Should you talk about politics at work?

I just read this piece on the CNN.com website:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/worklife/06/04/politicking.at.work/index.html

Should you be talking politics at work? Yes? No? May be?

As one the persons quoted in the article says, free speech is an urban myth. The moment you walk in the door of that office you leave the free world behind. You are no longer in America. You enter some medieval kingdom or fiefdom where you can't talk freely, you can't speak up and you certainly can't hold your superiors accountable. I italicized superior. Superior automatically relates to inferior, subordinate, lower, etc. If all men were created equal why should some be superior? Yes, I know some of you will say it's just a word. But words are everything. We think in words; we communicate in words; we express our emotions in words; we arouse masses of people with words. What would we be if we didn't have words? And of course there are symbols. Equally important.

Coming back to the original point: the choice of words is not a random act. Words are deeply connected to thoughts, emotions and ultimately physical reactions. So why choose superior instead of a more class-less (no pun intended) word? There are no such words in the political sphere. The names there are flatter with no hint of inherent hierarchy. Congressman, Congresswoman, Representative, Senator: all powerful positions but without the inherent implication of one being higher than the other. But in the corporate office, words are chosen differently. There is a superior and there is a subordinate. There is no free speech. There is no choice. There are no elections. Your leader is not someone you chose. Well some would say they didn't really choose George W Bush either. But you at least had a choice. Not once, but twice. At work, you don't have a choice. You are given a "leader" by the people above.

In England, in 1215, the barons revolted against the king and forced him to be bound by the Magna Carta. Even in England. Even in 1215. Can you imagine some people in a modern corporation revolting against their boss and forcing upon him/her a set of rules?

So why can't you talk politics at work? Yeah you can't put work aside and talk politics, that's not productive. Apart from that why can't you talk politics otherwise? Why can't you campaign for an issue? Why can't you send political email? Why can't you make political statements? If you spend 8 to 10 hours a day at work you spend approximately one third of your active adult life in a place without free speech!

It probably doesn't sound so surprising when you think of the purpose of the existence of corporations. But that's for another day.

Priora!

What's the plural for Mustang? Mustangs!
What's the plural for Hummer? Hummers!
What's the plural for Corolla? Corollas!
But what's the plural for Prius? Prius.

At least that's what Toyota says. But they don't mind if customers use whatever their hearts desire. What does Prius mean? It is a Latin term that means before, ahead, prior. So put in context Prius is that which goes before. Wikipedia says the true plural of Prius is Priora. Here is the section. If you know Latin, I suppose it's really easy to understand.

I once walked into a Lexus dealership. They were holding a raffle (or some kind of draw) to give away a brand new Lexus sedan. As we walked up, the receptionist called in a sales person to take care of us. We told him we weren't looking to buy a Lexus, but we wanted to participate in the raffle nevertheless. In our conversation we had mentioned the Prius. And surprisingly the salesman went into a rant about how the Prius causes more damage to the environment than it saves. His argument, and I had seen this before, was that the mining of nickel for the battery, shipping it to Japan, making the battery, shipping the car back to the USA and then in time disposing the battery causes more harm to the environment than a Hummer does. A CNW Marketing analysis named "Dust to Dust" made these same claims. I wonder if that's where he got his talking points from. Of course he didn't mention the tests conducted at MIT, Carnegie Mellon and Argonne National Laboratories that completely shredded the "Dust to Dust" report. Again, here is the section from Wikipedia.

Another time, when we rented a Prius for a road trip, the Hertz mechanic who was around when we picked out the car, said that hybrids are no good at all. They are weak and inefficient and what the world needs is a better gas engine. He also said global warming was sham, scam and nonsense. According to this rental car company mechanic, the Prius is just a political show-off. I was extremely polite when I reminded him that he was neither an engineer, nor a physicist, nor a climatologist and that his opinion, as entitled to it as he may be, is best stored in a dark damp place only he is familiar with.

I called Toyota once to ask them about these claims. They actually took the time to explain the fallacy of the naysayers' arguments.

Priora: the ones that go before. And truly they do. They herald a new era. They blaze a trail for other cars to follow. And indeed, following the rest are.