THE REVOLT OF THE GHOST JOBS: WHY OUR AGE CREATES STRUCTURAL UNEMPLOYMENT AND DEMANDS A REVOLUTION OF SOCIAL HONOR

Imagine a pyramid. For centuries, indeed for millennia, it was the very image of social stability. At its base, broad and solid, the work that holds up the world: the hands that build, the backs that bend over fields, the arms that carry. At the top, a small space for the minds that direct, the philosophers who think, the strategists who command. The balance was simple, almost brutal in its clarity. Today that pyramid no longer exists. It has been shattered, pulverized by a hurricane of demagoguery, technological progress, and broken promises. What remains is a desolate landscape where millions, indeed billions, scramble in search of a non-existent step. Unemployment is not a temporary setback. It is the terminal symptom of an ancient illness.

The paradox is fierce and absolute. Western societies, and those that aspire to be, have elevated a single category of work to the model of existential success. The work of the mind, of the tertiary sector, of the immaculate collar that knows no sweat. It has become the only goal worthy of ambition. At the same time, they have systematically devalued, humiliated, and made economically unsustainable the entire universe of work that falls outside this narrow circle. They have taught an entire generation that manufacturing an object with artisan skill, cultivating the land with respect, repairing an engine with ability are second-rate activities. Meant for losers. And then they are surprised that no one wants to do those jobs anymore? That an army of unemployed is created, waiting for a manager position that will never exist?

This is not economics. It is pure social madness. It is like deciding that the foundations of a skyscraper are less important than its penthouse and then dismantling them, piece by piece, expecting the building to remain standing. The result is plain for all to see: a chronic shortage of plumbers, electricians, nurses, farmers, while universities churn out legions of graduates in abstract disciplines, destined for endless precariousness or jobs unrelated to their studies. It is a rush towards a summit that cannot accommodate everyone. And those left behind are no longer willing to perform essential tasks, because society has screamed in their face that those tasks are a defeat.

Political demagoguery has fed this monster. It promised everyone the title of "colonel" without explaining that an army composed only of officers is an army that does not march, does not fight, does not eat. It created an unrealistic expectation, a toxic dream of individual ascent that deliberately ignores collective necessity. And when the promise proved to be a mirage, the only response has been resentment, frustration, and finally despair. Unemployment thus becomes endemic, not for lack of work to be done, but due to a collective refusal, encouraged by the system, to recognize value and dignity in vast categories of work.

And now, upon this already tragically compromised scenario, comes the new wave: artificial intelligence and robotics. The final blow. But the paradox becomes even more subtle and cruel. These forces will not replace the farmer or the construction worker. No. Those tasks, however devalued, require an adaptability, a physical perception of the world that is still the domain of the human. Instead, AI is about to devour the very "distinguished" jobs. The analysts, translators, accountants, customer service agents, legal researchers. It is about to empty the offices, not the construction sites. It is about replacing the white collars that had been elevated as the model, demonstrating with icy efficiency that their work, ultimately, was often a series of repetitive, algorithmic tasks.

Liberalism, with its fetish for the market and hyper-individualism, is completely blind to this crisis. It is a blunt instrument. It cannot impose a new system of values because its only value is the efficiency of capital, not the dignity of labor. It cannot restore honor to manual work because its language is made only of prices, not values. Its agony is producing monsters: the gig economy that exploits, the resentment that turns into banditry, the despair that translates into obscurantism and terrorism.

The only way out is a Copernican revolution of social ethics. Another regime of the spirit is required. A system that does not promise everyone they can be colonels, but that explains why the simple soldier, the engineer, the field cook are just as fundamental to victory. A system that remunerates essential work not out of pity, but with the concrete recognition of its irreplaceable value. That pays a nurse not out of mercy, but because their skill is rare and precious. That honors a farmer as a guardian of the land, not as a relic of the past.

We must forge a new soul for our people. With other aspirations. Where success is not just a desk in a skyscraper, but also a successful artisan workshop, a thriving field, an efficient and respected workshop. We must build hierarchies where honor is distributed based on real utility to the community, not on the abstractness of a degree. Only thus can we avoid the spectral future that awaits us: a world of former unemployed white collars looking with disdain at manual jobs they no longer have the skills or the will to perform. The axe of AI is already raised. Our only salvation is to rehabilitate everything it can never touch: the genius humility of a job well done.

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🦅 Cheyenne Isa ₿ 🦅