These Days

one argument i really hate

igather:

isabelthespy:

it sort of reminds me, actually, of those annoying pretty pictures that pop up on tumblr like eight hundred times a day telling you that you can be anything you want to be (i swear i have a point). while the veracity of this statement for any given individual is up for debate, the fact of the matter is it can’t be true for everyone because there just isn’t enough room in “ideal” jobs! the world needs, actually, janitors and waiters and dental hygienists and garbage collectors, and i mean i don’t see any way around that unless you’re arguing for a complete restructuring of our economic system which, good luck with that and i do mean it but i don’t see a whole lot of photographs of loopy handwriting on pretty stationery saying ALL THAT IS KEEPING YOU FROM BEING ALL YOU WANT TO BE IS YOUR OWN FEAR, AND OUR OPPRESSIVE CAPITALIST SYSTEM WHICH REQUIRES THE SUBJUGATION OF THE PASSIONS AND TALENTS OF THE MANY TO SUPPORT THE SUCCESS OF THE FEW. if anyone wants to start a tumblr for that, that’d be awesome (fuckyeahradicalhelvetica?) but i don’t see it happening.

I guess. But why is the idea of the ‘ideal job’ the axis on which happiness and the concept of a fulfilling, meaningful life swings? I mean, that’s actually a fairly modern concept, finding happiness and fulfillment through your ‘job’ or career and for most of history it was what you did after the money had been made that shaped you and defined your life. Jobs have historically been just what you did to pay for the stuff that made you who you were and got you to the happiness.

So…I don’t know that I have a point, except that you can be whatever you want to be once you realize that a job is not necessarily a defining part of that equation. For everyone. So I can go be a garbage man and still be anything I want to be.

And then we don’t have to make that stationary!

Posted 1 month ago & Filed under what the what now?, am i making any sense?, 34 notes