Professional Oppression

Although the term Professional Oppression feels like the correct term for these thoughts, I did a little research hoping to gain additional supporting thoughts on the subject.  All I found was an over complicated and over verbalized mass of words and topics ranging anywhere from mental health jargon to comments about brutal dictators and totalitarian governments.  Professional Oppression has nothing to do with those types of situations but could be considered a damaging form of oppression all the same.

 

In the United States of America there are so many processes, fees, insurances, regulations and other items that are part of starting up and running a business that it is highly probable that many potential business operators are deterred from going out on their own.  Many new discoveries, inventions and technologies will never come about due to the amount of official obstacles that block inspiration and innovation.  Governments vote in more taxes and regulations in a fit to generate more revenue to feed the hunger of the perpetual political machine that they have created.  How many great ideas and potential life altering inventions are setting out there unable to rise to the surface as a result of this form of professional oppression?
 

 

There were some amazing experiments, inventions and technologies that came about during World War II.  It is truly amazing what the human spirit can achieve when there are fewer obstacles in the way of creative thinking.

Being the person that is the "go to" person for certain needs can be a good feeling.  We all need to feel important and useful.  When someone else comes along with knowledge of your self-proclaimed specialty, it can feel like a threat to the security of your job.  As they prove their abilities there are those who feel the need to take actions to "bring that person down to earth" or to "put them in their place".  The thought is that there is a new person and they have not worked in the company long enough to make their own decisions or showcase their skills.  The instigator in holding that person back is openly broadcasting the fact that they are intimidated by this person and they have decided to employee negative means in what they perceive as securing their position.  It becomes obvious that the instigator is a bad person and as word gets out to other employees this person looses their credibility and trustworthiness with their co-workers.  Would it not be better to take a positive and supportive approach and work closely with that person so that each is sharing their skills and knowledge and both of you end up being more capable and stronger in the profession.  Allow me to repeat the above in a more comparative manner:

Professionally damaging the new person and as a result loosing your credibility and trustworthiness, makes both employees weaker.  Sharing information and learning together will make both employees stronger. 

 

When actions are taken that damage, destroy or professionally oppress others, the "attacker" will also end up on the loosing side of the equation.  No one wins.  Embracing the new person's abilities will free up time allowing for the expansion of knowledge into other areas.  New skills and areas of specialty can be developed and professional advancement could come about as a result of the increased knowledge and skills.

 

We all know there are large egos in all industries and we all should know that there is always someone that can do our job better than we do.  It is true that no one is indispensable and if you think that you are indispensable then perhaps you should check your ego before you get a surprise that is a surprise only to you.

 

 

After the Fact

While in attendance at a metal music festival I was observing some of the various suggestive graphics being flashed up on huge displays, all around the stage, during a well known "shock rocker's" performance.  I began to think about whether or not I should be critical of what was being displayed.  I was feeling a little uncomfortable and was thinking that these types of graphics were not necessary, especially since the music was really good.  I began wondering if and how this might affect the weaker minds of any one of the thousands of people that were witnessing the same thing that I was.  At that moment my sense of self-evaluation kicked in and a thread of thought began to unwind inside my mind.

• Am I being influenced by this?
• Why am I not being influenced by this?
• Who could be influenced by this?
• Would complaining or public denunciations of such acts help keep those people from being innocently put in situations like this?
• Why does it seem that society always takes a reactionary path and not a preventative one?
• Why do we prefer to whine and complain after something has happened when we did nothing to prevent it from happening?
• What could be done to help people to be able to understand the difference between show drama and real life?

My thoughts rested on the fact that we do not do enough education to young minds in the areas of good decision making, knowing right from wrong, knowing the difference between a truth and a lie and building a level of self confidence to be able to stand strong in beliefs and be able to admit when a mistake has been made.

It could be argued that the traditional education base of reading, writing and arithmetic is not enough and quite possibly never has been enough.  Science, geography, history and such, provide great knowledge and can exercise the mind but the key elements of forming the mind's ability to articulate life decisions, is missing.  Minds that have not been sufficiently trained can be defenseless when encountering unfamiliar or unique situations in life.  A mind without any training will be more likely to make a bad choice. 
 
A large portion of the lawyers, politicians and regulations that we all complain about, have had to be put in place because of an individual or group of individual's inability to make good decisions, to know right from wrong, to know the difference between the truth and a lie, not having a level of self confidence to stand strong in their beliefs or not being able to admit mistakes.  Children need this training when they are young.  They need it at a time before life has had a chance to impose its own random and sometimes brutal training on them.  They need it at a time when their brains are absorbing every little thing that they see, hear, smell, taste and feel.