Nobody Wants to Work

[Stevicus]

What else is, or was, there? It's actually all just different gradations of capitalism. That's all there ever was, throughout history. It's a requirement of the use of non-free material resources. As long as resources are finite, someone will allocate them. Now I would like to see an up-scaled quality of life for the masses, but I think that might have something more to do with a misuse of technology.

Well, there's always been some system of resource distribution and economic system. Of course, the economic system never exists within a vacuum, and in actuality, when people speak of a "system," they're referring more to political systems than economic systems. Capitalism is primarily associated with industrialization, which came about after centuries of mercantilism while the budding industrial nations prowled the earth to get the resources they needed.

 

[amorphous_constellation]

Well, there's always been some system of resource distribution and economic system. Of course, the economic system never exists within a vacuum, and in actuality, when people speak of a "system," they're referring more to political systems than economic systems. Capitalism is primarily associated with industrialization, which came about after centuries of mercantilism while the budding industrial nations prowled the earth to get the resources they needed.

I think our lives are probably defined far more, actually, by technological interfaces than money. And the truth is probably that there is always a trade-off between things. You build more housing, you wreck good views. You need the economy to grow, prices inflate. Etc. In a world with finite resources, eventually cuts have to been made somewhere. Dissatisfaction probably occurs. Then I guess, that's where spirituality might come in, if successfully employed, to give people a bit more meaning where materialism failed

 

[PureX]

Again, I understand your point of view. And if may speculate further, correct me if I'm incorrect, I think I understand what kind of Christianity you like: which is actually the most authentic kind - the doom-pilled Jesus was in fact, a brute realist about the fatality of material conditions. 'The poor will always be with you.' 'woodworms will eat your rotting earthly gold.' 'gaining the whole world profits you nothing.' My question to you, is to ask if you take all of that as literally as possible

I myself, as a follower of other philosophies, cannot fully forsake the material part of the world, since everything else is built on it. Spirituality, creativity, and motivation all require the material world. It is not doomed, for the sake of hope in heaven, it's instead the foundation of everything else.

I am not religious. I take no religious text 'literally'. I see the example of Christ (in the story) as a revelation and a promise: that the divine spirit of love, forgiveness, kindness, and generosity exists within us all. And that if we will set our own selfish fears aside, and allow that spirit to become us, it will heal us and save us from ourselves. And help us to help others do the same. And when enough of us finally choose to become the embodiment of this divine spirit within, the whole world will finally be healed and saved ... from us.

To me this is not a metaphor, or some symbolic magical religious incantation. It's just a vision and statement of fact. We humans are our own worst enemy. Our own self-centered fear and it's resultant desire that we be in control of everything around us, so as to force the world to serve ourselves, is what is destroying the gift of material existence that we have been given and what is causing most of our suffering in life. Meanwhile, the solution to all that destruction and suffering is within our own being. It's that divine inclination within us to love each other, and to forgive each other, and to be kind to each other, and to share with each other. But for this spirit within to become us, we have to be willing to set aside that fear that we won't get what we need, or that we won't get enough. Or that we aren't in control of our own destiny. Because it is exactly this selfish fear that blinds us, and sets us all against each other as competitors, and enemies.

Capitalism is humanity's fear and greed and desire to control everything and everyone around us, systematized. It's why even those many of us that are being abused and harmed by this system still think it's going to save us. Because capitalism is all about gaining unilateral control. Top down control. Wealth is ownership and ownership is control. Absolute control. Money rules all. Those who have it get to be in control of everything that money can buy. And that's everything that one needs to live, and to thrive. So the more fearful we become because we do not have that control, the more we believe getting that control will save us. And because we believe this, we make it so.

But the real solution is not more unilateral control through the acquisition of ever greater wealth. It's mutual control and well-being gained through mutual cooperation and the sharing of wealth. And this is why capitalism and the fear and selfishness that drives it can only end in our destruction, and in great suffering. Though the worse it gets, the more blinded to this inevitable result we tend to become.

 

[idea]

A homeless person sold newspapers on the side of the road to passing cars. They bought the papers for $0.25, hauled them on an old bike, and then sold them for $0.25 as that was the going rate set by the newspaper company. As they served their last customer of the morning, the person in the shiny car looked over the rags and gave them advice. You know what you need to do? You need work harder, you need to sell more papers.