One of the things I find quite interesting about human life is how our minds are able and willing to hold two absolutely conflicting sets of moral code. Ask most people on the street if they're willing to kill the guy standing next to them and the answer is no, but give them the title of executioner and tell them a judge said he's a criminal. They won't ask questions, it's not their job to ask questions it's their job to do what they're told and they're told to kill.
Give a person a job title and they'll do absolutely anything, they're able to completely separate their business life from their personal life. I've known many who's job it is to give out orders, take them out of the work place and most are decent people, but put them behind a desk with a title and they have nothing against becoming an overwhelming tyrant. They go home and cry freedom, but at work it's do what I say and don't ask questions.
When we look at history's known tyrants, the pharaohs, Roman emperors, the czars and monarchs we see that none of these people had such overwhelming control over their subjects when compared to the modern business. No one had to ask the emperor if they could use the restroom, Egyptian citizens could eat lunch whenever they wanted and the citizens under King George had no trouble sleeping at any time of their choosing unless they were slaves of course. We're living under the most oppressive tyrants history has ever seen.
Those who wield power in the business place don't even know it, but then again neither did King George or Julius Caesar. Most of history's tyrants believed they were doing the right thing, they all believed themselves to be good and honorable, nonetheless tyrannical they were. I don't believe the tyrants want to be tyrants, they simply don't know what they've become. They're so busy analyzing profit margins and just trying to survive they don't have the time to sit down and really think about what's going on here.
To be perfectly clear it's not just those with a title who reign as tyrants, it's not the title, but the definition. We've defined a customer as king over the service agent. The customer is never wrong they say and we all know damn well that's not true. The customers pour in with their impossible demands and if the agent wavers just a bit it's off with his head! You will appease the tyrant, you will kneel before them and kiss their feet or face their wrath.
You think this type of activity doesn't make a few people angry? The service agent, they cannot afford to lose their job, they can't take their anger out on the customer who upset them. They bottle it up, but it's going to come out somewhere make no mistake about that. Maybe they go home and beat their spouse or children. Maybe they grab a gun and shoot up a fan packed theater. Who's fault is this? As a society we tell the customer that they are tyrants and so they become tyrants. As a society we tell the managers and the supervisors that they are tyrants and so they become tyrants. It is this tyranny that fills the bottles full of anger, a game of Russian Roulette it is. That anger will be released, are you going to get caught staring down the barrel of a gun?