Power Centers

     Time was, the Left was a purely political phenomenon, and was viewed as such by non-Leftists. That time has passed, for a simple reason: it didn’t get the Left what its masters want: absolute and unchallengeable power. So it changed focus. Today, if you want to know where the Left is concentrating (or will concentrate) its efforts, look for social, commercial, and informational nexuses that wield seemingly non-political power.

     To some extent this is already widely known. For example, the Left’s control of America’s “mainstream media,” its entertainment industry, and its educational institutions has been generally acknowledged for decades. If you’ll allow me an “obvious” statement, that was not accidental. People who want power over others will seek it out wherever it appears to be on offer. America’s information and entertainment conduits were a prime target from the inception of the socialist movement. The Left’s control of them has enabled it to do great harm to American norms.

     But other, seemingly less threatening power centers have become even more important than our media and schools. While the following is a segment from one of my novels, it is nevertheless a true story except for the names of the participants:

     “Tim’s employer’s Human Resources department was run by a gaggle of vicious women—real ones, not ‘trans’—who’d already succeeded in enacting weird ‘sexual harassment’ rules and rules about how to treat persons of differing sexual orientations. You could get fired for daring to defy the company line…so naturally the company’s vicious women and vindictive homosexuals used the rules like a club to subjugate or flat get rid of anyone they pleased.
     “Well, these insane HR harpies needed new worlds to conquer, so they decided to make ‘trans tolerance’ their next campaign. But they didn’t mean ‘show tolerance for the deluded.’ They meant to make differing with a delusional person—calling a ‘trans’ person by his birth name, or referring to him as ‘he’ when he claimed to be a ‘she’—a hangin’ offense.
     “They rewrote the personnel policies for the company for the umpteenth time. Corporate management gave in without a fight. The new policies included mandatory ‘sensitivity training’ seminars for the entire company. Until Tim was herded into one, he had no idea what was coming.
     “He sat through about twenty minutes of their harangue before he couldn’t take any more of it. He felt someone had to take a stand against the lunacy. And Tim being…well, Tim, he wasn’t going to wait for someone else to do it. So he stood up.
     “He told them their nonsense had gone far enough. He said the ‘trans’ types are obviously detached from reality. That they need therapy to help them accept themselves as they are, not reinforcement for their delusions. That we should treat the mentally ill with compassion but that it’s wrong to cooperate in their lunacy. And he said he wouldn’t bow to any rule, from HR or anyone else, that compelled him to think or speak or act otherwise. And he walked out.
     “His supervisor fired him immediately after the seminar. He didn’t have anything against Tim. In fact, he agreed with him. He just didn’t want to tangle with HR.”

     [From Love in the Time of Cinema]

     This morning, Irish tells a very condensed story of the same sort:

     One of my employee’s cousins has been a manager for a local supermarket. He moved up the ladder over the past 22 years.

     A newly hired employee was prone to being a no – show or late to work.

     Fed up with this the Manager commented something like this to the spud:

     “Dude, you can’t be doing this. Showing up late, or not at all. Stop playing with yourself and get here when your shift starts.”

     Mid to late teen spud goes to HR.

     Sexual harassment.

     22 year career ends.

     In part, these are illustrations of Robert Conquest’s Second Law. But their greater significance lies in the power of the Human Resources department. That power doesn’t spring from elevation in the corporate hierarchy, but from the ability to marshal opprobrium based on deceit.

     Yes, the Human Resources department is a power center. The opprobrium it wields is of a particularly threatening kind, the kind that brings protestors to the gates and boycotts to the stores. Once the Left has infiltrated it, Leftists will steadily displace less politically-minded workers, until control of the department is theirs. With the cooperation of the media and various agreeable state and federal bureaucracies, its power becomes de facto unopposable and unaccountable – all from its ability to “shape the narrative.”

***

     This is an ongoing problem that has only one solution: Fire the whole HR department. Such departments are overhead the typical company doesn’t need, formed out of the conviction that there must be a cadre of specialists to ensure that the company doesn’t violate state or federal labor laws. In practice, HR does nothing to ensure this. Far better simply to have a labor lawyer on retainer.

     Just a quick early-morning rant. I may be back with something else later.

4 comments

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    • SWVaguy on August 5, 2021 at 6:12 AM

    The question that’s never asked is, if the left controls institutions of higher learning, the media and the government, how can “systemic racism” exist.  And if it does, isn’t the left to blame for it?  This is projection practiced to its max.

    • SWVaguy on August 5, 2021 at 6:22 AM

    Off topic, but nonetheless important, Joe said yesterday that the rent moratorium extension would not pass “constitutional muster.”  He didn’t want to say it’s illegal, since that would make him a criminal wouldn’t it?

    Will the property owners get the same break?  Nope.  Sorry pal, we’re foreclosing.

      • Hoagie on August 5, 2021 at 9:38 AM

      I hate to point this out but those foreclosure guys ARE the owners. They hold the deed. They get paid first if there’s a total loss. They get paid first at settlement if you sell. They require YOU to insure their property.
      It is the banks and mortgage companies who the left and Junta Joe are working for not the guy renting out his investment property or seashore duplex. When the little guy can’t pay any more the banks get the property.
      You notice the admin didn’t do a “moratorium” on Verizon, Citi Bank, Chase, the electric or gas company. Only the little guy trying to survive. Just like the lockdowns, the little salon was closed but Walmart was “essential”.
      BTW, where does CDC get the authority to make laws and nullify contracts? I’m askin’ for a friend.

    • furball321 on August 5, 2021 at 6:56 AM

    We’re gonna pay a price. My wife watches MSNBC and PBS 24/7 and insists there is no problem.

    I try to tell her customer servivice, capitalism and free speech are gone.

    She thinks I’m just being fantastic.

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