It’s insane to me that people think they will somehow go braindead the minute they don’t have a job. Is that how they act once they get home after a long and exhausting day of labouring? Just sit down in the couch and die, staring at the white wallpaper until they collapse? From my only related experience with actually existing in this life, I fucking hate how I don’t have time for anything, ANYTHING, ever, because work work work, only to go home and work work work some more as an adult with actual responsibilities. Retirement ya, i might get a quarter of my shit in order, at best, but I’d probably just stock it with more responsibilities that I really don’t have time for, but a window of more time means a window of thinking about more shit that has been neglected or needs doing because things always do.
Is that how they act once they get home after a long and exhausting day of labouring? Just sit down in the couch and die, staring at the white wallpaper until they collapse?
Replace the wallpaper with a television and this is awfully familiar in my neighborhood.
To be fair, that is exactly what I do some days after work because this shit is needlessly exhausting. I think I need like a year of sickly Victorian style bedrest because I have been so burned out for so long that I don’t really have much of a sense of self at this point.
A decent amount of people really do just park their ass on the couch and cease existing. I’ve watched more than a few people retire and die shortly after from having nothing to live for.
I noticed over covid that many people were telling me that they were happy to be working again after being furloughed (temporarily paused employment in the UK) because they’d been losing their minds with nothing to do. I couldn’t understand it, I was busy and really happy.
Here in Canada we had a similar system and I had friends on CERB for some time. Many of them didn’t know what to do with themselves. The ones who took it well were already accustomed to finding their own fun in the world, and did everything from DIY renovations to prototyping products they want to sell.
I wouldn’t know personally, I was working the whole time. Longest I’ve been off for was 3 months and I was more concerned with survival than keeping busy. But I’d like to think I have a lot of projects to work on. I’d love to move out of the suburbs into the country proper and have a workshop. Making custom furniture and electronics is so fun but I barely have time for it.
Thanks for sharing. You’re definitely right about the divide. I just found that I had so much time I could do everything I needed and wanted to do (granted, within the confines of social distancing at the time). Housework was joyful because I could do a good job of it, and have time for hobbies, and have time to relax from both. Aside from all the suffering and madness in the world at the time, it was a genuinely satisfying experience at home.
Everyone I know who retired is at least as busy as before.
The notion that without a job, people just sit around bored, is capitalist propaganda.
I somehow end up busier whenever I have long stretches of time off. Idle hands create hundreds of projects.
It’s insane to me that people think they will somehow go braindead the minute they don’t have a job. Is that how they act once they get home after a long and exhausting day of labouring? Just sit down in the couch and die, staring at the white wallpaper until they collapse? From my only related experience with actually existing in this life, I fucking hate how I don’t have time for anything, ANYTHING, ever, because work work work, only to go home and work work work some more as an adult with actual responsibilities. Retirement ya, i might get a quarter of my shit in order, at best, but I’d probably just stock it with more responsibilities that I really don’t have time for, but a window of more time means a window of thinking about more shit that has been neglected or needs doing because things always do.
Replace the wallpaper with a television and this is awfully familiar in my neighborhood.
To be fair, that is exactly what I do some days after work because this shit is needlessly exhausting. I think I need like a year of sickly Victorian style bedrest because I have been so burned out for so long that I don’t really have much of a sense of self at this point.
A decent amount of people really do just park their ass on the couch and cease existing. I’ve watched more than a few people retire and die shortly after from having nothing to live for.
I noticed over covid that many people were telling me that they were happy to be working again after being furloughed (temporarily paused employment in the UK) because they’d been losing their minds with nothing to do. I couldn’t understand it, I was busy and really happy.
Here in Canada we had a similar system and I had friends on CERB for some time. Many of them didn’t know what to do with themselves. The ones who took it well were already accustomed to finding their own fun in the world, and did everything from DIY renovations to prototyping products they want to sell.
I wouldn’t know personally, I was working the whole time. Longest I’ve been off for was 3 months and I was more concerned with survival than keeping busy. But I’d like to think I have a lot of projects to work on. I’d love to move out of the suburbs into the country proper and have a workshop. Making custom furniture and electronics is so fun but I barely have time for it.
Thanks for sharing. You’re definitely right about the divide. I just found that I had so much time I could do everything I needed and wanted to do (granted, within the confines of social distancing at the time). Housework was joyful because I could do a good job of it, and have time for hobbies, and have time to relax from both. Aside from all the suffering and madness in the world at the time, it was a genuinely satisfying experience at home.
What tying your entire purpose in life to how much you can enrich capitalists does to a motherfucker.
No kidding. When your whole identity is how hard you work, what do you have left in life?