Has there ever been a time in human history where we were just allowed to exist for our passions and not work for survival? Our economic system definitely has its flaws, but this meme paints with too broad strokes.
Fight Club told that when man were hunter/gatherers we spend twenty hours a week working so it must be true.
You know there are still hunter-gatherer societies. You don’t have to take Palahniuk’s word for it.
Part of the reason why the transition to agriculture was so difficult, is because that is true. Agriculture is a lot of work, and requires a lot more labor time than the hunter-gatherer mode of production.
Of course in the long run, agricultural societies end up overcoming hunter-gatherer ones, because they’re able to support a much larger population.
If they’re able to support a larger population shouldn’t it average out to less work?
We’ve basically conquered scarcity at this point in history. There’s really no reason people shouldn’t have all their basically necessities provided today, but bcz of greedy assholes, they’re always in search of more money, so we don’t get that.
There’s still a lot of actually important work that needs doing, like solving world hunger, poverty, and homelessness (which unfortunately most countries aren’t paying people to do, except for a few), but for the most part this quote is spot on:
think about whatever it was they were thinking about before someone came along and told them they had to earn a living.
This right here moved me. Not just because it’s so spot on, but because I don’t even remember what I was thinking about back then.
If we’re talking specifically about art, historically, there was the patronage system where wealthy people would pay artists that they liked to largely just spend their days painting whatever they liked. It wasn’t something every artist could take advantage of (Van Gogh died a poor pauper because his paintings basically didn’t sell at all until after his death, for example), but it did exist.
Also, genuine question if anybody knows, what about the philosophers of old? Did they get paid as teachers of their school of theory or something?
It’s not like there was ever a time when people simply didn’t work at all, but there is a large portion of the population today who don’t feel like their work is anything other than busywork with no reason to it, and that makes them miserable even doing something that they love. There are people out there who love picking up garbage for a living because they know that they’re doing something that makes a difference.
The Renaissance was a time of a vast labor shortage. This allowed workers to demand higher wages, and it also allowed leisure time to study new things and make new art.
This is true also when you have strong unions to bargain for good benefits. Still, you need to do some work, as opposed to the message of the meme “you have to pay for being alive”.
You don’t work merely for your own survival under capitalism, most of your labor goes to supporting the capitalist class (and bombing foreigners to keep resources cheap so those capitalists can make even more money).
Half a century ago, working in a grocery store was enough to buy a home, raise a family, and put a kid through college. The job did not get less productive, if anything each worker produces more than ever with automation, but a greater share goes to the capitalist class, both through stagnant wages and increasing costs.
butt in gommunism, you think you’ll be a poet, but you’ll work in a mine.
in capitalism I wanted to be an astronaut, but now I have a substance abuse problem and write spaghetti code for a corporate machine that would not give a shit if I dropped dead tomorrow.
My mental health increased massively when I stopped being a programmer.
I had to do neurofeedback training to reduce the beta wave amplitude if my brain. They were three standard deviations above normal even when I was having an incredibly calm day.
The neurofeedback clinician had me skip my ritalin for a few days before doing that baseline scan. The day of the scan I felt a calm like nothing I’d felt for months. Even in that state my beta waves were three standard deviations above normal.
The neurofeedback training put a stop to my panic attacks.
Anyway, beta waves are used in logical decision-making (the thing a programmer does 10,000 times per day), and they’re also used in fight or flight response. Good thing to know about how the brain works.
Luckily as a software dev I had the money for the neurofeedback. I spent about $7k on that in total, in chunks of about $1500 at a time.
Shit dude. That would financially ruin me after the first payment. (I don’t get paid in dollars nor euros, but the company does.)
What job do you do now? How bad was the pay cut? (Or unexpected pay boost)
Do you still take Ritalin? I’ve been taking Vyvanse for a year now, switching from a Concerta generic. I’m indifferent, but the lisdexamfetamine lasts wayyy longer. Also I get this strange general sense of “something great is going to happen very soon”.
Venlafaxine and Buproprion helped major with anxiety and somewhat with depression. Instead of getting anxious, I now get grumpy.
Before it was “oh shit, oh fuck”, now it’s “ugh shit, what fucking now”
Saw you were sitting at 0 points. Who tf downvotes someone’s thoughtfully written non-hostile comments?
Btw thanks for the brain wave info. I thought that was like, hippie stuff, but no it’s like, legit science.
‘Man’ isn’t ‘designated’ to anything. We just exist and are sentient and able to think about what we would like our lives to look like. Most people would like to live a life beyond working 40 hours a week on a job they don’t enjoy and where they have no say in anything. We have enough resources to make sure everyone has a home and food and can live a fulfilling life, if only those resources were divided in a fair way.
I bet you were very badly wrong in your comment, but I would have at least like to see it (and down vote it too if it deserved it). I don’t need protection from stupid, just illegal or outright racist/offensive.
you “only” need to pay for being alive instead of going around hunting all days fighting boars and shits
