The Rat Race is an endless, self-defeating, pointless pursuit.
A rigged game where even if you win a lot of ‘cheese’ you’re still a Rat, and still at the mercy of those who control you: The Establishment.
This Rat Race myth has become entrenched in Western Civilisation and it keeps us impoverished and trapped all the while distracting us with a never-ending flow of sport and entertainment. A strategy that started all the way back in with the Roman Empire.
It has been purposefully designed to benefit those in power. That may sound a bit like a conspiracy theory, but there is no doubt that, to some extent, it has been consciously created to serve the Establishment and is detrimental to our well-being.
Way back at the start of the 20th Century, big industrialists like Andrew Carnegie and Henry Ford, along with bankers like JP Morgan and John Rockefeller, were the dominant figures in the US business world.
One day, Henry Ford decided to cut his workers’ hours from 6 days to 5 days.
Of course, this caused quite a bit of a stir with his fellow titans of the industry who were clearly concerned for their bottom line.
When questioned about it, Ford stated…
“It is the influence of leisure on consumption which makes the five day work week so necessary. The people who consume the bulk of goods are the people who make them. That is a fact we must never forget,
That is the secret of our prosperity.
The people with a five day work week will consume more goods than the people working six days a week.
People who have more leisure must have more clothes. They must have a greater variety of food. They must have more transportation facilities.
They naturally must have more services of various kinds.
This increased consumption will require greater production than we now have. Instead of business being slowed up because the people are off work, it will be speeded up. This will lead to more work. And this to more profits.”
So, over 100 years ago, Ford recognised that a six-day work week makes our ‘servitude’ and its discomfort too obvious.
He realised that by allowing people time off, they would consume more, the industrialists would earn more profit and the government could take more in tax.
What’s clear is that he certainly didn’t grant the workers that extra day for their own health and well-being.
There are logical reasons (based on the way our solar system operates) why there are 24 hours in a day and 365 days in a year.
But there is no rational reason as to why there are 7 days in a week and we are consigned to work for 5 of them.
Yet, we have been deceived into thinking this is normal.
It is an insidious trick designed to keep us working for the benefit of those in power as busy little rats, whilst providing a moderate level of comfort and continual distractions so we don’t start to question things too much.
As Johnny Rotten once snarled – “Ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated?”.
I recently watched ‘Living’, starring Bill Nighy. The film depicts a society in 1950s London where everybody suppresses their real emotions and are scared to be themselves.
They are as Henry Thoreau said, ‘living lives of quiet desperation’.
And although society has changed a lot, many people still lead lives of ‘quiet desperation’.
Bill Nighy’s character, after spending a lifetime living that way, is faced with a terminal illness and he finally decides to do something about it.
And that is often the way. It takes an event of extreme emotional impact for people to wake up and recognise that they are spending their lives doing what others expect of them and not living as they would truly like.
Becoming aware and recognising that you are in fact trapped in a Rat Race that’s rigged against you, is the first step in escaping that trap.
Are you one of them?
As Bronnie Ware wrote, “People’s biggest regret on their deathbed is not having the courage to live a life true to themselves, not the life others expected them to live”.
She wrote that most people had not honoured even half of their dreams and had to die knowing that it was due to choices they had made, or not made.
It starts at birth with beliefs inherited from your parents.
As soon as you’re born, you’re immediately stamped with a barcode, aka a Social Security number.
From then on you’re conditioned and indoctrinated to take part in the Rat Race paradigm and in western countries almost everyone has become either…
A Consumer – someone who believes they will find happiness, respect and fulfilment by purchasing clothes, shoes, watches, cars, and houses. They spend all their disposable income on such items to impress other people.
Or
A Savings Rat – someone who believes if they work hard, be a good citizen, budget carefully, save 10% of their income and put their savings in a regulated fund, they will eventually be able to retire rich.
The Consumer Rat lives for the weekend – they dread Monday mornings and look forward to Friday when they can go out and get drunk. Some shopping on Saturday, then the dread of starting the working week starts to arise again on Sunday.
I say that with real compassion – I know what it is like. I spent many years working 5 long days a week just to enjoy my weekends and then spending half the week feeling hungover.
If you’re a savings rat, your cheese is the promise of a comfortable retirement, decades in the future…
A future you may never live to see and even if you reach that age, it is unlikely, given economic realities, that you will have built the nest egg you are expecting.
It’s not that different to buying a lottery ticket – it’s promoted by financial experts as the safe and sensible option.
All our institutions; the education system, the church, media and entertainment and the government promote the same universal dogma:
Get a good degree, so you can get a good job, work hard so you get promoted, get a big mortgage and buy the best house you can, it will be your best asset… property always goes up in value, save 10% and put it into a regulated retirement fund.
The pressure is on everybody to succumb to one of these two paths.
Most people start as ‘consumer rats’ as young adults and either stay as consumers or change their behaviour in their 30s from consumer to savings rats when they start a family.
NEITHER PATH SERVES YOU WELL.
It’s all about working for the establishment and making profits for them. In exchange, you are paid the least amount they can get away with…and the government steals a large portion of that in taxes.
Have you ever stopped to think about this? Does it not make you angry at all?
Since the pandemic, more people are starting to wake up to how damaging the Rat Race is to their health and well-being. I intend to be part of the catalyst for change.
If you want to escape the Rat Race and build an extraordinary life of wealth, power and freedom, why not join my online community of like-minded Freedom Lovers for education, advice, support and mentoring?
