The guilt-riddled melancholic class.
I was reading a few paragraphs in the news from a Finnish researcher talking about "The guilt-riddled melancholic class", defined as those like himself, who despite holding a doctorate, are unemployed. And the "guilt" aspect, according to the researcher, derives from dramatic changes in society and working life expectations that began in the 1980s, and which have created an environment nowadays that constantly demands self-improvement.
"And if a person feels they are failing to construct their personal success story and to compete for resources, they blame themselves and become depressed"
I think the guilt label is a way for some people to feel like they are remorseful of what they have done, but I understand where the guy is coming from in terms of the melancholy, because life has indeed changed and a lot of people who think for a living, are no longer required to think at all, so making a living is incredibly hard. Considering that these same people, me being one of them, were told that getting an education would lead to life-long employment, I am not sure if it is guilt or disappointment at believing the lies.
But what I think is more interesting to discuss at this point, is that intelligent people who are unable to use their skills to add value to society, are getting depressed. It isn't just about making a living I believe, but also about becoming irrelevant in the system which society has become.
Early society wasn't systematically organised to maximise wealth previously, but the wellbeing of the group. This meant that everyone leant a hand, and everyone benefitted. The system was imperfect, but was an inclusive system based on mutual trust and reliance. Everyone added value, were training to add value, or being trained to add value, at all levels of society. But as we moved into a tokenised society of trade, the trust moved from each other, to the token of transfer. In money we trust, because that is all that matters. If someone pays, that is all that is required, no matter what kind of person they are.
We see this quite clearly in recent years where rich degenerates have been able to operate for years.
However now, people are increasingly finding that they are unable to make an impact on society using their skills, and are unable to find new ways to add value so that they feel relevant. So they get depressed. This in my opinion, is a massive driver of depression in the young generations too, because despite all their posturing as to how important they are in their own opinion, they know they are actually irrelevant, unable to add visible value to society. This is because they aren't actually interested in community, it is all about themselves.
The "ME" in TEAM.
And it is only going to get worse, as more and more people are unable to add real value to the world in which they live, and the fantasy value they add will eventually be too thin to veil reality. So many people want to "do nothing" and pretty soon, a lot of us are going to get our wish, because we will have nothing to do. That doesn't mean we won't need anything. Rather, it means that no one will need us to get things done.
And this isn't just at the professional level, it is the personal too. As relationships become more transactionary and less committed, with fewer people having families, smaller and shallower social circles and less random real-world interaction, the relevancy drops further. Even now, people are choosing the "safety" of AI partners and confidants to support them, because they are unable to build healthy interpersonal relationships with real people. Many will blame the "others", but it is all part of the self-focused ecosystem.
And this makes failure to construct a "personal success story" quite interesting, because what people are actually failing to do is realise that personal success is actually a team sport. Our success as humans is directly reliant on our collective abilities to create a healthy, successful environment for society to flourish. And we are failing terribly at this aspect, because the emphasis is on maximising tokens, as if they represent healthy humanity.
If we only had enough money, society would be better.
It is a fallacy.
Because if the way to making that money creates selfish people who not only have no interest in improving social wellbeing, they are willing to harm society in order to make more token, society will degrade faster. And we are definitely seeing that now across the globe, where what were once developed nations are starting to look more and more like warzones. The growing social unrest is a direct result of the focus on profit over wellbeing. And the more the disparity grows, the greater the unrest as people are pushed further toward a "what does it matter" position in life, as the feeling of failing to succeed increases.
It moves away from guilt and turns into blame.
And it is this polarised situation of winners and losers, the obscenely wealthy and the masses of poor, that is being leveraged for even greater profit maximisation, turning society against itself, by breaking it into more and more splinters of suffering victims who have nothing left to lose, and feel everyone else is to blame. '
As I see it, the near future is going to have a middle that is very much suffering, as the majority of us get increasingly disillusioned by the lives that we are living. Depression is on the rise, as is violence, as is poverty, violent crime, domestic abuse.....
People are unhappy.
Maybe if the corporations make a little more profit, things will be okay.
Taraz
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