Survival of the New Fit

So here's a bit of a cynical take on things: Is there a new elite in business that is setting a damaging pace but with a smile.  In the past (and in many cases still today) there has been a ruthless approach to performance in business. 

Quite simply if you can't produce the numbers you are swiftly removed from the organisation.  This use to be a rather cold and ruthless way of doing things without any care or empathy.  Now, however it seems like there is much more care and empathy within businesses but still no tolerance for poor performance.

It seems like it is exactly the same intolerance for non-performance but at least you get a smile.  Krishnamurti once wrote that "it is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society".  It seems like we are becoming very well adjusted to a very sick society.  What I am specifically referring to here is the push to performance and the continual growth of people required to perform at these levels - a new breed of 'fit' individuals that are surviving.  I have spoken to many individuals that testify to burnout and I have also witnessed first-hand the devastating effects of a business society that puts massive pressure on people in order to gain results.  Please don't get me wrong, I do not say that poor performance is acceptable but the pressure on people to perform or be rejected by the system is not healthy.  In fact I don't even want to talk about performance - we are not cars.  Perhaps the term should rather be accomplishment.

It is therefore no longer blatant/cold domination but now a psychological approach where you are culled with emotional rejection and social isolation in order to move a cohesive breed of predatory business people forward.  The pace of capitalism and the electronic herd determines the pace of our development and the shape of comfort and discomfort.  We are indeed very well adjusted and do it with a smile.  You lose control due to the price of living with certain standards set externally but gain control through time spent within the system as a means to learn how to beat it.

Like I said, it is perhaps a cynical view and only highlights the negativity of the situation.  From the last sentence of the previous paragraph I do however believe that there is much to learn within a sick society.  True transformation starts with awareness and if there is anything to be taken away from this post it is to be aware that you are perhaps only surviving in a sick society.  See the sickness and take a decision to start (or continue) the healing in your own life.  The more individuals there are that heal themselves in a sick society, the better the chance of healing the society.

So perhaps we see the result of moderate change instead of true radical change at the moment.  Perhaps this is the 'safe' way of doing it.  Who can be certain?  All I know is that it is my job to challenge the dominant thinking and suggest new ways of looking at our current situation in order to assist in the transformation of society.

BOOM!