There is an interesting mis-perception of what evil looks like that seems to be prevalent in the US these days. Many people assume that when the Devil comes knocking, he’ll have red skin, large horns, smell of sulfur, and talk openly about subjecting you to his evil whims. Perhaps they’d imagine something like this:
If that showed up at your house, you would slam your door, quickly load your largest caliber gun, and get ready to test Beelzebub’s immortality.
In reality, an effective Devil would look something more like this:
Temptation… People aren’t inherently evil, but it is amazing what they will justify if given the right deal. The best devils will even make doing the wrong deed feel morally right.
Unions have perfected the rhetoric of temptation and moral justification. Union managers offer perfect job security, high pay, and eliminate merit from employment decisions. Though most of us would feel dirty taking twice the money for half the work in a consequence-free environment, union managers counter this moral quandary by saying that the company that provided employment and opportunity to the workers was somehow “exploiting” them. Despite a completely free-market environment with legally binding contracts agreed upon by both company and employee, they convince the workers that the company is trying to harm them. All the employee has to do to take the moral high ground and claim his/her justified bounty is just sign up…
The problem with the proverbial Devil’s contract is what he gets in return for all of the gifts. The Devil’s agenda is now your agenda – and you better be ready to toe the line when he calls upon you. Worker’s revolutions ALWAYS exchange the promised bag of gold with that person’s freedom of speech and action. Pick any worker’s revolution, violent or democratically achieved: USSR, China, Nazi Germany, Venezuela, North Korea, Cuba – and study the freedom of press situation in that country. Prisons are full of people whose crime was dissention with party leader.
Though dissention with union bosses isn’t dealt with as violently in the US now as it was 40 years ago, coercion still occurs. If you dare to not show up for your benefactor’s party rally in Boston, for instance, you face a fine:
Imagine if GE told its employees that they had to support a Romney rally, or they would face fines. The screams of immorality and coercion from the Left would be deafening. But that is not the way US corporations operate. They are limited by a legal contract negotiated between free people. Such contracts may not promise any gifts just for being you, but you won’t find the word “soul” anywhere in the document…