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Hey friends. I'm feeling philosophical, so try and bear with me. I actually thought about this last night, thanks to an eruption of coffee-educed energy, but we'll see what I can remember.
Rob and I were on the topic of capitalism. I have a pretty big gripe with it. We spend such a huge portion of our life working so that we can afford to live comfortably. But what is living comfortably? In our society, living "happily" translates into a decent house, being able to pay all your bills, take two weeks of vacation every year (!!), and perhaps buy a few fancy gadgets every once in awhile.
This doesn't work for me. Not because I want a ton of wealth. And not because I don't want to work. It's kind of the opposite. I rather have very little as far as money or possessions go, but do what I love for a living. Doesn't that make more sense?
Going back to my last post, Lanark presents this issue in an interesting way. In the novel, characters can obtain things by giving up time in their future. At first this sounded like pure fantasy -- but it couldn't be further from the truth. That's how capitalism works.
If you get your money by working 40 hours a week, like most people, it's really just a physical representation of your time. For example, my time each week translates to around $600. With that, I can pay my bills, buy camera equipment, or take a train into New York. But I lose 40 hours of my life each week in order to earn these luxuries. [Don't get me wrong, I definitely don't hate my job, nor do I have it tough. I just would rather be exploring the world and taking pictures. You know, the "dream job" scenario.]
Wouldn't it be nice to spend the majority of our lives doing things that make us the happiest? But I guess that's just not how America works. [At least, for most of the middle to lower classes.]
I guess the moral of this story is simple. Time is all we really have. It's our truest possession. Spend it wisely. I wish I had the cushion of a religion to comfort me with thoughts of an afterlife or reincarnation. But that's another story.
5 comments:
Another moral to be derived from this is that capitalism worked for awhile, now it's kinda sucking, so lets figure out something better.
Check out the first chapter of Walden. Thoreau fleshes out this topic with you.
Good point, I need to reread Thoreau. I haven't touched it since high school.
I like the general idea of your post, but I want to question a few things. Don't take offense: I wouldn't write a comment if I didn't like the entry!
This doesn't seem like an issue specific to capitalism. In any functional modern society, socialist included, the roles that need to be filled will not match the interests of the people enough to allow most people to do exactly what they want to. Even if you lived off the land, you'd still end up spending a lot of time doing things like gathering food, making clothes and repairing your shelter, which may take up a considerable amount of your time. On top of that, people doing what they love as a living will still often be at the mercy of others in some ways, like if no one liked your photographs it wouldn't matter if you could theoretically do it as a living.
My solution is to find a job that allows me to stay away from things that stress me out, and allows some level of enjoyment even while I am working. I actually gave up on what I thought was my dream job, but that's a topic for my own blog... :-)
Good comment, and not at all creepy! ;)
I see what you're saying. I was trying to think of a solution to my gripes, but there really isn't one. No society is perfect in that way.
So I suppose my dream would be for ideals to shift a little bit. We tend to pursue wealth and material possessions (which seems to be a major goal in a capitalist society). And to get stuff, we need to have money, and to have money we must work a lot (the general population, not including the upper classes which already have wealth).
Perhaps I'd like to see a society that isn't so expensive to enjoy. I would like to see parents raising their children, rather than paying a nanny to do it because they both have to work 40 hours a week. No job, no matter how enjoyable, should cut into time with your loved ones.
But in short, I do agree with your solution. A job that provides comfort, with a degree of enjoyment, will suffice.
Personally, I'm not unhappy with my job -- I'm more discontent with some of my loved ones' work paths. My father, for example, has always worked terrible hours at a job he can't stand. But he can't quit because he has little experience doing anything else, and the money/benefits have him roped in for the long hall.
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