Hey, What are You Rebelling Against?

I suppose that it amused and intrigued me in equal parts. I’d been chatting for a little while with a new woman in our building when she said “I’m not sure if I should be seen talking with you. You have the reputation of being a bit of a rebel.” Now I could tell from her body language and tone of voice that she was amused by the idea – the knowing smile and twinkle in her eye was a dead giveaway – but still….. I have a ‘reputation’ of being a rebel? How deliciously amusing!

Of course I’ve long been known for being ‘different’ than the rest, maybe more outspoken, more ‘political’ and undoubtedly more thoughtful. I’m not above questioning received wisdom (no matter where it comes from) so I guess that I’ve always had a bit of that kind of ‘edge’ to me. Lately it seems to have solidified into something a bit more definable. For no great reason I can come up with I’ve had the word ‘difficult’ attached to me. I suppose it’s because at work we’ve been presented with a whole host of changes that I’ve been highly, and vocally, critical of. I have been told by my boss on more than one occasion that I have the ‘wrong attitude’ and that I should ‘get with the programme’. I have even been told, by both my boss and her boss, that opposition to what is happening is pointless and that I should just accept the new reality. To which I responded in true CK style “Resistance is never futile. Resistance is actually character building.” To which all I get these days is frowning, rolling of eyes and shaking of heads rather than the expected, and usual, laugh.

I do think that management probably consider my response to what’s happening as a pose or that it’s just me ‘acting out’. They fail to see, because they don’t really know me and have made no attempt to find out why I’m being like this, that my opposition – light though it is – comes from a lifetime of thought and experience. Mostly I ignore the bullshit that we all have to swim though on a regular basis especially if we work in any kind of large organisation for long enough. Senior management get a bee in their bonnet and new ideas or ‘ways of working’ sweep through only to be replaced 5 years later by yet another ‘latest idea’ that’s supposed to transform our lives. After you’ve seen 3-4 of those initiatives you get kind of cynical about the whole thing. That’s part of what’s going on here – simple cynicism. The other thing is that quite a lot of what’s rolling downhill at us is, at least in my opinion, both stupid and wrong-headed. But these days, it would seem, having a contrary opinion is having ‘the wrong attitude’ especially (I suspect) from someone from the shop floor. Down at the sharp end we’re just supposed to ‘get on with it’ and stop complaining.

Some of the flack (or advice) coming my way consists of the old excuses that have been purveyed in these circumstances for as long as hierarchies have existed. That we’re paid to do a job and not to think, that you can’t fight city-hall (to which I immediately flash to the episode of Sarah Conner where Derek Reese said ‘Whoever said that didn’t have as much C4 as we do’), that the changes are going to happen whatever we say, think or do so we should just accept them, that we should embrace what our managers say because they know best, that causing ‘trouble’ is counter-productive, and that (one of my favourites) no matter what, we can’t win – as if winning (or the possibility of winning) determines if you’re going to fight or not. After all hopeless causes are the only ones worth fighting for! Oh, and an Internet saying I came across recently seems relevant ATM: Anyone who says that you’re too small to make a difference hasn’t spent the night in a room with a mosquito…… What am I rebelling against? What have you got?

[PS – I’m pretty sure that if I’d lived in Occupied France I’d definitely be in The Resistance! Viva La Liberty!]