Forum Post: mario savio
Posted 12 years ago on July 7, 2012, 7:35 a.m. EST by flip
(7101)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
“There's a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious—makes you so sick at heart—that you can't take part. You can't even passively take part. And you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you've got to make it stop. And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it that unless you're free, the machine will be prevented from working at all.” ― Mario Savio
I love that quote. I'm in.
Mario Savio ... in his own words :
veritas vos liberabit ...
"...I ask you to consider—if this is a firm, and if the Board of Regents are the Board of Directors, and if President Kerr in fact is the manager, then I tell you something—the faculty are a bunch of employees and we're the raw material! But we're a bunch of raw materials that don't mean to be - have any process upon us. Don't mean to be made into any product! Don't mean - Don't mean to end up being bought by some clients of the University, be they the government, be they industry, be they organized labor, be they anyone! We're human beings!...There's a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious—makes you so sick at heart—that you can't take part. You can't even passively take part. And you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you've got to make it stop. And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you're free, the machine will be prevented from working at all." Sproul Hall Steps, December 2, 1964.
He's clearly talking about organizational processes that treat people like commodities (raw materials) rather than human beings.
The machine reference is aimed at any such organizational process - removal of this ethical, and I would daresay obvious, requirement for human fulfillment from the initial design of a system is practically doomed to a mechanical, unemotional state, i.e., profits before people.
How any humans could design a process which does not place the highest priority toward human fulfillment in the first place......is a complete fucking mystery to me.
thanks
de nada
OWS is making a difference in the workplace according to a NY Times article this morning as workers begin to stand up for their rights to things like a non-working lunch and over-do vacation time. A few corporations are also looking to tap into that feeling (wherever there's a chance for a profit, lol !)
"Experts say some companies are tapping the spirit of Occupy Wall Street in ads. In a TV spot for Las Vegas, above, a woman loudly announces that she is going on vacation."
Here's the article: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/08/business/media/ads-for-mcdonalds-and-las-vegas-aimed-at-harried-workers.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper
The greedy will try to use anything - ANYTHING - to get your last dollar.
OWS is making a difference - that is why it is under attack.
It is also why you will see others try to cash in any way they can on the ideals being fought for.
Greed will try to feed off of anything and everything.
If workers can eat their lunch in peace and take their vacation time, I'm for it. Enough is enough with exploitation in the workplace.
Yes - both good points. Remember I used to work in a machine shop 12 to 16 hours a day with 2 10 minute coffee breaks and a 20 minute lunch and more often then not I used vacation time for sick leave when allowed ( not often allowed in the machine shop ) and when I used the vacation time for actual vacation it was to bum around town as I did not have money to go somewhere as the income was already dedicated to paying bills/daily living expenses.
But these commercials that are popping up are by the greedy - still angling for our last buck.
thanks
Interesting quote.
The millions of tiny gears who make up that economic machine and are being deprived of oil (money), are seizing up on it's shafts, slowing down the whole machine, while the few large gears are bathed in an excess of oil.
You would think that the tiny as well as the large gears would both make sure all received adequate oil so that the whole machine ran more efficiently with as little friction as possible. The faster the machine runs, the more oil (money) it can pump for all to benefit from.
I like your follow-up comment as it is a good analogy to an engine/system that is gonna overheat and seize.
All of us ex machinists can understand it. I wonder if the non mechanically inclined can?
We also understand that a machine can't be repaired by throwing a wrench in it as Savio proposes, although I understand his frustration completely.
Apparently someone - who did not leave an explanatory comment - does not like your analysis - or my liking of your analysis.
[-] 0 points by jrhirsch
[-] 0 points by DKAtoday
By somebody who is not mechanically inclined. They use emotion as a tool instead of reason.
No I think by someone who does not care for good common sense and a clear and simple look at reality.
Yeah he is a bit more fanciful/unreal in his proposal to stop the machine - but then it is an idea not a practical solution.
See - that - I think is a major problem/issue with many when it comes to things that are non mechanical - they treat them like they have to be complex/involved/deep when it does not.
Keep a process as clean and simple as possible if you want it to run well and be easy to maintain.
Pop the grand illusion of needed complexity - it is a scam/lie.
A good example of an improper short term mechanical solution would be a Government stimulus check that takes from the middle class and poor and give back even less to the middle class and poor. It doesn't put oil where it's needed.
The money should be taken from the rich's excessive reserves, and directed to the poors complete lack of reserves. It's so obvious what should be done.
The tiny gears that pump the oil don't receive enough to even lubricate their own bearings. What an idiotic way to run a machine.
Yep lets take away more lubrication from the overheating parts of the machinery/system.
No understanding of mechanics - real - or social.
Hmmm unless of course you want the machine/system to fail faster.
Like some of the people say here, those tiny gears are easily replaceable. Just install a new unskilled gear.
What we need to do is make the price of replacing those tiny gears higher. Then they will have to adequately oil them. That is the purpose of a strike for minimum wage workers. As long as low wage workers accept those wages, their cooperation with injustice perpetuates it.
That's also the reason why our borders will never be closed. It forces down lower wage labor costs. Even after 911, illegal immigration continued to increase.
Keep cutting the lube and there will be a massive failure.
Then it won't be replacing some burnt out fuses or replacing some minor gears and bearings.
We all need to support a living wage for every entry level job. That provides for a strong/healthy base to build upon.
We need to get back to the basic mechanics/realities of a healthy and thriving society.
Hear hear!
This is what I wish everyone would share on social media - in their own words - in open letters to government that are copied out for the people of the USA and world to read and consider.
Then considering where we are at - to start-up campaigns just like the one to end corpoRAT personhood - Move To Amend - the state by state campaign that is going on right now.
We need to act as a people - united - as it does not matter what system of government we have - If the People do not fully participate.
I suppose more healthcare is more healthcare
unless it isn't
why wait until 2014
Gives them more time to fuck around - before they institute what will not be a very good program - gives them a breather.
i don't think mario was speaking about the economic machine but what you say is true. you sound like keynes - the question is then if the machine gets the oil (money) and starts working faster do we then run out of oil (oil) sooner?
Not if we switch off of fossil fuel as our base method of operation.
That needs to be done anyway - does not matter what the world has left un-tapped.
Fossil fuel - pollution tech is killing us.
the switch off of fossil fuel will take huge amounts of energy and resources - check out the amount of silver needed for solar or steel for wind - we are in trouble on many fronts and it is way past time to get started in a big way . china has a plan - do we?
Plan? Apparently - NOT. Haphazard development and implementation is what it looks to be at this point in time - here in the US of A anyhow..
Wind and solar are a step in the right direction - but there is so much more then that available.
lots more available - conservation would be the best start - finally bill clinton had a good idea! all the alternatives need resources and energy to get up to speed and we re running out. faster than anyone thinks. we have a free market plan - william grieder's description is a good one - a huge machine that throws off great wealth and at the same time destroys much in it's path and there is nobody at the wheel!
Well yeah - kinda.
A huge machine - controlled by the insane greedy - hoovering up all of the money and resources - destroying everything/everyone in it's path.
Palm Springs WindMills
If a machine runs faster, you would expect it to consume resources faster. The great danger is that the current worldwide battle for that wealth may end our survival before the lack of supply does.
not surethat is correct but it is a bad system whichever comes first