What have you done for me lately?

What people ‘do for a living’ is mostly evident after a few questions, or casual observations, and often even rumor shall suffice.

What does our daily life say about us? What motivates us, who are we, what do we do, and what do we hope to accomplish by our every day life? If we go to work, we are workers and, if you are a worker then you labor willingly on behalf of the ruling class? This, I think, would not go over very well, nor would it be completely honest as a description of the average worker. Does it then follow that if you do not, or cannot work for a wage, you are by default, not championing ideas like consumerism, or success for its own sake?

Certainly a job is not the only method by which one participates in, or perpetuates a materialistic sentimentality. How much infatuation with the cult of celebrity is offset by being lucky enough to not work for Wal-Mart? How many brand names is it ok to covet, and promote while you Tweet about justice? How crucial to society must work be to offset its harmful side-effects? Can you be meek, and just a little racist?

Of course we all wish to explain, and to give some history, and reason to our circumstance, but in this way we can understand that to ask a protester how what they do furthers their cause, or to ask a supervisor how they motivate their employees, to seek to understand how a mother ties together a household while under more duress than her male counterparts; to ask all these things is to ask the same question each time.

If you believe as many do, that capitalism needs replacing, with something, anything better, if you comprehend the truths of social and economic equality, then what you ‘do for a living’ will necessarily reflect that. What we do in our life, what our life does for others, or to others, and what others do to us, are all parts of the same, larger network that defines who we are, and what we ‘do.’

Not only where you work, not how you survive, not only how loudly, or proudly you protest, and not your proof of any of the preceding, but our activities outside of work, or how we work, simply our interactions with other people, will shape and foster ideas, and influence the collective vision of the future our communities hold. The values that define our judgements are recreated by what we ‘do.’ What hope can there be for a better economic system, for equality, with out a vision of what that might look like? And what is a vision if it is not seen, and described to others?

There is no such thing as fake activism, or Twitter activism. There is activism, and there is abuse, or mockery of activism. Like anything else, the desires and machinations of individuals can be expressed utilizing any means available, spanning the sometimes frivolous, to ideas with implications that deeply affect us. Ire directed at those we perceive as ineffective, at dreamers, or ‘professional victims’ could easily be turned back upon ourselves.

If we are all individuals and hold ourselves as industrious workers, bound for success, then what is it, precisely, that is taking us so long to start our own company, or be promoted to positions we clearly strive for? Why doesn’t everybody work here? Why, for so many, is the American Dream yet a dream?

Are you not a good worker, are you just faking it, joining in to belong, co-opting other folks’ work ethic? Are you lazy?