Overview
The epigrammatic poem that follows, speaks to instances where the often respected character trait of personal bravery, historically brought to bear to redress injustice, can be quelled by the economic influence wielded by a corrupt few. This can foster the development of a subculture within an enterprise that operates in a manner wholly inconsistent with the vision of its founders. Condoned or undetected, if unmitigated, it procreates like a cancer into the very psyche of an organization, and potentially throughout the industries it operates in – risking the forbearance of rational, independent thinking that would in turn impede creativity and noteworthy achievement, ergo the bane of self-actualization for many.
This is somewhat consistent with the circumstances and dogma suffused in Ayn Rand’s epic novel, Atlas Shrugged – where a diabolical plan is foisted upon a populace to remove the greatest minds from the country. But there is one salient difference – to wit – in Atlas Shrugged, the world’s great thinkers consciously withdrew from society in the form of a strike (at first surreptitiously, and eventually with a brazen declaration) because its leadership undermined a once vibrant economy with rampant collectivism – punishing the productive and efficient, and concurrently rewarding the slothful and wasteful. By comparison, this poem recounts a situation where an industry savant and architect of prodigious achievement is punished for his accomplishments by a surreptitious plan meant for the self-aggrandizement of a small, somewhat aristocratic group. Although individualistically employed, its effect spreads quickly and establishes an inherent rewards system where equivocation prevails at the expense of human progress and legitimate achievement. In short, leadership that is ignorant of the human need for self-actualization, or threatened by creative thinking can be parasitic to very the tours de force of mankind.
Cognizing this disturbing trend, the poem implores embracing valor to avenge instances of injustice, support personal achievement, and resist succumbing to countermand by economic ascendancy via implied or express hectoring. To quote Teddy Roosevelt: “Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much, nor suffer much, because they live in the great twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat”. This is the infectious esprit de corps the author most wants to engender.
The Countermand of Valor
by Spencer C. Young
Why cast invectives o’er horizons to sea 1
Whilst Polymath Aegis lures patrons, thee? 2
Entrée vengeance, avarice to Dyad most trepid o’er shadows 3
Elixirs to the genesis of Machiavellian gallows 4
Spelunkers’ plans transcend darkness to bliss 5
Casting leeward sojourns toward deeper abyss 6
Pontificating artifice cloaked as vaunt merit 7
Obfuscate plagiary, in barrister Sanskrit 8
Despots’ de nouveau notorious vice 9
Propagate – now profligate the bastions entice 10
Ne’er a conscience revet Draco waves 11
Turn patrician forefathers’ incessantly, graves 12
1. The protagonist is vexed by the confluence of fabricated attacks on his professional competence and integrity
2. This is an especially perplexing response to the protagonist’s creation and establishment of a trademarked brand of product that connotes erudition by those who buy it, and celebrates the creativity embodied in this high quality product (called “EC®”), enabling it to become the most successful proprietary brand of its kind, and a magnet for new clients, thereby creating tremendous incremental wealth for the Firm
3. The debilitating forces of revenge, greed and job insecurity created by the long shadows of the protagonist’s successes are later elucidated as the motivations of two primary perpetrators
4. The collaboration of the perpetrators, one driven by revenge, the other by insecurity, and both by greed, gestated a malicious initiative intended to hang the protagonist in the public square of the industry.
5. The sinister perpetrators clandestinely devised their lowly plans (metaphorically akin to terrorists plotting an invidious attack, and having to move about an extensive network of caves to prevent detection), and then ingratiate themselves with like-minded ingrates for their ability to carry out their fallacious conspiracy with apparent aplomb.
6. The fabricated reasons to originally impugn the protagonist are then trumped by the perpetrators’ carefully administered plan of incessant character defamation in order to preserve the portentous value of the EC® brand and related franchise, and in turn, their own wealth.
7. One of the perpetrators contemptuously takes credit for the creation of the EC® brand, as well as other accomplishments of the protagonist, while feigning no involvement in the insolent actions taken against the protagonist.
8. The misinformation is then amplified in legalese, which is metaphorically described as being scripted in an ancient language to further obfuscate the truth about the true progenitor of the EC® brand, and the intentions of the perpetrators in their procacious intellectual theft and breach of good faith
9. Newly ensconced in a position of power (one new and the other newly regained), the perpetrators collectively abused the authorities thus vested
10. Emboldened by their success, others have been encouraged to support the canard with promises of advancement and pecuniary benefits, in exchange for their cooperation (and veiled threats of a similar fate, if they do not).
11. Although aghast at the protagonists’ sudden demise and ensuing treatment, fear of a similar reprisal mutes those who would otherwise speak out -- a form of employee blackmail that countermands the valor of those in the Firm and perhaps its industries, generally, as information travels quickly when a new management practice proves effective, despite the fact that the foundation of its application may be morally reprehensible.
12. The founding fathers of the perpetrators’ Firm long espoused conducting “first class business in a first class way”. While difficult to discern how prevalent these corrupt practices of workplace mobbing are, the actions taken in this instance alone are enough to have them “turning in their graves”.
