Six months ago, I would have answered the question, “should you hate the man?” with an immediate yes followed by innumerable plausible (and implausible) reasons why. In case of any confusion as to what “man” I am referring to, click this link for an explanation from Jack Black.

If you’re unable to click the link, “The Man” is the establishment. Authority. Abstract, yet ever-present. The Man is the government. The Man has subordinates to carry out its will. It is not difficult to identify The Man, because The Man exists within every societal container, from grade schools (the principal) to Wall Street (the SEC). Your boss is the man. Their boss is the man, to both them and you, and so on…

This rant [think piece if you will] binds the view of “The Man” to a professional sphere.
Although spouses, parents, children, desires, and a number of things can occupy the role of “The Man” in our lives, we have more common interactions with The Man in the workplace and as citizens than in our personal lives. It also fits the theme of the blog.

The impetus for my question, my first post in a year, was an acquaintance’s challenging perspective. “Think of how far we’ve come. Less than 100 years ago the working class were living in conditions unimaginable today.”

Immediately I think of impoverished areas of Mississippi and regions of greater Appalachia where not much can be said via the ways of progress. But the greatest stumbling block in my argument remains to be entitlement. I wasn’t raised a coal miner’s daughter or a descendant of slaves. Why am I so inflamed at the man? Perhaps, I’m holding onto an ideal society where everybody serves a purpose? I remind myself a straight white man who grew up in a beach town in Florida isn’t the voice in the fight against poverty. I’ve worked since I was 15 years old, mostly under the table, and I forget if I recounted in the blog how it felt when I received my first real (taxable) paycheck at age 18.
After working at an office supply warehouse for a month, I received a check for $32.16.
That was the tip of the long dick of The Man beginning to fuck me.

Ten years down the road, and I say The Man has multiple dicks that fuck you at varying speeds from multiple angles all at once.

The wiser people in my life tell me to sub my rage out for pity. Don’t rage against the machine, pity the machine.

This wisdom acts as a stick for the elephant to hold in his trunk so he doesn’t go sticking his trunk where it doesn’t belong, but provides no resolution. I can only move forward an inch at a time on converting my emotion from rage to pity.

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1. We’re all in this system together.

We are the system. Although the straight white man is affected by the man the least, he still shares a community for those who are affected even greater. Being a part of a community involves looking out for one another. Let’s say my neighbor has a break in, but the police do not look into their case. It’s not my fight to track down the perpetrator, but it is within my power to help keep a closer eye on things. If it can happen to them it can happen to anyone. Those with power tend to want more power, and I believe it’s human nature to abuse power when we know we can get away with it. Nobody thrives alone, it takes a village, it takes community.

Is it cancerous to a community for someone to consistently challenge the status quo? Depends on the intention. Challenge is good, it’s how ideas and systems grow stronger. I’m guilty of spending a number of years fucking up systems in the name of hedonistic pleasure. But besides anarchy and punk rock, should I hate the man? I share a city/state/country/planet with people who’s lives are being ruined by the man.

2.Poverty is systemic.
Consider someone who is recently incarcerated. They’re not worth much while imprisoned, so for a fee, they’re released. Why? Because there’s money to be made off of this person. A percentage of every check they make is now going to court fees, probation costs, restitution, etc.
If they lose their job due to the time lost from being incarcerated, and miss a payment on their court fees, they’re liable to end up back in jail for a longer period of time.

When prisoners are released from prison, they’re not starting at zero. They’re starting at a negative number. Zero would mean they at least have a clean background and a decade of time they could account for. Once you’re out of the system, there are social, financial, and professional barriers established to make it as difficult as possible to re-enter. Even those who do successfully re-enter society from incarceration still are looked upon with pity by others. A person is not defined by their mistakes. This is classic fuckery by The Man, and we as a society at large have been conditioned to accept it.

I remember a coworker I met once years ago (at the vegan ice cream store) saying that it’s pointless to fight it. It’s so much easier when you surrender to The Man. Be a good drone, fulfill your role as a wage slave to the corporate overlord, pray you might possibly get to retire and maybe enjoy a decade off of work. Hopefully you die sooner though, because The Man is responsible for paying your social security, and The Man doesn’t like to lose. They can say we’ve progressed from the feudal society as much as they want, but I still see the peasants and the elite, just not as easily segregated.

No, I would not go to such extremes as claiming “Sovereign Citizenship” or doing anything to cause any harm. It’s too big of a system to challenge as an individual. This is where Taoism kind of kicks in and says why do anything? Because we have to do something with our lives. I’m a firm believer that western civilization and eastern ideologies are set up by design to not go together. Even in that case, I notice western civilization and religion tend to be at odds more often than in harmony.
So no, I don’t feel entitled when I believe that hard work should be rewarded with a place to live, eat, and means to travel to the places you’re needed.

I do remain entitled to my time. It’s all I have. Even the rich people will tell you, you’re not going to get rich working for somebody else.

I hate the man, because in order to live my life, I had to go into debt, beg borrow and steal, work 19 hour days, work multiple jobs, to end up in the same place I started.
Do I want to be rich? Everybody wants to be rich. No, I’m not trying to be the richest man in the graveyard, but we’re at a point where you need to make $90,000 a year to live anywhere, what even is rich in financial terms anymore? The point of me sharing this with you?
I am not alone.

This is the biggest piece of information that’s kept me going. Day after day I meet people who are also behind on their car payments, facing insurance cancellation, people who’ve already had their shit repossessed, but the grind doesn’t stop. Maybe they’re doing it for their family, or maybe they’re doing it to stay out of jail, but that’s how The Man gets you.

You can abandon ship tomorrow. File bankruptcy, burn the car, leave the house, sell your possessions, and start a new life as a drifter. But your dog might not like that. Your kids, spouse, dying relative whom you’re their caretaker, roommate, landlord, something. That community who feels the ripple effect from the man is also impacted by you. You’ve got to pull your weight too, and again we’re all in this together.

Fuck.

Should you hate the man? Or is to hate The Man to hate the self? We as people created this system, probably in hopes that one day we’d stop fighting the system and realize how unifying it is. But somewhere along the way we all became the main character. The stars of our own show. Abandoning care for criticism, substituting empathy for apathy. Ideally, we would realize that unity and use it against The Man, but… then what? Who among us is qualified to make a “better” system?

Certainly not I.