Desiderata in reverse (with apologies to Max Ehrmann)
Go not in peace amid the terrifying silence of the lambs, and remember what joy might be there when you have spoken your mind. As far as possible, without fail, be at war with all oppressors, stand up to question all forms of injustice, and expose all the skeletons in the closets of the unjust. Challenge those who exploit the poor and the powerless, question those who put you to shame, and refuse to cooperate with your tormentors. If you cannot fight fair and square, demand a tooth for a tooth, and an eye for an eye. Do not turn your other cheek when one cheek is hit. Do not throw bread in retaliation for a stone. Both bread and stones are expensive and taxable. Both are pushing inflation, and you will be poor all the days of your life.
Avoid loud and boisterous politicians, especially the venomous trapos. They are vexations to the spirit of the poor and the marginalized. Do not believe the demagogues, their stories are all lies embellished with sugarcoated hyperboles and figures of speech. Avoid Senate and Congressional hearings, and stay away from campaign rallies. They are bound to make you a fool as if you were born yesterday. Do compare the work you do to the perennial posturings of congressmen and senators. You carry all the burdens, and they snatch all the glory. You pay all the taxes and they run away with all the pork barrel. How could you be interested in your career? Your jobs and small businesses are always under constant threats of inspections, condemnations, and retrogressive taxations. You carry all the burdens and the politicians plunder your government of its last penny.
How could you exercise caution in your business affairs? All the hard work you do is under grave and imminent danger of some government functionaries barging into your factories, agitating your workers, and lo and behold, a major labor dispute puts all your money at risk. They will subpoena you, issue compliance orders, and compel you to absorb the employees of your service contractors. They demand that you put a lactation room in your factory, when all the workers are male. They ask you to pay for ten days leave every time a husband, a boyfriend, or a lover inflicts physical, psychological, and even financial injury on any of your female employee or her minor child. They ask you to pay solo parents’ leave with pay when a worker is abandoned by the spouse. Why should employers be made answerable for troubles in marriages and families?
Thus, do not be yourself. Feign affections as defense mechanism. Pretend to be compliant and submissive in the face of all impositions and arrogance, simulate humility. Embellish your sadness with forced smiles on your wounded face. How can you be a child of the universe? There are no more trees and stars. You have no more right to be here. Your bank deposits are garnished, your buildings are attached. The employees who used to respect you have brought you to court. Industrial peace is buried and business viability is to be cremated. Friendship is gone. And success is relative. When you have no success, you have no more relatives. Therefore, you cannot go and rest in peace. The world is full of shams, drudgeries, and broken dreams. You can no longer be cheerful and happy anymore. For even happiness, under the law, is taxable.
Go then in sorrows and in shame. Do not look back and go straight ahead to your ultimate end.
‘You carry all the burdens, and they snatch all the glory. You pay all the taxes and they run away with all the pork barrel.’