Learning implies change. To live implies change. Change is the only constant. Therefore, instead of fighting it, we should embrace it.
What experiences have you had with change?
I’ll start:
As I’ve become more politically aware, I’ve become less and less willing to do hard work. I now do only what is asked of me, and no more. It started as a response to the inherent exploitation we are forced to participate, but it creeped into my own personal life. I have become “lazy”, as I’ve become less and less engaged in my own personal projects. And while I tend to antagonize this part of myself, I’ve recently learned to be compassionate. I’m now slowly realizing how much I overworked myself, and how toxic my relationship to work was. I’m slowly enjoying life a bit more every day, and even though I feel like I’m going “slower”, I no longer think that’s necessarily a bad thing. It’s ok to smell the roses sometimes.
There is still a sour feeling in me of how much more I would be willing to do if the result of such work benefited society directly. But I can’t just will a different economic system into existence, so I need to learn to let go. We need to pick and choose our battles.
I feel like this a common annoyance for me. Everyone wants to complain about the issues but has trouble accepting that there is a root issue. Everyone I hear seems to see complaining as simply just yell about how Scandinavia and welfare states are the solution.
Most aren’t educated to understand how pernicious markets are to social policies. Also, historical labor struggles are scrubbed or minimized, at least here in the USA. Don’t be too hard on them though if they are at least trying to learn. We need all the help we can get.
I am never rude to them and always try to explain the issues. I fully understand why I must explain and the reasons. I still get annoyed by it though
My ex would always make all kinds of offhanded remarks about capitalists being evil, almost as a joke. Like a “CEO gonna CEO” kinda thing. But the mere second I gained class consciousness and started considering what could be done about it instead of complaining about it, all of a sudden I was some crazy radical.