Thank you for an interesting and insightful comment. The only part of your comment where I disagree is about the class of business owners. In reality, most of the wealth in our country is controlled by the very same people who work for those companies. The retirement plans and 401k’s of the working class are the major shareholders. The problem is that most of us have neglected our responsibilities as business owners to watch over the people that our (usually proxy to people we don’t know) votes elect as board of directors of these businesses.
But I am all for getting published in HBR. In fact I am preparing an article for submission as we speak.

In creating a whole society of fear, the ownership class has given us little else but 45-60 years of toil only to see the next generation (those who survive) performing the same outmoded rites in the same order. Like the rodents in the cages, we are presented only a narrow range of choices and then a loudspeaker chants “you have freedom” into our ears so many times that we believe nothing else. If you step out of the mazes (amazingly still legal), their tone is mockery to shame you into conformity. They pull up their hoods and turn their backs, giving no comfort, offering no aid.

If you do claw your way to the top and don’t get arrested along the way, your company won’t be competitive unless your employees are frightened enough to work but not too much to leave. (Remember Google’s now ridiculous slogan ‘Don’t Be Evil’? Reminds me of the “patriot act’ Rhetorical Dissonance is an American Virtue, it seems)

This economy seems fantastic for large companies. I’m sure many of them haven’t seen this kind of productivity since the days of WWII and out-and-out propaganda. Perhaps the threat of the pink slip is the new economy, and if not at least it may be better than the threat of the bludgeon (remember they tried that too- see the American labor movement in the 19-oughts/teens/twenties).

Oleg offers us a new way of sorts, a different path. Changing our behavior, in and out of companies, is the only way to alter the trajectory (stasis) of the working classes. The ownership classes seem to never know in which century they are living. They are like the generals always preparing for the previous war.

Please read his plan and his blog. You will benefit personally and profesionally. We need to start a petition to get him published in the Harvard Business Review!

Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind. -George Orwell