Once he switched jobs and started wearing really nice suits to work, we started going on trips, had more money for clothes, and sometimes even had pizza. As a child it seemed fairly obvious which job was “better.” Better, in this instance, meaning more lucrative, of prefered social standing, and worth being proud of.

A friend of mine said to me recently, “I don’t know how you’re able to work an office job. The whole corporate America thing – I could never do it.” At the time the answer was simple: it’s easy. But in light of 2020, a global pandemic, and the unprecedented amount of social, political, and economical disrepair most nations are grappling with, I’ve been looking at the question with fresh eyes.

After graduating in 2012, I joined millions of other millennials who were thrust into an unstable job market. Record-high unemployment levels and an oversaturated, overqualified labour force underscored the recession’s economic fallout. Once I landed an entry-level job working for a company owned by a multi-million dollar conglomerate, I felt an undeniable sense of safety. Looking back, financial stability is nothing to sneer at, but I couldn’t help feeling conflicted. Was I contributing to a system I fundamentally disagreed with? Had my moral compass slowly eroded over time or was there a pervasive force overwhelming my ability to resist?

The Powers and Principalities – forces of a distinctly spiritual constitution which are responsible for steadily and consummately transforming society’s systemic and institutional landscape. Studying Powers theology has opened a proverbial Pandora’s box of insight into the effect of pervasive capitalist culture on my career path.

When I was 15, I discovered Marx’s Communist Manifesto and considered myself a devoted Communist for at least a year afterward (I realize now I was more of a Marxist, but let’s not split hairs here; you get the idea). What is glaring to me is how closely I still connect Marx’s ideas – such as the examination of class relations and social conflict – with my Christian faith and the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth.

The irony of my near-inevitable Marxism, of course, was that I was concurrently being reared in a predominantly conservative and passionately capitalist community. And when I say passionately capitalist, I’m talking about the belief that capitalism has single-handedly saved our nation from the clutches of a very real and present Enemy. This was the context in which I was first introduced to the Powers framework. America was viewed as God’s last remnant of righteousness, which must be defended by a “free” market and privatized economy.

Although I now reject these notions as ridiculous, I can’t help but wonder if certain forces are indeed at work here, shaping our culture and influencing the systems we exist in.

At times, it does feel like sorcery. Our consumption-addicted society conflates an economy driven by unchecked greed with Christian values. The dignity of labour is confused with the duty to produce. I cannot possibly ignore the ways these powers work through my own life, representative in my nearly 10 year on-again-off-again relationship with the business sector.

This week alone I’ve submitted around 20 different job applications to well-established corporations. Because, you know, COVID. A girl has to eat.

Kendall Waterman is a part-time writer currently based in New York City. Recently unemployed due to COVID-19, she spends her time reading, volunteering, and binging reruns of The West Wing.

This article first appeared in Geez magazine Issue 59, Winter 2021, Powers and Principalities.