In the 21st Century we are exploited. Modern capitalism runs on exploitation and we have to make a choice about our own exploitation to survive. Can we choose our own exploitation?

Even the word exploit has a mixed meaning. A heroic act? A productive act? Or an act to advantage one and disadvantage another?

Is work exploitative? Can we choose the work we do? This is predicated on class, wealth and opportunity.
Some have more opportunities than others. We could all agree that work, freedom, choice and exploitation are complex intersecting issues. There are no simple answers.

Yet with sex work and exploitation the arguments become more binary. Perhaps it triggers a moral panic, or censorship? But to think of the sex worker as being precariously balanced between exploited and exploiting is seen as provocative. Is being a sex worker predicated by social issues and opportunities? Is it a choice? With wealth and resources is it work that can be rejected?

With perception we can see all of us navigating the precarious balance between exploited and exploiting. To be units of earning power is to be exploited. To ask a lower paid colleague to do a piece of work is exploiting. But a good exploiting?
We choose our own exploiting on the decision on whether it is good or bad and tolerable to us. We decide what is good exploiting? With the added complexity of whether our choice of exploitation causes us harm? And whether we see if this harm might be harmful to us?

Copyright Adrian Scott North London Counsellor Blog 2019
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Disclaimer: This weblog is the view of the writer and for general information only
This article is designed to provoke argument and critique