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December Days 2020 #14: Self-Care Is Hard
Dec. 14th, 2020 10:58 pm[O hai. It's December Days time, and this year, I'm taking requests, since it's been a while and I have new people on the list and it's 2020, the year where everyone is both closer to and more distant from their friends and family. So if you have a thought you'd like me to talk about on one of these days, let me know and I'll work it into the schedule. That includes things like further asks about anything in a previous December Days tag, if you have any questions on that regard.]
I'm going to construct a question based on a statement that I saw on the Twitter feed of someone I follow and respect, and especially the part where he and I might have just had the same basic reaction to something happening, even if our contexts are entirely different. To wit:
Because his story, summarized, is "Sometimes I feel like a bad person because I go to work to support my ability to live and eat, rather than because I have any sort of passion for the work. I would love if they would take seriously the idea of 'I'd like to work less time, have fewer responsibilities, and make more money', but I'm supposed to want more work and responsibilities and not wanting them makes me feel bad and dull and lazy." And there are some good comments there that are reminders that there isn't such a thing as a company that deserves to have its interests put ahead of yours, and that not wanting more work and responsibilities only means that you're a bad worker in the eyes of capitalism, rather than being an intrinsically bad person. He also has some additional things that make him disposed to thinking of himself as un-valuable right from the get go. Others point out that there are a lot of other people who are doing their job because it puts food on the table and provides things that are necessary to survival, like health insurance. And some people who have fully embraced the concept of Slack, as posited by the Church of the Subgenius, doing the things they do to only the degree necessary and no more. (They may not be Subgenii, but the concept fits. I also feel like I might be daying myself slightly here, that I can reach for examples like the Discordians and the Church of the Subgenius.)
( Let me continue to natter on about this thing )
It's just hard to not catastrophize about how it's going to look to other people and how understanding they'll be about it. Logically, they'll be fine with it, illogically, they're all going to hate me about it, even though there's no evidence for that. Guess I believe at least some set of lies still, even if I know they're lies. Fucking brainweasels.
I'm going to construct a question based on a statement that I saw on the Twitter feed of someone I follow and respect, and especially the part where he and I might have just had the same basic reaction to something happening, even if our contexts are entirely different. To wit:
What's the lie that capitalism has told you today?
Because his story, summarized, is "Sometimes I feel like a bad person because I go to work to support my ability to live and eat, rather than because I have any sort of passion for the work. I would love if they would take seriously the idea of 'I'd like to work less time, have fewer responsibilities, and make more money', but I'm supposed to want more work and responsibilities and not wanting them makes me feel bad and dull and lazy." And there are some good comments there that are reminders that there isn't such a thing as a company that deserves to have its interests put ahead of yours, and that not wanting more work and responsibilities only means that you're a bad worker in the eyes of capitalism, rather than being an intrinsically bad person. He also has some additional things that make him disposed to thinking of himself as un-valuable right from the get go. Others point out that there are a lot of other people who are doing their job because it puts food on the table and provides things that are necessary to survival, like health insurance. And some people who have fully embraced the concept of Slack, as posited by the Church of the Subgenius, doing the things they do to only the degree necessary and no more. (They may not be Subgenii, but the concept fits. I also feel like I might be daying myself slightly here, that I can reach for examples like the Discordians and the Church of the Subgenius.)
( Let me continue to natter on about this thing )
It's just hard to not catastrophize about how it's going to look to other people and how understanding they'll be about it. Logically, they'll be fine with it, illogically, they're all going to hate me about it, even though there's no evidence for that. Guess I believe at least some set of lies still, even if I know they're lies. Fucking brainweasels.
