There once was a great arborist who inherited a lush forest. Determined to improve his standing in the world, he founded a lumber company upon it. Replanting strategies were meticulously devised, high-end equipment was bought from the most reliable makers, and lumberman were won into the operation through down-to-earth personal interactions.
Laborers were beneath him; a victory for them was a victory for him.
Morale was high. Productivity prospered. Felled trees spawned the homes of the growing worker base. Families were formed from the fuel of high wages and active social lives.
, there was a longing for “more”...
Time passed; Technology progressed; Sociality regressed. Worker wages declined as management rewarded themselves for increasing “efficiency”. Domestic construction dwindled as corporate-mindedness inflated. Stagnated employee housing became holding cells owned by the privileged few, while family units fractured under financial weight as they passively tolerated each new norm...
But, the great arborist had secured enough fortune to retire and live out the rest of his life in luxury. Bewildered by social change and fatigued by advancing age, he handed over the company to his son; twas a worldwide tradition, after all.
The younger man saw things differently. His childhood of frequent leisure and rewards had saved him from the turmoil that his ancestors were forced to endure. So, sweeping changes were made to quickly bolster the lifestyle that his father had let him have since birth. The company equipment was liquidated, saplings eschewed, and lumber prices were markedly raised. Finally, after much consideration... employee wages were eliminated entirely!
The work crews were mortified. They hadn’t been fired, but their dignity had been taken away! Initially enraged, they tried to confront the new owner, but he hid himself away and sent them letters stating that their “individual sacrifices benefit everyone as a whole” and their “hard work is the greatest reward in life”. Words that resonated with sound of mind. Regardless, the placations of modern technology, lack of comparable alternatives, and remnants of “the good years” subdued the workforce into three factions:
faction consisted mostly of older workers. Well-established, most had saved up enough to sit back and reflect on the world as they knew it. Their wealth-fueled idealism and reclusiveness alienated them from the poor outside youths. So, they generally stayed home and whatever work they did was “a hobby”.
was populated with quixotic “die hard” workers who brought their own equipment and acted as if they were still being paid. Some lived in first faction households. Others roomed in makeshift places, lived with friends, or slept on the premises (to the owner’s benefit). They lacked time for self-awareness, self-care, or others.
Lastly, the and largest was made up of children who were drawn in by lore, gaslight, a desire for purpose, and a lack of understanding about how things had previously been arranged. They lived off of double hand-me-downs, assuming they made it that far. Their closest friend, the smartphone, granted them impulsive clairvoyance with freedom from the inconveniences of lived experience and long-term planning. The rest of their social circle comprised of everyone and no one, for better or for worse.
To work they went. Second faction workers aggressively ran through the largest trees with a symphony of haggard chainsaws. Surely, the biggest haul would lead them to everlasting greatness in an ephemeral world! Meanwhile, as the sawdust flew, third faction kids fumbled for fallen branches and haphazardly twisted small shoots out of the ground to the disgust of their muttering elders. Why couldn’t they just cut down a big tree like the first faction used to do in the glory days?!
Soon enough... after one last hesitantly crackling thud... the collective horde found themselves in a world of nothing but sky and mutilated earth. With the forest harvested down to stumps and small growths, what else could they do besides quibble over scraps?
The owner wasn’t about to let this crisis get out of hand! Using his gilded leadership skills, he doused their petty scuffling with the most diplomatic offer that he could think of: a 3% discount on their next purchase of promotional merchandise
Most “politely” declined; others volunteered others to buy. But not long after, nary quelled, the bodies and minds of the still frustrated youths returned to wrestling over twigs for unseen glory, as the victorious son-of-a-great-one left to adjust the temperature of his private spa: a steaming monument to the memory of a lush forest and the stump grounds that it had become.
The old timers holding out at home, on the other hand, had time enough to furnish tree seeds into their own lawns abundantly. Perhaps they, at least, would be allowed to flourish.
