Destitution

The broad base definition for it is lacking something needed or desirable. A close second is lacking possessions and resources; especially extreme poverty. It’s a Middle English word distilled from the Latin destitutus meaning abandon, deprive from. In English, its origins in written text dates back to the 14th century. But whether we use beggarded, broke, poor, down-and-out, famished, hard up, impecunious, impoverished, indigent, necessitous, needful, pauperized, penniless or threadbare we are all familiar with the condition that distills ‘lost opportunity’.   Ours is a nation that prides itself on decrying that it is the land of opportunity, but in earnest I wonder if that is any longer the fact and not projected wishful thinking. 

When I was young, finding a job was contingent on experience. And without a job how were you supposed to get experience? None of my elders could ever solve that Gordian knot; (a reference to the Oracles of antiquity saying the man who could solve the Gordian knot shall be king, whereby Alexander the Great was renowned to have puzzled out the solution thereby securing his conquest.) 

Later in life it was about education, did you have a degree? If you didn’t have money, how were you to obtain access to and pay for, the institutions that would grant a degree? Today, after accumulating plenty of diverse experience as well as several degrees, it has becomes a case of specific certifications. How do you get certified but through a gauntlet of offices authorized to issue such credentials? This, is far more insidious than any University degree, since it makes credential an opaque process. The board is not subject to oversight by an elected body. A board of officials is comprised by appointment. Now it’s no surprise that a certification board is appointed as a political favor, so then, as such is not subject to legitimate review; in short, it only reports to the favor grantor.

The system is reminiscent of the medieval guild system that established, by charters, or letters patent as well as other similar authority of a city or by the ruler, who normally held a monopoly on trade in its craft within the city in which it operated: handicraft workers were forbidden by law to run any business if they were not members of a guild, and only masters were allowed to be members of a guild. (Much like Psychologist and Physicians are today) Before these privileges were legislated, these groups of handicraft workers were simply called 'handicraft associations'.

Of course the current rational today for having a license or certification is promulgated on an assurance to protect the public; granted there were years in the past where charlatan’s sold ‘snake oil’ for all that ills a person. So the necessity to qualify a trade was evident within a host of products consumed by the public who could be taken advantage of. I’ll skirt by all premise without resorting to pointing out the alarming malpractice suits that hit the books annually. Those who continue to victimize the public yet ARE holders of the prized licenses and certifications stating they are credible practitioners in their field, so requiring certification doesn’t really prevent abuse. 

I sense the current necessity for certification is a mere reemergence of an overarching desire to control competition. By containing the number of people performing any tasks, you can command a greater price for the service. The simple law of supply and demand holds true.

 Remaining a hindrance to any who refuses to follow a well trod and dictated path that excludes any who do not conform to the rules laid down by the current usurping authority. And with that in place, we are all destitute of innovation.