The Slavery of Insecurity

Does society makes you feel insecure? Ask this question: What was the real need to build institutions in society, in the first place? One reason is for security; Second, to share skills. Well, Self-Management is reviving that old concept that worked well before slavery was devised. Similar in unexpected ways to the old slavery, I am referring to a new slavery, the one without shackles, but stifling and strangling nevertheless, just as the slavery practiced in primitive societies. Today, in 2009, there are signs of a different kind of slavery, forcing us to become depended on the establishment in all its forms, from taxes to culture, to ‘envy thy neighbor’ and ‘keep up with the Joneses,’ who seems to have more than ‘me.’
Have you heard of the $500,000 a year executive feeling ‘not rich,’ ‘underpaid’ or ‘not doing exactly well?’ That’s because he is in the same boat as all the masses making minimum wage or less. The modem signs of the new ‘slavery’ are exploiting the weak, disadvantaged and poor. I do not profess complete equality, as in old fashioned communism. It didn’t work well then and it doesn’t work well today, everywhere it was attempted. Self-management claims to something completely different: It claims to teach us to conduct our lives in complete liberty, to determine our own future, starting with the present.
Our own present starts, in three words, our personal economy. I do not profess the old anti-racial concept of ‘equal opportunity for all.’ In my eyes, it is an unattainable goal. Explained in a different way, equality could be achieved from a different point of view. We can best start by managing our own cents, and the ‘equal opportunity’ will be self-taught. We can reinstate our own equal opportunities. Of course we have to work and be productive, not only get out of welfare, or whatever hand-out situation keeps shackled, but mainly to control our own destiny. Our personal destiny is worth more than a welfare check. I am completely convinced of that.
There is a second side to that coin: You want your neighbor liking to live beside you, so you must be independent and show him your own worth. It’s better for him to be jealous of your independence than the other way around! As a consequence of self-management, I am already recommending to all men (and women) to work until their very last day. I will explain this later in detail. Scientific studies have documented that work, or just a simple occupation, is the best modern therapy for the body and mind.
Our mean survival age in 1999 was roughly 76, with the exception of some sectors of underdeveloped populations. It seems that we should not retire at 65, and women not retire at 60. Some people, though, won't fit in this system, although they can easily learn from it: Crooks, people who prefer to live as parasites at the expense of others. For people whose livelihood is from petty theft, there is not much that they can steal from Self-Management, since self-management deals primarily with personal accounts, which the members handle individually. In that sense, it is as your own pocket or wallet.