LET'S TALK ABOUT STRESS, BAY-BEE

I didn't go to work today.

I didn't go to work because I am so stressed out by the place and the continuing soap opera that plays out there that I just ran the white flag up the pole. The details pertaining to my particular situation aren't all that relevant. At the end of the day, I'm just one more person in the pandemic of work-related stress.

I don't consider myself to be a weak person. I started out in blue collar jobs at a relatively young age and got my hands dirty for many years before seeing the inside of a college. I know the value of a dollar and the meaning of hard work. I pride myself on my resilience.

But have you noticed how the working life has gotten harder and harder, as a general trend, over the past years and decades?

Why is that?

I think there are many interwoven reasons and one overarching one: The beast that is corporate-driven capitalism. I will lay my cards on the table and say up front that I am not a fan of capitalism. But even if I were -- or if you are -- anyone who has studied any economics at all knows that we do not have pure capitalism anywhere on the planet.

Is our capitalism driven by fair and open competition? No way. In the United States, the corporations with the most lobbyists in Washington DC win at will. Just think of it as another form of insider trading.

And all this guff about welfare to the poor being a waste of taxes and harmful to the economy and blah blah blah. Guess who are, BY FAR, the greatest recipients of taxes-funded welfare in the United States. Yep, corporations. The recent bailout of banks and various other crooks was only one of the more transparent examples of this. It's been going on a long time and the guys at the top know how to take care of each other. So if you're wondering where your hard-earned tax dollars go, better to look up than down.

The point about capitalism goes on and on but I promised myself I'd keep these blogs somewhat bite sized. So we'll come back to that another time.

So, "stress." If you work in the private sector, capitalism and the corporate culture have a lot to say about your stress level. (And even if you aren't in the private sector, you're still going to be heavily impacted.) This culture will determine your pay level, how much time you get off, your sick days, what you do for eight or 10 or more hours for five or more days per week. It will impact your self image, your self esteem, your family, your friends, your sleep, your entire private life. That's pretty significant, right?

No wonder we're stressed to hell. And hey, most of you reading this aren't living in the Third World: a chorus of countries that gets kicked in the groin by capitalism whether they like it or not.

If we are to feel fulfilled and happier and healthier, this all has to change. Simple logic. We need to talk to colleagues about how we feel (you'll find most of them feel the same way). We need to voice our complaints where and when we can: factoring in the risk of being fired, of course. We need to join unions if they are available to us. We need to read and educate ourselves on work, on our economy, on stress, on the institutions that dictate the shape of our lives (corporations, the body politic, the public relations industry and the media). We need to voice our concerns to these institutions and join public action/social change groups (even if only via the Internet). We need to take every opportunity we can to reach out and reach up.

This is not impossible stuff. Big things are changed by many voices and united actions. And if you share any of the concerns here you are NOT in a minority. You are the majority! It's just that the fat cats own most of the media so you aren't going to get any smoke signals about your partners-in-change from them. They like things just the way they are. And keeping the masses divided is the age old way to subdue them.

I have to end this here and promise to keep circling back to, and elaborating on, the various issues I've raised.

For now, here are three resources (of the many available) that might help you get started on joining the fight for a better world and feeling more optimistic:

1/ www.democracynow.org -- if you want the real news, you will get it here.

2/ "The Overworked American" by Juliet B. Shor -- a landmark book on, well, how we're overworked in the U.S.

3/ www.care2.com -- you can sign up here to get email bulletins about online petitions on important issues. So for 60 seconds of your time each day, you could add your voice to thousands of others on a critical issue and, yes, politicians do pay attention to these things. They love lobbyists but they also have to heed their constituents. Don't give up this power!

4/ Just about any book by (or DVD featuring) Noam Chomsky (pictured). Widely acknowledged as one of the greatest minds on the planet, his books are quite easy to read and devastatingly revealing. And many of them are quite short and in Q&A interview form.

I'll share more such sources with you in coming weeks. Perhaps you'd like to share some too by writing a comment with your thoughts on how to fight the good fight.

To end on a light note, the great radical comedian Bill Hicks once said: "Bosses. They're like gnats on a fishing trip." Doesn't go to the heart of the whole problem, perhaps, but it's a fun thought to roll around in your head on those days when work is getting you down and levering your stress up. (More on Hicks another time.)

Thanks for reading and I will try to pick up the thread started in my first post when I return here tomorrow.

Take care and onward!
Adrian Zupp