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> We're not on the earth to "do great things" or "achieve progress" or any of that crap. That's for people who have some special enthusiasm which the rest of us
by anon7725 2y ago
> We're not on the earth to "do great things" or "achieve progress" or any of that crap. That's for people who have some special enthusiasm which the rest of us need not share, or, as Bertrand Russell says, for the elite who want us to labor for them. If one builds one's morality or sense of virtue on doing stuff one is a self-whipping slave and probably ready to become a slave driver for other people too.
Thank goodness there are people who do build their morality on "doing stuff": surgeons, cancer researchers, etc.
Some people innovate, and some (most) maintain. A healthy society needs a spectrum of endeavour.
I think our fundamental problem is that many of us do work that does not feel meaningful, and it seems that a lot of meaningful work is not respected and compensated as it should be.
- silverquiet 2y agoI agree strongly with the last two paragraphs. I think the surgeon/medical example is nice (though not they certainly don’t work for free), but a lot of the ambitious people I’ve known all sought middle management or higher in some big company, which hardly seems like a good application of human potential.
- t43562 2y agoA person researching cancer doesn't need to do it because they're desperate to pay off the mortgage. They can do it because it's interesting, or a personal challenge. There are a lot of people with advanced degrees now - we don't need to put enormous pressure on a few of them.
- kjkjadksj 2y agoAsk any healthcare worker about the issues in the medical field and they will say people are overworked, hospitals are short staffed, mistakes are made and patients die as a result of burnout and lack of any time to recharge or process traumatic incidents they see. So while yes some groups do good work under pressure, no one does their best work under pressure, the opposite in fact.