The Fourth Shift

One way to justify the exploitation of others is to blame nature. We are all familiar with the "law of the jungle". In the jungle, we believe, life is a harsh struggle for survival where the strongest individuals win. We are particularly fond of referring to pack animals like wolves and chimpanzees, noting that they actually bully one another to the benefit of the group and seeing this as proof that it is natural to favor the group at the expense of certain individuals.  Am I really claiming we humans still follow the cruel order of wild animals? No, not at all. It is far more complicated than that.  The truth is, we use nature to prove that our society is not based on exploitation even though it is, a conclusion we reach through a kind of circular reasoning: ​​1. We see the fact that animals eat one another and maintain hierarchies as evidence that exploiting the powerless is a behavior we inherited from them. ​2. We then see the fact that animals eat one another and maintai...

The most devastating manifestation of the destructive norm that unconsciously governs our thoughts is the logic of human sacrifice .  Our fascination with human sacrifice is most evident in religion and fiction. We readily accept that Jesus suffered and died for our sins. ​We enjoy movies that end with the hero completing the mission at the cost of their own life. Even more, we are drawn to stories about real-life heroes who sacrificed their lives to save others.​ ​ ​​Most real-life victims of sacrifice, however, never gave their consent, receive no credit, and remain invisible. Those in power are aware of them and decide the benefits are worth their suffering. Within economics, concepts like NAIRU, "Pareto optimality", and "Military Keynesianism" calculate such sacrifices as a necessity and our leaders follow them. Yet, hardly anyone admits that these sacrifices are made consciously—which, due to the unconcious destructive norm, might even be true.  Such examples o...

Let's start with a personal question: Are you a constructive person? Are you one of us who really try to think and act constructively? Do you, at the very least, believe in fundamental human rights and the inherent worth of all people? ​If so, you are not alone. Constructive thinking is a big topic these days. Every self-help expert stresses the necessity of a constructive mindset. In fact, not only the coaches and therapists but almost everyone seems to agree that being constructive is the way to go—except for a few outcasts who, embracing a negative identity, take pride in destructive behavior, such as gang criminality, mass shootings, child abuse, or thrill killings. But despite humanity's constructive outlook, the world is full of destructiveness. We destroy the climate, fight wars, allow people in the third world to live in deplorable conditions, trigger pandemics, and bully each other in our workplaces. Studies show that people are feeling worse than ever. How can this be...

There was nothing particularly strange about the event I later came to see as my first God-experience. I was a dreamy and imaginative child. The highlight of my week was the Saturday visit to the library. Mom and I would stay for hours and finish by wheeling home a stroller filled with books. I loved stories so much that I immediately decided to become a writer when I grew up make up my own. Besides I was bullied and needed an escape.  I was three years old, sitting on the toilet. I had just had a fight with my mom and lost. I was trying to imagine how I had carried myself during the battle when suddenly it hit me that I didn’t look the way I thought. In my mind, I had seen something beautiful and graceful—a noble heroine forced into surrender by a dim-witted superior power. Now I realized that not only mom, but everyone except me, saw something else. And what was worse: they were right and I was wrong. In my head, I was quite tall and thin with hair reaching all the way down my ba...

Attempting to be believed in my claim that the unwanted attention couldn't possibly be coming from so-called gay people, I also told my neighbors about the explicit couples outside my window. Perhaps that was why the gaslighting began? What happened next was that the special treatment resumed. This time, the intention seemed to be to convince me that the villagers' behavior had never been caused by any rumors. Again, as soon as people caught sight of me, they would look flirtatiously, sway their hips, or fix their hair. Gradually, however, new behaviors were introduced while the flirtatious ones were phased out. Some weeks, every single person would cough as soon as they saw me. Other weeks, everyone I met on the street said the same thing. Still other weeks, they would touch their hair or stare intently. This went on for twelve years. During the first few years, I was too ill to go anywhere. When I eventually became well enough to travel to nearby towns for shopping or hospita...

The antics started after my mother and I moved to a house in the country. Suddenly, the local women and girls would sway their hips, flutter their eyelashes, and fix their hair the moment they saw me. This went on for a whole summer. I suspected that a rumor had started circulating, and I had a theory as to why. In the circle I came from, we believed that everyone is basically a bit gay and that we should stop putting people into boxes and begin treating everyone the same. We wanted a world where people could just be themselves. But since we were intellectual and left-wing, our views weren't exactly common knowledge and could easily be misunderstood. I supposed the villagers had heard something about this, but not understanding the idea behind it, had ended up doing the exact opposite of what was intended. That is, they put me in a box and gave me special treatment. Because they didn't see themselves as part of that same box, they never tried to actually connect with me. As a r...