I’m so sick of being surrounded by people that are just so goddamn content with their shitty, pointless little lives. I don’t get it. How do they do it?
Are they faking it?
Are they delusional?
Are they lying to themselves?
Are they just stupid?
These are the only options I can come up with, so I guess the vast majority of the population fits at least one of these categories. I wish I did, but I’m too smart, too aware, and too realistic, and therefore miserable.
I’m working a summer job in a warehouse, and man does it suck. It’s a shit job. And to get through it, I just keep telling myself “it’s just for the summer, in a few weeks you’ll be back in school and about to graduate college.” But that’s not enough to make me hate it any less. It’s a hot, ugly, dirty place to work. The job is monotonous as all hell and totally unrewarding. Yet I look around at the people I work with, and they seem to just be loving it. They laugh and joke all day, and go about their mundanity with a smile. And most of these people work 50+ hours a week just to survive. I work 30 hours and want to kill myself. And for them, it’s not a summer job. It’s their life and their future. So what the fuck do they have to be happy about? I feel like an asshole for being miserable when I have a better life and future than most of them, but I can’t help it. Why don’t they want to kill themselves?
And that’s everywhere I go. Middle-class schlubs, meandering around, spending 9 hours a day doing meaningless bullshit for paper to buy meaningless bullshit, and not hating their lives. WHY THE FUCK NOT?!
10 comments
I do not think happiness has anything to do with your circumstances in life. Even bothering to ask why am I depressed is meaningless unless you suffer from PDST or the like. There is no acceptable answer for anyone. Unless you are willing to accept that you are just chemically, at least your brain is, different from everyone.
I do not think happiness has anything to do with your circumstances in life. Even bothering to ask why am I depressed is meaningless unless you suffer from PDST or the like. There is no acceptable answer for anyone. Unless you are willing to accept that you are just chemically, at least your brain is, different from everyone.
I do not think happiness has anything to do with your circumstances in life. Even bothering to ask why am I depressed is meaningless unless you suffer from PDST or the like. There is no acceptable answer for anyone. Unless you are willing to accept that you are just chemically, at least your brain is, different from everyone.
Lol why does it spam it…my bad guys.
Well, *I* think that happiness is entirely dependent upon circumstances, including those that occur in our minds. External circumstances aren’t necessarily indicative of internal ones, and vice versa.
As for the OP:
I think it’s often a combination of all those things you listed, in varying amounts, to varying degrees.
Some people are indeed “just stupid.”
Some people are quite delusional.
Some people know that they must “fake it,” just to get by.
Some people have no better way than “lying to themselves,” to artificially manifest enough motivation to continue their lives, in the face of sheer futility and suffering.
Some are a combination of some and/or all of those.
Perhaps even more intriguing, is the fact that some people really are, truly, genuinely happy, or at least content… and it’s not always those you might expect.
I personally tend to find solace in the very thing i most despise: my own mortality, and the finiteness of life. I wish i could live forever, and do all the things. Make a “real” difference. But on the other hand, i am so glad this miserable life won’t last forever.
I’ve been accused of being “too all or nothing” at times… but i’m one more likely to consider the shades between the absolutes, and expect to observe exceptions to any “rule.”
There is no all-encompassing perfect answer for everyone… unless you back away a bit, and consider that “the answer” is in the approach, rather than the journey or the destination. Everyone must figure out how to live the way that works for themselves… or never reap the benefits of that being sowed.
… Or maybe, just maybe some people can find the positives and appreciate an otherwise difficult situation. everyone has different values and perspective. On top of that maybe they are genuinely thankful to be getting up in the morning to go to a hot sweaty dirty nasty job to provide for their families instead of sitting home waiting on an unemployment check that pays less than 50% on what the crappy 50 hrs a week job does.
If the job makes you SO unhappy that you feel the need to judge the lives of others … then quit that job …no one is forcing you to stay there. Stop worrying about how others feel about something and focus on what YOU feel about it … and be thankful they DO have a good attitude about their crappy job … because just think how much more miserable your day would be if everyone around you was angry and sad.
schlep dawg
@Dawg:
What a perfect “companion piece” to what i posted. You nailed the part i neglected, with which i certainly agree.
Some people are content with just being able to make it, even if the way they’re “making it,” is not what they want.
I echo your last statement, which also reminded me of the idea conveyed in “fight club,” that it is we nobodies who make the world work. Without people to move boxes and stock shelves and flip burgers and drive buses, etc…. what kind of world would this be? You think it’s bad now? (okay, it is, but bear with me…) wait until no one is willing to help anyone, and everyone has to do everything themselves, in direct competition with everyone else. That would indeed be a more harsh world than we currently have.
Just think how much more miserable everyone would be, if everyone was surrounded by misery and sadness.
Sometimes, all i want is to work somewhere that appreciates my efforts, doesn’t mind if i’m late or inferior or grumpy sometimes, and let’s me just do my best to accomplish tasks at my own pace, and just not think about all the bad things. I just want to try hard and make enough, and not have to worry. I think most people would be content with that. However, many would act appalled and insist that i’m being immature to want such an opportunity (in this so-called “land of opportunity”), and that it’s just completely offensive that i could even suggest such a thing.
I think the one thing that most drove me to realize my inherent apathy toward so much of what “most people” seem to obsess about, is that people are constantly contradicting themselves, and insisting that i believe conflicting information, just “because they said so.” I can only try to understand my world the best i can through the available means, and not rely on anyone else to tell me what’s what, because people just keep proving themselves untrustworthy, ignorant, and various other things that negatively impact, and ultimately negate, any value i might place on their opinions.
The instant i start feeling like i should just try to do or achieve what’s right for me… the only things worth living for… i get accused of acting like i’m “better than everyone else.” Clearly, i’m not. Were i truly “better,” i’d be successful, healthy and content.
If your “problem” is that you disapprove of others being content with the things you despise… then try altering your perspective enough to allow for it, instead of letting so much of your energy be wasted on something that really has nothing to do with you.
Only an individual has the privilege–or misfortune–of appraising and ultimately deciding whether their lives are “pointless.” It’s improper to treat your own malcontent as objective and project it onto others.
Clever and Dawg’s points were both good as well.
“just think how much more miserable your day would be if everyone around you was angry and sad. ”
No. That would actually make me feel better. Not because I want other people to be as miserable as I am, but because I’m sick of being surrounded by morons that fit the four categories I listed. If everyone just admitted that life is shit, it would be easier to confide in them and vice versa. And don’t try to tell me any different, since you’re proving that you feel the same, being on a suicide forum. 😉
“Some people are content with just being able to make it, even if the way they’re “making it,†is not what they want.”
That’s ridiculous, being content with doing something you hate day in and day out and not having the means to change it.
“If your “problem†is that you disapprove of others being content with the things you despise… then try altering your perspective enough to allow for it, instead of letting so much of your energy be wasted on something that really has nothing to do with you.”
I’m not wasting any energy, just making an observation. And it does in fact have a lot to do with me, since I everywhere I go I have to interact with phonies and simpletons. I can’t show how I feel without looking like the asshole, because all of society follows this “life is good” philosophy, and “I’m grateful just to wake up in the morning” bullshit.
Excellent post.
It’s maddening, isn’t it? Wondering how they find such content in such crap? Knowing that you can’t escape it for now and probably not for awhile. Knowing that they should be fighting for more and the companies laugh their way to the bank with their little underpaid servants. And yet no one will ever do anything about it. In fact, they’ll do whatever they feel they need to to keep their crappy jobs even if that means stepping on others and doing their part in keeping everyone down/away from progressing.