this post was submitted on 01 Aug 2023
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Capitalism tells us that we must dream of careers
Kids have always dreamed of vocations. Kids feel that calling sense in a much purer way than adults can. They want to sing so they want to be a star. They want to make new things, invent stuff, so they want to be scientists. They want to be cool as shit so they want to become astronauts.
Capitalism fucks that up in so many ways. I'm not even talking about the fact that western kids today want to be streamers. Nowadays (as in as has been for decades) there's no calling, even kids realise that being the lowest grunt in whatever organisation isn't much of a goal so they also dream of "advancement", except that means doing less of the thing you want to do to manage. And if you advance enough, you get to not do that thing you went in to do.
Worst of it all, this is just what we face as kids. To say nothing on the alienation we suffer from, to feel like an animal doing human actions and human fulfilling animal needs. Folks got so used to the term wage slavery that they don't even comprehend how inhuman labour under capitalism is.
Y'all still feel like animals?
I feel more machine than the robots I work with. A labor unit to be used and discarded when I break down.
I get you, really, but I don't think Marx could've given robots as an example. I was paraphrasing from Estranged Labour.
Besides, robotics aren't always treated with the carelessness we are. The capitalists own the robots as they were machinery, and you know how scum are when it comes to their stuff being damaged.
As someone that works with machinery on a daily basis I think they treat us about the same. The machines I work with are barely functional pieces of shit that are only kept going by quick fixes and half measures, just gotta last long enough until it's the next shift's problem! Capitalists treat us the same because the cost to operate and replace us is the same - if the machinery is more expensive they don't buy it, they just scream at us to work harder.
While this is partially true, there's been a lot of study on what makes us feel like we have purpose, and how our sense of purpose drives our well-being. They’ve even done studies on the elderly and found that those who retire and just "relax" tend to die earlier than those who continue to "work" in some way (note that "work" is broad in this usage. Volunteering, or having a structure and activities where you feel like you're filling a need is included).
A carreer that you are able to partake in with severely reduced hours can easily be just that.