It was enough to make me blog.
Like Sisyphus pushing his boulder up a hill, I had dedicated myself to a struggle. Righting a wrong--crafting a response to an newspaper's online creation--a database of civil servants' salaries.
Canwest, the wounded and limping corporate giant whose stock price has fallen from $26.75 ten years ago to .54 cents today, owns the newspaper that created the database. It lists all 30-thousand provincial civil servants in BC who made $75,000 or more last year. Canwest bet that you and I would so enjoy snooping at the pay cheques of our friends, neighbours and even family members that the newspaper could sell advertising and cash-in.
We no longer have to summon the courage to ask people we know that uncomfortable and usually inappropriate question: "how much do you make?"
Instead we just go online and the newspaper, hoping to make money, will help us secretly invade the privacy of people we know and even of people we love. I mean, besides a handful of top executives, top decision makers (whose salary disclosures I agree with), who else would we possibly search for in the salary database?
That "journalism" is so negative and so mean spirited that I was determined to slay the limping corporate giant with my words....in an online comment on the story.
Two hours of writing later, I had crafted my words into a mighty weapon. I had pushed my boulder to the summit. And like Sisyphus, I could now see the clear blue sky of a better world.
As a sword toward the giant, I swung my finger toward the mouse to click, "post comment." I felt empowered. I basked in optimism knowing my mighty weapon was about to strike the evil, limping, corporate giant. Knowing I was about to right the wrong.
Then suddenly, with a click, all of my work was lost! All of my words gone.
A website warning shouted at me--there was an error posting my comment. It was "non-recoverable."
My boulder had rolled back down the hill.
And so here I am.
Descending the hill to retrieve my boulder.
Concious of the absurdity.
Concious of my fate.
Conscious that my fate is our fate.
Meditative and lucid.
Now enlightened by hope.
I have arrived here at this blog site....and retrieved my boulder.
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In Greek mythology, Sisyphus was condemned to eternally push a huge boulder up a hill only to have it roll down again each time he reached the summit.
The spirit of Sisyphus
"Sisyphus, proletarian of the gods, powerless and rebellious, knows the whole extent of his wretched condition: it is what he thinks of during his descent. The lucidity that was to constitute his torture at the same time crowns his victory. There is no fate that can not be surmounted by scorn.
If the descent is thus sometimes performed in sorrow, it can also take place in joy. This word is not too much."
From
The Myth of Sisyphus
by Albert Camus
If the descent is thus sometimes performed in sorrow, it can also take place in joy. This word is not too much."
From
The Myth of Sisyphus
by Albert Camus
2 comments:
Holy Guacamole, that's deep. Particularly compared to the fact my blog posting for this day was a picture of my new shoes. I remember that Ontario has a list of people who make over, I think, 100k. I dunno, I've never been that curious/interested in salaries. Working in the government they're common knowledge anyways - you know what everyone's classification is so know what their pay range is as they are on the TB site. I'm surprised people care about this anymore, I didn't think it was the sensitive quesiton it used to be - let alone something that could raise a stock price.
Yeah, $75K is too low a threshold. I do think people who make maybe $150 and up should be public knowledge. In Ontario it's $100K +.
Good blog post, Dag!
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