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Forum Post: You Filthy Laze Abouts. Get A Job!

Posted 13 years ago on Oct. 7, 2011, 9:51 p.m. EST by NoAliasAdam (7)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement

There, that got your attention. I've posted this 2 times and not a single comment. Not that I need a comment for some sort of affirmation, I just think it's really important for us all to ponder. So please join with me and ponder.

For all the bickering back and forth, from side to side, conservative to liberal, may I remind everyone that our greatest aspiration in life is happiness. Simply that; happiness

I travelled and lived for a long while in the mountainous region of north eastern Turkey (it was awesomely beautiful). Out there the residents did not have their education paid for by the government, they did not have running water brought into their homes by the government, yet they were, we were, happy and contented. I am telling you this because I think some in our beautiful movement who lean more towards the left end of the political spectrum have been convinced by the Wests’ idea of success and happiness. I’ll tell you, having an education and a job and paved streets is nice but it is not crucial for happiness. If we want to accomplish the most radical things with this movement, it would be to remind ourselves that all the branding of a good and satisfactory life is exactly that, it’s branding, we’ve been sold the idea that being successful and happy is having an education, getting a well paying job, having street lights to guide the traffic. Please don't misunderstand me, I’m not saying we should be without these things and a government has no compulsion to provide them, just that we need to remember that life is a beautiful thing and happiness is our greatest hope. I see signs that say, “live simply, so that others may simply live,” and I wonder if we’ve taken it truly to heart. Maybe we have the wrong desires…Maybe?

This video made me smile. Great song. Lets learn to play in our planet again!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWcyIpul8OE

19 Comments

19 Comments


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[-] 1 points by Sorbe (3) 13 years ago

LOL. Bunch of whiny babies crying "Where's the free stuff??"

I'm sorry, you don't get to upend the board game just because you're losing. You actually have to try to work.

[-] 1 points by ms3000 (253) 13 years ago

We need to elect a shadow congress of delegates to vote on a platform. This plan of action suggests a Third Congressional Congress in Philadelphia on July 4, 2012.

https://sites.google.com/site/the99percentdeclaration/

[-] 1 points by MikeInOhio (13) 13 years ago

Adam, those are all wonderful sentiments, but suggesting to people that education isn't the path to a happy and successful life is a bit misguided. I've been to Turkey too (Antalya area) and found it to be wonderful. But the people you are referring to are probably dying, literally dying, for an education. Sure they are happy and contented; they don't know anything else.

We can all go live in a hippie commune in California, but someone has to pay for the food, electricity, and water (roads, dams, Maxine Water's salary). You don't pay for these things with good intentions, you pay for them with a job.

[-] 1 points by NoAliasAdam (7) 13 years ago

We've been had by the industrial revolution. I'm not saying we shouldn't have pursuits, but should the government be held responsible for such pursuits? I'm saying our current situation is comfortability not happiness. It's time to reassess.

[-] 1 points by MikeInOhio (13) 13 years ago

I agree. We should all stop consuming so much and spend more time on the simple things. I think you'll have a hard time convincing the ipod-starbucks generation, though. That's who I see in the streets on NY.

[-] 1 points by MattLHolck (16833) from San Diego, CA 13 years ago

I'd like add to vast culture given to me by my ancestors for the future human generations

[-] 1 points by MattLHolck (16833) from San Diego, CA 13 years ago

we need a sub forum for get a job

[-] 1 points by Madhusudana (90) 13 years ago

If this were simply about personal happiness we could just lobby for free LSD, but it wouldn't do much to alleviate the destruction wrought globally by the current system.

[-] 1 points by NoAliasAdam (7) 13 years ago

Haha. No, I do understand that we need to rail against this injust system but wanting free college or university, I mean, we must see the entitlement complex of such a demand, right?

[-] 1 points by Madhusudana (90) 13 years ago

Depends on the way in which you frame the various scenarios and within which arguments: i.e. universal healthcare would be a lot easier to afford if we weren't funding two wars. Is that an instance of entitlement or of a people expecting their governement to make decisions based on their interests?

Highlighting individual problems serves mostly to frame these issues as institutional, where in reality the focus should be on them as systemic.

[-] 1 points by NoAliasAdam (7) 13 years ago

Yeah, I had thought of that as well. My old conservative bones get a little shook by the free stuff people want. Haha. But I'm all there with you about the wars and the wasted money that only serves the upper 1%.

[-] 1 points by Madhusudana (90) 13 years ago

That's understandable, but if you want to understand the situation with a little more accuracy, stop looking at the various aspects of it with your socially conditioned preconcieved notions and try instead to look at them as a list of identified flaws that need to be addressed.

It's not about people asking for free shit, it's about people questioning the status quo.

[-] 1 points by sMilesxNewZealand (2) 13 years ago

The electoral system has to change. We need to vote on the president for health and separately on the president for tax for health. We need to vote on the president for education and separately for the president for education tax . And so on and in every state and regions from the bottom up. A supreme president Obama is a king. The supreme president is archaic. We should have got rid of supreme presidents when Britain's Oliver Cromwell won against King Charles. Cromwells mistake was making prime ministers who are temporary kings. The principle is Separation of Powers. All powers must be separated. That is the fundamental policy to get behind. But it is best that voters get to vote for an electoral college which in turn votes for the president of health, etc. That way, we avoid the tyranny of the majority. All the best. Miles from North Shore Auckland New Zealand

[-] 1 points by NoAliasAdam (7) 13 years ago

That's really interesting thought. Evolution of democracy. It could be superfluous and costly though. But good thought and idea none the less.

[-] 1 points by rbe (687) 13 years ago

I agree 100%. It 's shameful that we created this whole mess ourselves.

[-] 1 points by kingearl (141) 13 years ago

Obamas' 2012 Re-election Finance Director is the son of BANK OF AMERICAS former CEO.... the guy who got us in this mess!!! Keeping it all in the Family

[-] 1 points by MyHeartSpits (448) 13 years ago

If this movement fails, it will be a failing of imagination...

[-] 1 points by Idaltu (662) 13 years ago

Imagine this.... There is no way that special interests will be dissolved in Washington. Everything will continue as it has in the past, only the actors on the stage will change. It makes no difference who gets elected....they are just actors on a stage playing out a script. So what really needs to change? The stage? The director? Or the whole damn thing? hmmm or the audience?

[-] 1 points by Dewey (19) 13 years ago

it will be a failing of not taking action.