Management, Slave Masters of the 21st Century

I have really been thinking about something my bosses boss said to me the other day. Here is a little background. I am a Systems Engineer for a multinational technical corporation, so I am used to all the usual bull crap that Engineers put up with...........but.....

On the day in question while my bosses boss was giving me an atta-boy for doing so well with a client something he said really hit me. Basically the conversation was full of the usual stuff "I have only heard good things about you", "You are doing a great job" and so on and so on. But then he said something that really bothered me, that was "You are a Valued Resource".

I don't get it, he calls me by my first name like he is a life long friend, complements me and then he refers to me as a THING?!?!?! I guess it made me feel like a slave being told that I was a "Good Ni**er". It just soured the whole experience for me, and from now on whenever I hear the term resource used in that context all I can picture in my head is Roots and Kunta Kinte. I am personally really sickened by the whole concept of "resources". We are people for Christ's sake, not things, not slaves, people. I would have been happier being referred to as an employee, worker or even a lackey at least those are types of people.

Oh well, enough with my ranting, what does everyone out there think about this? Am I over reacting? Is it wrong to want to be treated like a person? Or is our society just so Orwellian that we are all destined to be thought of as resources waiting to be used up?