Are you tired of the life of cubicle hell?

Is you boss an ass?

Do you feel stuck with the way things are now and lost about how it could change?

Do you ever let yourself dream of freedom?

What is holding you back?

Of coarse, you already know the answers to all these questions, especially the last one, or you wouldn’t still be reading this. Fear. Fear of the unknown, the unfamiliar, fear of failing, being broke, fear you might not have what it takes to make a go of that business you’ve thought about.

I have a message for you. It’s like a message from an older brother. My older brother David died when he was only 22 years old from cancer. Although I have outlived him now by 30 years, I still feel his influence on me today at 52. I don’t know you, reader, but if you’ve read this far, I know you, and I’d like to be as your older brother would be and help you re-awaken your courage.

Note that I said re-awaken, not give you. You already have it. It’s like a seed that just needs a little stimulation to awaken from dormancy. It needs a little encouragement, a favorable mental environment in which to grow. Fragile in the beginning, time will make it stronger. Be patient. Keep caring for it.

If you will think deeply, you will also come to realize why I say re-awaken. You had it, long ago, when you were a child. Find those moments from your past, they are all you.

You and I live in the greatest country on the planet. The ideals upon which our country is based all stem from the concept of individual freedom. We are not given rights by the government, we already have them. Although not a gift, freedom has to be fought for to be kept, or it will be taken away. It’s your job to keep it and support those who help you keep it. It’s your job to fight those who want to take freedom from you, no matter who they are, or where they are. It’s a war. This country and the ideals it was founded around are the best attempt yet to create an environment in which the individual is free to succeed at life. It doesn’t mean we think we are superior, just more free to live and grow. Many people want to take away freedom. It gives them power. Outside people and inside. Has to be fought constantly or it is lost. Only here in America, is the opportunity to go for it- there for the taking. The only thing holding you back is your own thoughts. Like Dorothy, you could have escaped anytime you had wanted.

Start building your own small business. Have fun with it. It’s your outlet to allow you to fight against the shackles of the cubicle and that asshole you work for. Work for yourself instead. Don’t work to advance someone else’s goals, work to advance your goals! That’s living! Resolve that you are not going to have wasted your life being a slave to anyone, or slave to your own fear. Remember Saturday mornings as a kid? You felt wonderful when you jumped out of bed and could play. You can have that again you know. Something you can’t wait to get at. Build it. Have fun with it.

For a while, maybe even a few years, you will live in both worlds. Of course it will be difficult, the difference will be the outcome. You are working toward something. Death is not acting, not doing anything. Giving up. Settling for mediocrity. That’s not who you are. You are going to grab a big ass piece of life and run with it before anyone can catch you! Run!

Although you will need to be prudent, take baby steps, not make risky money moves, nurture this baby through the fragile period until it can stand on it’s own, at some point you are going to need to start thinking big. Most small businesses languish in mediocrity because the owner doesn’t think big. The owner simply created their own job. The next stage will be to make it into a real business. That would be a business that could function without you. When you’ve achieved that, you own a business, not a job.

The End.

“Tell me more!”

I can’t.

You tell ME more. Get off your ass and go to play. Report back to me.

Oh, OK, one more thing. Courage. If you had to think about every muscle that had to be activated, in just the right sequence, in order to walk, you’d trip before making one step. You can’t know everything there is to know before you can do something. You have what you need to walk, so walk! Don’t over-analyze. Find what makes you jazzed and go act on it. You can’t wait until it’s all perfectly clear in your head. If you believe in something, act on it. That’s courage.

I love the song, “If today was your last day.” by Nickleback. Give it a listen. It is a reminder to me that I have to grab a big piece of life every day, not be complacent, do what is important, choose my priorities, and not waste a minute of it being ordinary. So, if you are serious about living you life on purpose, find a quiet place, curl up on the couch with a nice cup of coffee, turn everything off so there are no distractions, think, and pencil in your answers in a notebook or a begin Word Doc on the computer. You will want to take your time and work hard on this, go in the order I have listed, this is serious because this is your life we’re talking about!

Regret is the worst. To be old and to look back and realize you wasted it, you had opportunity, you had youth and energy, but you didn’t “go for it”, you never got out of 2nd gear, you never overcame your fears, what a waste! What you accomplish in our short time here on Earth going forward will be mapped out right here. The past is done and you cannot change it, you can only have an affect on the future, in the present. My method starts with the “big picture” and move down to the every day level. OK, here we go, and I’ll make it short and sweet…

Obituary- write it yourself, copy the exact format as it is in your local newspaper. Use the same fonts for the header, name, and body, include your picture, use similar language to what your newspaper uses. I’ll tell you right now, take lots of time to do this, and revise it. It is THAT important. Make up a date in the future that is reasonable as to how long you might have left to live. Base your life expectancy on your family history and your current health and set the age at death that is reasonable and likely. Calculate the year, make up a date. That’s the morbid part, sorry, nobody gets out of this thing alive. Hopefully you manage to live the normal life and it is not cut short by some catastrophe. Now comes the fun part, what will they say about you? They are only going to hit the highlights so here’s your big chance to write your own life’s biography. What do YOU want them to be able to say about you? It can be shocking if you realize that you don’t much care for what they could say about you as it stands right now. That’s OK! This is your wake up call. You’re Ebenezer Scrooge, you get a do-over, starting today, right now. It’s Mulligan time! Another way to approach this is to consider what you would do if you were suddenly given only 3 months to live, what would you do with the time left? That is kind of a different question so let’s just assume you will live out the normal life. The odds are in favor of normal.

Life Purpose or Mission- why are you here, just to take up space and consume resources? The question to answer here is how will you change the world? This does not mean it has to be something that changes the WHOLE world, just your little corner of it is OK too. Most of us will not do great things that affect millions of lives, but if we do things that affect one life profoundly, is that not greatness? I happen to think so. This should take another day or so. The best method I’ve ever heard of is to begin writing non-stop, one purpose after another, 20, 30, 40 purpose statements, however many pages it takes. Eventually (after 20 minutes to 2 hours of solid, concentrated writing) you will start getting at the “real” answers, the ones un-filtered by your conscience mind saying what it thinks you want it to say. You eventually reach ones that make you cry. If it does not make you tear up to think of it, keep going, you’re not there yet. When you do, that is the one!

Long Term Goals- the big goals that take years to accomplish. They must directly relate to the purpose or purposes above. Perhaps you want to be in business for yourself, to have no restrictions on your income. There are many steps that will need to be taken to accomplish this, which will take time. As long as these goals “fit” into the purposes set down above, OK. If they do not fit, perhaps they are someone else’s goals that have been expected of you by a well-meaning parent. Make sure these are YOUR goals that fulfill your purpose.

Intermediate Goals- the interim steps needed to accomplish the Long Term Goals. Maybe to do your life’s work, you need a particular college degree. Fine, that’s an intermediate goal that advances you to the long term goal. These are interim steps that need to happen along the road to the long term goal.

Short Term Goals- Those milestones which will lead to the Intermediate Goals. Answer the question: what obstacles lie in the path between where I am today and where I want to be (the Intermediate and Long Term Goals)? Make sure you are going back and filling in all these details on each and every goal. Make sure that for every upper level goal listed above, you have all the steps that get you there, list them out separately to find the missing pieces.

Daily To-Do’s. Make sure they are things that advance you toward something on the above goal list. There are urgent tasks and important tasks. Make sure your day is not spent “pissing on fires”, or just doing urgent things. The best method I know is to each and every day, generate a new list of just 3 top things. Be consistent, these are the 3 things I MUST accomplish today before I do anything else from my list. These are the 3 most important things, not urgent or completely routine things. Brushing your teeth is not part of this list! Each To-Do should directly tie to something on the goals above. You will likely have a long list. Only add during the day, un-rated items, to the bottom of the list. Once a day, either first thing in the morning if you prefer, or at the end of the day before bed, go through your list and re-prioritize it, delete the done ones. Choose your top 3, these are “A” priorities, they MUST be done before any other items get done from the list. “B” items SHOULD be done, but not until the “A’s” are done first and you have the time. “C” items CAN be done if time allows that day and everything else is done. This is important: DO NOT change your list during the day! This is going to require discipline. You will not always accomplish even all your A’s. If you are not accomplishing enough or any of them, you have some distractions you need to weed out of your life. This is going to highlight for you WHY you are not accomplishing your goals. Each day is a unit. If you get all the A’s done, now do the B’s, and so on. Do not do or worry about any of the other things on the list. Add to the bottom all new things as they pop into your head. So, you will want to have this with you at all times. I use an app (To Do’s) on my iPhone, yes, there is an app for that! Throughout the day, I am constantly referring to my list, checking things off, adding new things, etc. Or this can be a piece of paper you write out every day, whatever works for you. Fundamentally, this is the reason you are doing all this stuff in the first place; it is a way to keep you focused on doing things that are advancing goals you want to achieve on the path to a fulfilling and successful life.

Something is just not right and you can’t quite put your finger on it. Occasionally, darker thoughts well up and a voice says, “what’s the use”? Well, I’d like to get a conversation going, not so much between you and I, but between you and you. Know thyself. Take the time to reflect on some things that I will point out, which you may find useful…

Number 1. We make our lives far too complex. Although it may seem like life was less complicated in the “old days”, the reality is that it is foolish to look backwards to the time of your parents and grandparents and wish for things to return to an earlier time. Life progresses and you cannot go back. Even if you could, you would find the exact same level of anxiety then as now. There are those who have learned how to live simply, and there are those who have not, in any age of history. The particular spot in history you entered at has nothing to do with it. While we may have lost some of our innocence from an earlier time, equally we have lost certain naive and prejudiced notions too. Living simply- is a choice, we choose to unburden ourselves of our excess baggage. We lighten our load. You can’t know everything there is to know, our brains and our time is limited. You can begin to un-complicate your life by learning not to stress over everything going on in the world. One of the best ways to begin is to completely eliminate watching or listening to the news. It’s very liberating. Think about it, what possible good can it do, for you to know every gory detail about a tragedy somewhere far away. Can you help? Doubtful, people on the scene already are. So what good is you knowing about it? Is it not like pouring a toxic substance, day after day, drop by drop, on one of your houseplants and then wondering why the plant withers? One of my favorite sayings is, Eagles do not catch flies. I wish I had written that. It has to become a conscious effort in your daily life to eliminate trivia. Despite what you might at first think, simplification is the result of work. It takes effort and awareness to recognize and then decide that you are not going to bother worrying about trivial matters about which you can do nothing, or, matters that will make no difference in your life. We worry too much! Stop and think about what good will come from all that worry. Let it go. It’s killing you. Simple rule: if you can’t do anything about, DO NOT worry about it. Same thing applies to any knowledge you acquire, if it adds skills or pleasure or talent, OK, if not, why are you learning about it? When we burden ourselves with all this excess baggage, weigh ourselves down with trivia and utterly useless information and worries, our energy is consumed but we accomplish nothing. Save your energy for things you can affect. List on paper all the things you can let go of today and do it- today. Tomorrow, same thing. Soon, you have simplified your life and you no longer need to work at it quite so much. You are making room for what comes next…

Number 2. Going back to the analogy of a plant, it is natural for complications to grow wild and it takes conscious effort to clear away all but the good, healthy branches. Like the decision that our life is in need of pruning, which is radical at first, becoming easier in later rounds, I contend that there is a moral, a spiritual, a human (however you wish to phrase it) reason to live like you are living life on purpose. The reason is this: It is a sin to waste your life. Don’t get hung up on the religious tone that statement takes. Perhaps you are a Darwinist, OK, then wasting life is a biological cul-de-sac. Call it what you will. Moral guidance, which to some seem like restrictions designed only to keep us from enjoying ourselves, are really attempts to keep us from wasting our lives in sterile pursuits. But some will object, “but it’s MY life to waste!” That is true. But when we reflect for a little bit beyond our selfishness, we realize how our lives are connected to all the other beings around us, and how what we do and say affects and influences them, what is your responsibility, if not to yourself, but to them? Denial of it does not change the obligation that exists (if not to ourselves, then to one another) that we should not waste our short time here on Earth. We are not here merely to consume as much as we can until it’s our turn to die. Even people who completely reject any notion of the existence of a God believe strongly that we owe our fellow humans an obligation which surpasses a completely selfish life.

Number 3. When we prune away all the brush and briers that have obscured the light from reaching the desirable branches of our life that we wish to cultivate, and we re-awaken in ourselves the hope that something good can come from a life well-lived, that there is something that is to result from it, and that it is a sin against your God, or your fellow human beings, or Mother Ghia (whatever) to waste your life, then it follows that you need to have some sort of goal or purpose you need to fulfill with your life. The first two steps are necessary to tackle the third. Without ‘clearing the deck’ and having resolve to fashion and create, it would be pointless to try to discover a purpose for your life. You would not have sufficient energy to complete the job, and you would lose desire by losing the reason to try in the first place. So, what is your purpose? First make a list of your skills, talents, and abilities on paper. Take your time. What have people praised you for? What were you good at, as a child? List those. Write down everything. Secondly, list all your accomplishments, every win you have had. You’re going to want to recall the emotions you had when you accomplished these, it will help to reinforce the natural desire to win, keeping you motivated. Now ask yourself, if you had unlimited funds, and money was not a barrier, if you had sufficient time, what would you use the talents you possess to do? What did you want to do as a child, before everyday life pushed you off course? What is it, that the mere thought of it, makes you cry? You’ll get to this realization if you follow my prescription here and give it ample time and reflection.

Regret is the worst. To look back and realize that we wasted time, to realize it is too late, that we no longer have youth on our side, is the saddest of all feelings. The goal of this exercise is for you to establish important priorities for your limited time here. Read about the lives of great people for inspiration. We have one trip around this ball in space, make it a good one, be worthy. It is not given to all of us to do huge-great things, but we are all capable of small-great things. It may be that the small thing that improves the life of someone we care about helps them to go on and do great things that the world recognizes. It isn’t always easy to recognize the influence we have but it is there nonetheless. I wish you well and would like to hear from you, this has been my way of fulfilling my purpose.

Let me know what you think by leaving a comment below.

What would the old General, George S. Patton, would have to say about the war on terror? Ever wonder? For all who think any war is evil and should be avoided at any price, that price is the freedom of millions of people in Europe. If you think that the way to deal with a crazy who wants to kill you today is to ignore him in the hope he leaves you alone, you are begging for war. I ran across this in Patton’s own words in the book, War As I Knew It…

“Pacifists would do well to study the Siegfried and Maginot Lines, remembering that these defenses were forced; that Troy fell; that the walls of Hadrian succumbed; that the Great Wall of China was futile; and that, by the same token, the mighty seas which are alleged to defend us can also be circumvented by a resolute and ingenious opponent. In war, the only sure defense is offense, and the efficiency of offense depends on the warlike souls of those conducting it.”

Let me know what you think by leaving a comment below.

Looking for a better job? Check out www.indeed.com. Great site, it looks at several sources for jobs, you just type in your job title and your location. You also can set it to email alert you.

On the other hand, if you are done with being a wage slave, I think a really good way to escape Dilbertland permanently is to start and build up a business WHILE you are still working for the man. What do you think? Sure, it’s hard. You’ll work your ass off, but it’s good work, you will know that what you are doing benefits YOU, doing work that is in the best interest of someone else is actually not very smart. The only benefit derived is the wage. Sometimes that’s just not enough. Life is too short to have spent it just working for a living wage, don’t you think? Well, then, get off your ass, grow some snickers, and go do something with your life! You’ve got one shot at this thing, this ain’t no dress rehersal!

I’ve read other blogs that seem to whine about how hard it is to give up the salary handcuffs. Don’t you believe in what you do? If you have something to sell that you REALLY believe in, and you KNOW it is a great value, then you should have success getting out there and selling it.

So what if at first you don’t make much money? That’s why, in my opinion, the first thing you need to do is get your personal finances in better shape so you have the freedom to act. That’s why if you are so inclined to start a business while working for someone else, getting control of your spending is priority one. You need to be able to live on very little AND build up a FU fund.

Let me know what you think by leaving a comment below.

This will drive some of you nuts, no doubt, some of you will cringe with discomfort, but Rush is exactly right in his recent comments. The first requirement for those of you who are not going to agree is to first listen to what he has actually said. Sorry, just reading what someone else said about it is not becoming informed.

First, this whole thing about the Dems trying to paint Rush as the sole face of the Republican party, and the comment, quickly retracted by Michael Steele, that Rush is “just an entertainer”. This was a condecending comment by Steele designed to be dismissive. I have heard this dismissive comment from many others. It takes a truth and twists it. Rush is an entertainING person, an adjective that modifies the noun. Twisting that into a noun, entertainer, dismisses everything else that Rush is. Rush is a political commentator, Rush is a genius, Rush is a flawed human being, as are we all.

Second, critics on both sides really need to listen to what he said the other day at the conservative conference. He said everyone who focuses on B.O.’s policy misses the true aim. People have only harped on lately that Rush said he wants the President to fail. He wants him to fail at turning us to a socialistic nation. So what? Isn’t that allowed? What is wrong about saying that? Were not these same complainers just 2-3 months ago blathering on about how the patriotic thing to do was to oppose Bush and the “criminal” war? And I’m not talking about the schoolyard patter from our side that says, “But the Dems wanted Bush to fail!” That’s childish. “But they started it!” Shut up. If we don’t want socialism to take more hold here, somebody explain to me why it’s wrong to say so? Rush said, if you listened, that the point of B.O.’s efforts were not about policy, it was about getting control. Few people seem to get that point. He’s right. It does not matter if these things work, I mean to them! It’s about anchoring millions of voters to the government trough. If Big Brother controls your life, the only thing they need from you is your vote so they still have their livelihood. It’s all about power.

Nothing divides us, one from another, like religion and politics. Strong opinions and firmly held beliefs tend to get in the way of good relations, even within a family. When one of these topics comes up, and you find yourself in the middle of it, step back and listen to the language you use and the other person uses. Listen to yourself. Call attention to their language. Are you calling the other person names or insulting them because they believe what they believe? Is that useful?

I recently was treated to an admonishment by an elderly relative of mine because I do not support Obama for President. I was told emphatically to THINK, THINK, and surely I would reach the conclusion that Mr. O cared more for the people than that mean, old Republican. Why, this person had watched a special on PBS which informed her all she needed to know about these two men. The message, about as subtle as a a train wreck, was that only un-thinking people would vote for McCain. Oh, and that Palin woman! What a dolt! Out of respect and decency, I kept my mouth shut. It didn’t matter. I was not in the least bit interested in winning an argument. In fact, you don’t win those types of arguments, you just have them. The conversation ended by her telling me she was extremely disappointed in me. Wow, did I learn a lot.

I am a conservative politically. In fact, I am very, very conservative. Most all of the people around me in my personal life are not. The idea that this alone makes me wrong, and stupid, and un-thinking is very insulting. Do we all have to think alike? I do not engage in political arguments. I don’t particularly care what others believe. They are going to think what they do- as am I. Why does someone feel the need to change another’s strongly held belief? And to do so with an insult is hardly persuasive.

There are two opposing views of our politics, closely tied to our economy. Obama is a socialist. That’s not name-calling, it’s what I see. He views government with a big G- a force for good, a means to do good things and help struggling people. That’s all very good-hearted and noble. How can anyone be against helping the little guy? You know what? I HAVE thought about it, a great deal. Obama wants to transform us into a country more like Canada or France. In his own words to Joe the plumber, he wants to “spread the wealth around”. That’s very telling. Except there is a problem. It isn’t his wealth to spread. Warren Buffet and Bill Gates spread their wealth around. Millions of good people in the U.S. spread their wealth around all the time. Which leads you to a conclusion, a socialist does believe that the government owns and has a right to the wealth created by it’s people and that the role of the government is to manage that wealth, for the common good. Socialists think wealth is created by government levying taxes, and your patriotic duty (Biden’s words) is to pay your taxes to the government, “join the game” Biden said. Government is the game. Uh Huh.

I come from a totally different perspective. For our capitalist economy to work properly, we need a constant, steady rate of growth, expansion. Therefore, wealth has to be created anew. Just recycling the same wealth does not suffice. Too much inflation- the government just printing money, like it’s doing now, will cause prices of everything to rise too rapidly and cause economic pain for most. (Inflation IS coming) Deflation is the worst for capitalism, like The Great Depression. Housing is suffering from deflation right now. Where does wealth creation come from? It comes from the labor we all do inside businesses. We create wealth when we build things and perform a service. It comes from capital being invested where it’s needed to create a profit. That is where wealth comes from.

Obama wants to confiscate the wealth created by anyone making gross receipts greater than $250,000. He SAID revenue, he did not say net income. So, any small business which grosses 250K or more is gonna pay dearly for getting there. I think there are going to be a lot of businesses being split up into smaller pieces, spun off to separate entities. Wealth creators will do what they have to. You see, it is THEY who are really helping people, directly. No middleman involved. Win Win. When government feeds off your little wealth-creating entity, it has to keep most of it’s money for itself, the act of administering the beauracracy takes lots of cash, and then they dole out the rest in return for votes.

And so there is this tension between the creators of wealth and the spenders of other people’s wealth that we call politics. Obviously, we need to pay taxes so the government can defend us from people who want to kill us, and there needs to be assistance for people who are unable to help themselves. Beyond that, let the fight begin!

Let me know what you think by leaving a comment below.

(An excerpt from my upcoming book, Yearning for Simplicity. The book is a derivative work of the 1905 book, “The Simple Life”, by Charles Wagner.)

We forget that the first quality needed in the person of authority is humility. Haughtiness is not humility. It is not we who are the law, the law is over our heads. Our task is to interpret, but to make it valid to others, we must first be subject to it ourselves. To command and to obey are but two forms of the same virtue–voluntary servitude. If you are not obeyed, it is generally because you yourself have not obeyed it first.

Those who rule with simplicity get more done. They soften with their attitude the harshness of the fact. Their authority is not in titles, reprimands, they do not need to threaten yet they get things done. Why? Because we feel that they themselves are ready for everything. What gives someone the right to ask another to sacrifice their time, passion, effort, even their life, is not only that they have resolved to do these things themselves, but have done so in advance. In commanding people with this spirit of equality of sacrifice, there is a mysterious force which communicates to the person who is to obey and helps them do what is right. In all areas of human activity, there are leaders who inspire, strengthen, invigorate their people—under their direction the people do marvelous work. With them you feel yourself capable of any effort, and will do it with enthusiasm.  

At the other end of the scale of authority is the pride of the underling. The root of these two prides is the same thing. I’m referring to the pig-headed underling who will never admit that there is anything above his knowledge. They find any superiority irritating. For them, any piece of advise is an offense, every criticism an outrage, every order an attack on their freedoms. They do not know how to submit to rule. 

To the family of the proud also belongs those difficult and supersensitive people who believe that their superiors never do them honor, who are never satisfied, who go about their duties with an air of a martyr. At the core these people have too much misplaced self-respect. They do not know how to fill their places simply, but complicate their lives and the lives of others by unreasonable demands and morbid suspicions. 

If you look closely, you will find that pride has so many lurking-places among those of lower rank, of humble means. It exists in the most modest dwellings, barricaded behind walls, entrenched, with ambitions and contempts, just as pervasive as is the aristocratic prejudices found inside mansions. Obscure or illustrious, pride wraps itself in a royal robe of enmity to the human race. It is the same in low and high places, solitary and impotent, on guard against everybody. Levels of authority are like ditches between us to be sure, but pride transforms ditches into canyons, it is pride which cries from canyon edge to edge, “There is nothing in common between us.”

photo credit: Joel Washing

Tim was only eight years older than I am. A wonderful life cut short. Career-wise, he was a man at the pinnacle of his game, “a man in full” as they say. But as Peggy Noonan points out in her WSJ article, it was not his fame or success that earned him the most praise over the last week since his passing, it was his humanness, the fact that despite his fame, not because of it, he managed to connect with people.

He remained who he was.

He remained true to himself. One point I would add to what Peggy said was, unlike many who achieve fame, he was not ashamed of the very humble roots from which he came, in fact, he embraced and celebrated his upbringing in Buffalo, not in a way of saying, “I’m better than that now”, no, he was genuinely proud of his dad and was moved to write a couple of books about fatherhood. He never tried to hide from his roots, he was not embarrassed by his parents.

He enjoyed a very close relationship with both his parents and his son. That is what people marveled at, that one so successful, one who had risen so far, managed to remain at his core a decent human being, managed to strengthen the ties of blood.

He was a good man. He came from good people. His son turned out to be a good kid.

I ask you, does it get any better than this? 

An excerpt from my upcoming book, Yearning for Simplicity. The book is a derivative work of the 1905 book, “The Simple Life”, by Charles Wagner.)

More dangerous than pride inspired by wealth is that inspired by power, in whatever form that power takes, one over another. There will always be need of unequal authority, society could not operate without people in charge or having power over other people. Power exercises a great influence over the person who holds it. A person needs to be well balanced indeed not to be disturbed by it. In every person there sleeps a tyrant, awaiting only a favorable occasion for awakening. Every person who says to someone dependant on them something such as, “do this favor for me” does wrong. Within each of us there is something which resists personal power, it is our healthy self-respect. We know deep down that we are all created equal, and no one has the right to extract obedience from us just because they are they and I am I, to do so degrades me, and I do not deserve to be degraded. The examples in daily life of people using power arrogantly are everywhere, just ask any employee how they have been treated. A bully can turn a free soul into a slave soul, the soul of a rebel. The closer the person is to the bottom of the hierarchy, the more tyrannical they become. The sergeant is generally harsher than the General is. In situations where the boss is not much more educated than the subordinate is, the roles take on those approaching convict and warden. And there’s nothing worse than the abusive parent, often times the result of alcoholism or drugs.