I came across this article
and I think it resonates well with my philosophy and my recent article
about capitalism and its systemic issues. Much like this article, I came
to the conclusion that many problems come from the fact that we are,
despite our many freedoms, effectively forced to work. I was thinking of
writing something like this, but figured the whole Matrix analogy would
be kind of cheesy and potentially arrogant and condescending, and I
hate to refer to myself as taking a “red pill”, in part because red pill
imagery has been taken over by a group of sexists who think treating
women like crap is the best way to get sex or something. But since
someone else made this, I can now comment on it, posting my agreement. I
won’t discuss the content itself too much though, I’m more discussing
it in how it relates to me.
As I said, I think the analogy is apt. I was raised conservative, which, for me, was basically in the Matrix. I was in a conservative middle class bubble growing up, and thought the system was oh so great, oh so wonderful, best system ever, and that the people who are poor were poor because they were lazy. I did notice something was off when my dad seemed to be treated poorly at work, but I accepted this as the system having to work this way. I kinda bought into it and bought into the dream that they wanted to push on you. To escape from the kind of poor treatment my dad experienced at work, I had to go to college so I could get a better job than they did. A lot of emphasis on working your way to success. And of course, I had little to no understanding of the left. They were the bad guys. The ones who wanted to take wealth from those who worked hard and earned it and give it to lazy bums and crap. People who were like communists.
But, as you know, I’ve grown older, and made some RADICAL adjustments to my economic views. I realize the system isn’t fair. When I was a Christian, I was raised believing I had a purpose, and was drawn to politics. Which is why I majored in it honestly. But, as I became disillusioned both with conservatism and christianity concurrently, I really got to see the system as it exists all at once in a way. Where I saw order, there is now chaos. Where I saw good, there is now evil. Where I saw evil, there is now good. I realized quickly, that much of what I spent my life training for was for nothing, because there aren’t any good jobs out there for people in my major. I realized that hard work and intelligence doesn’t always get you a good job or a good paycheck. I realized that there wasn’t any deity in control of everything that would right wrongs, and I realized that our social conventions are far more subjective than I thought. I realized that situations were far less black and white than I thought, and that there’s good and evil in everything. Nothing is perfect, nothing is totally 100% evil either. Which is, by the way, why I reject both hardcore socialist and capitalist solutions and kinda push for this mixmash of capitalism and safety nets/regulations. It’s really a matter of recognizing the good and the bad in both ways of thought and trying to come up with a mixture that is just right to maximize the good and minimize the bad.
But yeah, I do think the Matrix imagery is good. It really describes my intellectually journey on this subject fairly well. I was raised believing this overly idealistic fairy tale concept of how the system worked, only to realize that it’s actually fundamentally flawed, and far from perfect. Going into the content itself, I agree further. We are taught that we are free, and America is the land of freedom, but everyone spends so much of their lives working. Either that or in poverty. And sometimes both! And for what? We glorify the concept of labor far more than we really should. When we run out of jobs, we talk about creating more (why should jobs exist for their own sake? as a distribution mechanism? Just redistribute the wealth already!). We keep ourselves going on a treadmill, working, working, working, and for what? We only live once. I mean, maybe in my whole old conservative christian worldview, with the earth being imperfect because of sin, and the whole protestant work ethic and god’s calling thing, and the whole “oh, you can have eternity in heaven” thing you can make an argument for it. But adopting a more left wing atheistic worldview, what the heck is the point?! Jobs should exist because we need goods and services, and tying income with a job is intended to be a motivational factor. That’s it. We shouldn’t value these things for their own sake. We should value these things because we need goods and services, and this is how we make them. This whole romanticization of labor comes off as like an indoctrination to turn us into nice little obedient wage slaves. And for all this talk of freedom, you really can’t say no. People have to submit themselves to exploitative employers, allowing them to dominate their schedules and their lives, and we just look the other way saying it’s voluntary? Well if that isn’t the most bullcrap Orwellian double speak ever! And as I said in my other post, all these things. The systemic problems that arise from not being able to refuse, the structural issues with the job market, our one sided cultural norms, they’re all designed to give the employer an advantage and keep the worker in a perpetual state of economic insecurity and powerlessness. We’re far less free than we are raised to believe in America, we really are. We might not have many problems with STATE tyranny, but we have all kinds of problems with tyranny by private entities. And these guys might not be able to arrest and kill you like the state can, but they can still make your life quite unpleasant if you don’t play by their rules, and basically dominate a large portion of your time, sometimes to the extent of dominating all of your waking hours if you let them. To go into other recent posts, this is why I hate libertarianism in a nutshell. It doesn’t really lead to freedom, not in any meaningful way for the majority of the population. It just gets the government out of the way and allows the corporations to dominate your life instead. If you want real freedom, you need to adopt LEFT libertarianism, which is critical of both government and markets in their own ways, for their own reasons.
I know, I got some serious angst due to my whole transition period. Being raised believing one thing and then “leaving the matrix” only to realize how screwed up the system really is does that to you. But yeah. This world, as it exists, is not fair, it’s not just. It’s actually quite broken. We do a lot of great things, so it isn’t all bad, but we can do so much better. But that’s kind of the thing. We need more people to see the world the way I do in order to recognize that we have a problem and do something about it. I guess, in addition to being asked by several people, that’s why I’m doing this blog. That’s what gives me the motivation here. I want to educate people. I want people to know what I know, to understand what I understand. Even if they don’t agree with it, I really think the kinds of perspectives I have are very under represented in mainstream society. Most people are living in the Matrix, they are living in their little overly idealistic fantasy worlds, and they don’t criticize things enough. Many people don’t question things enough. They don’t question their beliefs. They don’t question their society. They don’t question their religion. They don’t question things. Socrates once said that an unexamined life isn’t worth living. I have to agree with that. So, I would say, even if you don’t really agree with me, that’s fine. I know that a lot of what I’m saying is pretty outside of the mainstream. Either way if you learn anything from this post, it’s that I want you to question everything. I want you to question your beliefs, down to the most basic assumptions. I want you to learn. I want you to study. I want you to understand. Because, let’s face it. Most people are living in “the Matrix” in one way or another. It’s really only by questioning our most basic assumptions and changing our views in the face of reason and evidence that we can see reality as it really is.
A youtube clip for you I find relevant to this subject. Good old George Carlin. “It’s called the American Dream because you have to be asleep to believe it.” So true, George, so true…that’s really what this post is getting to the center of.
As I said, I think the analogy is apt. I was raised conservative, which, for me, was basically in the Matrix. I was in a conservative middle class bubble growing up, and thought the system was oh so great, oh so wonderful, best system ever, and that the people who are poor were poor because they were lazy. I did notice something was off when my dad seemed to be treated poorly at work, but I accepted this as the system having to work this way. I kinda bought into it and bought into the dream that they wanted to push on you. To escape from the kind of poor treatment my dad experienced at work, I had to go to college so I could get a better job than they did. A lot of emphasis on working your way to success. And of course, I had little to no understanding of the left. They were the bad guys. The ones who wanted to take wealth from those who worked hard and earned it and give it to lazy bums and crap. People who were like communists.
But, as you know, I’ve grown older, and made some RADICAL adjustments to my economic views. I realize the system isn’t fair. When I was a Christian, I was raised believing I had a purpose, and was drawn to politics. Which is why I majored in it honestly. But, as I became disillusioned both with conservatism and christianity concurrently, I really got to see the system as it exists all at once in a way. Where I saw order, there is now chaos. Where I saw good, there is now evil. Where I saw evil, there is now good. I realized quickly, that much of what I spent my life training for was for nothing, because there aren’t any good jobs out there for people in my major. I realized that hard work and intelligence doesn’t always get you a good job or a good paycheck. I realized that there wasn’t any deity in control of everything that would right wrongs, and I realized that our social conventions are far more subjective than I thought. I realized that situations were far less black and white than I thought, and that there’s good and evil in everything. Nothing is perfect, nothing is totally 100% evil either. Which is, by the way, why I reject both hardcore socialist and capitalist solutions and kinda push for this mixmash of capitalism and safety nets/regulations. It’s really a matter of recognizing the good and the bad in both ways of thought and trying to come up with a mixture that is just right to maximize the good and minimize the bad.
But yeah, I do think the Matrix imagery is good. It really describes my intellectually journey on this subject fairly well. I was raised believing this overly idealistic fairy tale concept of how the system worked, only to realize that it’s actually fundamentally flawed, and far from perfect. Going into the content itself, I agree further. We are taught that we are free, and America is the land of freedom, but everyone spends so much of their lives working. Either that or in poverty. And sometimes both! And for what? We glorify the concept of labor far more than we really should. When we run out of jobs, we talk about creating more (why should jobs exist for their own sake? as a distribution mechanism? Just redistribute the wealth already!). We keep ourselves going on a treadmill, working, working, working, and for what? We only live once. I mean, maybe in my whole old conservative christian worldview, with the earth being imperfect because of sin, and the whole protestant work ethic and god’s calling thing, and the whole “oh, you can have eternity in heaven” thing you can make an argument for it. But adopting a more left wing atheistic worldview, what the heck is the point?! Jobs should exist because we need goods and services, and tying income with a job is intended to be a motivational factor. That’s it. We shouldn’t value these things for their own sake. We should value these things because we need goods and services, and this is how we make them. This whole romanticization of labor comes off as like an indoctrination to turn us into nice little obedient wage slaves. And for all this talk of freedom, you really can’t say no. People have to submit themselves to exploitative employers, allowing them to dominate their schedules and their lives, and we just look the other way saying it’s voluntary? Well if that isn’t the most bullcrap Orwellian double speak ever! And as I said in my other post, all these things. The systemic problems that arise from not being able to refuse, the structural issues with the job market, our one sided cultural norms, they’re all designed to give the employer an advantage and keep the worker in a perpetual state of economic insecurity and powerlessness. We’re far less free than we are raised to believe in America, we really are. We might not have many problems with STATE tyranny, but we have all kinds of problems with tyranny by private entities. And these guys might not be able to arrest and kill you like the state can, but they can still make your life quite unpleasant if you don’t play by their rules, and basically dominate a large portion of your time, sometimes to the extent of dominating all of your waking hours if you let them. To go into other recent posts, this is why I hate libertarianism in a nutshell. It doesn’t really lead to freedom, not in any meaningful way for the majority of the population. It just gets the government out of the way and allows the corporations to dominate your life instead. If you want real freedom, you need to adopt LEFT libertarianism, which is critical of both government and markets in their own ways, for their own reasons.
I know, I got some serious angst due to my whole transition period. Being raised believing one thing and then “leaving the matrix” only to realize how screwed up the system really is does that to you. But yeah. This world, as it exists, is not fair, it’s not just. It’s actually quite broken. We do a lot of great things, so it isn’t all bad, but we can do so much better. But that’s kind of the thing. We need more people to see the world the way I do in order to recognize that we have a problem and do something about it. I guess, in addition to being asked by several people, that’s why I’m doing this blog. That’s what gives me the motivation here. I want to educate people. I want people to know what I know, to understand what I understand. Even if they don’t agree with it, I really think the kinds of perspectives I have are very under represented in mainstream society. Most people are living in the Matrix, they are living in their little overly idealistic fantasy worlds, and they don’t criticize things enough. Many people don’t question things enough. They don’t question their beliefs. They don’t question their society. They don’t question their religion. They don’t question things. Socrates once said that an unexamined life isn’t worth living. I have to agree with that. So, I would say, even if you don’t really agree with me, that’s fine. I know that a lot of what I’m saying is pretty outside of the mainstream. Either way if you learn anything from this post, it’s that I want you to question everything. I want you to question your beliefs, down to the most basic assumptions. I want you to learn. I want you to study. I want you to understand. Because, let’s face it. Most people are living in “the Matrix” in one way or another. It’s really only by questioning our most basic assumptions and changing our views in the face of reason and evidence that we can see reality as it really is.
A youtube clip for you I find relevant to this subject. Good old George Carlin. “It’s called the American Dream because you have to be asleep to believe it.” So true, George, so true…that’s really what this post is getting to the center of.
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