No Escape: Segregation May Be A Good Idea After All,...

Man, I love that photo. Considering I've spent most of my time in Europe around Germany and France - and was married to a French murderess - I guess it was inevitable I'd run into this madness:

In the CAMbrella report we identified that: herbal medicine is used by up to half the people studied; homoeopathy, surprisingly, is used by about 30% of Europeans using CAM; chiropractic and acupuncture by up to 20% of CAM users; and dietary supplements by almost everyone. We have estimated that this service is provided by 328,000 registered CAM providers, comprising of 178,000 non-medical practitioners and 150,000 medical doctors. Acupuncture (96,380) is the most available therapy practised by both, physicians (80,000) and non-medical practitioners (16,380). We also estimated that there are 65 CAM providers for every 100,000 EU citizens. The UK has one of the most organised approaches to registration and regulation for non-medically qualified practitioners who provide most of these clinical interventions. In the rest of the EU, particularly in Germany and France, these treatments are almost always part of medical practice in both the community and in hospitals.

I had no warning, whether from here or there, just the stories we're told and have always been told - about everything - by and about the "good" people. A fun-fact about our wonderful education system:

This was not some alien machete-wielding bloodlust. It was methodical and systematic and conducted with cold efficiency by men who read poetry and listened to string quartets afterwards. 

They turned upside-down the paraphernalia of progress to achieve it. Architects planned the camps – an interesting challenge, presumably, for no one had designed this kind of concentration camp before. Sewage engineers surveyed them, installing drainage ditches in the marshland ' and effluent treatment plants to avoid polluting local rivers. Rail officials timetabled the steady influx of trains to Birkenau, selected by Himmler for its good railway links. 

This was extermination on an industrial scale and it involved huge numbers of people. Neighbours and employers reported Jews to the Gestapo. Bureaucrats processed notices of deportation. Postmen served them. Railway staff marshalled their departure. Others drove the trains and manned the signals. It was all logically and legally planned in an inversion of all the values on which human civilisation had been built,… 

An edifice of lies supported the whole ghastly enterprise. The camps were presented as places of resettlement. Families were told to pack a suitcase and given lists of essential clothing and goods. When they arrived, the suitcases were taken from them, and their careful contents later casually ransacked and sorted to be sold. Some knew then what this meant. "The cherished objects we had brought with us thus far were left behind in the train, and with them, at last, our illusions," wrote one survivor, Elie Wiesel. But others persisted in hope, even as the Nazis persisted in their lies. At the end of the long walk from the railway ramp, the condemned were ushered into a subterranean dressing-room. There were numbered hooks for the clothes. "Remember your number for when you come out," the guards shouted. "Children, fasten your shoes together by the laces so they don't get separated when you come out." They would, of course, be easier to sell if the pairs did not become separated. 

Even inside the killing-room the deceit persisted. There were fake shower heads in the ceiling to maintain the pretence that this was a place of cleansing until the very final minute. Then cyanide pellets were dropped through holes in the roof. Even on Nazi invoices, now in the Auschwitz museum, the mendacity continued: new supplies of Zyklon B were billed as "material for Jewish resettlement".

Delusion all-the-way. But - hey - the guards did yoga, and "you can believe what you want to believe," right? So you're told "Don't see this as a negative. We like to see this as us empowering you to take on new opportunities," but the reality is still always there, staring you in the face:

Over the last decade or so, a growing disconnect has developed between the bizarre and almost cult-like rhetoric and practices that companies use with their staff, and the increasingly grim reality of being an employee in modern day Corporate America. 

For example, anyone stumbling upon the Walmart careers website might be forgiven for thinking that Google had malfunctioned and directed them instead to the Scientologists, whose recruitment site features a collection of testimonials virtually indistinguishable in their tone of robotic devotion. 

Over at "Walmart People," Lois Givens, Personnel Manager at store number 992 assures us: "If you live your whole entire life according to the Walmart culture and three basic beliefs, life becomes a lot easier." Shana Bailey, Director of Store Operations emotes: "To this day, I continue to grow and learn, and the Walmart family is always there for me every step of the way," while Patricia Graham of the Distribution Centers adds: " Walmart is my Life (capitalization her own). When I think about it, it's amazing how many aspects of my life are touched and made better by Walmart." 

For those of us whose lives have yet to be touched by the transformative miracle of the out of town superstore, these testimonials may seem a little excessive. But these are not rogue sycophants in the company ranks. According to Michael Bergdahl, former "Director of People" for Walmart's Headquarters, and now an international speaker and consultant on the company's practices, the creation of "cult-like commitment" and devotion to the so called "Walmart Way" among its employees is the explicit aim of the company's intensive staff training program for new recruits. And lest employees forget what they have learned on the course, loyalty is reinforced daily in stores with the "Walmart cheer," a compulsory devotional chant. 

It's not just Walmart. Corporate songs are common, "reframing" disappointment for those whose lives have taken the road marked "middle manager" rather than the one marked "rockstar." "We built this Starbucks on Heart and Soul," "Blue Box Values Are the Best, I Work For American Express" and perhaps most uplifting, Big Four accountancy firm Ernst and Young's reworking of gospel anthem "Oh Happy Day" which replaced the lyrics: "When Jesus washed my sins away" with the competing message "When Ernst and Young showed me a better way." 

Once they have whipped their staff into a frenzy of corporate sycophancy, employers are increasingly expecting them to turn their whole selves over to the company's message and aims, and are employing a range of sophisticated psychological and practical techniques to achieve this. 

Silicon Valley firms encourage their employees to work ever longer hours by turning offices into playgrounds, complete with slides, graffiti walls and foosball tables. Free dinner and on site dry cleaners, dentists and hairdressers are standard ways of ensuring that staff never leave the building. Facebook made the perfect metaphor for the overworked American employee into a reality with their flagship 'Insanity Wolf' treadmill desk, which allows employees to keep running to a never materialising destination while they continue to work. I met (a rather tired looking) Facebook employee recently who was thrilled to be provided with pizza and "allowed" to work overnight on a company project of his choice at no extra pay. 

The boundaries between self and company are further blurred as employers increasingly encroach onto personal territory in order to keep their staff firmly in the workplace and not outside it. Biotech firm Genetech will organize babysitters for its staff rather than have them take time off to stay at home with a sick child. Consulting firm Deloitte offers backup care for an elderly parent or grandparent. Human Resources philosophers have ditched the mantra "work life balance" for the more sinister (and employer friendly) "work life integration." 

Corporations now aim to identify and satisfy employees' emotional needs as well as their financial ones. Major white collar employers such as UBS, American Express, KPMG and the law firm Goodwin Proctor have instituted "happiness training" for staff, drawing on a combination of psychological research and ancient religious traditions. Other employers sponsor their staff to go on courses such as the hugely popular Landmark Forum series, several full days in a group setting in which bathroom breaks are discouraged and participants are invited to share personally disturbing life events such as relationship problems and family breakdowns with the group and then go through a signature process to "heal" these issues and find lasting peace.

Oh goody! Because, if there's one thing I need, it's some more of those "ancient religious traditions" - and from my boss - to make sense of the modern world. I'm kidding, of course, but not to worry:

I'm getting my fill,…