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Worker Bees |
| | She can't see her own oppression. She lives a life of servitude, a slave to nectar. She is given enough to remain tranquil and willfully sell her life to a system that calls a select few queens and the rest servants. |
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< | She accepts goals indoctrinated as noble and true. But those mean nothing outside of her system. We as humans see no reason to celebrate a worker bee who gathered lots of nectar. Likewise, what creature outside of our socialized system and its irrefutable assumptions would celebrate the person who had lots of money? There is nothing inherently praiseworthy about seeking money. In fact, the goal on its face is exceptionally laden with greed and shallowness. |
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> | She accepts goals indoctrinated as noble and true. But those mean nothing outside of her system. We as humans see no reason to celebrate a worker bee who gathered lots of nectar. Likewise, what creature outside of our socialized system and its seemingly irrefutable assumptions would celebrate the person who had lots of money? There is nothing inherently praiseworthy about seeking money. In fact, the goal on its face is exceptionally laden with greed and shallowness. |
| | And yet it is what we constantly strive for throughout our lives. Ambitions change, but the pursuit of money never wavers. |
| | What can the most devout worker bee say of her life when all is said and done? |
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< | How can an enslaved investment banker who does not believe in the moral praiseworthiness of her job look back at her life with pride? What has she truly accomplished besides a life of servitude to materials? When she resides on her death bed, what can she recognize as achieved? |
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> | How can an enslaved investment banker who does not believe in the moral praiseworthiness of her job look back on her life and feel satisfaction? What has she truly accomplished besides a life of servitude to materials? When she resides on her death bed, what can she recognize as achieved? |
| | If she's honest with herself, she will likely conclude that regardless of how rich she became, she was stripped of her life by a prescribed, fabricated narrative.
Ironically, she may realized she died worth absolutely nothing. |
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< | I struggle with escaping the mentality of the worker bee and contextualizing life. I, like all of us, am a slave to money. I am well aware that no matter how much money I make, I will want more. That is how the system works; there is no satisfaction. If I were ever to become satisfied, I would be dispensable in our capitalist society. It is my perverted sense of fulfillment via wealth accumulation that makes me useful to the system. |
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> | I struggle with escaping the mentality of the worker bee and contextualizing life. I, like all of us, am a slave to money. I am well aware that no matter how much money I make, I will want more. It will not dictate every decision I make, but it also will never be vanquished. That is how the system works; there is no satisfaction. If I were ever to become satisfied, I would be dispensable in our capitalist society. It is my perverted sense of fulfillment via wealth accumulation that makes me useful to the system. |
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< | I'm not justifying a life focused on wealth accumulation by framing the issue as some sort of inevitability that just requires coming to terms with. For me, I will always be fighting this urge, particularly when it stands in the way of my ethical beliefs and my public policy ambitions. |
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> | I'm not justifying a life focused on making money by framing the issue as some sort of inevitability that I need to come to terms with. For me, I will always be fighting this urge, particularly when it stands in the way of my ethical beliefs and my public policy ambitions. |
| | I'm only recognizing that despite my conscious perspectivism, I will continue to seek nectar to a substantial extent. Nectar will always be on my mind in some capacity. |
| | But it's hard for us to think otherwise. The hive walls are quite opaque. The flight for nectar requires myopic vision. |
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< | The impoverished may point to the fact that unlike us, they are not enslaved by a system with preconditions; one in which they are constantly pushed to pursue a life of shallow and fruitless purpose. They may mention that truly enriching one's life isn't a matter of numbers. They may conclude that despite their hunger, they are much fuller than us. Despite their disease, they are less afflicted. |
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> | The impoverished may point to the fact that unlike us, they are not enslaved by a system with preconditions; one in which they are constantly pushed to pursue a life of shallow and fruitless purpose. They may mention that truly enriching one's life isn't a matter of numbers. They may say that despite their hunger, they are much fuller than us. Despite their parched throats, their thirst is satiable. Despite their disease, they are less afflicted. |
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< | They can certainly look at their lives as a product of what they accomplished and what they wanted for themselves. |
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> | They can certainly look at their lives as a product of what they accomplished and what they wanted for themselves, free from the threat of a life wasted on the trivial pursuit of luxury. |
| | Will we say the same about our lives? Can we? |