Tampering

The Americans have this saying, “If it ain’t broken, don’t fix it.” Spell checker, I don’t care if you don’t like ‘ain’t’, ‘cause that’s just how we talk, so get over it!

I’m sure every nation under heaven has a saying that means the same as this one. If something is working as it was intended to, just leave it alone, and let it do its work.

Although gradual, incremental change is good, in fact, is the way of nature itself, the hallmark of the current age is to tinker with something until it finally falls apart.

Modernism, in my mind, is the idea that we think of the world in the Greek manner, examining things scientifically, brushing aside unnecessary accretions, to find the best.

Post-modernism, what we have today, is the idea that we think ourselves so far superior to all that came before, that we can rule, disorder, vivisect and undo, to find our pleasure.

The company I work for was humming along just fine. It was small but we didn’t need much, because our product was unique, had no competitors, sold itself on its merits. Our customer service was entirely personalized and also drew additional business, just from our attitude of “do as you would be done by.” We did business on a handshake. The natural growth of the company was well underway, without losing any essential characteristics, but then, the owner, who had not had a university education and was feeling “out of league” with other “world class” companies, went to Harvard Business School. When he returned, he was a changed man.

All at once, everything was thrown into a frenzy of irresponsible tampering and tinkering. Actually those two words are really inadequate to describe what happened. The first step was bringing in outsiders well-versed in the new managerial mysticism and armed with a new selection of games for us to play. Magic words were thrown around, ISO certified, lean manufacturing, Five S, kaizen and poka-yoke.

Lots of big posters were hurriedly designed, printed and plastered all over the walls. We were forced through a sieve of mental manipulation that made some of us think of the brainwashing techniques used by the enemy in the cold war.
A template was forced on us that didn’t fit. In the end, it ruined the company which, even without the current economic conditions, is now a vague shadow of what it was, depleted completely of the good will and enthusiasm that it once had.

Why are we even still around?
Because the owner, unrepentant but quietly burying the history of the past five years, fired all of the managers that he hired to tamper, just as the economic collapse started. We have about a third of the people we had before and our output is a fifth. How do I know? Because I used to be the General Manager and I’ve kept all my weekly production records. Used to be? Yes, because I was morally incapable of joining in the fun of managerial devolution, I was demoted overnight to the status of an entry level worker, and allowed to do menial clerical tasks. I got over it, but not without a struggle. I still work there because the owner has some traditional notions in him that he couldn’t kick, even with all his “education” — the feudal lord’s responsibility to his faithful serf.

“If it ain’t broken, don’t fix it.”

After having that very personal experience of the effects of the spirit of tampering, actually during that experience, my eyes were opened to what was happening around me in the world at large.

Being a historian by nature and education, I am surprised I didn’t notice this from my studies. History has a way of being written by the victors, who never tell you about the devious means they used to achieve their ends. When you actually live history and look at it with open eyes, you see something that you rarely find in history books.

We are, the human race is, a species that is currently under vicious and pre-meditated attack by spirits who want to take us apart piece by piece and reassemble us to serve their ends, not what we were created and designed for. Sound familiar? Well, yes. That’s because it is the same old war we’ve known about since we were placed at enmity with the serpent. It’s not just a myth, you know. It’s for real.

From scientists taking apart and reassembling DNA to engineer what is not in nature, to sociologists taking apart and reassembling society to engineer what is not human, to economists taking apart and reassembling markets to engineer what is not just, to religionists taking apart and reassembling the Bible to engineer what is not holy, the pattern is all around us. It needs no brains at all to see it, and it’s not a conspiracy theory. Perhaps it’s so pervasive that we tend to accept it as normal, as an abused spouse accepts a bad marriage as normal.

Is engineering just another name for tampering? Well, yes and no. Everything in creation can be used as it was intended, or abused, including engineering, which is part of the Greek mind, of modernism. What has happened is that it is often hijacked by the spirit of tampering, of post-modernism, of devolution. It’s just a word. Abuse of engineering is also an abuse of the name.

When and where has the spirit of tampering affected you lately? In a vital or a peripheral area? Or, are you one of those who is doing it, or contributing to it? Sometimes we’re forced to, because our livelihood depends on it. In fact, that is possibly true of most of us.

Where we can make a difference is to stand our ground on what really matters.

If you are a Christian, believe your Bible as it is, be the Church wherever you are, don’t let religious professionals tamper with your life, don't let economic gurus dicker with your values, don’t let social engineers tinker with what you know is right. In your social and employment network, stand for what is right, new or old, again, keeping your eyes on Jesus, doing what He does, saying what He says, thinking what He thinks.

Have you noticed that when you do this, you’re actually more in the driver’s seat of your own life than when you follow the cosmic managers with their tinkering schemes?

That’s because what the Bible says is true, and you can depend on it.

When Christ freed us, He meant us to remain free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery.
Galatians 5:1 Jerusalem Bible

τη ελευθερια ουν η χριστος ημας ηλευθερωσεν, στηκετε και μη παλιν ζυγω δουλειας ενεχεσθε