Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Circulus Vitiosus: A Laborers Reflection on the Ideals of Work

Way back in college, I could remember these words uttered by my professor in Logic. He said that this is a fallacy in reasoning in which the premise is used to prove the conclusion, and the conclusion used to prove the premise. I did not understand him, and I did not take that course seriously. I regret my decision. Among all philosophy subjects that I took, only in this course can I say that I failed.

So much for my college days and back here in the present. As in college, these words are still revolving around my present consciousness. Not in the context of Logic but in the context of labor. Currently I am working, and as an employee we are mandated (mandatum) to follow certain policies, in our case the so-called Norms and Values, which I think is relative and has a lot of loop-holes open for different interpretations. With this we are taught who is an employee and how can we be good employees, not only to this company but in the entirety of our life as a laborer.

Although we have this as our back bone, we still do consider our individuality as a person both individual and social in nature. We are new to this set-up and together with them, we bring with us our own culture of working that makes us a contingent being. And because of this contingency, we make good and 'bad' decisions (the company say that your decision is bad though they just don't understand what made it bad, and they never try to listen).

They say that a good decision would benefit yourself and the company, the former would not benefit neither the company nor your individuality. With this definition in mind, we start to reform ourselves. Look at the people around us, see how they work and how they set up their minds to meet that goal. Then we joined together and support each other. We had workshops and endless meetings and conferences. It proved to be effective, but not for long.

There is a problem in bringing in the virtue of consistency. They failed to be consistent in their words and actions. Thus showing us inconsistencies. And blaming us to the fault at which they are responsible for. This is not a way of passing someone's fault to the other. This however, is a way of expressing realities and pulling down the ideals to what is real. Unless they take that inconsistencies away we revolve again to this vicious circle, not just once, twice, but over and over again.

And now we are here in this vicious circle, the circle that is turning our minds and hearts away from the goal. We again go back to the reality of how we do work, and how we conduct ourselves in the workplace. Fortunately there are a few who were taught to reflect, to bend back the phenomenon that is happening around our existential nature. into the silence of our person We go back because we are in the abyss of reality. The reality that is telling us the truth and not just the ideals of labor.

In college, I failed to understand Circulus Vitiosus. In the present, I still failed to understand. And yet, I am experiencing and is a part of it.

-danielangelolao

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