Are we
seeing a reversal of accepted rights and an erosion of humane conditions? Is self-interest
gaining momentum at the expense of the have-nots and the powerless? Standing up
to authority, for what you believe is a fair and just way to be treated is now
insubordination and not justice. We reluctantly accept these conditions because
we have lost the belief in ourselves to change them. We too often submit to
what we are told by those in-charge of what is essentially our livelihood. Too
often this is a debilitating dependence that can have negative consequences on
a persona: depression, delusion, greed, hopelessness, despondency, selfishness.
We are locked in a prison we cannot see. We are no longer free to govern
ourselves. Those who have lost sight of their own conditions will often justify
others power over them with a mutual co-existent relationship; that their own
labour has become a commodity. Why bite the hand that feeds?
Tell that to the people who stood up
for your rights as a human and not a slave. Tell that to the millions of
exploited factory workers who have fought degrading and inequitable conditions
so you wouldn't have to. Tell that to the people who fought so you could be
paid enough to live; the people who fought for your right to be given
appropriate rest periods. Tell that to the people who stood up so your voice
could be heard.
These are the people that stood up
for your rights, not because you were the current generation, but because you
were the future generation that mattered the most. When humanity ceases to
exist we only have self-interest to blame. For those who stood up for you, did
so in the interests of humanity.
—W. M. Hicks.
