Era Might Posted June 11, 2013 Share Posted June 11, 2013 Anyone have any advice on surviving a useless life? Not a hard life, but a useless life. Laborers have a hard life, but a hard life is not necessarily useless. I know all the advice about finding meaning, doing your best with what you got, blah blah blah. I'm not made out for that kind of self-help stuff. I sit in the office and look around and literally it doesn't matter what I do. Work, don't work, doesn't matter...do good work, do poor work, nobody would know the difference. Maybe I should just be grateful I have decent check...but I'm not motivated by that. What are the alternative options? Bide my time and wait for something better? I don't have that kind of patience, and there is nothing better...this is the pinnacle of my life, and anything better will just be another rat race. This post is the only thing keeping me from throwing my coffee mug against the wall and leaving. In another life I would do that, but I have bills to pay and mouths to feed...and even that's not enough motivation to me. I honestly don't know how to find meaning in meaningless...I've tried, but I don't have it in me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HisChildForever Posted June 11, 2013 Share Posted June 11, 2013 You need to find work that you're passionate about. Will it be easy? No. But you have to take that first step and start job hunting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Era Might Posted June 11, 2013 Author Share Posted June 11, 2013 You need to find work that you're passionate about. Will it be easy? No. But you have to take that first step and start job hunting. That's meaningless advice. Passion doesn't pay the bills. (I appreciate the advice, just saying that I don't agree with it). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dUSt Posted June 11, 2013 Share Posted June 11, 2013 Rap. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Apotheoun Posted June 11, 2013 Share Posted June 11, 2013 Stop looking for meaning, and just live your meaningless life. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Era Might Posted June 11, 2013 Author Share Posted June 11, 2013 Stop looking for meaning, and just live your meaningless life. This is an option...maybe the only one, but it's bound to end badly. Society revolves around meaning...why else do we get up every day except for Folgers in your cup! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Apotheoun Posted June 11, 2013 Share Posted June 11, 2013 This is an option...maybe the only one, but it's bound to end badly. Society revolves around meaning...why else do we get up every day except for Folgers in your cup! It has worked for me. Besides, what society sees as "meaning" I see is nonsense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Era Might Posted June 11, 2013 Author Share Posted June 11, 2013 (edited) It has worked for me. Besides, what society sees as "meaning" I see is nonsense. We are in different situations. I agree with you in theory, but gold makes the world go round. Maybe it's true that for some people life just has to be one long meaningless slavery, and then you die. Perhaps I have to look at things that way, I am a slave....forget about God and anything else, I only exist to cease to exist, with no meaning and no purpose. Some of you, we all know, are poor, find it hard to live, are sometimes, as it were, gasping for breath. I have no doubt that some of you who read this book are unable to pay for all the dinners which you have actually eaten, or for the coats and shoes which are fast wearing or are already worn out, and have come to this page to spend borrowed or stolen time, robbing your creditors of an hour. It is very evident what mean and sneaking lives many of you live, for my sight has been whetted by experience; always on the limits, trying to get into business and trying to get out of debt, a very ancient slough, called by the Latins aes alienum, another's brass, for some of their coins were made of brass; still living, and dying, and buried by this other's brass; always promising to pay, promising to pay, tomorrow, and dying today, insolvent; seeking to curry favor, to get custom, by how many modes, only not state-prison offenses; lying, flattering, voting, contracting yourselves into a nutshell of civility or dilating into an atmosphere of thin and vaporous generosity, that you may persuade your neighbor to let you make his shoes, or his hat, or his coat, or his carriage, or import his groceries for him; making yourselves sick, that you may lay up something against a sick day, something to be tucked away in an old chest, or in a stocking behind the plastering, or, more safely, in the brick bank; no matter where, no matter how much or how little. --Thoreau, "Walden" Edited June 11, 2013 by Era Might Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nihil Obstat Posted June 11, 2013 Share Posted June 11, 2013 Maybe avoid viewing everything through Marxist lenses? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Apotheoun Posted June 11, 2013 Share Posted June 11, 2013 (edited) We are in different situations. I agree with you in theory, but gold makes the world go round. Maybe it's true that for some people life just has to be one long meaningless slavery, and then you die. Perhaps I have to look at things that way, I am a slave....forget about God and anything else, I only exist to cease to exist, with no meaning and no purpose. Gold may make the world go round, but it does not give meaning to anything. Where have I found meaning? I found it in working as a teacher and helping my students learn something that they did not know before taking my classes. In my last job my employer cheated me out of $13,000 dollars. I got a labor board settlement against him for that amount shortly after the school I worked at went out of business due to the economic downturn. Has he paid me? No, and the labor board does not help a person collect their lost wages either. They give judgments to people based on the evidence presented, but they have no enforcement powers. Have I seen any of that money? No, nor do I expect to see any of it. Are the students I taught doing well in their lives? Yes, they really are, and that has been a type of remuneration that my former employer (a truly unjust man) could never give me. Edited June 11, 2013 by Apotheoun Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Era Might Posted June 11, 2013 Author Share Posted June 11, 2013 Maybe avoid viewing everything through Marxist lenses? Huh? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Era Might Posted June 11, 2013 Author Share Posted June 11, 2013 (edited) Gold may make the world go round, but it does not give meaning to anything. Where have I found meaning? I found it in working as a teacher and helping my students learn something that they did not know before taking my classes. In my last job my employer cheated me out of $13,000 dollars. I got a labor board settlement against him for that amount shortly after the school I worked at went out of business due to the economic downturn. Has he paid me? No, and the labor board does not help a person collect their lost wages either. They give judgments to people based on the evidence presented, but they have no enforcement powers. Have I seen any of that money? No, nor do I expect to see any of it. Are the students I taught doing well in their lives? Yes, they really are, and that has been a type of remuneration that my former employer (a truly unjust man) could never give me. I'm happy you have found meaning. I don't deny it exists, simply that it does not exist for me in my work. Edited June 11, 2013 by Era Might Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Era Might Posted June 11, 2013 Author Share Posted June 11, 2013 Maybe avoid viewing everything through Marxist lenses? What lenses should I view things through? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lilllabettt Posted June 11, 2013 Share Posted June 11, 2013 maybe you need more sacrifice in your life. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeorgiiMichael Posted June 11, 2013 Share Posted June 11, 2013 Get a hobby. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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