Discussing how the Irish potato famine was caused by the protestant work ethic

 So, something I've known for a while, but that came up again recently, is the interesting tidbit that in large part, the Irish potato famine came as a result of poor english policies toward the irish. Basically, they saw the Irish as lazy and they wanted to instill the work ethic on them, just as they did on their own population. The irish basically lived on potatoes. They grew them because they took minimal effort to grow, and as we know, we should probably strive to work less, and work efficiently. But because the irish wanted to impose the work ethic on them, they basically forbade them from growing the crop, forcing them to grow more labor intensive crops instead so they'd learn the value of hard work. What brought this up was this comment on reddit, but at the same time, I did notice this in Elizabeth Anderson's book, Hijacked as well. 

And idk, it incenses me. I really sickens me how European colonial powers imposed this oppressive work ethic on the world. I admit, it has led to a lot of growth, but does economic growth lead to a good life? I mean, to some extent it does, but I think beyond a certain point, it doesnt matter how much the economy grows if people aren't living well in the process. life isn't just about work and productivity, and yet we insist on forcing most people to spend most of their waking hours working and being productive. I truly see the way most people live on this planet as hellish, and that it should not be this way.

We always have to remember that this was forced on us. Some people at the top decided these are the rules we all have to play by and history since then has been a struggle to improve conditions. It's no wonder why some have turned revolutionary in the past, although to be frank, their efforts didn't seem to improve things. obviously reform is better. And we need to keep pushing for reform.

You know, some people might give me crap for not caring enough about gaza, or social justice issues, but in reality it's because I want to keep the discussion on this economic reality of ours. I see this system as unjust. it should change. But most people insist on discussing anything but. And push comes to shove for as much as people want to improve economic conditions, most are obsessed with nonsense like intersectionality, and culture wars, and nonsense like gaza more. And it irritates me. At the end of the day, people just like to ignore that this problem exists, and many are so entrenched in this system they continue to normalize it, treating it like an iron law that can't be changed.

But it can, and should. The fact is, the rich don't want us discussing these topics. They want to keep us distracted on nonsense, and we have to be the ones to push back and say no. We have to advocate for better. Our reality belongs to us, we keep creating and maintaining it. We can change it when we decide to collectively. The problem is that most don't seem to want to. They just wanna keep it the same. We live in the world we collectively decide to do so, for better or for worse. I prefer to keep my eye on the prize, even if I'm forced to make hard choices on other issues. Some people might not like that, but if you really care about this issue, my logic is understandable. 

But yeah. never forget what they took from us. And maybe we should all go back to being lazy and minimizing the time we spend working, rather than maximizing it. if we wanted to, we could limit our work hours to a few hours a week at most. It's our culture that keeps us working nonstop as if our lives depended on it for higher and higher standards of living. Never forget that.