Aug 30, 2019
My Life: Believe it or Not
I’m still thinking about *The American Factory, a documentary about a Chinese glass manufacturing company (“Fuyao”) that purchases a General Motors plant in Dayton, Ohio and rehires its workers for half the original wages.
In other words, GM paid the workers about $29 per hour, Fuyao pays the workers about $14. Was GM the customer for the glass? I wish we knew who the customers were. And was it millions or thousands of dollars in subsidies that Fuyao received from Ohio to open the plant? I think I know who the winner is in this story.
When a group of Fuyao’s American workers was invited to Fujian Province in China for year-end celebrations, the Fuyao employees put out quite an effort to make the Americans feel welcome. Although, as an outsider looking in, it seemed to be the setting of the Papa Song Cafe scene in Cloud Atlas, where fabricants (a type of clone) service the café’s customers with a continuous smile devoid of a softer awareness of a deeper self; company loyalty is the sole reason for existence.
The company plays a vital role in the lives of the workers, even arranging group weddings for them (to save on expenses). One of the American workers sees the choreographed weddings at the company dinner and is moved and overcome with joy. He thanks the Chinese workers for the experience. His gratitude is sincere and naive (but a sort of naivety that is honorable). The Chinese worker’s response is something like “You’re welcome. We do it for the company.” Papa Song Cafe pops up in my mind again.
In another scene, the Chinese Manager of the glass factory in China explains to the Chinese workers that the Americans are naive and the Chinese have to use their wisdom to guide them through.
In spite of their deteriorating health and economic need, Americans are willing to be the Fool (with a beginner’s mind); this keeps them fresh, willing to fight for their rights as human beings, willing to be a part of the most regenerative, innovative work-force in the world. A work-force that does not fight for its survival can only copy, not co-create. A country without makers is a dead space. Are we ready for an Earth that will enable every single person to be a co-creator? How might that look?
The Chinese may be the Hierophant (the beholder of wisdom and age-old secrets) but without a beginner’s mind (without being the Fool) that will not come to the surface. China’s destiny is certainly to be the Hierophant but will they make it? The people together are the Hierophant. At the moment Chinese people are heavily controlled. Notice in the documentary that one of the Chinese workers says he brings six twinkies to work and eats two at a time as his meal for the day. Eating a twinkie shuts down one’s endocrine system, the pineal gland gets blocked and then the person is more easily controlled by another person who knows how to use the human being like a robot. His choice of food, his willingness to work 28 to 29 days in a month without complaint — are no longer his own choices. Welcome to the world of the fabricant.
The grocery stores in America are stocked with foods that shut down one’s endocrine system: wheat, corn, soy, beans, nightshades, nuts such as peanuts and cashews, dairy from cows with lectin heavy diets. This list is just a partial list of many foods that are harmful to human health but sold as super healthy.
Most people are not even aware that overconsumption of bread is a cause of heart disease in America. We are prevented from being aware.
When Bernie Sander’s says the system is rigged, he’s not kidding. Companies like Nestle and General Mills make trash and they market it with lies. Once the human being’s gut is full of trash, the human being is no longer in control.
My friend, Apollo (an Anthropologist named after NASA’s rocket that landed on the moon), found out that my kundalini was rising. He said to me “it’s the businesses, Shireen. Businesses control our freedom.” From the foods we eat to the jobs we take, to the banks we use, to the energy sources we choose — every contract, every interaction is a reduction of our freedom. If I could show you this in animation form, it would be so alarming that it would feel like science fiction. It remains science fiction because we are unwilling to admit the science. If we were willing to explore the quantum biology of control, how would we then understand Karl Marx and the need for social democracy?
So, tell me. Where is a human being to go? Not only are we in a system of total domination but on top of that the free people, the old crème of society are considering replacing human beings with Artificial Intelligence, drones, clones, robots, a combination of all of the above.
A gentle reminder that the human being evolved over 80 million years. The creativity, ingenuity, fun & resilience that one would enjoy with a human being cannot be compared to anything that has been man-made over even a decade.
This desire for command and control is a world-wide phenomenon — whether you are in Sheikh Hasina’s Bangladesh or Boris Johnson’s United Kingdom — everyone who can and is in a position to do so, wants to steal your electricity, your mind. The American Factory subtly lays out this complex situation for us to act now and save the human being. We need the beginner’s mind and the hierophant. But most importantly, we need them to be healthy and free.
*The American Factory: In post-industrial Ohio, a Chinese billionaire opens a new factory in the husk of an abandoned General Motors plant. Early days of hope and optimism give way to setbacks as high-tech China clashes with working-class America.
Release date: August 21, 2019 (USA)
Directors: Julia Reichert, Steven Bognar
Production companies: Participant Media, Higher Ground Productions
Distributed by: Netflix
Cinematography: Julia Reichert, Steven Bognar, Erick Stoll , Jeff Reichert, Aubrey Keith
Producers: Julia Reichert, Steven Bognar, Jeff Reichert, Julie Parker Benello
