were enslaved by various empires and feifdoms; ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, ancient Rome, ancient Persia and right here in Africa, the Songhai, Ashanti, Imbangala and Nyamwezi who were known for slave trading.
Fast forward to today and the word “slave” is frequently found in the context of fringe bedroom games. That is definitely not what I am here to talk about!
The harsh reality is that the majority of us live our lives as corporate slaves, and have been indoctrinated and brainwashed to the extent that we take exception and resent being referred to as such, despite the facts surrounding our miserable existence. Please come and let your mind walk with mine as we draw contrasts between the ancient practice of slavery and modern society as we know it.
In it’s most basic form, slavery is a means to acquire labor, or human resources for the fulfilment of the owner’s wishes. In the ancient times most slaves were acquired at a slave auction, where buyers cast bids for individuals or groups of individuals whom they wanted to own and felt had the capacity to deliver the required labor. In modern society the tables have been turned and in a reverse slave auction commonly known as a job interview, potential slaves present themselves willingly to multiple owners and seek to convince them to purchase their labor.
Once a slave has been purchased, they then need to be “broken” to suit the will of the new owner. In today's world names like Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Aliko Dangote or Strive Masiyiwa are recognised as captains of industry and the whole world listens when they speak, in days of slavery their equivalent was a terrible man by the name of Willie Lynch. Lynch was a British slave owner in the West Indies and was respected worldwide for his mastery over his slaves. He wrote a treatise “The Making of a Slave” in 1712 that became the de facto operations manual for anyone who owned slaves. Before you run off to Google for this document and read it, be warned that it is an extremely disgusting, demeaning, racist, sadist and evil piece of writing that has been used to perpetrate the most atrocious and unthinkable acts on humanity and the African race. The central theme of his thesis focused on identifying the differences between the slaves, amplifying them and then using them to create fear, distrust and envy which in turn gave the owner the desired levels of control over their slaves. In companies with a toxic culture, fear, distrust and envy are the unseen energies that permeate relationships across all levels and the means by which control is exerted within the hierarchy.
The first step in making a slave is to break their independence and self sufficiency and ensure that they are wholly dependent on their owner.
“Whereas nature provides them with the natural capacity to take care of their offspring, we break that natural string of independence from them and thereby create a dependency status, so that we may be able to get from them useful production for our business and pleasure”
Modern society has made people dependent on their employer, their salary and their employment benefits to take care of themselves and their offspring. For most people the mere thought of leaving their often abusive employer and seeking freedom through entrepreneurship or early retirement brings on waves of fear, panic and extreme discomfort.
The piercing point of Lynch’s breaking strategy focused on ensuring a continuous supply of good slaves by starting by breaking the woman, the mother, the female slave. In this strategy the woman was likened to a female horse.
“Completely break the female horse until she becomes very gentle, whereas you or anybody can ride her in her comfort….Train the female horse where by she will eat out of your hand, and she will in turn train the infant horse to eat out of your hand also”
From age immemorial we have been raised to believe that without employment we are worthless, we have been conditioned to eat, walk, think, breathe and live like “good employees”. We were broken long ago and live broken lives under the yoke of employers who strip us of our dignity and use us in their insatiable grab for “profit” and “value”.
According to Lynch, this process ensured that all future offspring would be born and bred a certain way - the slave way. The outcome of the breaking process would create a loyal tell-tale who would report any slave who murmured, plotted against their master, or showed signs of opposition. It would prevent revolt and provide the opportunity to crush any resistance. How many employees live and work in such an setting? How many are in an environment where any query of the status quo is seen as revolt or rebellion? Where any attempt at thinking differently or doing things differently is put to death on the altar of policy or procedure? Where everyone is looking over everybody else’s shoulder to find something that they can report on which might make them look better in the eyes of their boss? Where instead of modelling good leadership and creating followers, bosses lord it over their employees and use Lynch’s methodology to assert their control over their employees and ensure a continuous supply of the same subservient slaves?
I hope that this piece has incited some strong feelings, some deep thoughts, some reflection but more than anything that it might incite action and cause us to regard one another differently. Not as slaves but as equals deserving of dignity. That we would be able to identify in ourselves those mannerisms, mindsets and predispositions that tend towards slavery; either as the victim or the perpetrator; and that we would have the courage to confront this in ourselves and choose a better way.
Fast forward to today and the word “slave” is frequently found in the context of fringe bedroom games. That is definitely not what I am here to talk about!
The harsh reality is that the majority of us live our lives as corporate slaves, and have been indoctrinated and brainwashed to the extent that we take exception and resent being referred to as such, despite the facts surrounding our miserable existence. Please come and let your mind walk with mine as we draw contrasts between the ancient practice of slavery and modern society as we know it.
In it’s most basic form, slavery is a means to acquire labor, or human resources for the fulfilment of the owner’s wishes. In the ancient times most slaves were acquired at a slave auction, where buyers cast bids for individuals or groups of individuals whom they wanted to own and felt had the capacity to deliver the required labor. In modern society the tables have been turned and in a reverse slave auction commonly known as a job interview, potential slaves present themselves willingly to multiple owners and seek to convince them to purchase their labor.
Once a slave has been purchased, they then need to be “broken” to suit the will of the new owner. In today's world names like Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Aliko Dangote or Strive Masiyiwa are recognised as captains of industry and the whole world listens when they speak, in days of slavery their equivalent was a terrible man by the name of Willie Lynch. Lynch was a British slave owner in the West Indies and was respected worldwide for his mastery over his slaves. He wrote a treatise “The Making of a Slave” in 1712 that became the de facto operations manual for anyone who owned slaves. Before you run off to Google for this document and read it, be warned that it is an extremely disgusting, demeaning, racist, sadist and evil piece of writing that has been used to perpetrate the most atrocious and unthinkable acts on humanity and the African race. The central theme of his thesis focused on identifying the differences between the slaves, amplifying them and then using them to create fear, distrust and envy which in turn gave the owner the desired levels of control over their slaves. In companies with a toxic culture, fear, distrust and envy are the unseen energies that permeate relationships across all levels and the means by which control is exerted within the hierarchy.
The first step in making a slave is to break their independence and self sufficiency and ensure that they are wholly dependent on their owner.
“Whereas nature provides them with the natural capacity to take care of their offspring, we break that natural string of independence from them and thereby create a dependency status, so that we may be able to get from them useful production for our business and pleasure”
Modern society has made people dependent on their employer, their salary and their employment benefits to take care of themselves and their offspring. For most people the mere thought of leaving their often abusive employer and seeking freedom through entrepreneurship or early retirement brings on waves of fear, panic and extreme discomfort.
The piercing point of Lynch’s breaking strategy focused on ensuring a continuous supply of good slaves by starting by breaking the woman, the mother, the female slave. In this strategy the woman was likened to a female horse.
“Completely break the female horse until she becomes very gentle, whereas you or anybody can ride her in her comfort….Train the female horse where by she will eat out of your hand, and she will in turn train the infant horse to eat out of your hand also”
From age immemorial we have been raised to believe that without employment we are worthless, we have been conditioned to eat, walk, think, breathe and live like “good employees”. We were broken long ago and live broken lives under the yoke of employers who strip us of our dignity and use us in their insatiable grab for “profit” and “value”.
According to Lynch, this process ensured that all future offspring would be born and bred a certain way - the slave way. The outcome of the breaking process would create a loyal tell-tale who would report any slave who murmured, plotted against their master, or showed signs of opposition. It would prevent revolt and provide the opportunity to crush any resistance. How many employees live and work in such an setting? How many are in an environment where any query of the status quo is seen as revolt or rebellion? Where any attempt at thinking differently or doing things differently is put to death on the altar of policy or procedure? Where everyone is looking over everybody else’s shoulder to find something that they can report on which might make them look better in the eyes of their boss? Where instead of modelling good leadership and creating followers, bosses lord it over their employees and use Lynch’s methodology to assert their control over their employees and ensure a continuous supply of the same subservient slaves?
I hope that this piece has incited some strong feelings, some deep thoughts, some reflection but more than anything that it might incite action and cause us to regard one another differently. Not as slaves but as equals deserving of dignity. That we would be able to identify in ourselves those mannerisms, mindsets and predispositions that tend towards slavery; either as the victim or the perpetrator; and that we would have the courage to confront this in ourselves and choose a better way.
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