Work un-natural? Obviously not, but PEOPLE HAVE IT ALL WRONG!

I know there are several topics on this as well as the latest ATS Street View, however, I think another is necessary to point out the flaws that apparently people aren't understanding. From my readings on the subject and actually in depth conversation with people about work, I think it is safe to say that there are very view people that believe that ALL WORK, no matter what, is un-natural. So let's just swipe that off the table right now.

Clearly, you need to work to survive. When mankind began, man worked to gather food, create shelter, and take care of himself. Soon enough, man learned that he could gather excess of one thing in order to trade for another, thus his work load was condensed to a small range. Finally, when time went on, man decided that instead of trading excess physically, we could attribute currency to it and instead trade currency in its place.

All in all, it is the same system. But the problem is that as currency took over, the proportions of work to the pay off began to skew wildly. However, at the same time, availability and transport of excess goods became so easy that the work being done to do so, was hardly worth it.

The argument of live to work vs. work to live came up, and sadly, no matter what the people say - EVERYONE is working to live. That is the basis of it all; always has been, always will be. The only exception to this formula are those who are given handouts with nothing in return.

So many people talk about living to work, ie. finding a job that they enjoy doing, but what about those who can't find something they enjoy doing? What about those who only wish to work in the old methods to survive on their own?

Society doesn't allow for those. For instance, I have a job that I am content at doing, however it is not something I necessarily enjoy doing every day. At one point in my life, I wanted to design video games. I did it in my spare time, I had fun doing it, but when push came to shove and college prices came to realization, that dream ended.

Almost everybody I know has their job because they have to pay the bills. They had opportunities to do what they enjoyed out of life, but the sad reality is that if everyone got to design video games, become a famous musician, or was a firefighter - who the hell would do everything else?

Sure, there are people out there that enjoy being businessmen. There are people out there that enjoy being doctors. There are people out there that maybe, just maybe, enjoy collecting garbage. But what do we say to all those people, those millions of people who are forced to do something they hate, day in and day out, because there wasn't enough room for them? Because, society deemed it fit to make them work doing whatever they could to make money because there was nothing else left elsewhere.

And the scale of the work to the payoff is absurd for one reason and on reason only, an issue that I have expressed many times in my writing - SKEWED PRIORITIES.

If the scale of pay to the importance of the work done actually made any sense whatsoever, people would be happy with work. However, in this world, the farmer, the teacher, the grocer, and the healers, are all undercut by the athletes, the actors, the musicians, and the CEOs.

The reason work is so "un-natural" in most peoples eyes is the fact that the people in this world making the MOST income to survive on are the ones doing BY FAR the LEAST work. An athlete needs only play one game, an actor needs only make one movie, a musician needs only to make on record, and a CEO needs only play one game of golf to make the equivalent of 90% of an average person's LIFETIME INCOME.

This is the only statistic that I need to look at. This is the only thing that matters. This is the only thing that makes me care absolutely NOTHING about money. Instead of people bringing this simple fact to light or trying to do anything about it, instead they work their 60-80 hour a week jobs, slave in hot factories with no air conditioning, watch their business go overseas, and watch the upper tier continue to dominate the world's finances by making more money in a single hour than they will ever make in their lives.

Un-natural to work? Certainly not. But I think at some point you have to lose faith in the process when it has become so messed up and you don't even know why.



The simple fact is this. With the exception of insane priorities of modern people, this world has the resources and we have the technology to provide every single living human being on this planet their basic resources, indefinitely, for free, without the need of a 40-90 hour work week. Do we do it? No. Do we attempt it? No. Do we even ADDRESS the issue? No.

So long as people continue to be ignorant to the reality that is life, and the messed up norms that, for some strange reason, society has created for themselves, then people will continue to be slaves.

I, on the other hand, will continue to work. No, not to fuel the corrupt and silly system. To provide for my survival and my family as best I can without succumbing to same old song and dance. There may be days that I go without because I won't be able to afford the luxuries of life, but at least I know that in the end of it all I will be happy having lived for myself than in support of the system which has damned us all.

And with any luck, I will be a part of that which helps to destroy it and start anew.

So is work un-natural? Absolutely not. But the conditions in which we work are as un-natural as only the human condition could made it.

I wonder what little 8 yr old kids in Indonesia making shoes for us for 15cents per day think about the subject?

Actually I bet they think it's natural. All they have known is slavery.

I would expect a slave on the plantations in 1800 to also reply "it's natural".

Of course they would. If they thought otherwise, the system of enslavement would fall apart rapidly.

We better think work is the only choice. Otherwise the Govt and Corporations would collapse within a week.

reply to post by gwydionblack


Work is very natural, but the invention of currency and interest allows some to swindle people out of their sweat.
Most people simply do not understand what their sweat is worth.

moral of the story is that if you are working and it feels unnatural, then maybe you are simply in the wrong line of work and its a way for life to tell you to keep looking. for someone wh enjoys their job, work is fun, and they still get the good biproducts of work. thats not to say there wont be stress, but there is sress everywhere on earth

A very, very good post. Stars and Flags. Well written. Well thought out.

I haven't resolved the work issue myself. I have a great job that allows me to travel all over the world, but I don't make "enough" money---at least as much as we seem to need with kids and college and groceries and cell phones...and ah, the list goes on. I'm not the primary breadwinner, but times are getting tough.

But I was never cut out for a cubicle job, and I've really tried to remain true to myself. I've found creative things to do---things that I enjoy...but there are days I feel I am being irresponsible. Shouldn't we be willing to work at McDonalds if we have to---just to support our families better?

Isn't work just an ends to a means?

Or should we sacrifice our dreams in order to survive?

Originally posted by gwydionblack
Clearly, you need to work to survive. When mankind began, man worked to gather food, create shelter, and take care of himself.

The reason work is so "un-natural" in most peoples eyes is the fact that the people in this world making the MOST income to survive on are the ones doing BY FAR the LEAST work.

Un-natural to work? Certainly not. But I think at some point you have to lose faith in the process when it has become so messed up and you don't even know why.

And with any luck, I will be a part of that which helps to destroy it and start anew.

So is work un-natural? Absolutely not. But the conditions in which we work are as un-natural as only (a lying elite class) could made it.

Excerpts, with minor edits by Chakotay in Parenthesis.

Sir: you have expressed profound Truth. S&F

reply to post by muzzleflash


Speaking of shoes, bought a pair yesterday and was musing on how tedious the job is for the person who has to lace them up before they leave the factory. Surely a machine can't do it, can it?

what about those who can't find something they enjoy doing

I don't "enjoy" my job. But then, my job does not define me. I work simply so that I can enjoy the activities that do define me without having to worry about my electricity being turned off.

I have no desire to be promoted, or even to get a raise. I make enough as it is to live, with some extra left over to have fun beyond paying the bills. I am happy.

And yet I am surrounded by people who are miserable as they try and claw their way to the "top". They work 60+ hours a week, give up holidays, miss out on their kids growing up, ect; This isn't so they can pay the bills. Properly budgeted we can all live on so much less then we realize. No, this is in order fulfil the "American dream" - A big house, a big car...success! In the "American Dream" model happiness is defined by how much stuff we have.

I am 37 years old, I do not own a car, I do not "own" a house, I am not at the pinnacle of my "career" and yet...weirdly ( according to my peers) I am happy!

We live in a society where stuff is supposed to = happiness.

Media, education, the work world, ( at the behest of the corporations who want us to buy their stuff) have been telling us for decades now that only way to be truly happy is to own a BMW, smell like strawberries, use an Iphone, have a white picket fence..blah blah blah...

People think that cavemen worked very hard to survive. The truth is they hunted and gathered for 2 hours a day and the rest was play. Our luxuries like hot running water come at a huge cost. We were happier as cavemen.