Do you ever question your life? The way you’re living, the things you do, how you spend your time? When one does so, if they go into it deep enough, it becomes quite clear that we’re living in an extremely strange way. Raised from birth we all seem to accept that our only options in life are to tread along the path society lays down for us. We’re each to go to school, download knowledge regarding a range of subjects, specialize in one particular subject, and head out into the world of work. We’re presented with a range of businesses from which we can choose to work for. Each business has its own segmented departments, and within these departments are individual roles. It is here, within the workplace, siloed away, that we spend the majority of our lives.
Born into existence, with no idea why we’re here, you’d think that if we were smart we wouldn’t limit our lives in such a way. All the possible variations, the infinite possibilities our life could go down, and we instead spend our lives in the workplace. We don’t do so because it is something we want to do, but rather because we feel compelled to do so. We’re born into a society that is rooted in insecurity, and such insecurity can be quickly realized if you just think about what would happen if you lost your job. All of sudden you’d have to begin thinking about how you’re going to pay all your bills and afford the necessities for your survival.
Isn’t that just strange in itself? That we’ve created a way of living in which unless you hand yourself over to corporations the society offers you nothing? It takes away your ability to freely express yourself, to choose what you want to do with your time, and instead thrusts you into this system. It isn’t a loving system that promotes the growth of the individual, but rather quite the opposite. The moment you sign the dotted line on the contract you are effectively handing your individuality over. You are agreeing to become an extension of the firm. During your working hours, you are no longer free to do what you want to do. Instead, you will have your duties dictated to you and if such duties aren’t performed the firm will oust you at a moment’s notice.
The reason we’re going into this is because it’s obvious that change is required. The workplace isn’t a nice environment. This is highlighted by the State of the Global Workplace Report (2023). Globally, 59% of employees are classed as “quiet quitting”, meaning that they turn up to work merely to fill a seat and watch the clock. They put in the minimum effort required, are minimally productive, and feel disconnected from the workplace. A further 18% are “loud quitters”, meaning they take actions that directly harm the organization, undercutting its goals and opposing its leaders. Most people don’t turn up to work with a smile on their face roaring to go, they turn up fatigued, uninterested, and dreaming of the clock reaching home time.
So, why is the workplace an environment that we dislike? For one, it’s obvious that most people are not interested in the work they conduct. At the end of the day, you’re working towards someone else’s dream. It isn’t satisfying to our human nature to be producing reports all day for the boss or sitting in a call center taking call after call repeating the same script. We aren’t expressing our own natural energy into what we’d love to do. Instead, we’re left blind, never knowing what we want to do. All we know is this way of life that the society has conditioned us with. It doesn’t want us as individuals to find out for ourselves what we’d like to do with our lives. It instead dictates to us what we are to do, that we are to become an extension of the society, of a particular business.
It does this under the guise of presenting us with a range of options. It says “You can do whatever you want in this society!”, “You can go into marketing, sales, teaching, artificial intelligence, information communications, or a range of other careers.”, “Heck, you can even become an astronaut if you like!”. But the truth is when we place ourselves into any of these careers we’re drastically limiting ourselves. Of course we are, it isn’t hard to see. If all your energy is being diverted into performing jobs for the business you aren’t free to naturally express yourself. Within the workplace, you’ll be subject to constant micromanagement to ensure that your actions align with the business’s interests. These businesses only care for you in as much as you benefit them.
It’s an environment that is underpinned by insecurity and couldn’t be any more self-centered. Watch yourself when you’re at work and you’ll see it. Each person within the business has their targets and goals. Everyone’s out striving to make sure they fulfill their duties and don’t get hassled by the higher-ups. People are willing to step on each other and fight for the next pay rise, promotion, or merely to gain some social status in the office. Those who hand over their individuality, their ability to freely express their time and energy, to the business are the ones who thrive in such environments. These people, who are willing to dedicate their lives to being an extension of the company, are the ones we call managers and directors. Ruthless, callous, and disciplined individuals, with nothing on their minds apart from advancing the business and reaping the rewards for doing so.
Everyone at work is ultimately motivated by fear. Most are living paycheck to paycheck, and if we aren’t getting a salary it’s going to quickly become very hard to afford even the most basic necessities of life. When we’re hiding away in our offices, pretending that we’re separate from everything taking place in the world, there is always insecurity lurking in the background. But what we don’t realize is that we’re caught in a trap. We’re living in a society rooted in insecurity, and rather than change it, we subject ourselves to it and try to cultivate security. We introduce a whole host of financial pressures and constraints upon the individual, and then we condition them to believe that the only way to alleviate these pressures is to slave our entire lives away performing monotonous jobs we care nothing about.
There is an entirely different way of living that is required to bring about any change. If we continue to subject ourselves to this way of life, clearly we’re only going to perpetuate the existing system, a world rooted in self-centered behavior. As human beings we need to transcend this conditioned way of living, of believing that all the insecurities we have introduced into the world cannot be dealt with and removed. We are living within a system rooted in insecurity and trying to cultivate security, do you not see how insane this is? The answer is to not introduce insecurity to begin with, and then there would be no need to seek various forms of security. In other words, all our ideals of security are born of the fact that we are living in an insecure way, and it is this that needs to be addressed.
It’s as though when you’re born you’re endowed with a block of gold. But the society comes along as it takes your block of gold, and replaces it with fools gold. Then, being left with fools gold, it tells you that if you want to get your block of gold back you’re going to have to work for it. You’re going to have to give over the majority of your time and slave away performing tasks it deems appropriate. Don’t you see the con that is taking place? Liken this block of gold to your natural loving energy. When you’re born you are a clean slate, untouched by the world. But environmental impressions quickly begin to take hold of your memory. You are conditioned to be self-centered and become attached to beliefs, ideologies, and remembrances.
Once you’ve locked yourself away in the structure of thought that the society has engrained into your memory you are lost. Our energy, rather than being free to flow and express itself, is instead diverted into the self-centered and exploitative workplace. And our actions, being rooted in such things, are limited to perpetuating these very things. Living this way no change will be brought about. Of course, there is a balance to it, I’m not saying everyone should suddenly quit their jobs. But we need to concern ourselves with bringing about a world in which human beings don’t have to be motivated by fear to superficially work together. A world in which we truly work together and act with love in our hearts.
It’s obvious to anyone that radical change is required. There’s poverty in every land, with over 1 billion people living in slums. There’s mass inequality, with the top 1% globally possessing almost double the remaining 99%. There’s a whole host of environmental issues, from 99% of the world’s air being polluted to the most ever animal extinction events being recorded. Democracy is on the decline, with 78% of the world’s population now living under authoritarian regimes. Wars and conflicts are still taking place in a wide range of countries, with those notably getting media coverage currently being the Israeli-Palestinian and the Russia-Ukraine conflicts.
We can’t go on allowing the society to rob us of that which is most precious, our energy. We’re all being scammed of something most valuable and dear to us and the worst part is we don’t even realize it is happening. It’s like some intelligent criminals performing a bank heist. They don’t want the bank to realize that a robbery has taken place, so perhaps they replace the wads of cash and gold bars with fake ones. This is what is happening to us as human beings. The society makes us believe that it’s completely natural to commit our energy to such unnatural and ultimately destructive avenues. But like the bank robbers, the society is so effective that it leaves most of us never realizing what we lost.
Just think, would Jesus have had such an influence if he was locked up in the office creating spreadsheets for his boss? Would Van Gogh have produced all those works of art if he had been in a call center trying to meet his quota for the day? Would Martin Luther King have brought about the changes he did if he was instead more concerned with raising his commission from selling cars? To put it in black and white, if we continue to live in this problematic way all the problems we see in the world will continue to manifest. Go into it for yourself, watch yourself the next time you’re at work and you’ll see what it’s all about. Find avenues to express your energy outside of these environments, free of the memories conditioning. Perhaps then we can bring about a world in which humans act with love in their hearts, rather than fear in their minds.
The Candlelight 
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