in a similar vein
Why do people spend their whole lives in a job they don't like, working for a boss they can't stand, not making the slightest bit of difference to people around them? Job satisfaction? Minimal. For the money? Probably, but is it worth it? When do they get a chance to spend it? Two weeks a year on holiday somewhere fancy? The daily commute in the big flash car? The large soulless house that they spend so little time in? So their kids can have the best education, yet they don't see their kids growing up, don't show them sufficient love, and half the time the kids turn out spoilt and messed up.
I think society has messed itself up in such a big way. The materialistic rat race has sucked us in like a sultry harlot, promising us false futures, only for us to reach retirement age and ask "what did I acheive?".
I can keep ranting and raving about this all day, but I will leave it to one of the finest actors of our generation (extra brownie points if you guess the actor and film):
"What if I told you insane was working fifty hours a week in some office for fifty years at the end of which they tell you to piss off; ending up in some retirement village hoping to die before suffering the indignity of trying to make it to the toilet on time? Wouldn't you consider that to be insane?"
TRK
posted by TRK @ 12:39 AM
6 comments
6 Comments:
This is a great point. I have been working a job that I am not at all enthusiastic about for the past several years (because I felt the need to not live on the street), and the tediousness of it finally pushed me to go back to school so that I can do something that I actually find meaningful and would make a difference in others' lives.
Unfortunately a lot of people would rather sell their soul to have material possessions because they let their material possessions define who they are rather than taking the effort to grow internally. Many are not happy with who they are so they want others to look at the outside, which is often much more distinguished and put together than any internal self. It is really sad. Then, because of this insecurity, they project to everyone else that the material is important and people scramble to "keep up with the Joneses."
Luckily, there are a few who see through it, and make the effort to refine their inner selves, spend their time doing meaningful work, and have a life worth living.
thanks shoshana,
I think a lot of people need the strength and encouragement to say money isn't everything, who cares what other people think or say. Keep spreading the message, and good luck.
TRK
Lester Burnham, no?
Wait, no, scratch that. Conair.
it doesn't really matter how inane or tedious your job may be, what you do for a living is not always so important, you can be on of the thousands of faceless bureaucrats working on some idiotic project, that you care nothing about and in the end it is pointless, but as long as you find meaning in your life, as long as you find some ideal for you to live for, as long as you have something you commit yourself to, then your life, no matter what you profession is, is meaningful. you can be an amazing doctor saving little children from cancer or something but if you live your life for nothing then have you really lived, regardless of your job?? if you commit yourself to a set of ideals, like your religion, then no matter what you do or where you live, your life will have meaning to you. that is what society needs to discover, that not everything is about what others think of you, its more important what you think about yourself
CB, well done.
Chai, to a certain degree it depends on whether you yourself find meaning in what you do - cf Victor Frankel for some excellent work on this - everyone must read Man's Search for Meaning, it blew me away. But most of us have some idea what is considered more fulfilling and what is less. And many of us choose jobs and career paths based on financial success and ambition. We can clothe it in meaning if we want, but often it is a see-through loincloth, covering nothing.
TRK
Post a Comment
<< Home