I hate jobs/careers with a burning, goddamn passion. In fact, I could claim that my life’s goal is to not have one of these things, and that every career maneuver I’ve ever performed has been with the goal of reducing the amount of people I’m required to take shit from. It’s amazing how high you can climb out of sheer annoyance.
The modern job is a complete abomination to humanity and has absolutely nothing to do with life’s work or purpose. Now, if you love your job, I am very happy for you, but I’m thinking that you may have a fair amount of cognitive dissonance happening — which is lucky. It’s hard to imagine a human being designing anything that I’ve ever seen termed “a job.” I believe it’s an unnatural act to wake up, go somewhere you don’t live at a time somebody tells you to be there, work on long series of tasks for 8-22 hours, then go back to where you live. Here’s a quick test:
- If somebody tells you when to eat lunch, you are not a free person.
- If you do something called, “vacation,” you are not a free person.
- If this “vacation” must be scheduled far in advance, you are not a free person.
- If you’ve ever wanted to walk away from the giver of money (called “job”) but didn’t, you are not a free person.
- If you are the “boss” but really — have a boss, you are not a free person.
Dont’ worry. I’m right in there too.
Whenever I meet somebody who claims to “looooove my job” I’m both skeptical and jealous. I’m skeptical because I think you may have realized a way to deal with the prospect of doing the same or similar shit for 40 or 50 years then dying. I’m jealous because I think you may have realized a way to deal with the prospect of doing the same or similar shit for 40 or 50 years then dying.
This is a similar reaction to people I meet who have found God. “But… but, I have Faith.” Oh, really? To me this type of leap is both incredibly awesome and incredibly naive. I am both skeptical and jealous, but I don’t dare scratch too hard at a person’s religion whether it be a Christianity or Corporationianity because I hate seeing people’s firm beliefs crumple in a fire. Anybody else see a Sunday/Monday connection? Anybody else think it’s convenient that an afterlife exists for people who are obedient and have Faith?
It’s going to be hard to convince me that jobs are meaningful regardless of what you do. It’s going to be equally difficult to convince me that God or an afterlife exist. I have spent so many years asking people about their jobs and their religion (I guess that’s considered impolite) and digging into the discomfort level, but I have never heard an adequate explanation. Inevitably people who are ready to defend their decisions (as we all are occasionally) will tell me they like their job because, “they get to help people.” Hee hee! I love it. Let’s examine these people we’re “helping” verses the people we should be helping…
- When you spend the VAST majority of your time and energy helping people who generally don’t really care if you live or die (I said, generally) are you really helpful?
- When the most important people in your life (assuming friends, family, and tribe) head to their respective institutional events everyday, how much are you really helping them? Is helping them paying for them to get some more of those jobs (think: school) in the long run?
- When the goal of nearly every job is to retire, can this really be considered your life’s work? Should it be? Isn’t retirement sort of a release from a type of sentencing? Isn’t corporate retirement like an afterlife? And, who is most excited that you’re retiring? I’ve been to dozens of retirement ceremonies and the toughest guys always cry and everybody else forgets about it 20 minutes later once the cake is gone.
- Can you remotely help your tribe without being physically present? Does money compensate for or replace your hands, heart, and mind?
But, listen, I’m really not judging. Do you know how many times I’ve played the “help people” card when discussing my job? In fact, I’d say that the more people you can justify “helping” the more respectable you may become. I’ve received medals for helping people. Of course, you may be fucking over the people who need you the most and ultimately fucking yourself over. Our choice.
I’m going to tell you a secret. You know the heroes we’ve been discussing lately? The cops, firefighters, soldiers, doctors, etc? They don’t really give a fuck about you the way you see in a movie or TV show. Of course, you already know that. Here’s the secret that you’ll have to lean in close to hear….ready? They get paid for that shit. It’s their job. Most of them become emotionally attached to their surrogate family and work for them — not you.
Once it became their job, they cared a little less. The obligation that money demanded sullied the purpose — maybe not at first, but it’s nearly universal. Most of the greatest minds I’ve ever encountered were flooded with just enough money to keep them quiet and focused on their jobs.
Now, if you’re disagreeing — just think: Why are you on this website? Did you work on your job shit this weekend because you really, really wanted to? Or, did you intentionally escape your job shit? If so, why would you escape your life’s work if that was what a job represented?
Free people exist, but it’s becoming increasingly rare. I’m not bullshitting when I say that I want to be one of them, and I want you to be one of them. I think free people have a certain understanding of the world that all the other human cogs can’t or won’t understand. Once we look around and ask questions like, “do I really need to be here?” we are challenging a system that does not give a fuck about you or your family. It is a system of order that we have created to serve a minority.
Crush this system — one by one. It’s time for it to fucking die. It is time to be free
