rfung - 4:33 am on Mar 15, 2005 (gmt 0)

It's just that I can see where other people think differently, have better job situations, truly love their conventional work lives and the social and other satisfactions it brings.

Warning: Bit of a rant - not necessarily directed at berto, but just other thoughts about this whole thing..

This may be a hardlined view of the world ( or some meta phylosophical Matrix-style BS :) ) but I assert that those people are happy within their scope of reality, as explained before. And, if they were presented say, with a winning lottery ticket (i.e the red pill - a shock to the system and to their concept of 'what my life should be'), I dare bet most would get away from their jobs, no matter how much they love it or enjoy it's social aspects. We work primarily because we get paid for it. Everything else you can get somewhere else.

That most people can't separate that, is why I feel people are trapped in the rat race and why I 'look down' on the corporate world. BTW, I've always felt like this ever since getting out of school, and in fact it was this longing for something more that made me fall into AM - the 'quarter-life' crisis, the 'is there more to life than this?' questions - I know most of my peers have at one point or another felt the same. So I either know the most depressive people in the world, or maybe there is something there that's real.

I was talking to another friend about these phases we go through - which happens a year or two after college life - her answer? "oh, my two brothers were feeling the same thing, until they realized they looked better for their age than others, had decent jobs and all in all they were doing okay with their lives". Decent jobs? Doing okay?....what da..? Society's inexorable hand bringing them back into her fold. Give it a couple years more, and they'll actually truly enjoy their life - within the scope of their reality :)

Like I said before all this rant - from my experience, I just can't believe "'most people' like working a 9-5" - Blasphemy!

Anyway - lest anyone think I should get off my high horse because I was able to be fairly successful - the only difference is that if I hadn't been, I'd be a depressed sod doing a very tedious 9-7 weekly routine until I learned to like what fate put on my plate, and start looking forward to getting yearly 2% raises, 1 extra day of vacations, and enjoying the weekends. Some people might enjoy working a 9-5. Most people don't.

Yours sincerely,
Neo.

:)

[edited by: rfung at 4:43 am (utc) on Mar. 15, 2005]