Management vs. Labor

I thought I was done with my astonishment, that the renewed violence in northern Ireland would not get my goat, as the saying goes. However, the useless killings still rest a heavy yoke on my thoughts. So I trod not lightly today, dragging my poor feet shoed with a wornout soul.

When I was working in Ireland, many an Irish citizen reminded me that just because I was born with natural red hair and had family from Ireland, I could not say that I am Irish. At best, I could say I am of Irish descent. Alas, 'tis not so. My ancestors, who wrote that they were Irish on their gravestones, were merely visitors to the island, emigrants always on the run, first from the British persecution of Scottish inhabitants and then to the land of promise - North America.

Nomads.

Again, I am not my ancestors. I have their genetic heritage flowing through my veins, forming my propensity for pink skin and specks of melanin, and a wee bit of Nordic or Dutch blood showing in my red hair.

I am likely more Scottish than Irish so the violence in Eire does not belong to me, except for the age-old resentment between the Scottish (primarily Protestant in their religious practice) and the Irish (primarily Catholic). I was raised in a Protestant household, with Presbyterian being the Christian sect I studied. However, I, like so many Americans and Europeans, have found religion less integral to my daily habits of living, making the killings over the British rule of Northern Ireland seem...well, I'm not sure, yesterday's news?

I grew up with the impression that I was "blessed" to live in the land of opportunity. Even so, opportunity was divided into two categories: management and labor. I understood that these categories were solely economic, not a hard-and-fast rule like the caste system of India. Yet, I met families whose two or three generations living together all effused the essence of either a management or labor view of life. Now, this is one of those chicken-and-egg things - which came first, my education that tainted my observations so that I only saw things in an either/or scenario of management-vs.-labor, or the human tendency to gather in socially-defined cliques, which in my neck of the woods was twofold?

No matter.

I've read a few articles and books that for the past ten years have predicted the breakdown of traditional business roles. In the future, which is now and in the past, people will no longer work for others or have people work for them in a corporate structure. We'll all have freelance jobs. Subcontractors. Independent workers.

Can we handle the responsibilities of working for ourselves?

Can you?

That's a question I've asked myself ever since I was a wee lad, when I realized that I wouldn't be one to sire the next generation. For those of you who have kids or plan to have them, you know what it takes to be responsible. There's not much more important than having the life of another person in your hands.

Now I'm standing in front of about 60 students a week, none of them my offspring, teaching them about specific school topics. At the same time, I'm asking them to raise their heads and look around them. No one else in the room is responsible for the other's life.

Or are they?

In fact, they are. The violence in Ireland has proven that to me. Indeed, we are each other's brother and sister.

Therefore, I agree with the assessment that the future is now and we are no longer engaged in the business practices of our forebears. Management-vs.-labor is passé. We are independent contractors, here to create and offer our goods and services to one another. No more excuses about hiding behind labor contracts or minimum wage. You are neither a laborer nor a manager. You are "You, Inc." Make yourself a product you can prosper with, putting your talents and those of your network of brothers and sisters to the benefit of all.

I'll end this entry with an Irish blessing:

May you live as long as you want, and never want as long as you live.