The lie of  Specialism in the workplace

I want to address the worst element of modernistic thinking that is still flowing into post-modernism. It leads us to the worst of both worlds. It is sadly even tainting Christianity, which is its complete opposite. I refer to specialism.

When athletes rigorously push themselves harder then anyone else, then they are rewarded for their excellence with gold medals, money or both. Public consensus rewards these people for doing something that really seems to have no public utilitarian value other than 1) the gawk factor or 2) increasing human capacity. Eventually, when that person is old, fat and flabby they still are given influencing opportunities. People therefore who have previously achieved greatness are allowed to achieve more greatness because the public will listen to them and follow them.

The great thing about Islam is that it tells you what to “do.” Everyday your life is laid out for you and everyone around you does the same things. You know daily and seasonally when to fast and pray, when to gather in groups, when to eat certain foods, when to go on vacation, and when to re-interpret scriptures and kill yourself and any heathens around you. My point is that Islam is primarily about disciplining ones behavior. It could be argued though that in order to control ones action you need first to control your Mind and Soul. But in observing Muslims society you can see they are primarily controlled outwardly more than inwardly.

Budhism is a system of thought that has some positive insights. Members are required to sit around ignoring their physical leg spasms after hours of mediation. The ultimate goal is to reach nirvana (absolute nothingness.) This is achieved through lots of meditating about spiritual things. You force your “evil” body to submit to your mind. Good behavior (as well as neglecting your loved ones) is one of the paths to becoming wonderfully nothing. Budhism is about doing physical actions (like meditation) to control one’s mind, which will hopefully lead to a purified spirit. Unfortunately, Hindu ideas like Karma have crept back into Budhism tainting its initial purpose (The dramatic reform of Hinduism which Buddha believed to be evil.) This is why evil abounds in orphanages that come from a basis of thinking in terms of karma.

When people criticize religion it is often the criticism that “one group of people” (the higher cast, the chosen Jews, the 120,000 saints, the communist party) are better in some way than everyone else. They are predisposed through heredity, genetics, or choice of beliefs to be somewhat superior to all other people. When religion is twisted to portray this, then that religion becomes cruel and evil and is justly criticized. Clearly, the true purpose of religion is to “find God” or having found Him, to become like Him. Hopefully that God is loving, or the rest of us are in for a lot of trouble.

Hinduism is kind of a hodgepodge of random thought (and it’s hard to get anyone to agree what Hindu beliefs are) but at its core, there is this concept that some people are superior to others. Hinduism uses karma, reincarnation, and casts as fiendish weapons to enforce a self-justified, selfish attack on other humans. Hitler made his SS agents read the Hindu Vedas everyday in order to understand his view of Aryanism and the perfect race of “white people.” We all know how that turned out.

People are constantly arguing about Christianity over what kind of a system it should really be. Is it purely a metaphysical spiritual thing? Or perhaps it doesn’t matter what you think and that action is more important. Some people say, “Once saved always saved.” Raise your hand for salvation and even if you commit murder you will still get to Heaven. Others say that the “Proof is in the pudding.” Jesus said that “if you say you love God but hate your brother then you are a liar.”  Clearly the answer, which is clearly examined in the N.T, is that a balance between Grace and Law is required. Anyone who pushes too far in one direction is dishonoring God.

Now the ugly religion of Humanism rears its dogmatic fundamentalist head. The core belief is that “the end justifies the means.” The end-goal is that the members be blindly, unthinkingly, overeducatedly happy. This happiness entails sex with people you don’t intend to be loyal to. It means “It’s not personal, it’s just business;” as you screw over other people so that you can have more money than is justified.

Humanism is a funny religion. Not haha funny.  It’s fiercest acolytes refuse to admit that they even belong to a religion.

Diversity: Their mantra states that everyone else’s beliefs are just as good as anyone else’s even if they have no logical foundation, but secretly “I am still right and everyone else is wrong.”

Religions: All religions are silly but sometimes help people behave.

No one should discuss certain issues: religion, politics, or money. (It makes me come across as the judgemental jerk that I am.)

Humanity is about to collapse under the one of the most promoted ideas that Humanism ever came up with. These thoughts originated in Hitlers death camps. The idea is that 1. Humans are basically good. 2. There are too many of us and we should get rid of the less important of us. (Does anyone else see the dichotomy and hypocrisy) “To save the world, we have some killing to do! Yeehaw!”

The ultimate goal is to trim the population down to a small utopian community where everyone (who has survived the selection process) lives in pure physical bliss. There will be plenty of jobs, shelter, food and sex to go around. (As long as you conform to the Humanitarian worldview.)

In order to create this perfect habitat: 1. Thoughts must be controlled (politically correct language and thinking) 2. Government must decide what is best for people (parents loose choice over if, when, and how to have their babies as well as how to raise them. 3. The government decides which humans are a burden and extinguishes (euthanasia, abortion, execution) those not deemed worthy.

Cities are a big part of the problem. Cities are sparkly, exciting, fun, beautiful. The concept behind making a city is not much different from the story of Babel. Many people from remote places come together to work together (Synergy!) with the goal of separating themselves from natural concerns. It is too simplified to say that convenience stores are akin to saying that you don’t need God to provide but there is an overshadowing feeling in cities that you really can do it all yourself if you just work hard enough.

In a city you will find things that you craved elsewhere but these dreams were impossible to be met in a small place where not enough people were banded together to achieve that goal. Consider how many employees Disney hires to make their theme parks function. This number is far more than the total population of most farming communities. Could a farming community dream of, or even want to, employ all their farmers to wear funny costumes for visitors? No, I am not trying to mock the Amish. Your mind only skewed in that direction because politically correct thinking has corrupted it. How wonderful then that many people can come together to work hard to achieve a specific goal such as make a movie or fly to the moon.

Where this all falls apart is in several ways. 1. Increased anonyminity (rudeness, since the millions of people around you are strangers, have uncommitted sex with other strangers, increased crime) 2. Obvious division between the Have’s and the Have-Not’s (leading to comparison, leading to shame, leading to crime) 3. Reduced world view in their limited microcosm (City folk believe the funniest lies: evolution (it’s a hypothesis not a theory), world overpopulation (world travellers have seen the reality), “religion is the opiate of the masses,” Global warming (Now modified to read: “climate change.”) They also believe that over-specializing is a good thing.

A person in a big city functions very differently than a person who lives in a village. A villager (Most of the human race has lived in villages through most of history.) has to live in a way that meets their whole life. They grow their food, and retrieve items (like water) necessary for life. They spend time with their family. If a neighbor had a need they would gladly share and often there would be reciprocation.

A big city dweller is given money in return for specialized labor. The more specialized and in need that skill is the more money they can make. With the money they make they meet their physical needs. Often there is plenty of extra money left over that can be used for leisure and entertainment that would make any ancient king froth with envy. A big city person often has never met their neighbor, except in the middle of the night when screaming at each other over music volume decisions. Big cities can only be redeemed when tight communities form made up of people who care about each other and are not mean to strangers. This increases accountability and wards off all sorts of selfish cruelty, crime and disease.

Education is the prime target of this twisted form of thinking. The current system of academics is to create university professors. To create this Cerebral Being they work backwards down the system until pre-school. The first goal of school is to socialize, by which I mean crush out independence and creativity. Most people have at least one bitter story to tell about a teacher who crushed their spirit mercilessly. By the time kids reach 3^rd or 4^th grade they should optimally be so crushed that they will 1. Behave in socially polite ways (positive) 2. Never think in truly creative ways (Multiple choice regurgitation is the fulcrum) 3. Even if teachers and students think that creativity is encouraged then it only proves that neither know anymore what creativity truly is. (Creativity is allowing kids to make art without being told “the correct way” to do it. Yet being available to respond to questions for improvement.) In school, kids learn to disregard the dancing, singing, artistic part of themselves, in favor of an emaciated floating head that is confused by the awkward body mass moving below them. When kids graduate they know theorems, formulas, chemical equations, dates, famous people and lots of useless trivia. What many kids fail to know is: “how to balance a check book,” “how to regulate debt,” “How to cook without a microwave,” “How to avoid depression,” and a million other useful life-skills that were either negligently or purposefully left off the curriculum. Someday they will be perfectly prepared to sit in a Dilbertian cubicle for at least 8 hours a day without complaint.

Specialization is the concept that since there are so many people on this planet, we should all learn to be robots and do only one thing great. This will make the people of the world value our own unique specialties. The more focused and specialized we become, the more our value to society increases. This Humanistic worldview can fit within the restraints of most world religions but it is directly opposed to the Christian worldview.

Christianity was intended by God to be a system for humans to implement to meet all of the needs of a person. 1. Your Spirit/Soul (Your intentional will, your personality) 2. Your mind (Thoughts, beliefs, emotions) 3. Your body (actions & habits)

Many philosophers have attempted to force Christianity into one of the 3 little boxes (A creative person will ask if there are more than 3 and the truth is: probably, I don’t know.) and force a person to be Spiritual on Sunday but ignore the actions of the week. Or a legalist judges actions but ignores the heart and mind. Only when all the parts are joined as one, can a person become a whole being.

Even Christendom has been tainted. Christian self-improvement books say things like 1. You need to focus all of your efforts on that one thing that will make your great. In choosing between the Best and the Good you must always choose the Best. If you have a choice between finishing that project that you have been working on for a long time or going out and having fun with friends you must choose the work because that is what will bring you fulfilment. But look closely, is it your relationship with God that is bringing you fulfilment or is it achieving your life-goals in a Humanistic way. The pastor who takes his family to a zoo on a Saturday is expected to feel guilty that he has not completed his sermon for Sunday. He must regret his decision because he has chosen the good (valuable time with family) over the best (which would be perfecting the sermon he will deliver as a talking head to people who don’t care because that guy is all-talk and no-action.)

In order to be a Great Christian we need to recapture the 1800’s idea of the Renaissance man, which led to the concept of liberal arts education as separate from a technical degree. I predict that Universities will begin to dispense with the liberal arts, and even wonder why they had them in the first place and move towards focusing college kids in very specific directions. No longer will “computer degree” be acceptable. Now degrees will be more focused such as “Network Management”, “Systems Analyst”, “Graphical 3D Design” etc… I think you get the point.

As Christians we are given “Gifts” and we should use what God has given us. But just because you are a preacher does not mean that you should not do the dishes after the potluck. Just because you lead Sunday school does not mean that you should not also do mission work. Worship leaders should help to paint the orphanage. The Bible is very clear that a Christian will practice all the disciplines. An evangelist is not the guy who prostelizes. An evangelist is the guy who teaches everyone else how to do it.

Our goal as humans should be to learn to be the best person we can be to have a pleasant and fulfilled life. By pleasant, I mean the opposite of hedonistic. I mean making choices that cause one’s family life to be calm and enjoyable. By fulfilled, I mean working hard to achieve one’s dreams. That means focusing on one skill at a time but not only one skill for a lifetime. It means that enjoyable hobbies can only be neglected for so long before the person begins to feel like a slave to the “One Thing” that they are known for.

A deep and interesting person to meet will always be someone who is capable of more than just one thing. A great person will embody a depth that is clearly expressed in the Bible. This person will be intelligent (but not necessarily educated) well-travelled (but not because they had lots of time or money) will have helped lots of people (yet not necessarily structured as a part of a ministry) will have accomplished some of their dreams (yet have many more dreams ahead) will focus on people more than work (although they do work incredibly hard) will admit failure (and will get up and try again after that failure.)

If you are a Christian and want to be a complete whole person of Godly integrity then dispense with the Humanistic notion that you should only focus on one thing. Because the moment you do, you will have lost perspective of the many other things of life that are important. God made you to be a unique diverse creation. Don’t throw your assorted skills away in favor of the Modernistic model of specialization. Be a Christian of integrity and diversify yourself.