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Damn, this is more of a list of “things to remember for your mental health and happiness,” capitalism or not.
Granted, for many of us these things would remind us to not get dragged into the downward capitalist spiral of equating personal worth with productivity or net worth.
things to remember for your mental health and happiness,” capitalism or not.
Except for the fact that a society built on capitalism with calvinist work ethic bullshit thrown in like most of the West works directly against your mental health by forcing or at the very least strongly encouraging the opposite of all of these things, with the possible exception of the first one.
Capitalism is all about striving and producing and toiling and striving to toil productively and then making you feel guilty if you don’t live up to all of that. Capitalism has zero chill.
That WILL hurt if not utterly destroy your mental health if you don’t remember to give yourself permission to ignore capitalism’s bullshit once in a while.
all forms of work are real and valid.
You don’t know my day job…
There are plenty of jobs that are actively detrimental to society, which really aren’t valid at all.
Like, is landlord a real and valid job?
No, that is not a job. The same way “bank” is not a job.
It’s not work or labor, but it’s a job. One that provides negative value to society.
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Reddit moderator?
They had a family you monster
Years ago a friend gently nudged me away from the usual get-together ice breaker of “what do you do for a living” because it’s inherently biased to the well paid professional. He suggested I change to the more open “how do you occupy your time” . The answers are far more interesting and I never need to make stay at home spouses, underemployed or unemployed people feel uncomfortable… this post reminded me of that (we are not our corporately bestowed titles)
In the process of deconstructing work “ethics” and capitalist “productivity”, it’s important to replace it with something more meaningful than individualism or hedonism. While it’s fine to do nothing, fine to do things you enjoy regardless of whether they make profit for someone else, it’s also good to do things that better yourself, others, and society (even if that concept has been co-opted and corrupted by the profit motive). I see too many people “escape” the rat race either by finding people to exploit or sinking into escapism like [more than a reasonable amount of] video games or drugs or whatnot.
This will blow some people’s minds on here: some people actually derive pleasure from work. I actually like working. I like researching, building and producing stuff. I would rather work than spend my time doing some stupid hobby. My only requirement is that I need to believe in what I am doing. I won’t work just for money or out of necessity and I won’t work just to make some rich asshole, richer. I also won’t work out of some competitive drive like some people do. I don’t even work for myself. I don’t care about material riches. I only work so that I can later marvel at my creations. But, I still like working.
It’s great that you have found a way to make your work fulfilling but unfortunately for a lot of people the daily grind is a matter of survival and isn’t optional. If your only material riches are cheap food and a roof over your head are in jeopardy, you’ll begin to care about them real quick.
People like work. We hate jobs.
I used to love my job. I ran movie theaters. Not only was I good at it, I felt a great deal of personal satisfaction. I had fun going in to work. Then I got something I love more: a wife and kids. Movie theaters didn’t pay the bills, and it required too many nights, weekends and holidays. If I wanted to make more money and spend more time with my family, I needed to find a respectable 9-5. It took me another 5 years of bouncing around jobs to find one that, while I don’t love it it’s not a job that makes me want to drive off a cliff.
My kids are getting old enough that, if theaters started offering respectable living wages for adults with families, I’d go back to the industry in a heartbeat.
You’re absolutely entitled to enjoy work, particularly when it has outcomes that you value. That strikes me more as human nature than anything capitalism-specific, and something that more people should have the freedom to seek.
I work for a university as a software developer. My income is considerably lower than the private sector, but it feels so much better knowing that I am working towards something that betters the world.
Overall pretty good, but I disagree with point #2.
Land lording
Stock trading
Product Scalping
etc.
I mean that’s at least usually by choice. You don’t tend to accidently be a landlord for long.
But like, I dunno, call center cold calling people or something? I’m not sure telling people feeling horrible about having to do it that it’s real and valid. Like sorry for them but also let’s not pretend here, we’ll never get to solving it otherwise
Because this is still feel-good philosophical liberalism rather than a critique of capital that has teeth
Those ain’t “worker”. They’re exploiters and speculators
I’ll push back a little on that first point and be a little semantic. If you create something it is beautiful inherently. You took a thought and made it manifest, that is beauty
I think it would be better stated as “even if it is only valuable to me.”
If you create something it is beautiful inherently
Clearly you haven’t seen my children.
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I’m pro the message and anti whatever font this is. It looks like the slightly less annoying cousin of comic sans (yes, I know it’s good for people with dyslexia, shut up).
There is no such thing as a soul.
Doing nothing is good for yourself, meditate on nothingness.
I do agree, but there not being a literal soul doesn’t mean it cannot be used in a metaphorical sense. Much like you can still talk about choice even if free will isn’t real.
A plant that is yet to sprout is not anxious about being a mere seed. Like that, when it finally sprouts, the fact that it is yet to bloom doesn’t bother the plant. At any moment in it’s life the plant is in its perfect possible form.
You are no different. Don’t be sad because you are not who you are yet to become. Don’t be sad because of what you once were. At any moment you are the only version of yourself that could ever be, otherwise there would’ve been no you.
They take it away - the freedom to be just you. Little do they know that not everything is for the taking.
Reading these out loud could cause a
to have a stroke on the spot. 
While doing nothing is good for some, I’m sure many are like myself and feel better keeping busy or at least doing things I feel are semi productive.
My wife can watch TV her whole day off. I can barely sit for an hour and watch something these days, I’d rather clean and listen to a podcast, read or at the minimum - play some vidya.
Playing video games is generally regarded as unproductive, so you’re in the same boat. Reading and listening to podcasts are things that are simultaneously demanded and disparaged because productivity messaging is incoherent, but whatever.
Yes. Human Being, not Human Working.
While I agree with most of the listed items -
- “Doing nothing is good for my soul”
It’s good to rest once in a while, but you thrive more likely while doing something meaningful rather than lie in bed all day.
.
- “My worth cannot be measured by my paycheck, my job title, or a list of professional or academic achievements”
While obviously not ALL worth can be found within the work life, one can find lots of meaningful things from their job. It can make one happy and offer many benefits that can help general life as well. And I wouldn’t be surprised if one earned some achievements through experience and good mentions on the way if you were passionate!
“Doing nothing is good for my soul”. It’s good to rest once in a while, but you thrive more likely while doing something meaningful rather than lie in bed all day.
It doesn’t say “rot in bed”. It’s giving you psyche permission to have a “do nothing” day an not regret it or may yourself feel guilty about it.
Yes, it does not. Still wanted to point it out, just in case 😄
- “Doing nothing is good for my soul”
