It's amazing how easy it is to feel uncomfortable in a place. The place might not even be the cause of the discomfort: maybe it's the people, maybe it's one's job, wanderlust, or a sense of unfulfilled desire. Maybe some just have misplaced notions of how great another place is in comparison to where the dreamer is now; after all, it's easy to imagine a paradise based on snippets of hand-picked bits of knowledge.
At the same time, the discomfort might be warranted. I haven't known a person (well, maybe a few) who was comfortable remaining in the same place for their entire lives, though perhaps that's just American/'western' culture. After all, we're continually told that the bird must leave the nest sometime. We've all got to spread our wings and fly, become 'adults,' whatever that may be.
My generation is entering the 'quarter-life crisis' phase, typically characterized by an uncertainty about what it is we're supposed to do now that we're no longer in school or living at home. There's a certain sense of ennui that befalls those of us not lucky enough to be born into wealth; wake up, go to work, come home, lather, rinse, repeat every day except for the weekends and Friday nights. Some of us will go out, try to have fun with the even more limited time we have, while others will do whatever it is that they enjoy. That might be writing a book, or simply doing nothing; really, though, is this a devolution?
I can't help but think that the utter necessity to earn an income to support oneself (which isn't as easy as it sounds, sadly enough) is a stagnant bit of garbage that has remained as the last vestige of the Industrial Revolution.
But, DF, people need to work in order for the economy to run!
Yeah, that is true. Without earned incomes, there aren't any taxes, thus lesser government income (unless they've got gas money, bling bling), thus fewer police and public works projects and general anarchy because government can't afford to do, well, anything. But at the same time, how much do most companies actually contribute to the mythos of humanity?
(I'm starting to sound preachy and acerbic. This might be the point at which you stop reading, close your browser, make a cuppa tea, and read the evening news. What comes after this has no statistical basis in fact, there are no numbers, no citations, so...beware, I guess.)
What do we consider as human knowledge? The creation of financial assets? Market trading? Graphic design? Social media development? Soap?
I suppose we'd have to get down to the base of what can constitute 'human knowledge'- that which would be learned by a new generation in a post-apocalyptic cataclysm. So, one day, everyone on Earth is gone in a poof, and a few million years roll by, and the octopi sucker up onto land and become the dominant species. They start using tools, living in groups, developing agriculture, city-states, maybe even war with other city-states, kings, magnates, dictators, democracy, plagues, religion, etc. Maybe they'll have a god with a million tentacles.
The point is, what would they learn as the dominant species, supposing that all of human knowledge, all books, internet knowledge, disappeared forever?
The obvious answer is, first, science. No matter what, science will be true, whether it's biology, astronomy, etc. The laws are there for discovery, and no doubt, the great octopus philosopher Octomedes will be the first to discover that all heavenly bodies move in a rigid pattern.
But what else is there? Would they develop concepts of money? Or even of religion? Or how to code in CSS?
This comes back to my original point: how much of what we do in life actually impacts the gross sum of human experience? Will anyone in 1000 years care whether or not Goldman Sachs made a record profit last quarter? (I hope not, but this is assuming that Goldman Sachs doesn't engage in a monopolistic autocratic rule of the planet.)
So... I actually don't have a point. Never mind.
Sunday, April 27, 2014
Saturday, April 5, 2014
One of Them Days
It's easy to feel uncertain about being your 20s. For most of us, it's our first real step out of childhood, the time when we become responsible for ourselves and our wellbeing. Sometimes, we even become responsible for the lives of others, whether it's by choice or otherwise. Sure, maybe ten years down the road, we'll all look back on our 20s, thinking about how carefree and young and beautiful we were, how we had it so easy, how we didn't know how tedious life gets, etc.
Hindsight is, as they say, 20/20- it's perfectly easy and completely ignorant to say that life was easier in the past, because with every phase of our lives that passes, the contexts of our troubles and issues changes dramatically. From exams to finding a job, from rent to paying a mortgage, from trying to get sleep while your newborn wakes up at midnight to trying to save enough money for your child's university expenses, it all changes. That does not, however, diminish the importance of each issue.
That's why, when we look back on our past selves and think, 'man, the living was fun,' maybe it was. Maybe it wasn't. It's easier to remember the times that brought us joy and purpose rather than the times we were excessively stressed; it's also easier to look back on stressful times, like pulling all-nighters for exams or sequestering oneself in order to study, and feel nostalgic; it's a simplicity of purpose, and in ambiguous times, simplicity is precisely that for which we yearn. Knowing that one's ultimate goal is acing a class is clear; finding oneself unemployed and without many job options leaves one wishing for something simpler, because anything is better than uncertainty.
Unfortunately, it's easier than ever to become frazzled in your 20s. Facebook lets us keep track of our peers, and even if we haven't spoken to them since high school, we still get to keep track of their life's progress, and implicitly, we compare it to our own. Imagine that you see that your ex-girlfriend got a great job at a large bank, whereas you're still working part-time scanning food at the A&P and trying to find something elsewhere full-time with a decent starting salary and healthcare; how would you feel? Jealous? It's OK to admit it- we all look at those who are doing better in similar situations and wish we could be them.
It's not uncommon to hear people say that 'everything will work out,' even when, to you, it seems like nothing will. And honestly, it's better not to listen to them, because it's hard to tell if everything will work out, which is why you have to make it work out. No magical panacea is going to get dropped into your lap. If you're not actively trying to change things, then nothing ever will change, no matter how long you wait.
That's all for now,
Das Flüg
Hindsight is, as they say, 20/20- it's perfectly easy and completely ignorant to say that life was easier in the past, because with every phase of our lives that passes, the contexts of our troubles and issues changes dramatically. From exams to finding a job, from rent to paying a mortgage, from trying to get sleep while your newborn wakes up at midnight to trying to save enough money for your child's university expenses, it all changes. That does not, however, diminish the importance of each issue.
That's why, when we look back on our past selves and think, 'man, the living was fun,' maybe it was. Maybe it wasn't. It's easier to remember the times that brought us joy and purpose rather than the times we were excessively stressed; it's also easier to look back on stressful times, like pulling all-nighters for exams or sequestering oneself in order to study, and feel nostalgic; it's a simplicity of purpose, and in ambiguous times, simplicity is precisely that for which we yearn. Knowing that one's ultimate goal is acing a class is clear; finding oneself unemployed and without many job options leaves one wishing for something simpler, because anything is better than uncertainty.
Unfortunately, it's easier than ever to become frazzled in your 20s. Facebook lets us keep track of our peers, and even if we haven't spoken to them since high school, we still get to keep track of their life's progress, and implicitly, we compare it to our own. Imagine that you see that your ex-girlfriend got a great job at a large bank, whereas you're still working part-time scanning food at the A&P and trying to find something elsewhere full-time with a decent starting salary and healthcare; how would you feel? Jealous? It's OK to admit it- we all look at those who are doing better in similar situations and wish we could be them.
It's not uncommon to hear people say that 'everything will work out,' even when, to you, it seems like nothing will. And honestly, it's better not to listen to them, because it's hard to tell if everything will work out, which is why you have to make it work out. No magical panacea is going to get dropped into your lap. If you're not actively trying to change things, then nothing ever will change, no matter how long you wait.
That's all for now,
Das Flüg
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