People make a lot of references to “elders,” who supposedly have invaluable experience that we all benefit from, even when said “elders” failed to acknowledge the world changing around them. Any time someone mentions that a way to live no longer works, someone else has to soothe the defensive feelings of someone who used to have answers, but now feels less relevant. Change is inevitable, and even when we revert back to previous patterns, the conditions under which we operate those patterns make the behaviors completely different. When so many people are living off cliches, there is no room for effective societal evolution, and we will all remain stuck until we stop chasing easy answers.
At this point I refuse to have two conversations, because every time I point out the issues with both, people obsessively point out anecdotal evidence that “proves” their points. No, college does not immediately translate to money, because once “everyone” figured out how to go to college, it was no longer a high enough barrier to living wage work. Privilege has helped idiots skate through college or avoid it altogether, and those jackwagons are now billionaires–no, they were not slaving away at multiple jobs to get that money. Furthermore, trade is not better than college, because automation is coming for all those jobs, too. Sweat equity used to mean feeding families and sustaining communities, but psychopaths decided that it was more fun to destabilize the masses than to follow through on allowing anyone to prosper. The undiscovered genius reconfiguring the gini coefficient and the trash collector are both going to starve because the psychopaths have no interest in paying either of them.
No, single and/or childless people are not necessarily immature because otherwise, nothing would be getting done during this era when many people are both. Sentencing children to die because nobody accepts that humans have needs is not a reasonable alternative to people wanting to be grandparents or companies wanting consumers. Cultivation of either fields or people takes time, energy, and resources, and if people are not able to access all three, it is irresponsible to procreate. I am not an antinatalist, but even poor people cannot just “figure it out” anymore. Moreover, all relationships take the same components as cultivation, and it is very difficult to maintain healthy relationships when partners work multiple jobs on different schedules, and are trying to adequately show affection and compassion.
The only thing people get from hard work is tired. Wages stagnated, everything costs more, and the “elites are not working to ensure that people find a way around total control. Telling everyone to work as hard as we can and save as much as we can when emergencies are bound to occur and people can only do so much–even when we work sick and injured–is a fool’s errand. “Elites” enjoy watching people struggle, so they will do everything they can to ensure that we never escape their grasp, which is why the majority of the imperial population live on credit and deprive ourselves in hopes of breaking even. “Work harder” is not a thing, and has not been a thing anymore.
Accountability is the only thing that would change all of these circumstances, and I am not sure that the imperial system–the government, not measurement–will do anything to ensure that people get what we need to get. While everyone is still trying to keep things afloat, the insatiable greed is consuming even faster, and none of the “elites” are doing anything about that. Beneficiaries and sycophants have the inside scoop, and they are in the pits of despair as well. However, accountability in the forms of wealth redistribution, breaking up monopolies, and ostracization are the only ways forward. We are all going to die together faster as long as we keep telling ourselves that “all we have to do is” that thing “elites” sealed off so far in the past that no one even remembers they did it.
Chasing A Dying Empire 