Certainly one of the niftiest inventions of man is
the concept and actuality of doing
or being “by proxy.” Especially this is true in matters that have unpleasant
aspects. An enumeration of examples
include the slaughtering and butchering of animals; the casualties and cruel
necessities of military action; the maintenance of an uninterrupted flow of sewage;
dirty deals made in politics and business with benefits flowing to constituents
and customers; laying off or firing of workers; embalmers at their somber trade;
the harvest of crops by migrant labor; drug lords who remain insulated while having
underlings do the dirty work; a whole array of dangerous, low esteem, and shunned
chores of all kinds. All these tasks can
be accomplished not by physically performing them personally, but by proxy. As perhaps an unfair example, I imagine a Victorian
scene at the occasion of an aristocratic tea replete with immaculate silver service
and daintily lifted tea cups. While the
attendees preen themselves in respectability and make much display of accomplished
manners signifying unassailable superiority, the toiling masses in the grime of poverty
and unrelieved bondage labor in anonymity to make the occasion possible. The undergirding work was done by proxy and the beneficiaries
are remotely and safely detached from the realities of production. The “by proxy” device functions to insulate
us from many painful undergirding’s of the “good life.” It is worth contemplating what changes there
would be in society and in history itself if the masked enabler “by proxy” did not
exist. The essential service it provides
is the sustenance of unsurpassed respectability and nonchalance even as rude
realities are carefully concealed.
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