I’ve been working in this factory
for nigh on fifteen years
All this time I watched my woman
drowning in a pool of tears

I’ve seen a lot of good folks die
that had a lot of bills to pay
And I’d give the shirt right off my back
if I had the guts to say

Take this job and shove it
I ain’t working here no more

The narrator never does get the nerve to say those iconic words out loud to the evil bosses. He dreams of it day and night. But it remains a silent howl of pain, and a fantasy.

It was for me too.

It’s too late for me to say them now. My wish for you is the youth, resources, and towering moral strength to actually say them out loud.

Some a’you will say something along the lines of: But … but I like my job.

And I would reply: It’s not technically impossible for that to be true.

Statistically speaking, however, you’re lying to me, and yourself, and have been taught, and then taught yourself, how to go along and get along as a happy house negro.

To look down on your brothers and sisters who work in the fields, and factories.

And to look down most of all on those who would rather live the hell out of the way and on the run, under a highway bridge, than to live your life of enslavement.

To damn them as lazy moral defectives, from the comfort of your Master’s warm kitchen, from the lofty heights of your Commander’s horse.

To me, an outlaw is a man that did things his own way, whether you like him or not.
— Johnny Paycheck

Which sounds exactly the same as the sentiments in the lyrics to “My Way” …

But honey, I’m here to testify.

It’s just not, no matter how pretty and tempting it might be to think so.

***

I hope you get out while you still can.

Not just from the hell of your owner’s corporation, but from the country he owns too.

The Delusional Policies Driving America’s Decline

Israel is in Total Disarray

In the 1950s, Paycheck was court-martialed and imprisoned for two years for assaulting a naval officer.

Maybe he smacked The Officer because he was a moral defective. Yes, may be.

I don’t know. I wasn’t there.

I’m old and I’m done with judgments.

At least about that sort of thing.