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I don’t know where my life is headed

HomeForumsPurposeI don’t know where my life is headed

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  • #270843
    Brandy
    Participant

    Hey Ramsey,

    I agree that if someone steals in order to survive he shouldn’t be required to do jail time, and I agree that it’s tragic when a person is evicted from his home because he’s unable to pay his mortgage.

    You know someone who was jailed for not paying medical bills? Not paying medical bills can result in lower credit scores but jail time I haven’t heard of yet.

    You know of a fire department that allowed homes to burn down because the homeowners didn’t pay them? In the US firefighters are paid by state, local and sometimes federal governments I believe, not directly by homeowners so I don’t get this.

    Each company has its own culture. Yes, you are right, some are concerned with only the bottom line, but what you may not know is that others want very much to keep their employees happy. I wish that in all your observations, reading, or wherever you’re getting your info you’d come across this. You have strong opinions about how companies work which is totally fine by me except that you haven’t actually worked for a company yet.

    Earlier on this thread you said I want my time to be under MY control and nobody else’s. I also don’t want money. I just want to be able to craft my own life, and live it by my own terms. No IRS, no bills, no loans, NO EFFING BOSSES, nobody from the outside world there to bother me, nothing. I just want peace. But in the human world, peace is nonexistent and unattainable because we believe in a world where things HAVE to get done; I don’t.

    I respect your opinion very much but I also disagree with it very much. I believe that in the human world peace DOES exist and IS attainable but also that things DO need to get done. Let’s just agree to disagree on this. 🙂

    B

    #271031
    Ramsey
    Participant

    “Let’s just agree to disagree on this.” I mean, we can. But doing so is only to ignore that capitalism promises infinite growth of commodified material wealth in a finite world. So, sure. There may be people who are experts in certain things and that’s why they should be allowed to get paid for providing them to those who need them, but soon we’re gonna run so low on resources that the prices are gonna go so far up that nobody’s gonna be able to afford them except for those with… money. That’s a very real threat to our society. But sure, we’ll just keep working for money- which will continue going down in value- until people start wars over water, food, and land (the latter of which three has always been an issue with humans) because there won’t be enough to go around for the growing population.

    #271055
    Brandy
    Participant

    Fair enough, Ramsey. We do need to agree to disagree because I will always lean toward capitalism and away from socialism, but I am hoping that others who have opinions that are more congruent to yours will share them with you here on your thread.

    I’m impressed with you, Ramsey. You’re a much deeper thinker than I was when I had recently graduated from college. I like that you and I can espouse opposing political philosophies and still treat each other with respect.

    Happy new year!

    B

    #271149
    Anonymous
    Guest

    Dear Ramsey:

    One  thing is very clear: you are a very angry young man. Your anger is like intense fire and  it keeps burning. What is the use of that fire,  I ask  myself.

    You wrote: “I know society  is not going to change so I don’t really see a  point in trying ‘to be the  change I want  to  see in the world’. Maybe if more people felt  like me I’d be  able to start some  kind of movement, but there aren’t enough people who so, so again, what’s the point?”-

    Politics then is not a use for your anger. No  existing political movement is burning  with that fire  that consumes you,  so there  is no  party for you to join. You are burning alone.

    Let’s look at  your anger: “NONE OF us told our parents  to conceive us so why are we expected  to be grateful..?”. You are angry because someone expects you to be grateful for a life  you didn’t ask  for. You are angry at “people in positions  of authority that they think they earned” but didn’t. You are  angry at  anyone who would “bend us  to his  every whim”, at being “someone’s pawn”, at people who “control EVERYTHING we do from eating, sleeping..”, for not having “free will”,  for not having “control over one’s own life”, for not having or expecting “my time to  be under MY control and nobody else’s”, for  not being able or expecting to be able to “craft my own life, and  live it  by my own terms”, for having to pay  for things that should be free, for paying or expected to be  paying bills and loans and the IRS, for having people “from the outside world there to  bother me”, angry at “EFFING BOSES”, at the “predatory elite”, and  you are  angry at  people who brushed you  “off as depressed”, for “never taken seriously”.

    I am willing to take you seriously. Can you quiet down that fire, that rage,  just enough so that I can see you better? The fire, the smoke is clouding my vision of you.

    anita

    #272123
    Ramsey
    Participant

    Okay here. I think that human beings have overlooked the potential effects that our domestication of each other is having on us. We have to answer to too many demands- demands that ONLY exist because of our  dependence on money/human productivity. However, I don’t believe that humans were meant to work as much as they do- 2/52 weeks to themselves d during those weeks only 2/7 days to themselves and their families, and out of those days ~7 hours to themseves and their families. Mental illness is on the rise and I think that having forced ourselves into domestication is the main contributing factor to this sense of dissatisfaction- I mean, 70% of people (in the US, at least) aren’t satisfied with their work- which is too big a number to overlook, but I don’t necessarily think that it’s only the TYPE of job that is the cause for dissatisfaction; I think it’s the having of a job itself; the sacrifice of one person’s time to another’s authority which ultimately decides whether you’re worthy of your pay (which one needs to survive). This is wrong; no person should be allowed to determine whether other people are allowed to survive; no one person should be considered above anybody else because at the end of the day, we’re all going to die and then decay; nobody looks at the skeleton of a former king and says “wow his bones are SOOOOO regal!” No; everyone’s bones are the same; everyone uses the bathroom and picks up after their dog. We are all the SAME and yet we allow accumulation of money- something that was never present in our nature to begin with- to distinguish ourselves over others. Which gives regular people feelings of inadequacy because  we’re never gonna be able to accumulate as much money as the super rich- who’ve achieved their goals thru the manipulation of numbers/peoples’ time while there are people who can barely afford to feed their families despite being on welfare and working multiple jobs. This is another potential contributing factor to the rise in mental illness- a sense of hopelessness; a sense of wonder as to where their next meal will come from- but hard work IS the answer (despite how hard they’re working already and how little time they get to spend with their families)- while rich warmongers, and resource thieves can spend barely any time working because their jobs require very little if any energy at all- we’re busy doing all their grunt work. They get to retire early and live comfortable lives while everyone else works their asses off and has to decide how “responsible” they want to be with their money- as though that was something that EVERYONE collectively agreed upon. But no, the majority of people HAVE to worry about the potential of going hungry because of a system that is drivin by greed; we HAVE to worry about allocating family/friend time because if we get too consumed in our jobs, we just end up tired and not wanting to do anything with anybody, and we have to deal with mental health disorders that I believe are caused by excess stress, minimal autonomy over one’s body, and lack of personal time/time spent in nature all of which are integral to the advancement of American capitalism because our society relies on the subversion/suppression of human nature in order to survive- which is mentally unhealthy.

    • This reply was modified 5 years, 3 months ago by Ramsey.
    #272173
    Mark
    Participant

    Funny you mentioned Nike.  I worked there and found that the most stressful job I ever worked in my 40 years.

    If you are in your 20s then I recommend to continue to explore what you gives you the “juice” to be engaged in life and the world around you.  If you don’t know then take classes, adult ed things, volunteer to get out of your head and self centered life.

    Make sense?

    Mark

    #272219
    Ramsey
    Participant

    Can you give me any recommendations?  I feel like I had lost my ”juice” once I graduated. I didn’t have a plan throughout college because I didn’t know what to study, so I settled for history. Now, I don’t have ANY relevant experience to put on my resume and I’ve been stuck at home for the past 7 months; but I don’t want to get a job that I’m gonna have to settle for like I did with my major; and I CERTAINLY don’t want a job that’s gonna bore the crap outta me. But nobody will hire me, I’m injured so i can’t exercise, I’m getting fat again, I don’t get out and see things, I didn’t make friends in college, I still have yet to even KISS a woman, and I’m supposed to just think “Hey, it’s normal for entry level jobs to require 2 years of experience, and you’ll find a woman, Ramsey; don’t worry; just keep looking up and things will eventually look up with you!”, but I’ve been staring too long at the sky; my head’s in the clouds and I’ve been blinded by the sun, so I’ve lost sight of myself, my purpose, and everything that’s made me me over the course of my life thus far and the last thing I wanna do is confine myself to a lifetime of working as someone else’s “employee” so I can maintain the rest of this oh-so-wonderful life that I didn’t ask for but am REQUIRED to be happy and grateful for, regardless of whether I had any say in the matter. Do I want to keep thinking like this, no… but I’ve never been one to think positively about myself so I don’t know how to not think so pessimistically.

    #272395
    Anonymous
    Guest

    Dear Ramsey:

    “Ramsey; don’t worry; just keep looking up and things will eventually look  up with you!” is a useless advice for you. You need  guidance, maybe guidance from a man, not a woman (seems like you opened up a bit to a man on your thread, not to a woman like me?)

    But you do need guidance. With adequate guidance you can do very well in life, professionally and in a future love relationship that you will choose for yourself.

    If you want me to attempt to provide you with some guidance, probably not adequate, but well meaning guidance, where I will be attentive and listen to you well, let  me know.

    anita

    #279171
    Ramsey
    Participant

    Dear Anita,

    I’m sorry if I gave off that impression. I just got tired of talking/thinking in circles and decided to open up a little bit.  I just don’t wanna wait until I’m 65 or older to stop working  because that’s not fair.  This whole “retirement age“ thing is bull, and having people  work their entire lives away for a society that was not part of nature’s plan is inhumane in my opinion. Animal rights organizations may be a little on the crazy side, but they’re 134% right when they talk about the effects of domestication on non-human animals; and as I’ve said before, I think that domestic life has the same effect on humans, but I’m going back into that circular cycle.

    Regardless of whether or not I can find a job I lime, at its very core, employment is slavery,  because like I’ve said before, we only have contextual freedom-  and in this context, it’s freedom on someone else’s terms; freedom to spend money… but that’s it. And for some odd reason, being required to do everything that a person is required to do with in our society, is considered freedom and I just don’t see how that’s true-  especially if you look at what happens to people who don’t have jobs and how they’re treated/regarded by people who do have jobs and money. Sure there are people out there who work to help those people, but the general populace does not give a sh*t about anybody who suffering at the hands of the system; and that’s partially because we believe that everyone’s fate is within their own hands; and while that may have some truth to it, it’s not entirely true…  The way I see it, every institution is bought, and is thus pursuaded to brainwash us into thinking the way that most of us do; that spending more time working a job than taking care of yourself/your family is a noble way to live. But I don’t see working a job as part of life, but rather as theft of life; regardless of how you wanna soften that. I get that all the things that work takes us away from- our families, our homes, our pets, eating, showering, etc., is all considered work, and that there’s no avoiding work and that we’d still have to do those things if work magically disappeared, but working a job by which we can make money just adds more work to our lives; and a lot of people end up neglecting themselves, their families so that they can “at least be alive,” but what’s the point of being alive if ALL you have to focus on is working/falling into trouble if you can’t get your stuff done? In addition to all my loneliness, and my inability to exercise, I don’t want to add something that’s gonna bring on an entirely new realm of stress, even if I like doing it. But… recently, I’ve been writing a lot- essays, letters, but mostly lyrics (to which I’ve received lots of good feedback) so we’ll see how far that gets me.

    -RA

    #279173
    Ramsey
    Participant

    My point is that this is not how we were meant to live, and I don’t want to do all that until I’m 65 and can only spend my older years enjoying a life of not being employed.

    #279207
    Anonymous
    Guest

    Dear Ramsey:

    As you read my following post to you, and future posts, form the intent to read it calmly, if you can, if you are willing. Take a few deep breaths. Don’t prepare to fight as you read on. I am not here to fight, I am not here to threaten you. I m here to try to help you and to learn more about people and life through my interaction with you.

    Consider what I write to you, don’t automatically reject it. If you do that, you and I can have a reasonable conversation here. It will take back and forth communication over a period of time. It is up to you to engage with me or not, and it  is your choice to stop at any time.

    You wrote in your recent post: “having people work their entire lives away for a society that was not part of nature’s plan is inhumane”-

    By “nature’s plan” I assume you mean people helping each other, having win-win interactions, not win-lose, not taking advantage of others’ weaknesses or unfortunate circumstances. Did I understand correctly?

    anita

    #279213
    Ramsey
    Participant

    Yes; and I believe that these unfortunate circumstances wouldn’t be present if it weren’t for the presence of money, authority, and all the social norms and ideas that have spawned about people who are regularly taken advantage of within the context of our current society. But my grievances extend way beyond just the destitute and those who don’t have jobs that can give them a “good quality of life.”

    #279217
    Anonymous
    Guest

    Dear Ramsey:

    Can you list your grievances, not elaborating on each, but listing each in a clear sentence?

    anita

    #279223
    Ramsey
    Participant

    All of us are being exploited- despite level of happiness with work.

    People who can’t find work and are living on the streets get the sh*t end of everyone’s stick because “they didn’t work hard enough,” or “they’re junkies”- which is totally unfair to their circumstances.

    Money forces people to be doing things that we don’t wanna be doing because we have to survive- which is bull because if it weren’t for private ownership, there would be a more equitable chance at living for everyone; not just for those who aren’t rich.

    The need for money also forces people to have to work long hours away from other things that are necessary, but we’re lead to believe that sacrifice is the only way to maintain the things that are important to us- which I believe is true to an extent, but needing to sacrifice most of our time isn’t noble; it’s coercion- because those with money want our money and will therefore give us the means to live in exchange, but this hierarchy is arbitrary and needs to be dismantled.

    The rise in mental illness is most likely a direct result of us living domestic lives and disregarding the fact that we need to take some time to ourselves and 2 weeks-1 month out of a year is clearly not doing anything to ease peoples’ minds and keep them satisfied.

     

    #279231
    Mark
    Participant

    Ramsey,

    I sense that you are an angry and sad young man.

    I’m not sure why you are here except to vent, which is OK.  It does not seem that you are looking for advice or answers.

    I thought I’d throw this out for you to either consider or disregard. The Peace Corps.  It gives people an opportunity to do something good for others (i.e. get out of our own misery and circumstances) and to experience different cultures and geographies.  Or if you stay in the U.S. there is Americorps.

    I wish you well on your journey.

    Mark

     

     

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