WEBVTT 00:00:01.000 --> 00:00:05.000 Any free society should be based on the concept of voluntary action but 00:00:05.000 --> 00:00:08.000 voluntary action alone does not lead to a free society. 00:00:08.000 --> 00:00:13.000 Voluntarism has been popularized by the concept that you own yourself. If you own 00:00:13.000 --> 00:00:16.000 yourself then you should be able to sell your time, body and hence 00:00:16.000 --> 00:00:18.000 your liberty. 00:00:18.000 --> 00:00:22.000 The problem with this argument is that you don't own yourself, you ARE yourself. 00:00:22.000 --> 00:00:25.000 To say that you own something implies that there is an owner and a thing that 00:00:25.000 --> 00:00:26.000 is owned. 00:00:26.000 --> 00:00:29.000 You can't sell your labor because you ARE your labor; 00:00:29.000 --> 00:00:33.000 otherwise people would go back to sleep when their alarm clock goes off while 00:00:33.000 --> 00:00:35.000 their labor goes off to work. 00:00:35.000 --> 00:00:39.000 While the arguments of self-ownership sounds interesting and even implies the concept 00:00:39.000 --> 00:00:40.000 of liberty 00:00:40.000 --> 00:00:42.000 the reality is the opposite. 00:00:42.000 --> 00:00:46.000 The very idea of self-ownership turns people into commodities, it strips the 00:00:46.000 --> 00:00:51.000 humanity out of humans, people can now be bought and sold in the marketplace. 00:00:51.000 --> 00:00:56.000 On a larger scale, the commodification of human beings had striped the humanity out of society 00:00:56.000 --> 00:00:58.000 leaving a landscape devoid of human qualities 00:00:58.000 --> 00:01:00.000 and a people completely alienated from each other, 00:01:00.000 --> 00:01:04.000 a society in which we exist in invisible cages. 00:01:04.000 --> 00:01:07.000 The commodification exploitation of people has always existed 00:01:07.000 --> 00:01:09.000 but it was capitalized by 00:01:09.000 --> 00:01:12.000 Frederick Taylor and his theory of scientific management. 00:01:12.000 --> 00:01:16.000 in the late 1800's Taylor complained that workers were lazy 00:01:16.000 --> 00:01:19.000 and can produce exponentially more by tough management. 00:01:19.000 --> 00:01:20.000 He studied the motions of workers 00:01:20.000 --> 00:01:23.000 to find out how to increase their productivity. 00:01:23.000 --> 00:01:26.000 It turns out that if an employee perform the same task over and over 00:01:26.000 --> 00:01:29.000 then he can manufacture more product. 00:01:29.000 --> 00:01:33.000 Anyone who refused to conform to Taylor's methods were fired and had their wages reduced. 00:01:33.000 --> 00:01:37.000 Soon, a new class of managers emerged 00:01:37.000 --> 00:01:39.000 while the highly experienced labor force 00:01:39.000 --> 00:01:42.000 was transformed into unskilled workers. 00:01:42.000 --> 00:01:45.000 It was Taylor's belief that all would be benefited by his methodology 00:01:45.000 --> 00:01:48.000 To his surprise, with the increase of productivity and profits 00:01:48.000 --> 00:01:52.000 the workers' wages were stagnant and even decreased. 00:01:52.000 --> 00:01:56.000 Scientific management along with a new class of managers quickly spread 00:01:56.000 --> 00:01:58.000 to all sectors of the economy. 00:01:58.000 --> 00:02:01.000 all of society, the schools, the workplace, the government 00:02:01.000 --> 00:02:04.000 could be turned into large assembly lines. 00:02:04.000 --> 00:02:08.000 The fast food industry today epitomizes Taylor's legacy. 00:02:08.000 --> 00:02:13.000 Behind the counter, kitchens are geared so the worker doesn't have to move or even think. 00:02:13.000 --> 00:02:17.000 Each person performs the same repetitive task endlessly like robots. 00:02:17.000 --> 00:02:21.000 The factory of yesterday has been transformed into the high rise and the cubicle 00:02:21.000 --> 00:02:24.000 The factory foreman has been replaced by the suit and tie. 00:02:24.000 --> 00:02:29.000 Almost every job including office work has been reduced to monotonous task: 00:02:29.000 --> 00:02:31.000 typing, printing, going to meetings 00:02:31.000 --> 00:02:33.000 and generating reports that no body reads. 00:02:33.000 --> 00:02:36.000 It's all the same everyday: 00:02:36.000 --> 00:02:40.000 these dungeons, stress, fluorescent lights, phony smiles, and mundane tasks. 00:02:40.000 --> 00:02:45.000 We were told that if we went to college, we would be marine biologists, psychologists and writers. 00:02:45.000 --> 00:02:49.000 With the exception of a few, nothing could be further from the truth. 00:02:49.000 --> 00:02:52.000 The average student debt today is over 23 thousand dollars. 00:02:52.000 --> 00:02:55.000 All those wannabe artists, sociologists and investigative journalists 00:02:55.000 --> 00:02:57.000 have been prepped for the reality of the cubicle 00:02:57.000 --> 00:03:01.000 not for their choosing, [but] because they must pay back their loans. 00:03:01.000 --> 00:03:04.000 These people will be herded into sterile offices like animals 00:03:04.000 --> 00:03:07.000 because the world doesn't want truly creative people. 00:03:07.000 --> 00:03:12.000 The private sector needs people who can write memos, push papers and calculate profits and losses. 00:03:12.000 --> 00:03:15.000 The managers will impose work tempos, production quotas. 00:03:15.000 --> 00:03:19.000 You punch in, you punch out, surf the Internet, you'll stay late. 00:03:19.000 --> 00:03:22.000 You'll day dream about what life could have been 00:03:22.000 --> 00:03:25.000 because this isn't living. this is dying. 00:03:25.000 --> 00:03:28.000 While the government is usually blamed for limiting the individual freedom 00:03:28.000 --> 00:03:32.000 nothing attacks human liberty and sovereignty more than the workplace. 00:03:32.000 --> 00:03:33.000 A person can buy you 00:03:33.000 --> 00:03:34.000 and extract your labor, 00:03:34.000 --> 00:03:39.000 an entire system of ultra-surveillance insures obedience to your superiors. 00:03:39.000 --> 00:03:41.000 Regulations are all prevailing. 00:03:41.000 --> 00:03:44.000 You are told when to show up to work, when you can leave 00:03:44.000 --> 00:03:46.000 and what you must do in the meantime. 00:03:46.000 --> 00:03:48.000 They watch over you, inspect you, spy on you. 00:03:48.000 --> 00:03:53.000 They punish, forbid, correct, assess, number, and abuse. 00:03:53.000 --> 00:03:54.000 You are told what to wear, 00:03:54.000 --> 00:03:56.000 you are trained how to talk, 00:03:56.000 --> 00:03:58.000 and you are forced to compete with other workers. 00:03:58.000 --> 00:04:00.000 When you talk back or make a mistake 00:04:00.000 --> 00:04:03.000 you can be disciplined or scolded as you are are an infant. 00:04:03.000 --> 00:04:11.000 To paraphrase Bob Black: "Discipline is what the factory and the office and the store share with the prison and the school and the mental hospital. 00:04:11.000 --> 00:04:13.000 It is something historically original and horrible." 00:04:13.000 --> 00:04:20.000 It was beyond the capacity of demonic dictators such as Nero, Genghis Khan and Ivan the Terrible. 00:04:20.000 --> 00:04:22.000 For all of their bad intentions 00:04:22.000 --> 00:04:27.000 they just didn't have the machinery to control their subjects as thoroughly as modern despots do. 00:04:27.000 --> 00:04:30.000 This is the complete annihilation of human dignity: 00:04:30.000 --> 00:04:32.000 transforming people into prisoners. 00:04:32.000 --> 00:04:37.000 Even the most totalitarian states never had this much dominion over their subjects. 00:04:37.000 --> 00:04:39.000 We used to get injured on the playground. 00:04:39.000 --> 00:04:45.000 Now we get occupational overuse syndrome, musculo-skeletal disorders, repetitive strain, tendinitis, 00:04:45.000 --> 00:04:47.500 cervical radiculopathy, ulnar entrapment. 00:04:47.500 --> 00:04:51.900 We have problems with our eyes and our spine that even the best doctors can't figure out. 00:04:51.900 --> 00:04:54.000 The sedintary lifestyle is the new trend 00:04:54.000 --> 00:04:58.000 along with its legion of diseases like diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity. 00:04:58.000 --> 00:05:02.000 Performing the same task day after day, week after week, year after year 00:05:02.000 --> 00:05:04.000 is an assault on the human psyche. 00:05:04.000 --> 00:05:10.000 Nothing can be more detrimental to human growth, creativity, personal progress, than the tedium of the work place. 00:05:10.000 --> 00:05:15.000 When the person carries out the same monotonous job, they are naturally drained of energy at the end of each day. 00:05:15.000 --> 00:05:20.000 it is no wonder then that the average person spends over 4 hours a day watching television. 00:05:20.000 --> 00:05:23.000 Consider that! We spent eight hours at work, 00:05:23.000 --> 00:05:24.000 eight hours sleeping, 00:05:24.000 --> 00:05:27.500 and after preparing for work, commuting to work, and eating at home 00:05:27.500 --> 00:05:32.500 we only have 5 hours for ourselves, and 4 of those are spent in front of the television. 00:05:32.500 --> 00:05:36.500 We actually live in a society that nurtures and maximizes stupidity 00:05:36.500 --> 00:05:38.500 and stunts human potentiality. 00:05:38.500 --> 00:05:42.000 Repetition is the enemy of every worker; the chains of humanity. 00:05:42.000 --> 00:05:45.000 Yet it is the liberator of the business executive and the managers. 00:05:45.000 --> 00:05:49.000 Instead of using technology to free individuals, as it could be, 00:05:49.000 --> 00:05:52.000 the private sector has turned people into gears and into commodities 00:05:52.000 --> 00:05:54.000 while they are the beneficiaries. 00:05:54.000 --> 00:05:59.000 These people make a living off of our lives, stripping us of our dignity, stealing our meaningfulness 00:05:59.000 --> 00:06:00.000 and seizing our assets. 00:06:00.000 --> 00:06:03.000 Frederick Taylor's legacy has become ubiquitous. 00:06:03.000 --> 00:06:06.000 In the last 100 years, his methods have been studied, improved 00:06:06.000 --> 00:06:09.000 and refined with immense precision. 00:06:09.000 --> 00:06:11.500 Scientific management is today's god, 00:06:11.500 --> 00:06:14.500 its technique has saturated everything. 00:06:14.500 --> 00:06:17.500 Our schools, our workplace, the intelligentsia, the government 00:06:17.500 --> 00:06:20.000 and even our lives are regimented with this insanity. 00:06:20.000 --> 00:06:26.000 We can see it all around us, in the cars we drive, in the advertising we see, in the government that doesn't work 00:06:26.000 --> 00:06:27.500 and in the homes we live. 00:06:27.500 --> 00:06:31.000 With something that's so pervasive, we become entangled in its net. 00:06:31.000 --> 00:06:34.000 Everyday is the same: a repetition with no end, 00:06:34.000 --> 00:06:38.000 dulling the person until they feel like they are living in a dark haze underwater. 00:06:38.000 --> 00:06:42.000 We were told that if we worked hard enough, we could experience the American dream. 00:06:42.000 --> 00:06:45.000 What we weren't told is that there isn't one and there never was one. 00:06:45.000 --> 00:06:47.000 A new reality awaits our young 00:06:47.000 --> 00:06:51.000 where wealth inequality has been celebrated and diefied. 00:06:51.000 --> 00:06:57.000 Yet inequality has created the separation of power, and power, more than anything, else limits liberty. 00:06:57.000 --> 00:07:01.000 The workplace needs to be transformed, not by de-skilling labors as Taylor did, 00:07:01.000 --> 00:07:03.000 instead we need to liberate workers. 00:07:03.000 --> 00:07:09.000 Every employee should have the opportunity to participate in a variety of jobs from manual to intelligent labor. 00:07:09.000 --> 00:07:12.000 Workers should have equity in the workplace so they can call it their own. 00:07:12.000 --> 00:07:16.000 They should not be perceived as mere automata or commodities on a factory line 00:07:16.000 --> 00:07:20.000 but as living beings. We should be building technology to liberate 00:07:20.000 --> 00:07:21.000 not to enslave. 00:07:21.000 --> 00:07:25.000 All tedious and unwanted jobs should be reduced or automated. 00:07:25.000 --> 00:07:29.000 Most of all, we should be producing not for the market, but for people. 00:07:29.000 --> 00:07:32.300 It is important not to completely dismiss Taylor and his methods, 00:07:32.300 --> 00:07:34.500 productivity is important. 00:07:34.500 --> 00:07:40.500 After all both the US and the Soviets under Lenin used Taylor's methods to pull themselves out of the dark ages. 00:07:40.500 --> 00:07:48.000 However, there comes a time in every society to transform such barbaric and childish techniques with moderation and compassion. 00:07:48.000 --> 00:07:49.000 That time is now. 00:07:49.000 --> 00:07:54.000 We cannot talk about liberty, if we can't even mention the place that we spend a third of our life. 00:07:54.000 --> 00:08:00.000 "But it's voluntary!" you say, that is always the answer repeated and repeated "It's voluntary, 00:08:00.000 --> 00:08:01.500 we live in freedom!" 00:08:01.500 --> 00:08:04.000 No, we don't live in freedom. 00:08:04.000 --> 00:08:07.000 We live in invisible cages, we live in slavery. 00:08:07.000 --> 00:08:10.000 While it is true that every free society should be voluntary 00:08:10.000 --> 00:08:13.000 voluntarism is not enough. 00:08:13.000 --> 00:08:17.000 Labor should be humanity's highest aspiration, the basis of one's dignity. 00:08:17.000 --> 00:08:21.000 Until the day comes when the thinker works and the worker thinks, 00:08:21.000 --> 00:08:25.000 free intelligent labor can emerge and humanity can once again be instituted.