Our Take on 'The Man'

His Take: 

There’s an easy answer to the “Is the man trying to keep us down?” question. No. Nobody’s putting AIDS in anyone’s Chicken McNuggets. Nobody’s receiving “the real” medicine, and nobody’s holding Illuminati meetings in the basement of a KFC. How do I know this for sure? Because you can’t totally control anything, let alone everything. It’s chaos theory. Dr. Ian Malcolm said it best “A butterfly can flap its wings in Peking, and in Central Park you get rain instead of sunshine.”. 

Yes, somebody, or a group of people somewhere might be trying to get a group of people to live in one area, or be actively trying to prevent another person or group of people from making a better life for themselves and that sucks and I hope those people fail miserably and are exposed for what they’re doing.  But, “Big Brother” is not watching. I don’t know why anyone thinks he is. YOU are responsible for your life, nobody else is. Anyone can be anything they want to be, you just have to put the work in. 

The world is chock full of stories of people who’re born into poverty and have conquered the odds to become a professional football player. Or a doctor. Or an actor. Or a dancer. Walt Disney himself was once fired by a newspaper for not being creative enough. The man went on to create countless cartoon characters, television shows, films, and even a couple of really cool amusement parks. And success is not limited to people who are household names. Go online and you can find tons of examples of people who’ve become super successful with nothing but an idea and an internet connection. 

I guess my point just comes down to this. America is the land of opportunity. Put in the work, and it’s gonna pay off. Nobody can hold you down. 

  

Her Take: 

God, I love this story so much. I love the idea that anyone, anywhere can achieve wild success if they just put in the work. I love the mental movie montage it creates in my head where kid from small town America goes to the big city with nothing but a dream and a few dollars in his pocket, works hard, maybe waiting tables, writes things at a desk late at night, then pauses in the hot sun and wipes sweat from his brow. Fast forward to a board room and SO MANY men in suits start out looking grumpy and skeptical as he shows them his ideas and it ends with them smiling, shaking his hand, and clapping him on the back. 

Love. It. 

What I don't love is the inference that if you aren't succeeding, you just didn't work hard enough. We're hard enough on ourselves as it is, why do we feel we have to do that to each other? 

If you're keeping track, this is the spot where I'm accustomed to being asked why liberals always want handouts and don't value hard work. That's both badly untrue and a conversation killer. 

Do I actually Believe in THE MAN as a literal individual or organization that lurks in the shadows, oppressing people for fun and profit? I think the answer is no, but let me tell you buddy, I wouldn't really be surprised if that was true. 

So, if I don't believe the Monopoly Man and his evil friends are gathered in a bunker under a volcano pulling the strings that make people's lives suck, what do I believe? 

Picture one of those desk toys with the metal balls. They're all in a line so when you swing the one on the left and let it drop, the momentum swings the one on the far right out, it swings back in and CLACK it moves the momentum back to the left. If there weren't forces working against that motion - like gravity, and the fact that basically no one likes to listen to that CLACK, CLACK, CLACK noise for very long - that momentum would, theoretically, continue perpetually. 

With me so far? 

My friend points out that yes, he can believe someone, somewhere is oppressing people on a small scale. I'll tell you a secret, he's talking about a concept called institutional racism which we have elected NOT to discuss at length. We're white, we need to keep our traps shut about racism. But the point is that we can at least agree that some people, somewhere, have built systems that deliberately set their fellow humans on an uneven playing field. 

Why? Because some people love power and money and don't like other people that don't look like them. It's not awesome, but it's true. 

Now, hold the picture of the clacky ball thing and the agreement that some people want to keep other people from succeeding in your mind at the same time and I'll illustrate my picture of 'The Man' in a very general way. That isn't about racism, on purpose. 

Scene: Interior, the boardroom of a  A Mid-Sized Company in 1960-ish 

Well Qualified Female: Yes, I would like the CEO position, please. As you can see, I'm well qualified. 

Male Board Member (to the Other Board Member next to him, whispered): But if we hire a woman, I won't be able to tell all of my absolutely hilarious jokes because the punchline for SO MANY of them is 'my balls'. 

Other Board Member (to Well Qualified Female): I'm sorry, you're not the right fit. 

Scene: Interior, the same board room, 1975 

Well Qualified Female 2: As you can see, I have all of the qualifications and, also, my husband has a great job here so there's very little chance I'll need to relocate. 

Male Board Members (all at once, whispered): But what about when she has a baby?? She'll stop coming to work because women can't work full time and take care of children. 

Other Board Member (to Well Qualified Female 2): I'm sorry, you're not the right fit. 

Scene: Interior, the same board room, present day. 

Well Qualified Female 3: Yes, hello. As you can see by my resume, I'm highly educated, my spouse works from home so I don't have to worry about childcare IF I have kids, which I don't plan to, and I have a number of thoroughly researched and notated plans to make you more money. You should make me CEO. 

Male Board Member (to Other Board Member, whispered): Listen, it's not like we haven't looked at female candidates before. The truth is that they're just too unpredictable, and we all know it. Make sure you write down something about 'company culture' and her not being in line with our team's work style so we don't look like we're discriminating. Because we're not. It's science. 

End Scene. 

Ok, I'll admit, that was both heavy handed and poorly fictionalized, but I hope you get the point. And that you can see how it applies across gender, race, religion, and sexual preference.  

We don't NEED Big Brother to be lurking in the shadows. We've set systems in place that just do it for 'him'. Systems that, if we’re not vigilant, anyone of us can become guilty of perpetuating. And, just like the desk toy, the momentum we've created will move it perpetually unless someone (actually, many, many someones) get tired of the ceaseless CLACK, CLACK, CLACK and stops it. 

So, do I believe that ‘The Man’ is out there, keeping people from succeeding? Yes, but ‘The Man’ is us, and we can do better.