If you understand the way things are right now is broken, you should understand that you ALWAYS have a choice to stop being cynical, fight for your freedom and fight for what's right.
You have made the choice to resign yourself to despair instead of fighting for your freedom from the reddit within. I can't make that choice for you, none of us can, but I do hope that you will change your mind one day.
Below the title are 5 images and 6 lines of text. The first image is that of a person sitting on a chair at a desk. The text beside it reads "Sit at the desk 9-5".
The second image is the Netflix logo, the text beside it reads "Come home every night to watch Netflix".
The third image is a person wearing a backpack, shorts, boots, and a hat. The text beside it reads "Explore the world for only 2 weeks out of the year".
The fourth image is that of a box containing an assortment of items, the text beside it reads "Have zero creativity".
The fifth image is that of a person sitting on the floor with their knees drawn up to their chest, the text beside it reads "Have every single aspiration beaten out of them".
Underneath the images is a final line of text reading "THERE IS nothing MORE TO LIFE."
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While true, sitting around watching Netflix has the advantage that it takes none of the nonexistent energy remaining after a full day of work + chores + you only get two hours before bed.
I used to think that's all I had the energy to do. Turns out reading a couple chapters, learning a bit of guitar, going on a short walk, journalling.. all takes minimal mental and physical energy, but feels 10x better to do. I got stuck in shitty habits and convinced myself that's all I could do.
Can't disagree. When I talk with my European and Asian friends, sometimes they ask about America, and my answer is usually something like "The US is a great place to live, the best country in the world, if you're rich!" and I think that's factually true.
Two weeks?? Longest vacation I've been on in the past 20+ years was eight days, with the eighth day being unintentional due to an issue with the airlines.
Due to a serious illness, I've used up all my paid sick days. My bosses told me, "we want you to get better, so you can take as many unpaid sick days as you want." Thanks a whole fucking lot.
Yeah, I remember back when depressive humor was funny because it was sad. Then, a few things happened in the last decade and now it's funny because it's true.
It was either 2016 or 2019. It was either making a politician out of Trump or COVID. That's when I started to realise how fucked I am and stared anticipating death.
Y’know…I’m reading The Way We Never Were by Stephanie Coontz.
For much of humanity’s time in modern civilization, everyone worked. Constantly. From childhood to old age. The worst period was from industrialization to the labor movement. Literally worked to death. Probably one of the worst periods in human history with massive disparity and horrendous working conditions. The modern era is luxurious for many compared to what we used to have.
I appreciate the balanced perspective you brought to the table. Modern life is fantastic in so many ways. This post hits so close though because despite the reality most of us yearn for something more. Not wealth per say; freedom to work to live vs most seemingly living to work. The vast imbalance is horrible and most of us aren't having the best time. Says a comfortable software engineer who is is doing... OK but seriously as a society we should have figured out some semblance of proper balance by now.
I think something like the idea of the consensus engine would greatly help us if it could be built. It's not a magic bullet but it would provide so many avenues for not making things worse
I think the difference is that now more than ever we can see the ever increasing wealth disparity in our society. While most of us toil away we constantly see what the classes above us are able to do and get away with because of their insane amount of money.
We've spent the vast majority of our existence as a species living in small pre-agricultural bands in which it was virtually impossible to accumulate real personal property or wealth. Consequently, a person's status was determined not by how much they owned, but rather by their merit and relationships with others.
Wheat is a relatively recent development in human history, as is agriculture in general. It changed everything but for better or worse, agriculture is a trap, and once you start transitioning to it, you can never go back.
I'll never understand the 9-5 thing. Even years ago, the people who didn't have shitty hours worked like 8-4:30 or something. Most people don't actually work 9-5.
If the current definitions don't fit the target, change the definitions until they do. Dystopia 101.. which of course is redefined now to be Utopia 101.
Yes but there's nothing stopping us from being so much better. We have the tools and resources. They're just not being distributed well. That's sure as hell better then living before showers and toilets, but still it's frustrating when we clearly see we're capable of a better way and we're reminded of that every day.
It depends on how you measure it. People living in small-scale tribal societies tend to be universally happier than people living in big industrialized societies, but they also face a lot of problems and challenges that we've eradicated through technology.
Also it is possible to actually like what you do for a job. Many people do.
Then, some people clearly do not. I suppose their work will be replaced with robots. And people who implement these robots are doing it enthusiastically.
Still, we would not want to disenfranchise people who see their work as nonfulfilling. This is a challenge.
Yeah we're supposed to never leave our village for our 40 year lifespan, fear this that go against our myths and tradition and violently castigate those we deem different enough for us.
Or maybe civilization itself was too much and we should live in even smaller groups with our numbers limited by no agriculture.
Humans were made to reproduce and expand. Trough pure luck of evolution we got in a position that we don't need to be afraid of being eaten by lion, or dying from appendix infection, or getting impaled by some random warlord at the age of 5. By comparison sitting at the desk seems like a good deal.
When the alternative is man Vs nature in a constant struggle to avoid violent or hungry death, or even worse - slavery, then we gotta count our blessings. I'm also greatful for every day I'm not plowing cotton fields with my hands or operating machinery in a factory.
There are more options than "be a wage slave who has been so beaten down by the system that they have nothing left in their lives" and "be a hunter-gatherer hunted by lions."