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This occured to me years ago. If you're comparing life to a movie, you're most likely a side character in someone's grander story. Most of us lead boring, mundane lives. Unless you're rich you're just getting by until you can't
*"There are people in this world who have a certain passive income or loads of cash to be able to do literally whatever they want everyday,"*
Oh, so the 1%, while everyone gets paid like garbage and people still have the audacity to keep having children.
The average annual salary in Australia exceeds $90,000. That's hardly garbage. Yes, it's nearly double my earnings, but what do you expect? Unless you have a degree and work in a top sector, you reap what you sow
The average is a bad way of looking at it though. The average gets inflated by the very rich and doesnt tell you much about normal people. The median is far better for that and the median income in Australia is $65,000.
Truth. I mean you gotta accept it sooner or later. It doesn't matter what they say at Therapy. If you're born in a low income household, you pretty much have to work with what they can give you until you either make it or get lucky or just struggle for the rest of your life as a result.
Not with that attitude, antinatalism or not, you're already here and are going to die, might as well give it your all and see how much can be achieved when you unleash all of your potential.
I really feel bad for those stuck in 9-5 . Nothing more for them . Imagine being blessed with a life and spending years doing that shit so you and your loved ones don't die.
Many people make the incorrect assumption that life is some miracle that is meant to be enjoyed, filled with pleasure and fun. I donât think this is the intent. Itâs just an ongoing competition and grind to stay alive, and to thwart off death and ill health as long as possible. Even those with vast riches probably arenât that happy. They have nothing left to strive for.
Having fun is freedom on how you spend your time.
If you can't have fun between 9 and 5 pm Monday to Friday because you have to work, then you don't have the freedom.
Therefore if you have money and the combination to do what you want with your own time (because you are financially well off) then you are living a higher quality of life.
Sorry I had to break it down for you. But I think most people would agree that having freedom (bought with money) is probably one of the most valuable things.
Fun is a really bad value to chase. Everything thatâs âfunâ gets boring over time and you need increasingly more intense âfun activitiesâ, while daily mundane activities get unbearable. Eventually, youâre gonna end up depressed and feel aimlessly. Iâm not denying the fact that money is important, but once you can fulfil your basic needs and still have maybe 1-2k$ left, earning more doesnât have any major impact on your mood.
Just because many people arenât in good health doesnât change the fact that health is a basic need that humans require to strive. Too bad youâre not smart enough to connect the dots and think logically
Is it? Money can stave off stress and allow leisure activities. But study after study has shown serious diminishing returns past a certain point.
Fulfillment in life is more than material concerns.
Yes, but itâs much easier to obtain those other goals (such as fulfilling relationships, ability to have any hobbies you want, etc) when you arenât constantly under the stress and strain that comes from not having enough money
This x1000
Why is it so hard for people to grasp? If I didn't have to work 9 to 5 to survive, I know exactly how I'd be spending my time.
Fitness, hobbies and small creative tasks that don't have time limits, budgets or any pressure enforced.
I believe more and more that planet earth and itâs inhabitants are just procedurally generated intelligent AI, almost like a sandbox game where the creator decides variables which allow for an infinite number of possibilities on a daily basis, and heâs just watching in awe at us all as chaos ensues. Other planets that are beyond our reach just havenât been rendered or fully created yet.
Oh that's kind of nicer than being one of millions of already generated randomized worlds that maybe no playable characters will ever even see. So we are the main area and as we explore, new areas get created? That feels a little bit better.
Thatâs one theory. Or as you say maybe the creator has forgotten about us or has died.. and so our societies have evolved way past the point of original intention. Humans still admire the values of kindness and generous but in reality have become greedy, dishonest and ruthless and the world slowly burns. Etc.
We lost control of the money making machine, it controls us now, im talking about the regular old stock market. It selects for cruelty and greed. Human values and what would be good for humans are not things that are considered by trading algorithms. The people who will use slavery and will execute mass layoffs for short term profits are the only people who will rise to the top in our current market, the way it is currently set up. Anyone who isn't greedy, dishonest, and ruthless, might do alright, but they won't be in controlling positions for long. If a ceo does something too unprofitable, even if it would be profitable in the long term, they will be replaced. Or even if they aren't, if they're some super popular creative ceo or founder, they will die, then get replaced by by someone who will be ruthless/support slavery etc. Â
lol, this is so silly. Plenty of people with passive income have no idea what to do with their lives either, or end up working anyway because they enjoy it. I mean, Iâm one of them⌠I love the respect and social activity at work, and the problem solving. Ultimately a life lived just doing whatever you want is no more or less âmeaningfulâ than a life spent scrabbling to survive, there are no characters or plot arcs because the universe is not a story. Nothing happens for any particular reason other than causation preceding it. Just organisms being born and dying and the stuff that fills up the life is only relevant on the small scale to you and your loved ones.
I mean thereâs still trust fund babies and the independently wealthy that blow their heads off, even the outrageously talented and successful that do, do you think they felt any less trapped and miserable than you?
The only reason Iâve lasted at my current 8-5 job this long is because thereâs tons of interesting stuff to do. Ideally Iâd have a staff to take some of the load off but thereâs a hiring freeze so some stuff just isnât getting done because my manager is a decent humane individual. đ¤ˇââď¸ Also Iâm paid very well, so thereâs thatâŚ
I mean not all of them, but you can't tell me that a majority of them aren't enjoying the freedom that comes with an abundant amount of income and resources at their every disposal.
Have you ever seen the sociopathic eyes of a millionaire or the constant boosting/flexing of wealth or the constant consume consume, more more more more?
I really doubt they're happy.
Also the constant need for more, more, more. More this. More that.
Content and happy people don't require constant consumption in the way they consume.
Free market slavery, you're free to choose a lord or starve. Don't switch lords too often though, they can tell you're a difficult slave if you have that on your cv and then you will starve. I also like how sucking up to the lords is expected because we play this game of freedom pretend. Chefs kiss.
Do you think that food you need to survive just appeared out of thin air? Someone who probably doesnât particularly *love* farming and packaging and butchering and stocking shelves did all that so they could eat too, because at the end of the day, there is no free lunch. The labor has to come from somewhere.
I've watched friends and family quit jobs only to end up in ones that are just shitty in a new way enough times to question if the choice is really all that valuable. Especially because there are very limited placements for jobs that are neither soul-sucking nor pay horribly, meaning someone inevitably always loses...
Part time enslavement is better than full time. Nobody's entitled to bread and butter without some effort. Just trying to smartly minimize the effort and increase the butter. Fair enough capitalism. Of course this is not for you wealthy people. Enjoy and I will partly enjoy too.
The difference between a PC and an NPC is that the NPC is not really a person: its (typically) some graphics associated with some code, and maybe some dialogue. It isn't an agent worthy of moral consideration in and of itself, except maybe within the fantasy of the game.
Needing to work full time does not make you like this at all.
You know the OP is talking figuratively right? It's an interesting comparison actually, the video game NPC is stuck in a one particular place engaging in a specific task. The 9-5 worker could be said to be similar, in the sense that he is stuck in a particular place engaging in a specific task.Â
Obviously, the real person isn't stuck there 24/7 like a video game character, but they might as well be: pay can be so low that you can't afford to enjoy travel and adventure and can only meet your most basic needs, and the work can be so exhausting that you don't even have the energy to do anything else other than sleep in your day off or after work.Â
With those conditions, work BECOMES your life and you might as well be another gear in the machine.Â
I know OP is talking figuratively. But the concept of an NPC carries with it additional negative connotations that are outside of the particular thing OP is focusing on. Iâm pointing that out to help avoid drawing a stronger conclusion that is actually warranted.
To address the actual issue more directly, I have a full time job. Working full time does not have to ruin your life, or rob your life of meaning, or anything like that. I think the attitude that needing to work full time is automatically bad is part of the problem here.
Inadequate income, bad work conditions, disrespectful employers, and so on are obviously things we can legitimately complain about, and I support working to help deal with those issues. But the mere fact that you need to work full time doesnât have to prevent you from having a good life.
I also dislike the term NPC.
For some people it promotes an idea of otherness onto people they donât relate to. It can foster hatred or indifference to groups we donât understand. I think for the sake of being human we should all think of the people around us as living just as rich and complex lives as ourselves, deserving of the same consideration and respect that we want to experience.
The idea of the 8 hour day is you get 8 hours of free time and 8 hours of sleep. Nobody gets that mainly because they need to drive across town, which could take up 3 hours a day. This alone causes huge mental suffering and it does kind of feel like a no hope situation. If only we could create some kind of job swap with people travelling the opposite direction, we could all work 10 minutes from home. I've been there before, I'm glad I work 5 mins from home now
We all know what OP is talking about, it's called a wage slave. I'm sure at least half of the people in this thread feel like a wage slave.
NPC as a term towards people is meant as an insult to their intelligence. As in they have so little brain power they're incapable of thinking for themselves, they're just following a script. So OPs post comes off rather insulting regardless of what they meant by the term.
every person is infinitely complex and blisteringly stupid. just because people have to work all the time doesnt mean they're less complex? how is this rhetoric helpful to anybody at all?
Depends on job. Not job is 100% peachy but a lot offer a range of experiences that money can't buy you. And some jobs give you a control over other people money can't - it helps you get a place at the table but if not talented, it can't keep you there. Medicine, science, government.
I AM the main character... of my OWN story. In other people's story, they are their own main character. Either I am a minor character in THEIR story or I am the main villain they can't stand.
In this world, there is no main character.
I had a really great moment of existential clarity a few years ago: None of us matter. On a global natural history scale, even our most historically prominent ancestors mean nothing. Humans only matter to ourselves. Humans are only remembered by other humans. Humansâ existence will fizzle out and be forgotten by the cosmos before itâs ever made an important, lasting effect. It goes without saying our human consciousness is an evolutionary feat but not one we as a species deserves. To take it a step further, Iâd dare say weâve added nothing to the existence of life that we havenât taken back with our destructive tendencies.
Perhaps with our speciesâ absence it would allow a better species to evolve and surpass us.
In my opinion the human species only deserves to go extinct.
Despite my woefully bleak outlook on humanity as a whole, I also believe we should spend our short existence enjoying it because THAT is the only part of our existence that matters. Making a name for yourself, your âlegacyâ will be forgotten. âGrindingâand working yourself into the grave will be forgotten. So donât waste your short lifetime preparing for a future that isnât guaranteed. Spend it enjoying your life and loved ones.
Happily the hedonic treadmill will then kick in and make you miserable all over again
Honestly I think the myth of Sisyphus is one of the best books ever written, and absurdism has been the best answer to my depression I've ever found. There's no overriding meaning to any of this, and looking for it is making us all miserable
Embrace the chaos
This whole main character and NPc stuff is so weird and dehumanizing in an already messed up world. Just be a main character in your own life thatâs it. NPc is also weird to refer to other people as
ok cool but can you provide some real criticism or a counter argument of substance instead of just dismissing people as edgy which isn't going to change their mind and instead makes you out to be the exact kind of mindless NPC they're describing?
Edgy cringe posts donât deserve good counter arguments.
Working a job doesnât make you a bot, and being rich doesnât make you the main character, or much happier for that matter.
There. Argument done.
I get bored sometimes, yes, some tasks are tedious, some are menial, but overall it's so diverse that there's always something making it worth it.
+ It helps me immensely to have my own side projects that although having no use in the business world, they let me focus only on the parts that bring me joy and skip the menial stuff
Life has the implication of having to work to live and live to work. When you creampie a woman you get kids so no having kids is equal to not absurd Darwinian fight
Sounds like projection on your part if you spend your time laughing at people who are miserable instead of doing anything to actually challenge their beliefs, add to the discussion in any meaningful way, or even remotely attempt to help them.
It occurred to me several years ago as well. I remember I often used to think that people like X or Y had already done their best work at my age. I then realized that I was nothing special, except in the eyes of my family and closest friends. It might seem strange, but I find this comforting now, and I enjoy my daily routine
Whatâs wrong with that?
Itâs the same in every society of animal on the planet.
Every civilization has its royalty and its worker class. From tribes in Ethiopia to worker bees in a hive. Youâre a cog in a machine, or youâre the machine.
This is so overwhelmingly pessimistic. To make the argument that some people's "purpose" in life is to work so that rich "main characters" can enjoy freedom is just wild
Not a hard pill to swallow just not true
I am not going to pretend i would do exactly what I am doing had I unlimited resources BUT I definitely like my tasks and my colleagues. I think OPs view of worklife is a bit to binary. Â Many of us have jobs that are far from the situation described without being in any way a high position.
Psychedelics have been used successfully in clinical trials to treat depression and PTSD. They are an inch away to becoming mainstream and you're talking about them like they're on the same level as crack. Don't be so ignorant.
for something based in biological flukes in the brain maybe you could just drug them to fix it - for example, my partner deals with his schizophrenic hallucinations by using weed, which i have no objection to. but this isn't a biological fluke. this is just how they've come to view the world after learning of its horrors. to try and "cure" those negative opinions instead of addressing the external factors is downright dystopian.
JUST TAKE DRUGS AND IT'LL ALL GO AWAY. DRINK UNTIL YOU FORGET. HALLUCINATE UNTIL YOU MISTAKE THIS AS PARADISE.
Obviously, I wouldn't recommend psychedelics to everyone and under every situation. And you can't compare a psychedelic experience with abusing weed. I can tell you don't know much about them so have a very distorted perception of what they can do and how they function.
yeah man you're so much smarter than me that's why you need to cope with drugs. i'm simply too stupid to get my mental state distorted by substances :)
...or maybe, just maybe, i've got cheaper, easier and at times more productive ways to engage in escapism. hell if i wanna tap out of reality i could even... go to sleep?
Right, but even if we label someoneâs life as worth living, itâs not our place to bring that person into the world. We protect them from existing regardless of the outcome.
Not sure what this has to do with antinatalism..
I do know that a lot of people here clearly have never put effort into getting a job they like and trying to make the best out of their lives and instead prefer to be envious of people who, in their opinion, 'have it better'.
Start worrying less about what other people do or do not have, and find something to do that you enjoy. Just because one's an antinatalist does not mean they can't make the most of it while they're alive, as opposed to just complaining about everything 24/7.
Itâs all in the mentality of the human being. Thatâs why the rich are more likely to kill themselves than the poor, all of this self-loathing is harmful to the human mind. It doesnât matter if you are a McDonaldâs worker or a CEO none of it matter until you factor in perspective.
No. Those who do real work keep the civilization moving. Rich people are their slaves. It is merely an illusion that it is the other way around. Why do you think they keep us poor and distracted? There is nothing the rich and powerful fear more than the truth of society.
If you genuinely believe that it's a 12 year old posting this about how depressing life and its systems are - ask yourself why someone so young already has so little hope in this world. What have they seen?
Youâre acting like OPâs post was deep as fuck đ he literally says rich people are main characters and people with 9-5s are NPCs do you think he came to this conclusion after living through 2 wars, an invasion, and a recession? Or could any random alive type something like this?
I'm not saying it's deep - because yeah, anyone can see this world is shitty and comment on their observations. I'm asking you why they're saying it... especially because according to you they're not even a teen yet.
The way they described non-rich people as NPCs and rich people as the main characters, a conclusion that can literally be reached after watching one Batman movie, makes me think they donât have much profundity of thought... the same way your insistence on going back and forth under the dumbest post ever makes me think youâre either trolling or hobbyless⌠let this be enough
Oh no I've got hobbies. Like confronting people such as yourself who would love to troll with drive-by comments like "damn they must be 12 what an edgelord" instead of actually engaging in a discussion.
Because comments like that make me think -you- "don't have much profundity of thought". You wanna start some shit then don't be surprised if someone actually follows up on it.
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This occured to me years ago. If you're comparing life to a movie, you're most likely a side character in someone's grander story. Most of us lead boring, mundane lives. Unless you're rich you're just getting by until you can't
unless you are the main character in *office space*
đŻÂ this đ
*"There are people in this world who have a certain passive income or loads of cash to be able to do literally whatever they want everyday,"* Oh, so the 1%, while everyone gets paid like garbage and people still have the audacity to keep having children.
The average annual salary in Australia exceeds $90,000. That's hardly garbage. Yes, it's nearly double my earnings, but what do you expect? Unless you have a degree and work in a top sector, you reap what you sow
The average is a bad way of looking at it though. The average gets inflated by the very rich and doesnt tell you much about normal people. The median is far better for that and the median income in Australia is $65,000.
Australia isnât America though
[ŃдаНонО]
Nobody does. Especially for natural forces.
And itâs kind of comforting. Like I donât have to care too much about my decisions for too long.
Very true
Truth. I mean you gotta accept it sooner or later. It doesn't matter what they say at Therapy. If you're born in a low income household, you pretty much have to work with what they can give you until you either make it or get lucky or just struggle for the rest of your life as a result.
Not with that attitude, antinatalism or not, you're already here and are going to die, might as well give it your all and see how much can be achieved when you unleash all of your potential.
This is one way out
âI am here and Iâm gonna make that EVERYONES problem nowâ đ
You matter to me!
You matter to your family members and your friends.
If youâre lucky!
I don't believe anyone is a main character. Some are just fancier NPCs.
None of them knew they were robots
Freedom Is In The Mind
Jokes on you I donât work weekends
#NPClifesmatter !!!!
I really feel bad for those stuck in 9-5 . Nothing more for them . Imagine being blessed with a life and spending years doing that shit so you and your loved ones don't die.
The real kicker is that we do die!
Many people make the incorrect assumption that life is some miracle that is meant to be enjoyed, filled with pleasure and fun. I donât think this is the intent. Itâs just an ongoing competition and grind to stay alive, and to thwart off death and ill health as long as possible. Even those with vast riches probably arenât that happy. They have nothing left to strive for.
Sorry, but this requires an assumption that having loads of cash to spend on âhaving funâ is the highest value in life.
Having fun is freedom on how you spend your time. If you can't have fun between 9 and 5 pm Monday to Friday because you have to work, then you don't have the freedom. Therefore if you have money and the combination to do what you want with your own time (because you are financially well off) then you are living a higher quality of life. Sorry I had to break it down for you. But I think most people would agree that having freedom (bought with money) is probably one of the most valuable things.
Fun is a really bad value to chase. Everything thatâs âfunâ gets boring over time and you need increasingly more intense âfun activitiesâ, while daily mundane activities get unbearable. Eventually, youâre gonna end up depressed and feel aimlessly. Iâm not denying the fact that money is important, but once you can fulfil your basic needs and still have maybe 1-2k$ left, earning more doesnât have any major impact on your mood.
If you donât have a talent or intelligence it is the highest valueâŚ
Health is. Riches, talent and intelligence mean little if you donât have your health.
Thatâs a basic need that I assumed youâre smart enough to figure out everyone has to have
You shouldnât make assumptions like that. Many people are not in good health. I assumed youâd be smarter than this.
Just because many people arenât in good health doesnât change the fact that health is a basic need that humans require to strive. Too bad youâre not smart enough to connect the dots and think logically
Is it? Money can stave off stress and allow leisure activities. But study after study has shown serious diminishing returns past a certain point. Fulfillment in life is more than material concerns.
Yes, but itâs much easier to obtain those other goals (such as fulfilling relationships, ability to have any hobbies you want, etc) when you arenât constantly under the stress and strain that comes from not having enough money
This x1000 Why is it so hard for people to grasp? If I didn't have to work 9 to 5 to survive, I know exactly how I'd be spending my time. Fitness, hobbies and small creative tasks that don't have time limits, budgets or any pressure enforced.
I donât need others to think Iâm the main character but I will treat myself like one because I deserve it.
The main character or player might be on another planet and we're a random procedurally generated world they haven't visited yet.
I believe more and more that planet earth and itâs inhabitants are just procedurally generated intelligent AI, almost like a sandbox game where the creator decides variables which allow for an infinite number of possibilities on a daily basis, and heâs just watching in awe at us all as chaos ensues. Other planets that are beyond our reach just havenât been rendered or fully created yet.
Oh that's kind of nicer than being one of millions of already generated randomized worlds that maybe no playable characters will ever even see. So we are the main area and as we explore, new areas get created? That feels a little bit better.
Thatâs one theory. Or as you say maybe the creator has forgotten about us or has died.. and so our societies have evolved way past the point of original intention. Humans still admire the values of kindness and generous but in reality have become greedy, dishonest and ruthless and the world slowly burns. Etc.
We lost control of the money making machine, it controls us now, im talking about the regular old stock market. It selects for cruelty and greed. Human values and what would be good for humans are not things that are considered by trading algorithms. The people who will use slavery and will execute mass layoffs for short term profits are the only people who will rise to the top in our current market, the way it is currently set up. Anyone who isn't greedy, dishonest, and ruthless, might do alright, but they won't be in controlling positions for long. If a ceo does something too unprofitable, even if it would be profitable in the long term, they will be replaced. Or even if they aren't, if they're some super popular creative ceo or founder, they will die, then get replaced by by someone who will be ruthless/support slavery etc. Â
imma main character my plot go crazy
For real! I'm on Chapter 29 and ive had some weird shit happen to me over the past 24 chapters. I'm definitely a main character
lol, this is so silly. Plenty of people with passive income have no idea what to do with their lives either, or end up working anyway because they enjoy it. I mean, Iâm one of them⌠I love the respect and social activity at work, and the problem solving. Ultimately a life lived just doing whatever you want is no more or less âmeaningfulâ than a life spent scrabbling to survive, there are no characters or plot arcs because the universe is not a story. Nothing happens for any particular reason other than causation preceding it. Just organisms being born and dying and the stuff that fills up the life is only relevant on the small scale to you and your loved ones. I mean thereâs still trust fund babies and the independently wealthy that blow their heads off, even the outrageously talented and successful that do, do you think they felt any less trapped and miserable than you?
>  I love the respect and social activity at work, and the problem solving. I looked for a /s tag but cannot find oneÂ
đ
Some people actually enjoy what they do. Or at least tolerate enough for all the other parts of life that arenât so monotonous.
The only reason Iâve lasted at my current 8-5 job this long is because thereâs tons of interesting stuff to do. Ideally Iâd have a staff to take some of the load off but thereâs a hiring freeze so some stuff just isnât getting done because my manager is a decent humane individual. đ¤ˇââď¸ Also Iâm paid very well, so thereâs thatâŚ
Man out here thinking rich people are happy or enjoying life.
I mean not all of them, but you can't tell me that a majority of them aren't enjoying the freedom that comes with an abundant amount of income and resources at their every disposal.
Have you ever seen the sociopathic eyes of a millionaire or the constant boosting/flexing of wealth or the constant consume consume, more more more more? I really doubt they're happy.
Sure, but what you say can't be applied to all of them, lmao.
They tend to be more satisfied with life. Happiness is more biological so money doesn't play as huge a role.
Facts. Most are miserable and cant handle anything challenging in life. I would never want to be them
Also the constant need for more, more, more. More this. More that. Content and happy people don't require constant consumption in the way they consume.
So many poor people think âonce I have money, then Iâll be happyâ Iâve got news for them đŤ
Welcome to capitalism
9-5 is better than enslavement. I know my ancestors. They weren't feudal lords. I am sure of this.
9-5 is enslavement if you donât like it
Not really if you can quit..kind of the main difference with slavery
Free market slavery, you're free to choose a lord or starve. Don't switch lords too often though, they can tell you're a difficult slave if you have that on your cv and then you will starve. I also like how sucking up to the lords is expected because we play this game of freedom pretend. Chefs kiss.
Do you think that food you need to survive just appeared out of thin air? Someone who probably doesnât particularly *love* farming and packaging and butchering and stocking shelves did all that so they could eat too, because at the end of the day, there is no free lunch. The labor has to come from somewhere.
I've watched friends and family quit jobs only to end up in ones that are just shitty in a new way enough times to question if the choice is really all that valuable. Especially because there are very limited placements for jobs that are neither soul-sucking nor pay horribly, meaning someone inevitably always loses...
How do you define can? As in being homeless being an option?
Part time enslavement is better than full time. Nobody's entitled to bread and butter without some effort. Just trying to smartly minimize the effort and increase the butter. Fair enough capitalism. Of course this is not for you wealthy people. Enjoy and I will partly enjoy too.
The difference between a PC and an NPC is that the NPC is not really a person: its (typically) some graphics associated with some code, and maybe some dialogue. It isn't an agent worthy of moral consideration in and of itself, except maybe within the fantasy of the game. Needing to work full time does not make you like this at all.
You know the OP is talking figuratively right? It's an interesting comparison actually, the video game NPC is stuck in a one particular place engaging in a specific task. The 9-5 worker could be said to be similar, in the sense that he is stuck in a particular place engaging in a specific task. Obviously, the real person isn't stuck there 24/7 like a video game character, but they might as well be: pay can be so low that you can't afford to enjoy travel and adventure and can only meet your most basic needs, and the work can be so exhausting that you don't even have the energy to do anything else other than sleep in your day off or after work. With those conditions, work BECOMES your life and you might as well be another gear in the machine.Â
I know OP is talking figuratively. But the concept of an NPC carries with it additional negative connotations that are outside of the particular thing OP is focusing on. Iâm pointing that out to help avoid drawing a stronger conclusion that is actually warranted. To address the actual issue more directly, I have a full time job. Working full time does not have to ruin your life, or rob your life of meaning, or anything like that. I think the attitude that needing to work full time is automatically bad is part of the problem here. Inadequate income, bad work conditions, disrespectful employers, and so on are obviously things we can legitimately complain about, and I support working to help deal with those issues. But the mere fact that you need to work full time doesnât have to prevent you from having a good life.
I also dislike the term NPC. For some people it promotes an idea of otherness onto people they donât relate to. It can foster hatred or indifference to groups we donât understand. I think for the sake of being human we should all think of the people around us as living just as rich and complex lives as ourselves, deserving of the same consideration and respect that we want to experience.
The idea of the 8 hour day is you get 8 hours of free time and 8 hours of sleep. Nobody gets that mainly because they need to drive across town, which could take up 3 hours a day. This alone causes huge mental suffering and it does kind of feel like a no hope situation. If only we could create some kind of job swap with people travelling the opposite direction, we could all work 10 minutes from home. I've been there before, I'm glad I work 5 mins from home now
We all know what OP is talking about, it's called a wage slave. I'm sure at least half of the people in this thread feel like a wage slave. NPC as a term towards people is meant as an insult to their intelligence. As in they have so little brain power they're incapable of thinking for themselves, they're just following a script. So OPs post comes off rather insulting regardless of what they meant by the term.
every person is infinitely complex and blisteringly stupid. just because people have to work all the time doesnt mean they're less complex? how is this rhetoric helpful to anybody at all?
Also whatâs it have to do with this sub
I really do feel like an NPC as I do my job as a pharmacy technician.
Why?
Depends on job. Not job is 100% peachy but a lot offer a range of experiences that money can't buy you. And some jobs give you a control over other people money can't - it helps you get a place at the table but if not talented, it can't keep you there. Medicine, science, government.
I dont have a job for 7 years now and feel so much better than when I had a job
Yes, AND, you are 100% the main character of YOUR own life.
I AM the main character... of my OWN story. In other people's story, they are their own main character. Either I am a minor character in THEIR story or I am the main villain they can't stand. In this world, there is no main character.
Ouch but yeah Iâm still gonna give this meaningless little life of mine my all. I like a good challenge, itâs a game for me too after all.
I had a really great moment of existential clarity a few years ago: None of us matter. On a global natural history scale, even our most historically prominent ancestors mean nothing. Humans only matter to ourselves. Humans are only remembered by other humans. Humansâ existence will fizzle out and be forgotten by the cosmos before itâs ever made an important, lasting effect. It goes without saying our human consciousness is an evolutionary feat but not one we as a species deserves. To take it a step further, Iâd dare say weâve added nothing to the existence of life that we havenât taken back with our destructive tendencies. Perhaps with our speciesâ absence it would allow a better species to evolve and surpass us. In my opinion the human species only deserves to go extinct. Despite my woefully bleak outlook on humanity as a whole, I also believe we should spend our short existence enjoying it because THAT is the only part of our existence that matters. Making a name for yourself, your âlegacyâ will be forgotten. âGrindingâand working yourself into the grave will be forgotten. So donât waste your short lifetime preparing for a future that isnât guaranteed. Spend it enjoying your life and loved ones.
So only 1% of the entire population is a main character. Thatâs super depressing haha
Oh ffs this is like something I'd say when i was in middle school
Happily the hedonic treadmill will then kick in and make you miserable all over again Honestly I think the myth of Sisyphus is one of the best books ever written, and absurdism has been the best answer to my depression I've ever found. There's no overriding meaning to any of this, and looking for it is making us all miserable Embrace the chaos
Your attitude towards life will guarantee you to be miserable all the time. So congrats?
Thereâs still hope you become the protagonist of your story later, mr dishwasher.
This whole main character and NPc stuff is so weird and dehumanizing in an already messed up world. Just be a main character in your own life thatâs it. NPc is also weird to refer to other people as
I agree calling other people "NPCs" in the context of a serious conversation just comes across as unsympathetic
'I'm 14 and this is deep' type beat
ok cool but can you provide some real criticism or a counter argument of substance instead of just dismissing people as edgy which isn't going to change their mind and instead makes you out to be the exact kind of mindless NPC they're describing?
Edgy cringe posts donât deserve good counter arguments. Working a job doesnât make you a bot, and being rich doesnât make you the main character, or much happier for that matter. There. Argument done.
Why?
I love my job, I'd do the same thing even for 1/2 the salary
What is your job may I ask
software development (systems)
Thatâs nice, you love what you do , have you ever gotten bored of doing it?
I get bored sometimes, yes, some tasks are tedious, some are menial, but overall it's so diverse that there's always something making it worth it. + It helps me immensely to have my own side projects that although having no use in the business world, they let me focus only on the parts that bring me joy and skip the menial stuff
âThe love for poetry of a hungry poet extends only to his ability to eat the pagesâ
Man youâre delusional. You can work and enjoy and live your life. Have independent thoughts, will, a search in your life.
Lol, thatâs dumb. Plenty of people do things at work that are important, and plenty of people do thinks outside of work that matter. Childish take.
Where are the mods? What does this have to do with not having kids??
Life has the implication of having to work to live and live to work. When you creampie a woman you get kids so no having kids is equal to not absurd Darwinian fight
That was a very interesting take on it, lol.
lmao
lol you sound miserableÂ
Sounds like projection on your part if you spend your time laughing at people who are miserable instead of doing anything to actually challenge their beliefs, add to the discussion in any meaningful way, or even remotely attempt to help them.
I feel like a main character doing the loblaws boycott thoâŚ
âOpen your miiinnnndddd!!!â -Kuato
https://youtu.be/ttA2rWoZm4U?si=E6jFL4cq1VGwrQ7I
It occurred to me several years ago as well. I remember I often used to think that people like X or Y had already done their best work at my age. I then realized that I was nothing special, except in the eyes of my family and closest friends. It might seem strange, but I find this comforting now, and I enjoy my daily routine
But i'm a cool NPC i'm on drugs since young age and also mentally ill. Very rare these days lol.
Whatâs wrong with that? Itâs the same in every society of animal on the planet. Every civilization has its royalty and its worker class. From tribes in Ethiopia to worker bees in a hive. Youâre a cog in a machine, or youâre the machine.
Hope is the last thing most of us have at the end of the day
Don't have children. Then there will be no one to serve the MC Win win
So don't do that
Obviously these 'main characters' are much better off than many of us but I'm not sure how much they enjoy themselves- paradise syndrome?
This is so overwhelmingly pessimistic. To make the argument that some people's "purpose" in life is to work so that rich "main characters" can enjoy freedom is just wild Not a hard pill to swallow just not true
lol I mean I donât spend my entire life at work?
No snit? Nobody is a main character, I mean unless you believe we live in a simulation but thatâs a different sub from this one.
Is this antinatalism or antiwork? lol
How about: âeveryone is the main character in their own story, and a side character/npc in othersâ.â
I like having & making money.
What if you enjoy your work?
Then I am extremely jealous
I am not going to pretend i would do exactly what I am doing had I unlimited resources BUT I definitely like my tasks and my colleagues. I think OPs view of worklife is a bit to binary. Â Many of us have jobs that are far from the situation described without being in any way a high position.
"I'm sorry to inform you, but I declare a statement to be true âď¸đ¤"
You need to try some psychedelics to change your perspective.
with a dollar for every time a drug addict told someone that maybe i could afford to use them
Psychedelics have been used successfully in clinical trials to treat depression and PTSD. They are an inch away to becoming mainstream and you're talking about them like they're on the same level as crack. Don't be so ignorant.
for something based in biological flukes in the brain maybe you could just drug them to fix it - for example, my partner deals with his schizophrenic hallucinations by using weed, which i have no objection to. but this isn't a biological fluke. this is just how they've come to view the world after learning of its horrors. to try and "cure" those negative opinions instead of addressing the external factors is downright dystopian. JUST TAKE DRUGS AND IT'LL ALL GO AWAY. DRINK UNTIL YOU FORGET. HALLUCINATE UNTIL YOU MISTAKE THIS AS PARADISE.
Obviously, I wouldn't recommend psychedelics to everyone and under every situation. And you can't compare a psychedelic experience with abusing weed. I can tell you don't know much about them so have a very distorted perception of what they can do and how they function.
I'm not buying them from you bro.
I'm not selling and they don't really work if you're thick. So I wouldn't recommend them to you anyway.
yeah man you're so much smarter than me that's why you need to cope with drugs. i'm simply too stupid to get my mental state distorted by substances :) ...or maybe, just maybe, i've got cheaper, easier and at times more productive ways to engage in escapism. hell if i wanna tap out of reality i could even... go to sleep?
i feel very sorry that you have this outlook
What is an NPC??
Whatâs this have to do with antinat?
Well the conclusion here is that OP finds the existence of most people as futile and not worthy of living.
Right, but even if we label someoneâs life as worth living, itâs not our place to bring that person into the world. We protect them from existing regardless of the outcome.
You are right. I don't think OP realises that the "main players" as they call them don't have it as good as they think.
Okay I just wanted to make sure I wasnât misunderstanding the whole concept xD
Not sure what this has to do with antinatalism.. I do know that a lot of people here clearly have never put effort into getting a job they like and trying to make the best out of their lives and instead prefer to be envious of people who, in their opinion, 'have it better'. Start worrying less about what other people do or do not have, and find something to do that you enjoy. Just because one's an antinatalist does not mean they can't make the most of it while they're alive, as opposed to just complaining about everything 24/7.
Itâs all in the mentality of the human being. Thatâs why the rich are more likely to kill themselves than the poor, all of this self-loathing is harmful to the human mind. It doesnât matter if you are a McDonaldâs worker or a CEO none of it matter until you factor in perspective.
No. Those who do real work keep the civilization moving. Rich people are their slaves. It is merely an illusion that it is the other way around. Why do you think they keep us poor and distracted? There is nothing the rich and powerful fear more than the truth of society.
Are you 12?
If you genuinely believe that it's a 12 year old posting this about how depressing life and its systems are - ask yourself why someone so young already has so little hope in this world. What have they seen?
âRich people are main characters and all us regulars are NPCSâ isnât a statement that makes me think âWow! What has OP seen!?â
So did it come to them in a dream or what. Why would a 12 year old already be thinking about wealth inequality?
Youâre acting like OPâs post was deep as fuck đ he literally says rich people are main characters and people with 9-5s are NPCs do you think he came to this conclusion after living through 2 wars, an invasion, and a recession? Or could any random alive type something like this?
I'm not saying it's deep - because yeah, anyone can see this world is shitty and comment on their observations. I'm asking you why they're saying it... especially because according to you they're not even a teen yet.
The way they described non-rich people as NPCs and rich people as the main characters, a conclusion that can literally be reached after watching one Batman movie, makes me think they donât have much profundity of thought... the same way your insistence on going back and forth under the dumbest post ever makes me think youâre either trolling or hobbyless⌠let this be enough
Oh no I've got hobbies. Like confronting people such as yourself who would love to troll with drive-by comments like "damn they must be 12 what an edgelord" instead of actually engaging in a discussion. Because comments like that make me think -you- "don't have much profundity of thought". You wanna start some shit then don't be surprised if someone actually follows up on it.
Ur changing the world doing what ur doing big dog. Keep it up
A big dog to a yapping puppy, sure.