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05-07-2012 I like my work to be sporadic, I don't like to be labeled when it comes to how I get income and I do what I can to try and change up different ways of making money... on the other hand beggars can't be choosers I guess. I actually enjoy hard labor much of the time simply because I NEED to burn the energy, the only problem with hard labor work is its usually a total rip off when it comes to pay... but yeah I totally mowed my neighbors lawn today ha. Anyway this is a really good blog! |
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05-07-2012
Hey, at least you did something of actual value! As I wrote, we can't escape a certain amount of labor, it's necessary in our lives. We need people to grow veggies and crops, collect them, ship them, clean the streets, fix our appliances etc. Who needs those smart asses betting on currency rates? They might be working hard, too... You're lucky to have the surplus of energy, keep it up! :) |
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05-07-2012 You are soooo right I live in D.C., which is the workaholic capitol of the U.S. I have a boring day job but in a few months I will be able to leave at 4:30 and won't have to "take" my work home with me while I am off. So its' a trade off, like you said.I have a friend who makes 4 times what I make, he runs a company, but it is high stress and he says he only stops thinking about it when he's hammered drunk We all need to read more Epicurus and think like him |
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05-07-2012
Hi Brian) Glad we agree on this. I also see people who are totally consumed by their businesses, they do not really own their companies, rather they are the ones being owned. No, of course, in the beginning of your business you have to be willing to only work hard and receive no returns, to sacrifice lots of free time and sleep. But if your business necessitates such lifestyle throughout the years, I guess its not really different from being an employee. |
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05-07-2012 I think you\'re perfectly right when you say it\'s all about creating meaning. Have you ever heard about terror management theory? |
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05-07-2012
Yep, read Ernest Becker and watched Flight From Death. |
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05-07-2012 Hooray! So what did you think? It makes a lot of sense to me. I mean... it shows in the downplaying of depression and suicide, don't you think? |
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05-07-2012
It does. Also explains religious wars. Regarding downplaying depression, and any strong negative emotions that persist for a while, Erich Fromm also mentioned similar trend in his 'The Fear of Freedom ': "In the process of tabooing emotions modern psychiatry plays an ambiguous role. On the one hand its greatest representative, Freud, has broken through the fiction of the rational, purposeful character of the human mind and opened a path which allows a view into the abyss of human passions. |
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05-07-2012 Well, if all institutions have the implicit goal of generating meaning and keeping death at bay, then we can't exclude science from that list, even if it claims to be "value-neutral" (it's not). |
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05-07-2012
Science has doubl-blind randomized studies which I hear are the most trustworthy and objective. But then, where the personality comes in is interpreting the results. And psychiatry is a very special kind of 'science', where diagnosis can be voted into existing by the majority of votes on a panel. I'm not saying psychiatry is to be totally abolished, I doubt we could go completely without it, but we should keep in mind it is very much arbitrary oftentimes. Just some years ago it was pathologizing homosexuality. |
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10-07-2012 Once again, writing that I feel like I think about every day. Really great. I wonder how many other people are thinking about these things? From the few people that comment.. and I certainly don't meet many. There are fewer than I can count on one hand that I have met in my entire life.There's really a confluence of factors that come together in all these subjects here.. Is all of history, people trying to brainwash one another to get them to do what they want? We learn that as kids, when you want your brother or sister to do something, but you don't want to get in trouble with your parents for fighting, you convince them or get them to do it another way. This posting made me think of the glorification of slave-levels of labor that all countries have had in their propaganda. It's really sick.. I've revolted from this system.. just like you mentioned, Irina, 'fuck it, I'll wear my old shoes and go to the beach..' Exactly right! But the difficulty for me has been to maintain my sense of self worth, when I choose a completely different life path that isn't valued or understood by the robotic majority. It is very difficult at times and makes me want to go live in the forest. |
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10-07-2012 I just wanted to say one more thing..I had this sense of overwhelming depression from a really young age about exactly what you said.. "Back in school I remember myself thinking how horrible it would be if the boring home-school-home routine will simply get swapped for home-work-home when I grow up. I was thinking to myself 'damn, if this is going to be my life, I hate it already'." I thought these exact words.. as I saw my parents and other people's reality. I was pushed and told, you must do your very best so you can get into a good high school! I did that. What was my reward? A few months of summer break and into the new school which took even more work than the regular school! Then it was, do your best so you can get into a good college! More work was the reward for working hard! By then I had figured it out. Was everyone else so dumb that they really fell for this carrot perpetually beyond the nose? Like donkeys, they got led through life. Most people willingly did this!! If that's not insane (and stupid), I don't know what is. Maybe fear.. herd pressure. The desire to compete for better strip steak than the other lemming has on his plate? (Then you are the better lemming.) Well, I left it. I don't want to ever go back to being a wage slave. I'd consider that a failure of my life. The difficulty is knowing myself well enough to know what I really want to do while I'm alive. It's easy to get brainwashed and lose yourself in this society - which is designed to do just that to the masses. So, I guess I hope for more clarity on where to make those compromises.. |
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11-07-2012
I was suffering so much in school, having to pay attention and take in tons of uninteresting facts, I couldn't imagine going thru life having to rape myself every f-ing day. In college finally the list of subjects I wasn't interested in got narrowed down to just a few, then - none. People like to glorify the 'will', the ability to force oneself to do 'whats necessary' regardless of one's feelings. That is what I call a self-rape. Nothing glorious about that. Sometimes it's a sad necessity of life, but it's nothing to be striving for. I mean, first you get trapped here, in this world, having all these needs and desires and then you're told 'but you need to force yourself to suppress your desires, stop wanting whats exciting, inspiring, interesting and become thrilled with what teachers say you should'. This ideology instilled from the early childhood should prepare a future obedient worker. This is so sad. And its regrettable parents think its ok to subject their kids to this slavery. That is, by having them in the first place. Compromises are unavoidable. Occasionally I will take more work than usual just to buy smth I need/want, most of the time I prefer not to. |
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10-07-2012 Compromise as much as you need to in order to live comfortably, but don't compromise your mind, and try not to hurt anyone else (that's not really feasible since our lifestyle is predicated on slavery in third world countries, but do your best). |
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10-07-2012 “I wonder how many other people are thinking about these things?”Perhaps more than you think, John. (Not everyone comments who reads these pages…) There used to be a good site called whywork.org; it is no longer up, but some of it can still be found in the Internet Archive at http://wayback.archive.org/web/*/whywork.org Anyway, those who think about these things are but the surface. Many more may be dissatisfied with them, whether they realize it or not… |
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10-07-2012 Great post, Irina. You've summed it all up beautifully. Work can be a means of evading freedom and avoiding hard thinking about life. I live in London and it is a nightmare. Try going on the transport system at 8.30 or 6pm and see the sad, grey, unfriendly faces. It's the closest you'll ever get to being in an Auschwitz cattle-car. And work is also the main conversational topic; it's all just so depressing and uninspiring. For anyone who might enjoy it, I wrote about my own work experiences last year:http://saynotolife.blogspot.co.uk/2011/06/work-and-i.html |
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11-07-2012
Thanks, Karl! Try going on the transport system at 8.30 or 6pm Same here in Kiev! When I was studying in college and had to use metro in the morning I was astonished at the flow of sleepy-angry-zombie-like crowd. Back then I was still wearing my rose-colored glasses, nevertheless the picture left a long-lasting impression. I knew I didn't wan't to become a part of that 'work force'. Staying for years in college to become 'this'? A proud mouse in the wheel? Damn that's a stupid plan! And nothing changed since then. Once in a few months, when I've forgotten to stay away from metro during rush hours, I go down and see the same hopeless view: the flock, slowly moving in different directions, one step a second... Reminds me to appreciate my chance to work from home and to try my best to avoid 9-5 in the future. |
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15-08-2012 "...respecting one another as 'fellow sufferers' (Schopenhauer)"How beautiful...(ahhh, the delight it would have been)... and how utopian (given the mysterious lack of awareness in the ordinary human being - mysterious because they do have a splendid brain, don't they?) I now understand why Schopenhouer was a favourite of my dad's... "awareness of death and of the tragic aspect of life, whether dim or clear, is one of the basic characteristics of man" Is it, Erich? Dim, dimmer, (real) dimmest...apparently non-existent in the ordinary man (AND woman), as far as I know. "A certain amount of work is naturally required." In this world, yes. Precisely, I long for a world in which it is not. Or, alternatively, work = passion, joy, ecstasy. Difficult to imagine for us earthlings, I know. "...there's nobility in having the lowest expectations possible." In my humble view, there is neither nobility, nor wisdom, nor the slightes trace of common sense in it... I can see it as a witty method to go through life (as in Buddhism, for instance), but not as the ultimate goal of any decent life...whatsoever. Amen. "I never thought what you earn equals the amount of money you get" Now, THAAT is actually WISE! "Back in school I remember myself thinking how horrible it would be if the boring home-school-home routine will simply get swapped for home-work-home when I grow up. I was thinking to myself 'damn, if this is going to be my life, I hate it already'. " You most certainly have beaten me as far as CLEAR THINKERS go... at such an early age too!!! I wonder what crossed your mind while in the craddle... or when you were 2-4 years old... surely smth interesting... try to remember, please! "The important thing is figuring out what it is that you really need and want..." YEESS, in my view, that's absolutely the KEY...!!! Thank you for such an insightful humour-spiced piece of real philosophy. Keep the good work (relaaxedly)! |
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16-08-2012
You most certainly have beaten me as far as CLEAR THINKERS go... at such an early age too!!! No, these thoughts have just started occurring then, but I've tried to fight them off first and justify the whole game, to try and adjust as everybody around me did. I wasn't ready to conclude just yet that life was a shitty useless thing at its core. So I wasn't too wise for my age or anything)))) On the other hand, one could say that it was a good thing, that I gave this world a chance, a fare trial, because I really tried to adopt and live by all those delusions most people use. |
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16-08-2012 So did I... and still do.I'm a survivor, you know, I know better than give in to despair... unless it's absolutely necessary. And that will take a great deal... I've got my guts and dignity, after all! Pray to God (aarrgh...) I will stand my ground and show my teeth (grinning, snarling) when the moment comes... (I've been reading The Hunger Games lately... does it show through?) |
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17-08-2012
I wouldn't know anything about the book, I hate reading fiction, since childhood I couldn't stand that, for whatever reason, it's just boring to me, no matter how interesting the content. Movies - fine, and still I usually do smth else simultaneously while watching them. Anyway, survivor spirit is great, as long as it's not being used as a justification for starting a life for someone else. |
Comments to Labor, consumerism, wage slavery etc