4 ms·

I’m surprised by the way people are choosing to respond to you. Waking up early is obviously not the point of your comment, but many replies seem to take you li

by mlthoughts2018 8y ago

I’m surprised by the way people are choosing to respond to you. Waking up early is obviously not the point of your comment, but many replies seem to take you literally and act like merely waking up early would be some sort of refutation of the idea you’re describing. One pathology that wealthy people (on a global scale) sometimes fall into is using their wealth and privilege to access behaviors that make them feel more like they’ve personally “worked hard” for what they have, like behavioral status symbols that are far less accessible to people without privilege. Waking up early for purposes of pure self-maintenance, like meditation or high-end exercise, and getting to work very early, are often examples of this. It superficially feels like an accomplishment, like a justifying act of endorsing that you, as a wealthy person, are somehow exceptional and “deserving” (rather that just lucky to have money that buys the freedom to use recreational time like that) and allows you to focus on how your behavior differs from the masses to create a false sense that wealth is “earned” by “working” for it because of these photo-op-like engineered segments of “self-sacrifice.” Less privileged folks may have to get up early just to barely make it to a shit job because of a 90 minute commute or a bunch of child care (or elder care) duties they have to perform. They may eat poorly or miss exercising because of all the obligations they cannot financially afford to offload. I don’t see why anyone is reading a different idea into your comment.

2III7 8y ago
> Waking up early for purposes of pure self-maintenance, like meditation or high-end exercise, and getting to work very early, are often examples of this. It superficially feels like an accomplishment... There is nothing superficial about those things. By doing those things you gain wealth that is not measurable by any amount of money. > Less privileged folks may have to get up early just to barely make it to a shit job because of a 90 minute commute or a bunch of child care (or elder care) duties they have to perform. They may eat poorly or miss exercising because of all the obligations they cannot financially afford to offload. Less privileged folk also tend to stay up late and fill their minds with mindless media streams (television, social media etc.), drink alcohol to relieve stress to name a few stress relief activities. Daily stress should not be relieved by mind numbing crap, but by taking care of ones mental and physical health or seeking psychological help from professionals. Yes people tend to have too many obligations in which case people should re-assess their values and make sacrifices to not burn themselves out and die early. Life is complicated but we also tend to over complicate it.
- mlthoughts2018 8y ago
  That is a tone deaf and harmful misunderstanding of poor people. Also, I don’t dispute that things like waking up early, meditation or exercise have real benefits. Whether they have real benefits is unrelated to this discussion. Separately, without money to alleviate obligations, many poor people find themselves overwhelmed through no fault of their own. A bad, unexpected legal or medical situation can leave you at the breaking point of stress for no other reason than lack of money. It may help to consider having more empathy as you mentally imagine the plight of poor folks.
  - saiya-jin 8y ago
    You both are correct, that's the sad part - being poor is hard, and the margins for mistake/accident/bad luck are often razor thin. But oh boy do I see tons of self-destructing, borderline stupid behavior among predominantly poor from where I come from - alcohol, cigarettes, taking shark loans for unnecessary 'luxuries', and the list goes on and on.
    - mlthoughts2018 8y ago
      > “But oh boy do I see tons of self-destructing, borderline stupid behavior among predominantly poor from where I come from” This is the harmful misunderstanding part. Many systems in society are designed, intentionally, to perpetuate the defeated state that poor people randomly find themselves in. The manifestations of systematic poverty are not really free will choices of poor people a lot the time, from poor financial investments, poor purchase choices (especially when it comes to dietary choices or purchases for children), poor investment in education. The whole world they inhabit is institutionally configured to perpetuate this, give them no empathy or support. To a good first order approximation, zero percent of the life situation inhabited by most poor people is “their fault” and most outward seeming bad habits that are lazily easy for us to judge are really things we, society, have pushed onto them, and we should not take the easy way out and think contemptibly towards them.
      - RandomInteger4 8y ago

2III7 8y ago

> Waking up early for purposes of pure self-maintenance, like meditation or high-end exercise, and getting to work very early, are often examples of this. It superficially feels like an accomplishment... There is nothing superficial about those things. By doing those things you gain wealth that is not measurable by any amount of money. > Less privileged folks may have to get up early just to barely make it to a shit job because of a 90 minute commute or a bunch of child care (or elder care) duties they have to perform. They may eat poorly or miss exercising because of all the obligations they cannot financially afford to offload. Less privileged folk also tend to stay up late and fill their minds with mindless media streams (television, social media etc.), drink alcohol to relieve stress to name a few stress relief activities. Daily stress should not be relieved by mind numbing crap, but by taking care of ones mental and physical health or seeking psychological help from professionals. Yes people tend to have too many obligations in which case people should re-assess their values and make sacrifices to not burn themselves out and die early. Life is complicated but we also tend to over complicate it.

mlthoughts2018 8y ago
That is a tone deaf and harmful misunderstanding of poor people. Also, I don’t dispute that things like waking up early, meditation or exercise have real benefits. Whether they have real benefits is unrelated to this discussion. Separately, without money to alleviate obligations, many poor people find themselves overwhelmed through no fault of their own. A bad, unexpected legal or medical situation can leave you at the breaking point of stress for no other reason than lack of money. It may help to consider having more empathy as you mentally imagine the plight of poor folks.
- saiya-jin 8y ago
  You both are correct, that's the sad part - being poor is hard, and the margins for mistake/accident/bad luck are often razor thin. But oh boy do I see tons of self-destructing, borderline stupid behavior among predominantly poor from where I come from - alcohol, cigarettes, taking shark loans for unnecessary 'luxuries', and the list goes on and on.
  - mlthoughts2018 8y ago
    > “But oh boy do I see tons of self-destructing, borderline stupid behavior among predominantly poor from where I come from” This is the harmful misunderstanding part. Many systems in society are designed, intentionally, to perpetuate the defeated state that poor people randomly find themselves in. The manifestations of systematic poverty are not really free will choices of poor people a lot the time, from poor financial investments, poor purchase choices (especially when it comes to dietary choices or purchases for children), poor investment in education. The whole world they inhabit is institutionally configured to perpetuate this, give them no empathy or support. To a good first order approximation, zero percent of the life situation inhabited by most poor people is “their fault” and most outward seeming bad habits that are lazily easy for us to judge are really things we, society, have pushed onto them, and we should not take the easy way out and think contemptibly towards them.
    - RandomInteger4 8y ago