Careerism: the new religion

ca·reer·ism:

Two entries found in dictionary.com:

n: pursuit of professional advancement as one's chief or sole aim

and

n: the practice of advancing your career at the expense of your personal integrity

As a religion, careerism's primary postulate is "furthering one's career is the greatest good".

Careerism explains why there isn't a bigger outcry by our "leaders" (business, military, political, religious) on a lot stuff happening in our world. Why speak out unless it helps advance my career to the next rung up the career ladder?

We are indoctrinated from childhood on to be rewarded by the authority placed in charge of us, and do what that authority expects. (It is up to the us to prove how bright we are by figuring that out ... so the really, really bright ones don't even have to be told ... we absorb it through body language and pats on the head.)

What is so damaging is when some of us realize that the only way we can please the authority appointed over us, is to deny our "selves". So in a given time and place if we are not born with the explicit characteristics of the dominant group, we then have to warp our self-image in order to fit in ... if we want to fit in ... and what is a child supposed to know if they are told what the "truth" is by the all-powerful adults in their lives? Of course as a child we want to fit in and be part of the group having the most fun.

The idea that the United States of America was a place where no matter who or what we were, we could come and fit in ... and strive to achieve the potential of I AM as a human being ... was (and still is) such a powerful dream, a magnent pulling all the aspirations of creative self-realization to our shores ... the incredible creative force of life that pushes blades of grass up through asphalt ...

And now we have a bunch of emotionally stunted (anal retentive?) people like Karl Rove in positions of power ... pissing away the dream, the sense of whom and what we ought to be, in order to advance their careers and those of the people they serve.

Theirs is such a shallow existence, straight-jacketed and pruned ... yes, in every meaning of the word ... don't weep, show anger, lust, excess exuberance ... DO NOT ACT HUMAN IN ANY WAY. Stuff it, deny it, DON'T GO THERE.

Are we such cows that we can be stampeded by the smallest clap of thunder ... or such sheep that we huddle inward, fearful of the slightest danger? Have we, too, become domesticated like lap dogs? To be petted and fawned upon by gutless, lifeless caricatures of leaders?

I mean look at the two poster kids of political careerism, Senators John McCain and Hillary Clinton ... McCain goes to Falwell's Liberty University to fawn in front of the very people he not too long ago decried. Clinton panders to the right-wing by supporting the criminalization of flag-burning.

General Hayden, nominated to head the CIA, is a baptised True-Believer in careerism. He even lied to Congress to protect his climb up the ladder.

Where is the integrity of the great leaders of our history? Starting with those who signed our Declaration of Independence below the words:

"And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor."