"Hey," exclaimed Chris. "What are your getting mad at me for? You're the one who told me to speak my mind. If you don't like what your hear, then don't ask."
Anthony strummed his fingers on his desk a few times. "Touché." He strummed a few more times before continuing. "This is precisely why I need someone like you in my squad. You have a different perspective on things, and you're prepared to stand your ground."
"Besides," continued Chris. "I didn't much care for your 'liberal in name only' comment. I'm a proud liberal. What makes you so sure I'm going to fit in around here? The more you talk, the more I think I have no business here."
"Maybe you don't," conceded Anthony. "Nothing is perfect, maybe the crucible will let me down. There is one thing that is for sure, and that is you can't honestly take your oath and have the core values of the liberal elite. So let's get on to it.
"The oath you will take is your prime responsibility. From it flows all of your other responsibilities. The difference between your oath and all of the other duties assigned to you is that you will be expected to succeed in living up to your oath. For your other duties, all you need to do is give a good faith effort, nothing more.
"But not your oath. Any failure in executing your oath will result in your immediate dismissal from this kingdom. There will be no do-overs, or second chances. You will be gone. Simple as that.
"So what is this oath? As a man of this kingdom, you are commanded to protect and empower the women and children of this kingdom. That is what you will swear an oath to in order to be a member of this kingdom."
Anthony paused to see what reaction he would get from Chris. Chris, for his part, looked a little nonplused. "That's it?" exclaimed Chris. "I don't get it. Why couldn't a liberal take that oath? It even sounds more like what a liberal would say; not a conservative."
"Bless your liberal-tool heart," laughed Anthony. "There is nothing liberal about it. The part about empowerment might sound like what a liberal would say, but only because liberals have no clue what it means.
"Let's begin with the oath in general. There is no corresponding oath for women, so this is clear sexual discrimination. Then there is the protect part. No feminist worthy of calling herself one would claim that men should protect women. As far as they are concerned, women need to be protected from men, not by men. Although who will be doing the 'protecting' is a mystery.
"So what do we mean by protect? Let me put it as bluntly as I can. If your death means that a woman or child will live, then you die. Even the King ranks below all women and children. As a low ranking man of this kingdom, you are the most expendable of anyone.
"This is another thing that liberal elites have a problem with; the idea that some people have more value than others. They like to spout that everyone is equally worth anyone else when it is convenient for them, but they clearly don't practice it. If the principle of 'woman and children first' doesn't sit right with you, then you shouldn't take the oath.
"As for the empower part, like I said, liberals have no clue what this means. They view power like they view money. As if it can be taken from someone they feel has too much, and given to another they feel has too little. This is nonsense. When someone is empowered, they have the power. If they have to go to someone else for protection, then they have no power.
"To understand what I mean, let's look at labor unions. They could be great sources of empowerment for their members. By training them so that they are highly valued and sought after by companies, and by being a focal point for companies to find them, unions would convey to their members what we refer to as the power of the individual. This type of power is the only form of power that can be referred to as empowerment.
"It's to bad that unions not only have no faith in that power, they actively seek to destroy it. The only power union leadership recognizes is the power of the collective, not the power of individual. The power of the collective is used for protection, not empowerment. This is a destructive force that is only effective against an enemy. Any labor strike should be viewed, at best, as a war of attrition. Sometimes strikes, like war, are necessary, but that still doesn't make it empowerment.
"When I first retired from the army I went to work for a manufacturing company whose workers were represented by a labor union. I didn't last long there because I couldn't stomach the environment. When I was in the army I knew some guys who just hated being in the army, and when their enlistment was up, they left. Yet none of those guys I served with could hold a candle to the hatred of some of the union employees I saw had for the company they worked for. Yet they never left!
"What an absolute miserable existence to have to work for a company you despise, and only by working for a union can that be possible. Only a union could convince you that your enemy is the company you work for, and not the competition of the company. Union leadership only believes in the power of the collective, so it is in their interest to convince their members they are powerless without their protection, and that their company only wants to 'exploit' them."
"Hold on a second here," Chris interrupted. "Are you saying that companies don't exploit their workers? That it's all just a figment of their imagination?"
"Not at all. Let me ask you. When you go out shopping, do you seek the least quality product for the highest price, or the best quality product for the lowest price?"
When Anthony saw he wasn't going to get an answer from Chris, he continued. "Of course you look for the best quality product for the lowest price. So if it's OK for you, why not companies? Why can't companies seek to pay their work force as little as possible?"
"You're kidding me, Right!?!" exclaimed Chris. "We're talking about peoples' jobs here. How can you be so heartless!?!"
Anthony kept his cool and said, "So I can take it from your response that you always buy the higher priced product, because that is someone's job also. If you don't buy it, someone is going to be losing their job there too. Do you actually believe that companies can keep their employees when no one is buying their products?"
Anthony waited a bit for Chris to think, then continued. "Unions instill in their workers that when a company does the same thing you do every day, then some great evil has occurred. They do this because it serves the interest of their so-called leadership. There is absolutely no way any liberal elite or union boss is ever going to tell the truth, and that is that the only guaranteed effective means of protecting workers is through marketable job skills, and a strong economy. This empowers the workers, which in turn weakens the union's power of the collective. Because of this, empowering their members is just not an option.
"Look, I could go on all day long about the great damage unions inflict on their members, but that will have to be left for another day. Right now we are discussing empowerment, and how it applies to your oath. With what we have discussed so far, what would you say is your role in empowering the women and children of this kingdom?"
Source: reddit.com/r/eroticliterature/comments/2rwbib/next_generation_christian_kingdom_ch05_to_protect