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Maybe, I am just gonna do, what I can't force myself to not do.
Hi TL...this is a thought, I'd rather write down and share with
strangers I grew accustom to (You), instead of talking to my friends
or relatives - as I only can start to grasp it slowly, and as it
questions a lot of my previous actions in life.
I am not happy and even worse, not completly unhappy.
Now excuse me for this weird introduction, and if I did not scare
you away by now with my Stephenie Meyer-like writing skills,
I will try to stop brabbling and structure it so you can
participate and maybe help to water this seed of thought.
So who am I:
![[image loading]](http://imgur.com/ePcjj.jpg)
I am not exactly a punk, as I am to hip to be part of any subculture,
or just not social enough. However, I do believe that capitalism is
the biggest scam since christanity during the dark ages.
I like to say:"I am going to church" instead of going to the bank,
in honor of 1984's ministry of love.
A few years ago I discovered the Venus Project via the Zeitgeistfilms
and even though I do not want to discuss any of both much deeper here,
people who are already familier with them can probably imagine how
they acted like oil to the small fire burning inside me.
What was a volatile, ungraspable feeling way back in my head,
became something very real, something very specific. Beforehand I could
just shake my head at an seemingly unquestionable definition of "normal",
now I can point with my fingers.
Things got worse as my eyes saw things more clearly - how wasteful and
meaningless most of the jobs out there are. How someone who naggs people
and sells useless stuff to helpless and senile over phone is treated
as a more respectable part of the society than someone who refuses to
enqueue.
How I refuse to sell myself:
Part 1 - Teaching:
I am actually skilled. As some of you by now assume correctly
I am autodidact, never the less I can play the guitar, write, read and
hear music on a professional level. I have 3 Students I teach irregulary.
I do this without a fee, as I believe, the more someone else is able to
do, the more he can do, and therefore give back.
Holding back knowledge is the most contraproductive thing we can do in a
world where we depend on each other.
I also studied math, even though I came to realize that I do not
fit in the structure of a modernday study. My knowledge on this field I do
also share, by giving private lessons and helping the younglings in my
circle of friends to understand theire homework, again without a fee.
Finally I do share all I know about SC2 or Skateboarding with
anyone interrested, but so do most players and skaters - maybe thats why
I love to be part of these groups.
Part 2 - What I could contribute:
I consider myself cursed with a critical thinking mind. I am smart
enough to choose not to be part of mensa, as I know that people's potential
can't be judged. I could imagine to help mankind by doing research on
various fields, but since in the current system all research is directly
linked to or hindered by monetary profit, I distance myself from this option.
Part 3 - Things I love:
Music. Skateboarding. Programming. Drawing. Storytelling. Acting. Games.
Eventhough I excel at some of them to a point where I could make a living out of
them, I refuse to. I refuse to let money poison my soul, and as these things are
connected directly with her...
I also refuse to drop a curtsy and fail to see the point of authority.
Right now I am working in a supermarket, doing mindless, braincorroding work.
Ready to spit in any costumers face who dares to patronize me,
ready to attack my boss for the same reason. Maybe I should mention that I
usually get fired from these terrific workplaces or simply quit when I am
about to lose controll overmyself?
The reason for this Blog?:
By now you probably ask yourself exactly this, as I appear to be just another
emo with an enormous e-penis, who does not fit in a profound sick society.
I am about to give in, about to get soft. I want to be happy. The last
two years I spent living on less than 50 Euros a month after paying my rent,
and I wanna have access, access to musical instruments, to books, to cloth
that does not fall of my skin, to "good" food, to heating.
But,
I feel as if I will dissapoint a lot of people, as somehow my whole
circle of friends looks up to me. I skate better, my guitarfingers are faster,
I know math and I pick up new things without effort, yet I refuse to make a
fortune and feel as if I have to be their role model of how to not give in
against this sick system. I get most my selfesteem out of my attitude.
And,
I am not naive enough to believe that I won't actually have
to sell myself at some point.
furthermore,
I am not convinced that this will bring more
happiness to my live, where on the otherhand I really want to express my artistic
side. I am sick of the unstable lifesupport my current lifestyle offers,
And,
I believe I could support the venus project by donations with a
lot of money. I also could offer nice jobs to my friends if I some day end up in
a position with power.
Maybe I am really able to just laugh at the stupid system, take advantage of it and
stare long enough in the abyss without becoming the abyss and stay somehow true to
my nature.
Hm, sooo? Whatcha think'n?
There are two demons fighting in me wright now.
I won't perceive any comments as judgements, but as your true and honest opinions,
because thats what I am hoping for.
sincerly, HaRuHi
+ Show Spoiler +I do not have a picture of myself on the harddrive, nor do I have access to a photocamera or scanner atm, but I asure you I look just as douchy as the guy on the picture (different hair though) and am often mistaken for him. It was not my aim to foul you, I wanted to help your imagination to be able to connect more easy to me as a person. Sorry if you feel tricked.
 
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How old are you? These feelings are things that I and some people I know went through between the ages of 15-18. You kind of just figure it out for yourself as you grow older.
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you look like justin timberlake
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How old are you?
I just turned 21.
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Seems like you're very moral, but also somewhat materialistic. Do you think you can reconcile those two aspects?
I don't know about you, but I don't see people as having "natures". They have influences, but that's it.
That being said, I (and others) tend to feel better mentally when we feel we have followed our "nature". Whether this is to be embraced or ignored entirely remains to be seen.
I'm probably talking in circles. What do you think?
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I don't get how you can hate capitalism and claim to be able to make money from your skills (and actually give out free lessons) and choose to work in a supermarket.
I know you say you're self taught, but did you ever go to university? When did you finish education?
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Seems like you're very moral, but also somewhat materialistic. Do you think you can reconcile those two aspects?
I am hungry and sad about all the things I give up because of my stubbornness, but I do not see myself materialistic.
Before I got "old", I never thought I could reconcile these. Right now I think about trying it.
I'm probably talking in circles. What do you think?
I think you summed up what's running through my head. 
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I think I'm somewhat in the same spot you are (mentally, at least: conflicted between the tangible and the artistic).
The way I'm going right now is just to test everything, see how it works, and go from there. You might not be in a position to do this, though (meaning that you have to commit fully). Not sure.
You might disagree with this, but I don't think you should be hesitant about acting for fear of straining a social relationship. Relationships should complement your lifestyle, not constrain it.
Again, hope this helps. Not sure.
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it sounds like you need to get rid of these bullshit ideas in your head about how righteous you are for not accepting or spending money.
if you want to teach people math, or to play the guitar, and they're willing to pay you for it, why not? how you spend that money is up to you and your conscience.
you want to do research but complain that the "current system all research is directly linked to or hindered by monetary profit." this is more bullshit. yes, you need to write proposals and yes, someone with money has to have funded that area, and yes, other people need to think your proposed research is good. so what? you talk as if the whole activity has the rotten taint of money and therefore isn't worth pursuing at all. it's not pure bliss, but nothing is.
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Go into society, make your money, and see what you can do to change the world. There is nothing wrong with supporting yourself with a decent income. Besides the fact you don't "participate" in capitalism makes you seem ignorant to it. Maybe there are somethings about capitalism that you missed. The Venus Project sounds good, but I feel like you are too young to come to any major decision that Capitalism being wrong or whatever. Give it a chance, then decide how you want to change it and how you can do that while keeping your self living comfortably.
And I'm not talking down to you about age. I'm only 19, but I know I'm nowhere near experienced enough in life to be able to come to any conclusion that the world isn't doing it right.
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I know you say you're self taught, but did you ever go to university?
Yes, I did for one year.
When did you finish education?
I finished school with 18 if this was your question?
I don't get how you can hate capitalism and claim to be able to make money from your skills (and actually give out free lessons) and choose to work in a supermarket.
Well, "choose" is not the appropriate word I think, I just don't feel like dying or begging, even though I do sympathize with people who do.
Thanks for your thought, intresesting how you can't understand my motives. I am not sure I understand yours either.
In your opinion, assumed I am who I claim to be, what would you do, how would you live in this system with these skills?
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Sell yourself and use the money to help others. If you truly believe that people's potentials can't be judged, you should try to help bring others to their potential. To do that, you need money. So sell yourself, then use the money to help the world.
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btw the venus project is completely and utterly ridiculous. please go read a book on natural resource economics, some history of governments (the fall of rome), some history on the use of coinage and money, etc etc.
your choices: (a) fuck around at the grocery store and keep up this charade of being "reflective" and "outside the system" while in fact remaining pretty useless and not using any of your potential, or (b) man up and deal with the world as it is, not as you would like it to be.
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On March 30 2011 10:15 HaRuHi wrote:Yes, I did for one year. I finished school with 18 if this was your question? Show nested quote +I don't get how you can hate capitalism and claim to be able to make money from your skills (and actually give out free lessons) and choose to work in a supermarket. Well, "choose" is not the appropriate word I think, I just don't feel like dying or begging, even though I do sympathize with people who do. Thanks for your thought, intresesting how you can't understand my motives. I am not sure I understand yours either. In your opinion, assumed I am who I claim to be, what would you do, how would you live in this system with these skills?
Yeah that is what I was wondering, thanks.
Ok, tell me if I'm wrong here:
You have the potential to make a living out of your skills and you have a job at a supermarket.
I can't fathom this at all.
You are helping what I assume to be a big company by working for the supermarket. They are the very essence of capitalism, something which you dislike, as they have one purpose, to make profit. By giving your time to work there, you are a part of that system. Why are you not taking your students' money? What is wrong with money? You take money from the company you are working for yet you don't take money that people are willing to give you in exchange for your teaching. Which transaction of money feels worse to you?
You can't choose to be just a little bit part of the capitalist system. Almost the entire world operates under that system. Why do you choose to avoid exchanging money with people in some cases and not others? You can't avoid capitalism and you can't destroy it, so why not embrace it. And within the confines of the system, direct your time and resources and money toward whatever cause you wish.
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Again, hope this helps. Not sure.
Iparshuyhe, it does. Thanks for your honest opinion.
if you want to teach people math, or to play the guitar, and they're willing to pay you for it, why not?
Because I do think that all education should be free. Having problems to access certain education, books, instruments myself I can't bring myself to put a money constrain to my teaching. As I do not want to teach for monetary profit, I want to help people learn.
palanq, I do agree that I can be quite full of myself(righteous) - but you saying this is bullshit did not convince me that the world isn't as bad as it seems to me.
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And I'm not talking down to you about age. I'm only 19, but I know I'm nowhere near experienced enough in life to be able to come to any conclusion that the world isn't doing it right.
I did not feel as if you were talking down, I did promise not to judge, but how could you not come to this conclusion - are one billion people suffering from hunger not enough? Is war not enough? Even the pure exsistence of a concept like countries, prostitution?
I am really sorry, feel free to ignore this answer as it is unfair, I am just shocked and a little curious how you can ignore the terrible state the world is in right now?
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You can't fix the world so you have to figure out something else.
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This is proving rather stimulating and beneficial for me, too. (side note: I'm younger than you, so don't take word choice as any sign of intelligence)
I think the brick wall you're up against is that you'll have to define (hard as that is) or at least outline your artistic side just in order to be able to weigh decisions, else you'll just be stuck. I don't like forcing this into materialism both ways, but I'm not experienced enough to be able to say how the world works.
I think what it comes down to is your attachments to your beliefs (referring to contempt for capitalism): do you feel they are sound and worth following? And do you logically reach the same conclusion to which your feelings point you? (sorry to get soppy here)
Regarding capitalism, (as far as I know, correct me if I'm wrong) it may have a history of screwing people over, but it does it a little less than communism.
Last point to consider (for tonight, from me): are you content as you are? If yes, no change necessary. If no, define where you want to go, find a way there, and do it. May not work perfectly, but that's all I've got. Good luck.
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Money is the greatest evil on this planet.
I hate it with a passion. I say just do what makes you happy, no matter what that is.
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I've been dealing with the same issues. Generally speaking my life is just unhappy, its not that I suffer, am depressed or anything like that, I am just not totally happy. I know this is going to sound cliche but I don't think that pursuit of a more luxurious lifestyle, more material things is going to ultimately make you happier.
I do however definitely believe getting a more interesting job, working to dedicate your life to something you are passionate about or interested in will make you happier.
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To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscover'd country from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action. - Soft you now!
The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orisons
Be all my sins remember'd.
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btw the venus project is completely and utterly ridiculous. please go read a book on natural resource economics, some history of governments (the fall of rome), some history on the use of coinage and money, etc etc.
As I said before, I really don't want to discuss the venus project here.
your choices: (a) fuck around at the grocery store and keep up this charade of being "reflective" and "outside the system" while in fact remaining pretty useless and not using any of your potential, or (b) man up and deal with the world as it is, not as you would like it to be.
Wow man, you got a way with words - I like it, especially the point about waising my potential. I was so full of myself, that I actually thought I would punish this sick society by refusing to live up to my potential. I am one of 7 billion - If I ever want to move anything I better start right now. Thanks for putting this so cleary!
You can't avoid capitalism and you can't destroy it, so why not embrace it.
Backbone? My ridiculously self-righteous personality?
Which transaction of money feels worse to you?
I did answer this to palanq while you wrote the question, copy:
+ Show Spoiler +Because I do think that all education should be free. Having problems to access certain education, books, instruments myself I can't bring myself to put a money constrain to my teaching. As I do not want to teach for monetary profit, I want to help people learn.
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Well maybe if you go on to become an unethical billionaire and take over several industries you will be able to maximize the level to which you exploit people until they decide to change society for the better?
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I dont understand, why dont you just keep doing the things you like as well as make more money?
I really just don't see what the problem is except some kind of personality disorder.
And stop romanticizing your problems, you won't sell yourself out until you actually sell someone a piece of your body for scientific research. Why don't you stop working at the grocery store and make money by tutoring?
I consider myself cursed with a critical thinking mind. I am smart
enough to choose not to be part of mensa, as I know that people's potential
can't be judged. I could imagine to help mankind by doing research on
various fields, but since in the current system all research is directly
linked to or hindered by monetary profit, I distance myself from this option.
This is actually the biggest error and waste of your intelligence. Someone(maybe my philosophy professor) said to me something to the effect of "the test of a liberal education is to be able to judge many different ideas and discern which is a better choice." I think you should put that into action instead of sitting in the mire of complete relativism. I also think you pretend to know things you don't really know. Ex: why is it that it's impossible to judge someone's potential? And how does that relate to your choice of not being a part of mensa? Why can't you do research by yourself?
Lastly, how could the world work without any money at all? (There is much research that is not directly linked to profiting, but you seem to know that already and don't need it to prove your philosophy)
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On March 30 2011 11:11 HaRuHi wrote:Show nested quote +btw the venus project is completely and utterly ridiculous. please go read a book on natural resource economics, some history of governments (the fall of rome), some history on the use of coinage and money, etc etc. As I said before, I really don't want to discuss the venus project here. Show nested quote +
your choices: (a) fuck around at the grocery store and keep up this charade of being "reflective" and "outside the system" while in fact remaining pretty useless and not using any of your potential, or (b) man up and deal with the world as it is, not as you would like it to be.
Wow man, you got a way with words - I like it, especially the point about waising my potential. I was so full of myself, that I actually thought I would punish this sick society by refusing to live up to my potential. I am one of 7 billion - If I ever want to move anything I better start right now. Thanks for putting this so cleary! Backbone? My ridiculously self-righteous personality?I did answer this to palanq while you wrote the question, copy: + Show Spoiler +Because I do think that all education should be free. Having problems to access certain education, books, instruments myself I can't bring myself to put a money constrain to my teaching. As I do not want to teach for monetary profit, I want to help people learn.
Yet you work for a supermarket... Think about who you are helping by working there. Really think about what you are contributing by doing that. Now think who will benefit from you teaching people for money.
You live in a capitalist society. You cannot get away from that right now. It's stupid to think the way that you think. It makes zero sense.
I keep trying to put myself in your shoes but then my head just hits this massive block and stops working because I cannot work out how your head works. You are working for a supermarket by choice, yet hate capitalism. You have other ways to fund yourself, one of them being to help people for money, yet you choose to work at a supermarket. My body actually tenses up when I try and fathom your logic.
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@ Roe, I prefer Kansas, but thanks for your participation 
You can't fix the world
We'll see about that.
Regarding capitalism, (as far as I know, correct me if I'm wrong) it may have a history of screwing people over, but it does it a little less than communism.
Capitalism was tolerable before it's countervalue became faith in my opinion. Communism is an Idea, and was never ever put into real practice. Countries you may consider communistic, such as China, North Korea and Cuba, are in fact socialist countries which strive for communism.
Socialism, however, is still based on a monetary system and as such, not really different to capitalism, despite controlling their people more obviously while on the other hand also carrying about there health. Both systems are nothing more than slavery in my eyes.
@N3rV[Green] - thanks for making me feel not alone here :D
I don't think that pursuit of a more luxurious lifestyle, more material things is going to ultimately make you happier.
I do however definitely believe getting a more interesting job, working to dedicate your life to something you are passionate about or interested in will make you happier.
Yep, sounds pretty cliche, nevertheless a totally reasonable point and this answer came from who you really are I feel. Thank you
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Yet you work for a supermarket... Think about who you are helping by working there. Really think about what you are contributing by doing that.
I contribute nothing as this job is dispensable and would not be needed if the system we live in would be logically structured. However, it probably helps keeping the shop running and making profit for the owner and owners' owner, and owners' owners' owner. Also it helps me to buy food and pay rent, yay.
Now think who will benefit from you teaching people for money
Noone? I will gain a short term financial benefit, but I would not be able to accept every student who actually wants to learn, therefore I would rob mankind of this individium's potential.
to help people for money
Money ain't my incentive, helping is, and it is very satisfying.
You live in a capitalist society. You cannot get away from that right now. It's stupid to think the way that you think. It makes zero sense.
My logical side does agree, but my heart wants to believe that I can get away, right now!^^
My body actually tenses up when I try and fathom your logic.
Thank you for trying so hard. This leads to the logical conclussion that we both operate on a different base of informations. Also, my decisions aren't 100% what my logical side dictates, how about moral?
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Perhaps you will feel that the following has nothing to do with your situation and feelings. And perhaps you are right. I offer it nonetheless.
Jesus said "Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them."
This is a beautiful saying that surely does express some truth about the difference between the subsistence lifestyle and one of planning and piling up wealth, yet it is based on a tremendous misunderstanding of the lives of animals: When we look at birds flying, it is easy to see them as free from care leading lives of ease, but in fact animals everywhere (and most humans who have ever lived) are engaged in a constant struggle to survive, one that that vast majority of them lose in painful ways far before their natural lifespan would come to an end.
The existence of civilization and money entraps us in webs of obligations that can often seem pointless and cruel. But in the absence of money we would not find that we were free, but that we were entrapped by the still more cruel and harsh realities of finding enough food, shelter and water to last for the next dew days. The inequalities and injustices that could seem to be caused by money are more accurately seen as reflections of human nature that would exist in any case.
---end abstract ramblings--- on to more specifics:
Your post is somewhat personal to me because I am a piano teacher and do teach (most of the time) for money. There are aspects of this that bother me. For instance, it bothers me that someone who makes the income I make could probably not afford to study with me, unless music took precedence over many other things in their life. This isn't a function of charging more or less money - obviously if I charged less my income would drop and once again a person who made that lower income could not pay my fee. I have on several occasions taught students for a reduced price or even nothing, but that is by necessity an exception rather than the rule.
The teacher-student relationship can also be poisoned by money - Ideally the student and teacher have several overlapping obligations, such as that of the teacher to work in the bet interest of the student, that of the student to respect the teacher, etc. Once the teacher is paid, they are only an employee, a much less respectable position. This dynamic is one of many reasons why lessons with children (who have no role in the economic transaction and thus are free to form a "pure" relationship with the teacher) are often more successful than those with adults.
This tendency of money to erode the connections between people is dangerous, and especially so to art and teaching and other activities whose primary value is not economic. But I think in most spheres, the gains it makes possible really do outweigh the negatives. And after all, we can't turn back the clock with respect to capitalism at this point. All we can do is find our own relationship to it. For me it makes more sense to make my living teaching - I am able to share more this way than if I had to hold down another job as well, and the mixture of money has not ruined it for me. I know other people who have made a choice closer to yours, although not as radical. I don't think you're wrong, but I do think you should keep interrogating your own views. You might try teaching for money and see if it really is as damaging as you think.
I would strongly recommend the book "The Gift" by Lewis Hyde. It is wide ranging but has much about the relationship of money and art in society. While I realize that is not really your main concern I do think you would find it relevant.
I'll leave you with another paraphrase from someone who thought about these things
"The farthest thing from Poetry, farther even than crime, is business."
-Thoreau
EDIT: As I previewed my post I see more things have been posted. I think you are making a logical error when you suggest that if you are paid for teaching, money become your reason for teaching. I teach both for free and for money and my motivation is the same in either case.
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On March 30 2011 11:32 HaRuHi wrote:@ Roe, I prefer Kansas, but thanks for your participation
I don't see what you mean
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On March 30 2011 11:56 HaRuHi wrote:Show nested quote +Yet you work for a supermarket... Think about who you are helping by working there. Really think about what you are contributing by doing that. I contribute nothing as this job is dispensable and would not be needed if the system we live in would be logically structured. However, it probably helps keeping the shop running and making profit for the owner and owners' owner, and owners' owners' owner. Also it helps me to buy food and pay rent, yay. Noone? I will gain a short term financial benefit, but I would not be able to accept every student who actually wants to learn, therefore I would rob mankind of this individium's potential. Money ain't my incentive, helping is, and it is very satisfying. Show nested quote +You live in a capitalist society. You cannot get away from that right now. It's stupid to think the way that you think. It makes zero sense.
My logical side does agree, but my heart wants to believe that I can get away, right now!^^ Thank you for trying so hard. This leads to the logical conclussion that we both operate on a different base of informations. Also, my decisions aren't 100% what my logical side dictates, how about moral?
I would hope that your morals were based on logic.
The people that gain from you teaching for money are the students, and yourself. You make a living without contributing to the capitalists, and they get an education. I guess that you would be able to reach more people if you quit your job. Is this not the solution you are looking for? Isn't this a great compromise? Unless you hold that all knowledge and teaching should be free to be the highest value. That's without getting into the fact that what you're proposing, free teaching and knowledge, is ever going to be free in a capitalist system (something you can't get out of right now).
The solutions and compromises are so clear to me, I don't know what your actual problem is.
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stop romanticizing your problems
i'll try
I think you should put that into action instead of sitting in the mire of complete relativism
i'll do
why is it that it's impossible to judge someone's potential?
I came to this conclusion by teaching, and by beeing taught and by beeing endlessly suprised by my best friend. It is an empirical value - this might be wrong, as all empirical values may are, but can you give any proove it is?
And how does that relate to your choice of not being a part of mensa?
You make some crosses on a template, and people believe they can judge your potential, which I believe is impossible. It's pegging someone to something, it just feels wrong to me.
Why can't you do research by yourself?
Lack of access to resources.
Lastly, how could the world work without any money at all?
By education.
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What is so wrong with money being part of the incentive for teaching? A mans gotta eat ya know . If you feel your contributing nothing while working at the supermarket and your doing this in exchange for the necessities of life then surely doing something you enjoy more like teaching is a better alternative. Receiving money for something doesn't make you an ass...it just means you can sustain yourself so you can continue to do the things you love and to help others.
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-deleted- wtb delete button.
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This is actually a rather interesting read.
I am in kind of a similar situation than you, yet quite different. I despise the way the world works too, and the way everything kind of revolves around money, but I do not quite care about the world enough to make myself an outcast of the system and live dirt poor.
I guess unlike you, I am a more self-centred person. I care more about living my own life and enjoying it.
As to what you can do, an idea is to change the world to fit your view by creating a group that could change the world then which will start out small and eventually grow larger. ROW ROW FIGHT THE POWER! Just giving you ideas 
On a less fictional note, you will probably have to do a compromise eventually, maybe turn one of your hobbies to a real job. It sounds like you are starting to burn out already. Or maybe you can find a meaningless decent job that gives you just money to support yourself comfortably while doing everything else you have been doing previously.
And you shouldn't base your decisions on what people will think of you, but what you think of yourself.
Well good luck with whatever decision you choose.
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if you're upset with how something is run then start a revolution
thats what every smart intellectual that doesn't want to give into conformity does
doesn't have to be a war revolution-could be musical (underground) political (i.e. what's going on in Tunisia/Egypt (not Libya)). Start your own political party. Or a commune. Start going around and give lectures.
There's literally tons of things you can do. For a person who's upset about how limited his/her options are by conformity, you should really think outside the box more. The one good thing about capitalism is that there is no penalty for creativity.
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But in the absence of money we would not find that we were free, but that we were entrapped by the still more cruel and harsh realities of finding enough food, shelter and water to last for the next dew days. The inequalities and injustices that could seem to be caused by money are more accurately seen as reflections of human nature that would exist in any case.
I really do love your point of view. Please understand that I do not ask for money to dissapear and set us all back into the stoneage, I simply think that there are other options, such as a recourse based economy or a society without competition amongst fellow man.
And after all, we can't turn back the clock with respect to capitalism at this point.
I suggest turning the clock forward with respect to humanity and technology.
Your post is somewhat personal to me because I am a piano teacher and do teach (most of the time) for money.
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EDIT: As I previewed my post I see more things have been posted. I think you are making a logical error when you suggest that if you are paid for teaching, money become your reason for teaching. I teach both for free and for money and my motivation is the same in either case.
That is absolutly fine, my sister teaches music for money aswell. I am a self-righteous prick and did not want to offend anyone. I do have other option than teaching to make money so I don't have to sacrifice this luxus of beeing a pretentious good person in this regard.
The book is written down on the list, still have to read 3 others though, if I remember I'll send you a pm once I finished.
I don't see what you mean
This could end up in a social awkward situation. I am just gonna redeem my statement and simply say thank you.
The solutions and compromises are so clear to me, I don't know what your actual problem is.
I guess my highest value actually is that access, when reasonable should be free and I can't directly limit access I can give. And I also do not have to I think, there are other option I have, I will just have to sell a little bit of my soul, and this thread probably is about an emo who has to start to deal with "the real" world. I was just curious if others can share and relate to my feelings and what people who can't will think of it.
You appear very cold hearted to me, something I do not want to become.
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I really do love your point of view. Please understand that I do not ask for money to dissapear and set us all back into the stoneage, I simply think that there are other options, such as a recourse based economy or a society without competition amongst fellow man.
This seems to betray logic: if you move to resource based economy there will still be competition, there will still be quantification and materialization. A society without competition will die out easily. If you've learned anything from nature it may bear to be that humans thrive on competition. I hope we aren't in a verbal argument though, as you didnt define 'competition' or resource, and we could agree that humanity needs less competition in the form of bombs and guns, and more in the form of art and science. But then again, where does the motivation to advance come from?
I still think you should read a philosophy book and put your autodidacticism to work on good reasoning and argument so that you may convince us of your point of view.
And no, 'it's true because I know it's true' isn't an argument, and it isn't going to get you anywhere. That's quite ironically self-centered wouldn't you say?
I came to this conclusion by teaching, and by beeing taught and by beeing endlessly suprised by my best friend. It is an empirical value - this might be wrong, as all empirical values may are, but can you give any proove it is?
Well, empirical values are based on the senses. Pure reasoning is sort of the opposite, i.e. math/geometry. I'm still intrigued and would like to know more about your best friend and how he showed you that it is impossible to judge someone's potential. So that I don't dodge your question, I'll answer yours with one of mine: did you not, at the instant you were "surprised" by your friend, come to judge his potential in some way?
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You claim that you want education to be free, but your skills were not gained freely and therefore your application in the teaching of these skills are not free. If you learned it in school you learned it from taxpayers who payed for your education. By refusing to make money you are not contributing as much tax money as those before you, and are therefore depriving children of education.
That is a rather pedantic example, but the point is that you can teach and get compensated for it and still teach for the sake of teaching. If you believed that all food should be free as well would you still work in a supermarket?
From what I can tell, you have taken all the bad side effects of capitalism and chosen to ignore the good that can come from it. Capitalism has some serious problems, but the reason for that is an abuse of the system, which while imperfect still works. If there is a better way to allocate a limited amount of resources to those who demand them efficiently, then please let us know. Resource based economics are incredibly inefficient and would probably reduce the access of materials to the public (mainly, who would decide who gets what resources when, and who decides who attains these resources?), while a society without competition amongst fellow man cannot be move forward in technology or humanity. These things are nice sounding but they cant happen if we do nothing.
I think the greatest thing to walk away with is this: to never try is to fail, the biggest mistake is being too afraid to make one, ect. ect.
If living and breathing end up causing some people pain, even with the best intentions, the logical answer your coming to is to kill yourself. However that is still the wrong answer. Perpetual paralysis is not the way to fix a stiff muscle that brings pain every time you move it. You move it enough until the muscle becomes flexible and the pain goes away.
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You do not "choose to not make a fortune". You choose not to try.
Listen, you say you work shitty jobs to make ends meet. You also say you have talent and skills that could make you money but that you don't want to "sell out". If you are able to make a living doing something you are good at and enjoy, do it. Don't for a second try to make the excuse that you are too good to go out and do things because you are morally held back by not wanting to take part in the capitalist society you seem to hate so much. That is a poor excuse for not having the courage or willpower to try.
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Have you ever listened to Pink Floyd? Welcome to the Machine.You are part of the Machine, you cannot escape it. Give in and stop being a fool you being counter cultural is just as a part of the machine as being in it. Use the Machine to your advantage and change the lives of those around you improve their lives and yours will be improved. Helping others is a great place to start.
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On March 30 2011 14:39 HeadhunteR wrote:
Have you ever listened to Pink Floyd? Welcome to the Machine.You are part of the Machine, you cannot escape it. Give in and stop being a fool you being counter cultural is just as a part of the machine as being in it. Use the Machine to your advantage and change the lives of those around you improve their lives and yours will be improved. Helping others is a great place to start.
Its funny because I was actually thinking of just telling him to watch the wall and listen to dark side.
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Understand that there is a greater good at stake than your own happiness here - the success of the human race. And by "success" I don't mean success in the utopian sense that the Venus Project discusses, but genetic success. Did you forget that the meaning of life is to evolve? In a world without competition where everyone has equal access to resources, evolution will stop. Human beings did not reach our place at the top of the food chain by sharing resources with other species or even among ourselves; we got here by exploiting, murdering, and controlling access to resources at the expense of others. This is the law of natural selection.
There are two levels of evolution occurring here. Both societal evolution and genetic evolution are driven by capitalism. Through our need for ever more money we are driven to work together on huge projects and advanced technology, which helps all of society. And through lack of money the weak (should be) culled, contributing to our genetic advancement.
The concepts of "equality" and "rights" are purely human concepts that had no place in the world even 1000 years ago. Among animals no such thing exists. Competition for resources is the only law in the animal kingdom. It used to be that if you wanted to eat, you had to personally go out and forage or kill an animal for food. But now that food is plentifully available thanks to agriculture, why do anything? Something had to fill the competitive void left by the food surplus, and that something is money. Money is FAR from evil, it is amazing. It is an abstract currency that represents units of work, allowing people to do whatever they want as long as it is useful to others in some way, and make a living doing it.
The purpose of capitalism is to motivate people to work hard. Without the need for money, people would sit on their fat asses and literally not do a damn thing. I know *I* would play SC2 all day if I had no fear of starvation. But lazy people do not live up to their full potential, and by doing so, they do not contribute to the advancement of society. I view human society as an organism, with each person acting as a cell. Just as one brain cell can do nothing without networking, one person is useless without others. In the same vein, a brain cell that does not network is simply a drain on the resources of the body.
I am a social Darwinist. I do not believe that all beings are created equal, because we simply are not. I do not believe that all beings have the "right to life", because life is cruel and often short, and bullshitting about "rights" will not prevent others from taking them away from you. People like you have become weak and soft, and have forgotten that we are animals. Death is still a very imminent concept to every other species on this planet except Homo Sapiens.
I will leave you with this table grace that my mother taught me:
All life is one, and everything that lives is holy - plants, animals, Man.
All must eat to live and nourish one another.
We bless the lives that have died to give us this food.
Let us eat consciously, resolving by our work to pay the debt of our existence.
Understand that every time you eat something, you are killing another being. Cooperation is inherently impossible in the animal kingdom, since we must kill to eat. The only way we can attempt to improve the world is to give back more than we took away - to "pay the debt of our existence." If you refuse to do this, you are simply a drain on the resources of the world.
PS: (here comes the ad hominem attack - steel yourself)
You sound like a fucking hipster. Too cool to fit in. Why don't you grow a pair and realize that it's NOT "what's inside that counts," but that a man is judged by the worth of his actions alone. I don't care if you're Albert fucking Einstein, if you just sit in your basement and teach your friends guitar for free, you're a waste of space, air, resources, and time. You don't like the way the world is? Get off your ass and do something about it. Hipsters talk, real men do.
PPS: If you do decide that you really can't handle society, you might consider joining a commune. There are plenty around the world. I should know, my parents met at one
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While quite a bit older, I agree with some of your assessments.
Some random thoughts:
I myself have concluded that education in a broader sense is the only thing that has any real kind of meaning. I'm not talking about knowledge here, since actually I'm pretty worried that we can not keep up with the speed of scientific progress in terms of our ethical development. As a human race we're still hard pressed to figure out the "right" way to deal with nuclear power- a technology that was discovered more than 60 years ago and still might lead to destruction and demise.
What I'm talking about is education in a more moral/social sense. In my opinion one can not make the "world" better- inventions, political constructs etc. they just change the scenery for the same old (tiresome) evolutionary show: Humans exploit whatever they can find, including each other. So in order to really make a difference, you got to change the way men behave.
Trying to "better" the coming generations either by just setting a good example or direct teaching (or both ) makes the most sense to me.
In terms of capitalism/ the evil system- think of Bill Gates, he's setting a pretty a good example for being in the system and yet working to help thousands/millions.
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EPT
