I suspect that most of you filled in the blank with the word 'right'. That idea was drilled into our heads since we were kids. However, if you are a long time follower of my blog, I suspect that you are already questioning the words and looking for the catch. If so, good for you! Today I'm questioning the word 'customer' and that neither the customer or the business is right.
First step, lets be clear what a 'customer' is. The modern definition is what we mostly think a customer to be.
a person or organization that buys goods or services from a store or business. - dictionary.com
However, when I break out my 1958 Oxford Unabridged Dictionary, I find a very different definition.
1. A customary tenant. 2. One who collect customs; a custom-house officer. 3. One who customarily purchases anywhere; a buyer, purchaser (the chief current sense) 4. A person with whom one has dealings; a prostitute. 5. A person to have to do with; chap, fellow
The definition of that word has changed a LOT in 60 years, but the third definition seems to fit the best, though some could argue that the forth definition is more accurate. For a business, their primary objective is to find and hold onto customers. The business is absolutely dependent on customers and because of that, they will do almost anything to find and retain those customers. Marketing campaigns, psychological strategies, sexual bait and other protocols are used to draw the customer in. Their objective; create a dependency or even an addiction to enslave that individual and ensure he or she continues to be a customer for a life time.
We really need to be honest with ourselves. The modern customer is completely dependent upon the corporation for all of his / her needs, plus for all their wants and addictions. Since when does the individual know what they want? Often times the market tells them what they want. They don't even know what they need! The customer is a slave and the vast majority of them have no clue. The customer is not right and most of them are completely blind to their slavery. The business is not right either in that they too are slaves, completely dependent upon the consumer.
The moral and ethical dilemma here is when we recognize the violence associated with running a business in order to build dependency in other people. Are we so disconnected from our fellow brothers and sisters that we are willing to do this to them? Should we instead by focusing on strategies and protocols to ensure we all are free and independent?
Granted that this protocol is not conducive to business and perhaps it is an idea ready for a paradigm shift which would make it obsolete. When we recognize the violence associated with building customer dependencies, we have a duty to act upon it immediately. The challenge is that nearly everyone has no clue how to meet their own needs so that they are not dependent upon the jobs or products produced in a consumer based society. Their addictions and dependencies on jobs, cash and consumer products have a death grip on our hearts and minds that needs to be broken.
This process will take time and for many they are well on their way to removing those dependencies and finding balance, health and peace within their lives. It does require individual health in order to deal with the violence, addictions and slavery that has infiltrated our lives. If we can 'see' the violence within the business / customer relationship, then it will help bring awareness to just how invasive the corporate agenda has become in our lives.
There are people out there who dedicate their lives to finding ways to hook in people and make them addicted to their products and services. They don't care about people. They only care about profits, money, power and control. But make no mistake, their influence runs deep and it will take considerable effort to break their grip on our minds and hearts. They got you thinking you are free and the one in control. They got you thinking that you are always right, when in fact they run your life.
Time to UNGRIP and take that control back from those who wield it with violence and contempt. How? That is your choice. My wife and I have walked a path to do exactly that. Leading by example. How we did that is found within the posts of my blog. Recorded for as long as this blockchain exists!
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