I ain’t gonna work on Maggie’s Farm no more
Throughout my life, I’ve been the poster child for the system. I grew up in a middle-class home in the Midwest, where I benefitted from a solid education and went to a land-grant university. I have an amazing wife with a great house on a cozy cut-de-sac, where we raised three incredible children. I started my own business and ran it successfully for 20 years before selling it, and then have been part of three other business sales, including one involving private equity. I’ve done well for myself financially, and have all the privileges you would expect given my life. Looking at me, the system works like a charm.
But over the past decade my eyes have been opened. I’ve seen the injustice, the divisions, the cruelty, the disparities, the inequities, the false promises, the bullshit, all in a way I had never really seen before. Dare I say, I woke up? The truth about our system was plain for so many before I realized what was real. When I benefitted from the system (the bio above is missing the part where I’m a straight, white, tall man), they most certainly did not. So I am way (way) late to the party. But the path forward is clear – I ain’t gonna work on Maggie’s Farm no more.
I wasn’t a huge fan of Bob Dylan until I saw this year’s blockbuster, A Complete Unknown. I knew his music was legendary of course, but I guess I didn’t realize what a rebel he was. At the end of the movie (without giving away anything – if you haven’t seen it, see it!), he plays the song “Maggie’s Farm” as sort of a middle-finger to the establishment. There are a lot of interpretations of the meaning behind the song. And Dylan himself has been overly coy about the true meaning. (It’s important to note that the song is identified as an appropriation of a popular folk song “Penny’s Farm.”) Most believe it is, at the least, a song of rebellion against the traditional folk music scene. But as with any good art, the meaning is in the eye of the beholder. And the meaning I see in the song speaks to my awakening. For example, take verse two:
No, I ain't gonna work for Maggie's brother no more
Well, he hands you a nickel, he hands you a dime
He asks you with a grin if you're havin' a good time
Then he fines you every time you slam the door
I ain't gonna work for Maggie's brother no more
This seems to be a shot at the music industry for Dylan, particularly in the way artists used to be paid for albums with advances that often kept them continually in debt to record labels. For me, this verse speaks to the corporate world overall. I’ve been a part of that world for more than thirty years. I’ve had great success in that world, rising to the position of CEO in a $30 million company. I’ve worked with organizations with billions in annual revenue. Working 60-hour weeks, travelling four and five times a month. The whole rat race – I’ve run it. But I’ve come to see the darker truth of the corporate world, and more to the point, how the capitalist system supporting our corporate world works so well for so few, leaving millions behind. Income equality, the disdain so many business leaders have for their own workers, the looming threat of AI to obliterate millions of jobs, the destruction of the environment, the myth of the American dream.
Over the last few years, the lights have come on. Guidance from my wife, my kids, my friends, books, podcasts, movies and more have all helped show me the way. It’s not just the corporate world I’ve seen in the new light – it’s government, politics, sports, society, you name it. In other words, the system. It’s time to stand up and do something about that system, if not for myself, then at least for my kids and the younger generations. To help those that are trying to make the world a better place, for all. And that starts by putting it here in writing: I ain’t gonna work on Maggie’s Farm no more.