Each paragraph of the article on pre-designed lifestyles reveals intense depths of ignorance about the causes of the author’s own experiences. It is impossible for me to understand how one can be so indifferent and so lacking in curiosity about his or her own psychological states. This indifference is masked by generalizations:
The ultimate tool for corporations to sustain a culture of this sort is to develop the 40-hour workweek as the normal lifestyle. Under these working conditions people have to build a life in the evenings and on weekends. This arrangement makes us naturally more inclined to spend heavily on entertainment and conveniences because our free time is so scarce.
The feeling that work is not life and is extremely painful is the author’s personal experience which s/he projects onto humanity at large. It is easier to hide in a crowd, albeit an imaginary one, from a realization that one is not very good at managing one’s own life. If working is so painful to you that it feels like you are dead during the working hours and if, instead of using normal and healthy compensatory mechanisms, you need to compensate so heavily for working, this simply means that you have chosen the wrong career.
I’ve only been back at work for a few days, but already I’m noticing that the more wholesome activities are quickly dropping out of my life: walking, exercising, reading, meditating, and extra writing. The one conspicuous similarity between these activities is that they cost little or no money, but they take time.
Actually, if this author weren’t as obsessed with money (which in itself is a sign of psychological problems), s/he would notice that these activities have something far more significant in common: they require an investment of energy. This person’s job is a drain on his/her energy to the point where s/he is nearly incapacitated outside of working hours. Normally, one’s job should be a source of extra energy. None of this is about society, culture, the media, the corporate world, or any of the other imaginary foes the immature love to blame for their troubles. All such people need to do is look for a different job.
The culmination of this manifesto of extreme immaturity consists of the author projecting and generalizing in a way I cannot qualify as anything other than a fit of hysteria:
But the 8-hour workday is too profitable for big business, not because of the amount of work people get done in eight hours (the average office worker gets less than three hours of actual work done in 8 hours) but because it makes for such a purchase-happy public. Keeping free time scarce means people pay a lot more for convenience, gratification, and any other relief they can buy. It keeps them watching television, and its commercials. It keeps them unambitious outside of work. We’ve been led into a culture that has been engineered to leave us tired, hungry for indulgence, willing to pay a lot for convenience and entertainment, and most importantly, vaguely dissatisfied with our lives so that we continue wanting things we don’t have. We buy so much because it always seems like something is still missing.
This completely unhinged and bizarre monologue is a normal reaction of an extremely immature person who is baffled by and terrified of the world of adults. One of the most telling signs of immaturity is the incapacity to own one’s problems. Instead of saying “I’m dissatisfied with my life and feel like something crucial is missing from it”, they attribute their own experience to everybody else and assign the responsibility for it to some undefined outside authority. Of course, if you in no way caused your own problems, you cannot be expected to solve them. This position is very convenient in that it allows one to avoid doing anything to address the situation. Whining impotently becomes the only course of action that is open to one.
Proving that nothing can be done to change one’s life was, of course, the only goal of this article.
The linked blogger ends the article the following way:
The perfect customer is dissatisfied but hopeful, uninterested in serious personal development, highly habituated to the television, working full-time, earning a fair amount, indulging during their free time, and somehow just getting by.
Is this you?
No, my friend. The person who is uninterested in serious personal development is you. And “big business” or the Industrial Revolution are not to blame for this. Only you are.
Clarissa's Blog 
And this post reveals intense depths of your ignorance about the other’s experiences.
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Neurotics (like this author) like to believe that their neuroses are evidence of a unique and complex personality. However, that is not the case. There is no special and unique “experience” described in the linked article. Just an immature person whose analysis is very superficial and boring.
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The problem is not there.
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And this post reveals intense depths of your ignorance about others’ experiences.
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“Proving that nothing can be done to change one’s life was, of course, the only goal of this article.”
Ding ding ding!
I have a feeling his audience desperately needs to hear that.
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This is a message that sells. BIG TIME.
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Thank you for taking the time to write about the blog post! Your perspectives are frequently very different than mine, so I always find your posts on human nature to be interesting and informative. Thanks again!
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Thank you for the interesting link!
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On one hand, many people don’t have the skills/knowledge of what job they would like, or how to get it. On the other hand, this discussion reminds me of something I read by bell hooks about how our personal attitude should be positive, since we are providing labor to our economy (I think that was the gist of it), so culturally, I think people don’t value their own work enough to enjoy it, because they don’t truly think that what they do is important.
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*personal attitude toward work/our job
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Since almost nobody of your fucktard sycophant readers, except Kellen, seem to have open their lights about anything in this post, I’ll be the bastard.
Let’s begin by this:
“The feeling that work is not life and is extremely painful is the author’s personal experience which s/he projects onto humanity at large.”
This is your projection.
“It is easier to hide in a crowd, albeit an imaginary one, from a realization that one is not very good at managing one’s own life.”
Probably, but his/her problem is not his/her job, it’s that he spend too much money, so his/her job seems to be more “necessary” to him/her.
“If working is so painful to you that it feels like you are dead during the working hours and if, instead of using normal and healthy compensatory mechanisms, you need to compensate so heavily for working…”
This begins well but, you vomit that following shithead bullshit:
“this simply means that you have chosen the wrong career.”
If this schizophrenic delirium tremens was always true, welfare departments in USA would be really broke, not “broke because we should control people by police civil war and fighting so-called “terrorists” who are against our corporate interests to give more contracts to our Super PAC contributors”, but REALLY broke …or capitalism is already abolished and I don’t know it.
“Actually, if this author weren’t as obsessed with money (which in itself is a sign of psychological problems), s/he would notice that these activities have something far more significant in common: they require an investment of energy”
That’s correct.
“This person’s job is a drain on his/her energy to the point where s/he is nearly incapacitated outside of working hours.”
I agree, but again, if he would spend less, his/her job would be less necessary to him/her.
“Normally, one’s job should be a source of extra energy. ”
This is your projection, again.
“None of this is about society, culture, the media, the corporate world, or any of the other imaginary foes the immature love to blame for their troubles.”
So why her/his job sucks ass? Again, this is a blend of his fault and external factors probably but you have no problem to re-vomit this same following bullshit:
“All such people need to do is look for a different job.”
If this schizophrenic delirium tremens was always true, your sister would be broke and you would say to her: THIS IS YOUR FAULT, YOU CHOSE THE WRONG CAREER!
Choicey choice is so empowering in capitalism! We all found the pinnacle in choicey choice capitalism! God bless capitalism!
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“If this schizophrenic delirium tremens was always true, your sister would be broke and you would say to her: THIS IS YOUR FAULT, YOU CHOSE THE WRONG CAREER!”
– This actually happened. 🙂 She was in a wrong career, miserable, suffering, etc. And then she left the company and started a new career and now she is very happy. I did not raise her in the model where I would say robotically “Good job! You tried hard!” to everything she does.
“Normally, one’s job should be a source of extra energy. ”
This is your projection, again.”
– You don’t really understand the meaning of the word “projection.”
Look, each of us has just one life to live. Just a single one. And there are two options: 1. You can live miserably, suffer and talk about society, culture and the media. 2. You can first achieve a state of happiness for yourself and organize your own existence and then discuss society, culture and the media. I can give suggestions on how to follow scenario #2. The linked blogger can give suggestions on how to follow scenario #1. And it’s everybody’s own decision which path they prefer.
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“And then she left the company and started a new career and now she is very happy.”
That’s great, but the problem is that she would be broke if everybody would love his job.
“Normally, one’s job should be a source of extra energy.”
I repeat: this is your projection onto humanity at large.
“2. You can first achieve a state of happiness for yourself and organize your own existence and then discuss society, culture and the media. I can give suggestions on how to follow scenario #2.”
TRYING to achieve, trying…
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“That’s great, but the problem is that she would be broke if everybody would love his job.’
– ???? People graduate, emigrate, procreate, relocate, etc. and start looking for new jobs all the time. Or they look for jobs they love even more.
““Normally, one’s job should be a source of extra energy.”
I repeat: this is your projection onto humanity at large.”
– Do you think one’s job should be a drain on one’s energy? That is preferable to it being a source of energy?
““2. You can first achieve a state of happiness for yourself and organize your own existence and then discuss society, culture and the media. I can give suggestions on how to follow scenario #2.”
TRYING to achieve, trying…”
– That’s good. Then what’s the problem?
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“???? People graduate, emigrate, procreate, relocate, etc. and start looking for new jobs all the time. Or they look for jobs they love even more.”
If everybody would love his job, her business would be at least plumetting (maybe “broke” was too harsh) because there will be almost only relocations.
“Do you think one’s job should be a drain on one’s energy?”
No, but this is the case for the vast majority of workers.
“That is preferable to it being a source of energy?”
No, I wish that everybody find that their job is a source a energy but this is not the case for the vast majority of workers.
I’m glad that we seem to agree about “trying”. 🙂
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“If everybody would love his job, her business would be at least plumetting (maybe “broke” was too harsh) because there will be almost only relocations.”
– That’s not how recruitment works. Nobody is all that interested in placing the miserable and the discontented.
““Do you think one’s job should be a drain on one’s energy?”
No, but this is the case for the vast majority of workers.”
– So you agree that “one’s job should be a source of extra energy”? So what are we arguing about? 🙂 🙂
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“Nobody is all that interested in placing the miserable and the discontented.”
And if there’s no jobs or if there’s only shitty jobs, what do we do?
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“So you agree that “one’s job should be a source of extra energy”? ”
Absolutely! But this is not the case for the vast majority of workers.
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““So you agree that “one’s job should be a source of extra energy”? ”
Absolutely! But this is not the case for the vast majority of workers.”
– Then what are we arguing about?
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It’s not so easy to choose the “good” career, especially when no viable option is available. Talk to prostitutes and welfare recievers about it…
As a former statistician (as a second option behind teacher, which I couldn’t do it seemed (sic) ) who has abandoned this because of the lack of jobs, I decide to try the almost impossible thing to become a teacher, because this is the only thing that I can do seriously. Humm, I have more chances to be an eternal student…maybe to be an eternal student is a good choice of career, in fact.
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I know it isn’t easy. But the article’s author is so absorbed in making a lot of money that s/he is not even trying.
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Fair enough, I agree that he should try more.
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“Since almost nobody of your fucktard sycophant readers”
Wow, that was really uncalled for. Go to hell.
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I hope the author is aware of the global trend toward casualization of the workforce. Some people see this as a negative trend, but she might be someone who could benefit.
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Such a materialistic person will not be able to deal. This whole article was only written because this person hates working but loves spending.
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Yes, yes. I think so, too. It’s hard to miss the casualization of the workforce, so the issue is obviously being overlooked on purpose.
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Okay, now that I’ve cleared the air… 😉
I read that article a few weeks ago, and while I liked some of the things it said (it is healthier to not work so much at a job we hate and better for our wallets if we don’t spend all our money on little comfort things, and so on) I took his anti-corporate ranting with a huge grain of salt. This Raptitude site is one of those websites that are the latest manifestation of the American custom of “self-improvement” — itself a compensatory act and a way of diverting ourselves from making any real change in the world (instead we’re urged to “make ourselves better first, because how can we have the nerve to think we can change the world when we ourselves aren’t “perfected” yet? — as you can see it’s also a very Protestant Christian way of acting, “works” and so on). These websites are always coming up with gems like “you don’t have to own a lot of stuff to be happy!” and “working at a dull job sucks!” as if they’d found a missing book of the Bible with new revelations about Jesus. They intrigue me, in a way, and as most of these people are also into food (they’re either foodies or vegans or low-carbing it or something, more of that “self-improvement” thing) I often find interesting new recipes via their sites. But for all their talk about “mindfulness” and so on I find that most of these self-improvement junkies are, as you pointed out, actually not very insightful about themselves and have only the shallowest ideas of what motivates people.
By the way, I do have lots of quarrels with the way the working world is set up, but it’s not a conspiracy to do anything, it just came about to be the way it is because it worked best, and things that don’t work anymore do tend to get changed because — here’s a stunner — people will eventually stop doing things they don’t want to do. Obviously this does not happen smoothly, and there can be setbacks and backtracking (especially if your culture is materialistic and unreflective, as America’s is) — see the fertilizer plant explosion in Texas recently. The answer, of course, isn’t more grousing and complaining about being powerless against some group of malevolent corporate gods; that’s just another way of saying “I can’t have fun because mommy won’t let me!”
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That’s the first time I read this blog and I’m not likely to go back. I was very put off by the self-congratulatory tone and by the image of a spoiled individual who’s upset that s/he can’t go on doing nothing in perpetuity. I also really hate the idea that people consume against their will because commercials. If commercials daunt them so much, they could stop watching them. I haven’t seen any commercials in months and haven’t really missed them. It’s the same with people who are hugely traumatized by thin models in magazines, yet begin to unravel when I suggest that one could very easily avoid buying these magazines.
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Oh my gosh, yes, the idea that commercials and magazines are some sort of unstoppable, irresistible force needs to die in a fire. It’s nothing but an excuse, and a way of ignoring the actual roots of what’s wrong with the way we do things. Also, as someone on my twitter feed pointed out, railing against “consumerism” and telling people money doesn’t buy happiness is another way of keeping the poor down and making sure money doesn’t leave the pockets of the people who already have it. See all those slams against people on welfare who buy large cars (so they can take their entire family and also large cars are somewhat safer on the road) and cell phones (which can be had cheaply and are a necessity for reasons of safety in this day and age). Yes, this completely contradicts the capitalist drive to get everyone to strive for more money and success, but the urge of the powerful to keep hold of their power isn’t rational.
As for women and girls who have trouble dealing with the thin body ideal, blaming that on magazines also diverts attention from the real problem, which is a society of people who treat each other like objects they own, not individuals who have a right to exist.
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