All of this untold human misery perpetuated all so the plutocrats can look at their screens and see the line go up forever and ever beyond all meaning. Bring on the collapse, humanity needs to be rebooted, we let the corporate elite sociopaths destroy our humanity in the name of profits, its obscene.
I agree, like hamsters, we keep running around and around to get nowhere. We suffer from the illusion that the faster we go through life, the bigger the prize at the end. Sadly, no matter how fast we go, death is the prize for everyone. I thought I would have a good rest when I retired. That was a fool's dream. I am busier than ever. Do they still have a siesta In the middle of the day in Italy? If I move there, will I be able to rest?
Quit. Fuck the rat race. Fuck productivity. Fuck drowning for dollars. It’s all a scam. Alternatives are possible if people with diverse skills and experience work together. Everyone hates this system, they just can’t agree who to blame because one of the products of the system is mass propaganda to confuse and divide people. We can end it in our lifetimes and build something better.
" A truly supportive society would recognize the need for genuine rest—days, weeks, maybe months of stepping away from the hamster wheel to realign, reconnect with ourselves, and just exist."
More evidence that we don't live in a truly supportive society.
The hamster wheel of capitalism has gotta give some day soon...if only because we hamsters are all going to fall over dead from exhaustion. Power to the Hamsters--er, People!
Woke up from a 3-hour nap and stayed in bed for a bit, already arguing with myself about whether I should work out or just let myself be bored and still. This is my only 10-day break before my last second semester of college starts, and maybe this is the universe's way of telling me to just pause. I’ve been struggling with this mindset of toxic productivity, where I feel guilty if I’m not doing anything.
Reading this made me realize how scary it is to enter adult life—no more summers, no more breaks like this. After college, I know I’ll be caught up in an endless rat race, constantly chasing the next goal, the next task, the next expectation. There won’t be time to pause, reflect, or even breathe, because society has this way of making you feel like you always need to be doing more. It's exhausting just thinking about it. Maybe that’s why I need to cherish these last 10 days of break, not just as a rest, but as a reminder to find balance later—even when life gets overwhelming.
Literally destroyed this year by the white collar recession and constantly ripped between “I NEED to land a 6 figure job so I can put away enough money to retire NOW” and “I NEED to stay at my current job so I don’t fucking END UP ON THE STREET IN A MONTH” and “I NEED to be fucking unemployed for one fucking year or I’m going to blow my brains out holy shit”
Typical adult life was not like this during the zenith decades of our model, the 1950's and 1960's, nor for the most part during the 70's when there was still plenty of the excess of those years slopping over our general cup and half the people to divide it up. What we're up against today is the same or even higher expectations as then being sought by twice the number of people from a orange 3/4 or more juiced, with the pirates having found ways to siphon off more of what's left - a compounding symptom, not a primary cause as most have misinterpreted it. A symptom of any decline-and-fall. It's the same thing that happens in nature when populations are high and resources are low - you must travel farther and more ceaselessly for the same return. The answer today if there is one, i think is to find some way to quit striving for the norms that are no longer. This will require geographic relocation for most of our populace today, which is urban, and there are no ways to live gracefully with much less as an urbanite as i see it - urban life IS material life. Find a way to live poor in style and curb your expectations. For god's sakes don't fall into the age-old traps: children, big mortgages, a garage full of big ticket status-symbols, etc etc. I recognize that it's all very well to point this out, but what of the people for whom this sort of thing, the life of our grandparents' time, is still the dream? Maybe try to create a different person of yourself, a different dream? I don't know. The downslope of human overshoot is going to be a very difficult thing to make work, impossible en-masse. As you are describing. The problem today isn't so much the model - the model worked splendidly while resources were still rich - the problem is the model has run its course and used up all the easy resources.
No wonder "no one wants to work anymore" and "no one wants to grow up anymore". It's really more like, no one wants to be exploited anymore, especially not to make the rich even richer.
I’m one of those people who likes to stay busy, but I got two weeks off from work for the holidays and it was a much-needed reset. I would like to integrate career breaks into my life over the long term. It shouldn’t just be retirees who get to rest in adulthood. We all should have that right, as you said.
As Franz Kafka once wrote, “Youth is happy because it has the capacity to see beauty. Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old.”
What if we reverse this for a second and I am writing this as a parent of two teenagers:
- 'what if young people never have the time nor ability to see beauty'
- ' what if they are never young, as we would remember or define it'
- 'what hope do they have when they actually grow old'
The levels of anxiety and stress that young adults are facing as they enter the workforce is at unprecedented levels - eventually something will have to give...
I have to say, there is something to be said for working to attain your daily bread. A sedentary lifestyle is a scourge of our time and it has its way of slowly overtaking your life.
I do fully agree that productivity quotas and hustle life is no good for anyone, but there must be a balance.
Something I have learned as a parent is that much of what we consider chores and work are not that at all. For example, I have really begun to enjoy washing dishes by changing the way I think about them. It's not a chore, and it's really not exhausting as I led myself to believe in the past. It's fulfilling and can be very relaxing in many ways.
Also, I am not trying to say that this essay is 'work-shaming' or something along those lines. I just think that if we are to go against an overly-productive way of life, we ought to give the devil his due.
All of this untold human misery perpetuated all so the plutocrats can look at their screens and see the line go up forever and ever beyond all meaning. Bring on the collapse, humanity needs to be rebooted, we let the corporate elite sociopaths destroy our humanity in the name of profits, its obscene.
I agree, like hamsters, we keep running around and around to get nowhere. We suffer from the illusion that the faster we go through life, the bigger the prize at the end. Sadly, no matter how fast we go, death is the prize for everyone. I thought I would have a good rest when I retired. That was a fool's dream. I am busier than ever. Do they still have a siesta In the middle of the day in Italy? If I move there, will I be able to rest?
Quit. Fuck the rat race. Fuck productivity. Fuck drowning for dollars. It’s all a scam. Alternatives are possible if people with diverse skills and experience work together. Everyone hates this system, they just can’t agree who to blame because one of the products of the system is mass propaganda to confuse and divide people. We can end it in our lifetimes and build something better.
" A truly supportive society would recognize the need for genuine rest—days, weeks, maybe months of stepping away from the hamster wheel to realign, reconnect with ourselves, and just exist."
More evidence that we don't live in a truly supportive society.
The hamster wheel of capitalism has gotta give some day soon...if only because we hamsters are all going to fall over dead from exhaustion. Power to the Hamsters--er, People!
Woke up from a 3-hour nap and stayed in bed for a bit, already arguing with myself about whether I should work out or just let myself be bored and still. This is my only 10-day break before my last second semester of college starts, and maybe this is the universe's way of telling me to just pause. I’ve been struggling with this mindset of toxic productivity, where I feel guilty if I’m not doing anything.
Reading this made me realize how scary it is to enter adult life—no more summers, no more breaks like this. After college, I know I’ll be caught up in an endless rat race, constantly chasing the next goal, the next task, the next expectation. There won’t be time to pause, reflect, or even breathe, because society has this way of making you feel like you always need to be doing more. It's exhausting just thinking about it. Maybe that’s why I need to cherish these last 10 days of break, not just as a rest, but as a reminder to find balance later—even when life gets overwhelming.
Literally destroyed this year by the white collar recession and constantly ripped between “I NEED to land a 6 figure job so I can put away enough money to retire NOW” and “I NEED to stay at my current job so I don’t fucking END UP ON THE STREET IN A MONTH” and “I NEED to be fucking unemployed for one fucking year or I’m going to blow my brains out holy shit”
So yes. VERY much with you there.
Typical adult life was not like this during the zenith decades of our model, the 1950's and 1960's, nor for the most part during the 70's when there was still plenty of the excess of those years slopping over our general cup and half the people to divide it up. What we're up against today is the same or even higher expectations as then being sought by twice the number of people from a orange 3/4 or more juiced, with the pirates having found ways to siphon off more of what's left - a compounding symptom, not a primary cause as most have misinterpreted it. A symptom of any decline-and-fall. It's the same thing that happens in nature when populations are high and resources are low - you must travel farther and more ceaselessly for the same return. The answer today if there is one, i think is to find some way to quit striving for the norms that are no longer. This will require geographic relocation for most of our populace today, which is urban, and there are no ways to live gracefully with much less as an urbanite as i see it - urban life IS material life. Find a way to live poor in style and curb your expectations. For god's sakes don't fall into the age-old traps: children, big mortgages, a garage full of big ticket status-symbols, etc etc. I recognize that it's all very well to point this out, but what of the people for whom this sort of thing, the life of our grandparents' time, is still the dream? Maybe try to create a different person of yourself, a different dream? I don't know. The downslope of human overshoot is going to be a very difficult thing to make work, impossible en-masse. As you are describing. The problem today isn't so much the model - the model worked splendidly while resources were still rich - the problem is the model has run its course and used up all the easy resources.
By all means!
No wonder "no one wants to work anymore" and "no one wants to grow up anymore". It's really more like, no one wants to be exploited anymore, especially not to make the rich even richer.
Amen to that! As an American, I agree *a fortiori* with what you are saying! 💯
I’m one of those people who likes to stay busy, but I got two weeks off from work for the holidays and it was a much-needed reset. I would like to integrate career breaks into my life over the long term. It shouldn’t just be retirees who get to rest in adulthood. We all should have that right, as you said.
I love this quote:
As Franz Kafka once wrote, “Youth is happy because it has the capacity to see beauty. Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old.”
What if we reverse this for a second and I am writing this as a parent of two teenagers:
- 'what if young people never have the time nor ability to see beauty'
- ' what if they are never young, as we would remember or define it'
- 'what hope do they have when they actually grow old'
The levels of anxiety and stress that young adults are facing as they enter the workforce is at unprecedented levels - eventually something will have to give...
I have to say, there is something to be said for working to attain your daily bread. A sedentary lifestyle is a scourge of our time and it has its way of slowly overtaking your life.
I do fully agree that productivity quotas and hustle life is no good for anyone, but there must be a balance.
Something I have learned as a parent is that much of what we consider chores and work are not that at all. For example, I have really begun to enjoy washing dishes by changing the way I think about them. It's not a chore, and it's really not exhausting as I led myself to believe in the past. It's fulfilling and can be very relaxing in many ways.
Also, I am not trying to say that this essay is 'work-shaming' or something along those lines. I just think that if we are to go against an overly-productive way of life, we ought to give the devil his due.