Not much apparently.
-I am semi-disabled. I cannot work. Those 2 alone make me worthless according to society.
-I am poor. The poor are considered a pox on society. They’d throw us in a gas chamber if they could.
-I am middle aged. Soon to be “old.” Old ppl are worthless in the Western society.
-I don’t have any marketable skills aside from being an academic. Which is also worthless in today’s society. I am very intelligent and knowledgeable in so many areas- math, sciences, finance, economics, etc- but do not specialize in anything- so not worth much in today’s society where only specialization is rewarded.
-I am terrible when it comes to “soft” or “people” skills. I am terrible at lying and telling ppl pretty things they want to hear, therefore no good at brown nosing, climbing the ladder and “networking.”
-I am single with no SO, no kids- also viewed as worthless to society.
-I suffer from extreme depression and suicidal ideation- which are considered to be a plague on society.
I don’t know how I can be “happy” and have self-worth when the whole of society deems me as completely worthless.
And yet society tells me I should be happy just by “thinking happy thoughts,” “going for a walk,” “going jogging,” and “writing in a journal”, etc
6 comments
I’d argue that a society that doesn’t find value in people such as you has a messed up value system, I’d also argue that if society (not the market, actual humanity) found no value in us, they would kill us. There certainly wouldn’t be suicide hotlines. So clearly at least some, a vocal enough amount of people think human life is worth something.
I don’t argue that one might conclude as you have, logically, it takes a lot of nuance and inside information to argue against it. I don’t even have all of that information, I just know enough that if the poor really had no value at all, we wouldn’t spend so much trying to rehabilitate them.
Somewhere out there, people care. They don’t care enough, not by a long shot. But just killing us would actually be kinder, long term. People on the bubble would find a way to take that exit and pretty soon you don’t have anyone to clean bathrooms and operate fast food resteraunts. So because society is really bad at sorting on a policy level, we can’t be seperated out as any different from the other dregs. That’s probably part of it.
I still maintain that if there was a socially acceptable exit to life, other than heart disease, people would be on it like crazy, hundreds of millions the first year it’s available. Then those left behind…. ah the shame they’d feel, knowing they left their supposedly beloved brothers and sisters daughters and sons etc etc etc to die….. and somehow they find THIS less cruel
we as a class, dissatisfied people, probably aren’t vocal enough. I think about the monks that would self immolate because they found their conditions so awful, now THAT is commitment to a message. Heck, they shamed the British Empire one of the cruelest in history into ceding land. And the French. Not that I’m sure such messaging would work NOW. Just…. it’s going to take a severe slap in the face to the respectable class to wake them up. They’re going to have to be terrified.
but those are societal level corrections, what I would argue it’s going to take for things to get any better…. on a personal level? IDK, I always was better at political science than psychologists, and always found therapists to be more cogs in the machine than actual agents of change. Would that they were, eh?
“I’d argue that a society that doesn’t find value in people such as you has a messed up value system” –We DO have a messed up world with messed up ppl. I AM viewed as less than dirt to most ppl. You can’t tell me otherwise bc ppl treat me fine UNTIL I tell them I’m disabled/not working.
“I’d also argue that if society (not the market, actual humanity) found no value in us, they would kill us.” –Oh trust me, they WOULD kill us if they could. They kill us by taking away any type of care we need- healthcare, Food Stamps, etc. They don’t think we are worthy of getting any help, and aid of any kind has been cut and cut and cut since fucking Clinton. He started that shit and ALL the presidents after all cut some more. If you’re poor or disabled, you get very little in the US. It’s a slow torturous death. I would rather be given an option for a quick, painless death. But they won’t let us. Nooo, sick ppl generate more $$$ than dead ppl, so they keep us sick, and alive, and trapped.
It’s just how the Republicans all scream pro-life and all life is precious, blah blah, and yet cut aid to ALL programs that actually help the living.
And no, actually humanity is not any better. Trust me. Almost every person I’ve met the last 18 years have been shit to me the second I tell them I’m not working. There’s <1% that trust me like a human being worth talking to or hanging out with. Hell, I wouldn't even say 1%. It's more like 0.00001%. "Humanity" isn't much better than the rest of the assholes in our legislature.
“Somewhere out there, people care.”
-pffft. where? in the land of unicorns?
-some ppl only PRETEND to care. the rest don’t even pretend. hell, the ones that PRETEND to care are the worst. i’ve met the biggest, manipulative narcissists out there, they ALL PRETEND to be super nice, sweet, caring ppl, meanwhile, they are the most vile, selfish assholes ever.
maybe I should have qualified it; people care as much as they are able. People in helping professions; teachers, social workers, therapists etc tend to care right up to their personal limit. The problem is that burnout shrinks that limit, and shrinks it, and eventually it’s hard to care at all
which is where I am. I cared, to the point of burning out my ability to work, with all I had I cared. But even then, I had limits, I couldn’t help everyone I met.
maybe that qualifies as pretending. I won’t deny that I’m a selfish asshole at least some of the time…. vile feels a step further than I’d go. No more than any other human being.
There’s this whole disfunction to being a helping person, you think you’re a good person, that’s what keeps people like that going. The minute you realize you aren’t, or at least aren’t good enough even to do the job assigned, that’s when depression and burnout sneak in.
All humans are egomaniacs, we just stroke that ego in different ways. Some people do it by trying to help others. Other people do it by aquiring wealth. I think the moment I completely failed was when I realized the people aquiring wealth were going to live longer than me, and that I could never keep up with the damage they were doing… as in ACTIVELY…. the damage done would have taken a couple dozen more of me to clean up.
and even there, I’m showing my ego, thinking I could have done it with the manpower. I would have tried, is the point. Even now, if I ever get my feet back under me, I’ll probably try again. Even though I know it’ll probably destroy me.
oh i meant by pretenders are the ones who are wolves in sheeps clothing. like this old lady for example. she pretends she’s the nicest sweetest person, and says all the “right” stuff to get ppl to believe her lies, so that she can sink her claws in and use them to their last drop. THAT is what i mean by ppl who pretend to be nice and care.
Also, she pretends to care so that you spill all your secrets and vulnerabilities to her and she 100% uses that to her advantage. She purposely encourages ppl to tell her things bc that way she has more info on how to best use and manipulate them. ppl like her disgust me. it’s ppl like her that destroyed my trust in humans.
absolutely vile. and there are many hers like that out there, not just a few here and there. and the problem is that everyone else is fooled by this devil she-wolf. and she destroys ppl by gossiping and talking shit about them. and it sadly works, which is why snakes do shit like that. and it’s very hard to fight gossip and bad-mouthing. and your reputation is gone. fucking bit.ch. i wish someone would fuck her up the way she mentally fucks ppl up. sigh. bit.ch has gotten away with it for almost 60 years. there’s no such thing as karma coming for this bit.ch. she KNOWS she fools the world, and gets away with it, and is so proud of her manipulative ways. UGH.
“and always found therapists to be more cogs in the machine than actual agents of change.”
Therapists are garbage. No offense to the 1% of therapists that ACTUALLY help ppl. The rest are garbage. The reason why “therapy” doesn’t work is that everything “therapists” are taught in school is bullshit. None of that shit works, which is why everyone who’s ever gone to a therapist is still depressed as shit.