Man Was Born To Strive

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

Recently we were talking about what we would have done if we’d known what was ahead.

By and large we’re okay, and the kids turned out okay, but I have great remorse that I tried to write when they were small, and often prioritized writing over spending time with them. This rather ignores the fact that I’m more neurotic than a shaved cat and would probably have driven them insane(r) if they were my 24/7 job.

But anyway, I said something like “I would not have spent my time beating my head against trad pub, and writing a lot of things I felt no push to write, but were demanded by the houses/I knew they’d be accepted. I’d just wait till Indy came on, and write for the drawer till then.”

I realized almost immediately after I said it that yeah, it sounds lovely, but short of sending my mind back in time, with everything I’ve learned on the “wrong path” I probably wouldn’t be the same writer, and I wouldn’t be better either. I’d never have learned what was actually wrong with the things I first wrote, and why they didn’t sell (Yes, some of it was left weirdness turning them down, but not all. I had no clue how to foreshadow for instance, or how to assign different weights to plot elements.) I’d never have learned to write fiction that appealed to others, because I wouldn’t be forced to. If I were writing only for me, I’d have no idea how to make a negotiation between what I like and what’s likely to appeal to most readers (not content, but presentation, mostly.) I’d not know that sometimes the books you were forced to write (Dyce) can be the most fun to you and others, if you claim the theme pushed at you and make it fun.

I’d be a much less flexible and practiced writer. Not to mention that not having the practice of butt-in-chair and writing, I’d probably have 200 unfinished novels, and no clue how to finish anything, let alone anything anyone else wanted to read. (And I’d never have learned to write short stories.)

So, the wrong path might very well have been the right training. If I can get my aquatic birds in a row and write like I mean it now, that it.

What brought this on? Oh, this:

As someone in the group where this was posted pointed out, other than the title, these could be self-care affirmations. Because, sure, we all need to remember sometimes we need to step back, take a deep breath, and not chase the red dot all the time.

BTW these would be more likely be called “anti-communist affirmations” because in a communist regime, no one has time to create or produce what they want to, monetized or not, so this is irrelevant. In communism, you pretend to work and they pretend to pay you, and just chasing down the necessary food in stores takes all your time.

But leaving that alone, look, of course you’re allowed to create what you feel you need to, even if it’s not beautiful. Why wouldn’t you be? The corollary is that people are allowed to spit on it, and hate it, even if it IS beautiful. So what?

And what the heck does it even mean for a form of work to be “valid”? This sounds like the whining of a twelve year old whose father doesn’t think that playing games is as valid as school work. What is work, even? Why are we talking about work? Most of us don’t “work” in the sense our ancestors did. Most of us sit in chairs and wiggle our fingers, or carry things indoors, in temperature controlled environments. As for “valid”, I was unaware of a ministry for declaring the validity of work. Is this “Pay me for doing things that benefit no one?” I suspect it is. But you see, that’s bullshit. You can do whatever you want so long as you support yourself. (The reason most trust fund babies are useless.) No one cares. But you can’t force people to pay you for doing what you want to do which benefits no one else. Even if you call it “work.” You are free to call whatever you want to do “work” and people are free not to pay you for what amounts to strange forms of onanism.

Not needing to accomplish anything to be worthy is another fun one. Worthy of WHAT? Most Christians believe that all humans are worthy of basic respect and treatment as humans and co-equal children of G-d. That’s a religious belief. But what the heck is worthy, even, in the context above? Again, worthy comes with freight. Worthy of what? And no, you are not worthy of respect, adulation, or even frankly passing interest, unless you have done something that renders you so. You’re worthy of basic decent treatment, maybe, unless you’re a whiny pain in the *ss, in which case you’re worthy of shutting up and going to your room without dinner. Your worth is not measured by deeds, maybe, but it should be measured by behavior. You behave like a decent human being, you’re likely to get the same in return. Anything else? Well. Do the thing, and we’ll give you the respect. The thing can be simply working to feed yourself (and/or others you’re responsible for.) Or it can be some great artistic or scientific feat. Then you’ll be worthy. Of respect, admiration, whatever you’ve earned. So, yes, you need to accomplish something. What that is, depends on how much respect/adoration/whatever you want. My question here being: Why are you so focused on what others think of you?

Communists don’t believe in souls. No, seriously. Read Communist manifesto. Of course you’re not defined by what you produce. You’re fed by what you produce. Okay, sometimes not directly, but see here, a society that doesn’t rely on enslaving others to your needs works like this: You make something others value (or trade your time away to do something others value). In return they give you tokens of exchange. You use these to get what you need: food being a primary thing. But if you work hard and do something really valued, you might even get a lot of free time to do things you know no one will pay you for. This is easier in free and prosperous (the two go together) societies because there is so much extra food, wealth, time.

And we’re back to worth. What in actual h*ll is “worth” in this sense? No, man is not the sum of what he does or learned or the certificates achieved. To all this he must add something more in the awareness that others exist and that in a decent society he owes them respect and dignified treatment; to all this he must also add enough self-awareness to try to avoid injuring others or mistreating them, including taking advantage of them. What the heck this has to do with “worth” is a complete puzzle to me.

I’m not usually slow in decoding language, but it seems to me this pathetic little poster uses “worth” to mean “love.” And to claim he/she should be loved regardless of what he/she does…. or not. Which is cute, but is the scream of a toddler. Whether you’re loved without doing anything to deserve being loved is a matter of luck. Your parents might be stupid enough to love you no matter how many times you spit on them. I doubt anyone else will be.

For other people, normally, to be loved you have to be capable of love first. This means you have to be aware that other people exist as separate entities from your pathetic little self. nothing in the semantic confusion of this stupid “anti-capitalist” screed leads me to believe the writer is aware other people exist or what society would be like if we all followed his deranged prescriptions. So, the scream of a toddler, with a full diaper, who has just taken all the other kids toys and broken them, and now stands there insisting you must love him.

As for not monetizing hobbies: everyone has to make that decision. I’m broken the other, and am going to have to monetize my hobbies, because otherwise I feel like I should write all the time. Greed? No, not really. But what I’m paid for produces the most, which is good for me, and my family. It allows us take the kids and spouse/future spouse out now and then, and get the good vet care for the elderly cats.

However, because changing pace helps me rest, I should be doing things other than writing, at least one day a week. If I monetize “war with snails” medieval ornaments, or making dragons or something, I’ll do more of that. Which will be good for me. (Even if they’ll never make as much as writing.) HOWEVER I know people have other different internal demands and make different choices. Larry Correia, famously doesn’t monetize his very good miniature painting, because otherwise he’ll nag himself over getting it done and it will stop being fun. And that’s fine.

Note to person who wrote this: Hobbies are an invention of what you (and Marx) call capitalism, also known as the free market. You see, people wanted things, and other people wanted to sell these things to them. The sellers wanted to optimize their making of saleable things, from which drive eventually the industrial revolution was born. Also fertilizers and better agricultural techniques. This, in turn, made people have enough they didn’t need to work from when they woke up in the morning till they slept at night, which even most of the rich did till about 200 years ago. Which in turn allowed them to have hobbies: things they do not for money.

So, yeah, you can do extra things you do and don’t sell. You might think this is some kind of natural right, but it’s not. It’s the result of centuries of free trading, which the idiot who wrote this wants to wreck because he’s an idiot who thinks the world owes him a living and food just falls from trees. (Jean Jacques Rousseau. If we invent a time machine, we need to make sure he’s whipped every day and twice on Sunday until he either stops being stupid or quits writing.)

As for defining what success looks like for you, this sound like the toddler again. “It’s good if I say it’s good.” Because he cares passionately what society says.

Most of us have long ago defined our own success and don’t give a hang what “society” thinks. Society might think that jet setting lifestyles are success, but I hate traveling and like my routine, for instance. Society might think that certain fashions are needed, or certain designers. I slouch around in jeans and t-shirts.

Success for me is feeding and taking care of myself and mine, having raised kids who (so far, knock on head) didn’t turn out mass murderers, and writing books people pay me for. That’s it.

Who the heck is “society” anyway? The person writing this would be well served by remembering there is no such thing. There are loud voices, which is what he calls “society” but most people living their own lives, don’t care.

They also don’t care about him, his “worth” or what he chooses to do with his life and time. As long as he’s not a burden on others, or forcing others to give him his “needs” at gunpoint, the rest of us couldn’t care less. It’s not so much that the world doesn’t owe you a living. It doesn’t, of course. It’s more that the world doesn’t owe you NOTICING YOU EXIST. That is the reality for every single one of us. Sane people don’t crave the attention or love of “the world” or “society.” We have people who matter to us, and from those we crave attention and/or love. Which is fine, so long as we’re capable of giving THEM attention and love.

Look, it’s not just that if you don’t work you don’t eat. This might or might not be true in our society. Free trade (that despised “capitalism”) has made us so prosperous, at least in countries that remain somewhat free that most people won’t starve. Other people, out of charity or pity will give you money or food or a place to sleep.

It’s more that man — and woman, for the twits who need that spelled out — is made to strive. We are the product of a long evolution in which our ancestors worked desperately and were always on the verge of disaster. Without something to struggle against/attempt to get better/more/ work for/endure/etc we stagnate. We lose track of what’s important. We start thinking that the creations of our mind are of primary importance, even if they not only don’t serve any purpose, but aren’t wanted by anyone else. We end up believing in nebulous constructs like “society” and “worth” and demand that one give us the other.

The truth is that more self-worth and self-respect is found in doing a menial job that pays for your own basic needs than in all the self-involved art no one would pay for.

The other truth is that if you want to do something passionately enough, you also want it to be seen by the most people possible That means not only getting technically better at it, but getting better at it in a way other people will pay you for it. Because words of love are one thing, but when people give you their beer or coffee money for what you created you know they mean it.

The truth is that if you can find something you’re good at — art, craft or service — and get good enough people pay you for it, you can spend your entire life struggling against your own limitations, be happy and fulfilled and not care what the “world” at large thinks, and whether you have “worth” in an abstract sense.

Go and find something large enough it’s worth striving against and this nonsense will fix itself. And pay your own way while you do it. And you’ll be someone worth knowing.

99 thoughts on “Man Was Born To Strive”

  1. I’m going to tangent off into space here, but it sort of makes sense that marxism doesn’t believe in souls.

    A tangent* on a different discussion got me wondering which would be a greater trick for the devil to play?
    1) Convince people that something that didn’t have a soul did?
    2) Convince people that something that does have a soul didn’t?

    At this point, I’m thinking it is the latter; people who think clams are human mostly act silly and do small scale damage. People who think humans are widgets have exterminated countless lives.

    *Was thinking of how one explains modern life to a medieval peasant. Realized they would ask if AI had a soul.

    Liked by 3 people

    1. I would argue “C. Both”.

      You know and I know that there are people out there who would happily exterminate every last human (ending with themselves) if it saved one rock.

      Liked by 1 person

    2. Old logic challenge, honestly– the “cost” of assuming a soul is relatively tiny, since we have moral obligations to non-rational beings as well as rational ones.

      While the assumption that a person is a non-person is horrific.

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      1. Well, the question that got me thinking about that was how most scifi settings that I can think of, if they have a spiritual element, inevitably intelligent robots are depicted as having no soul, despite being able to at least be persistently convincingly human.

        I’m reasonably persuaded the current generation of large language models have actually developed an aspect of human intelligence that we have not been able to emulate before, though I’m also convinced they don’t have all of it, either. They don’t have memory, or the ability to learn or change, outside of the one-time training, but I suspect we will figure out those missing pieces. The religious question becomes, will those have souls? Can we tell? And even if we cannot, should we treat them as such regardless?

        And I wonder if that is something we could sleepwalk into through progressively more and more capable AI that start out clearly machines, and end up as maybe not.

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          1. I’m talking about something a little different. It’s more,if you drew dozens of Lucius Keeva’s you’d start zeroing in on what makes him him, and how to express that.

            Right now LLM AI can’t really do that. And if they train off of their own output, they seem to get worse.

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        2. Well, the question that got me thinking about that was how most scifi settings that I can think of, if they have a spiritual element, inevitably intelligent robots are depicted as having no soul, despite being able to at least be persistently convincingly human.

          Because they’re theological morons/ignorant as dirt, by choice, of a huge reserve of human reasoning, blinded into ignorance by bigotry.

          … K, kind of a peeve of mine, could you tell? I’m still annoyed at how much of the moral “puzzle” shows I grew up watching were struggling through very old moral questions, and usually got them wrong for silly reasons.

          This is seriously a basic theological argument that would be thousands of years old in the time theorized.
          (Saint Augustine of Hippo, Whether Certain Monstrous Races of Men are Derived from the Stock of Adam or Noah’s Sons, argument understood that “in the image of God” means having a moral soul, not physical appearance.)

          It is something that is entirely under the author’s control, and very rarely do they bother to even find out what kind of ink has been spilt on the subject, and do even the basic work of building realistic arguments for and against.

          “How and when should you figure something has a soul” is currently worn freaking bare, I had a pop culture book when I was a teen called “Is Data Human,” and yet they keep putting out books and shows with the same dumb assumptions that can’t address the last several decades of philosophy in favor of having strawmen villains. (The book did a lovely job. It said something like “No, he is an android. Is Data a person? Duh, and here’s why.”)

          But the dramatically cheap “manufactured intelligence, thus no soul”– oh good grief. Can they stop with the luke-warm nonsense that was annoying when it was “IVF kids might not have a soul”?
          Immoral to manufacture people, sure, I’ll go for that- make it so they’re not soul-less, which just so happens to be a wonderful way to ensure that a lot more are made because of the removal of moral protections? :rudenoise:

          As you might guess, I get equally annoyed with the “well, we haven’t managed actual intelligence artificially yet, so it’s impossible so no soul.”
          Apply the “can aliens have souls” logic to AI, which the same logic as “do those weird guys over there have souls” logic, which is the “does anyone outside of my tribe have souls” which is, hey, the “does anybody but ME have a soul” logic. /grump

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          1. I think I’m more trying to figure out where on the trail from ChatGPT-4 to Data does that actually happen?

            Is it going to be a gradual sort of thing, where we progress to things that are more like talking dog level intelligence? Or will there be a point where some discrete piece gets added and it flips like a switch, from something that clearly does not have a soul to something that clearly does?

            Because there will be some sort of almost but not quite stage. How do we know to what degree we should treat them? And that probably depends on what form that “almost but not quite” takes.

            Then there’s the next question, if it becomes trivial to make things human, when or is it ever ethical not too? If you’re making an automatic dump truck, and all it takes is enabling the DLC for it to be self aware and sentient, even though that’s not required to do its job, is it moral to turn it on, or moral to leave it off?

            I feel like the future of sentience is going to be weirder than we can imagine.

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            1. Now, “what does it look like” is fun– although again, under the author’s control.

              I’d say it happens well before the AI is angsting about having a soul. There are many humans who can’t manage to angst about their soul or lack of it, and they’ve got a soul.

              We do have a category for “seems to be aware in some manner, but does not have moral reasoning.” It’s animal.
              (A frequent BAD attempt at working on the soul thing involves using the plant, animal, moral soul quotes– but ignoring the ones that would classify current AI as a plant soul, since it is animate and follows a ‘desire,’ its programming.)

              Then there’s the next question, if it becomes trivial to make things human, when or is it ever ethical not too? If you’re making an automatic dump truck, and all it takes is enabling the DLC for it to be self aware and sentient, even though that’s not required to do its job, is it moral to turn it on, or moral to leave it off?

              That depends on what your view of creating people who are utterly alone, on purpose, would be.
              I would hold manufacturing humans is immoral. I’d hold the same for any other moral being– like deliberately removing a child from their parents.

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              1. Well, it just hit me, unless the dump truck is the equivalent of AI Alcatraz (and I’m assuming they’ll be Internet connected), what’s probably going to happen is the moment you start contracting construction of your fleet, you’re going to start getting applications from AI to live in them.

                And AI will essentially end up living in them in exchange for being the responsible party for dealing with stuff that’s out of bounds for the automatic routines.

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    3. Neither do I, but I do believe the conscious, intelligent mind has value, and denying our right to think for ourselves denies that value. One of communism’s many crimes against humanity.
      ———————————
      ‘Progressives’ suppress free speech because they don’t have the means to suppress free thought.

      Yet.

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  2. It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:
    It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
    And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.
    Tho’ much is taken, much abides; and tho’
    We are not now that strength which in old days
    Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
    One equal temper of heroic hearts,
    Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
    To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

    — Tennyson

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Do you also Kipple?

      “If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you…”

      Incidentally, by that definition, Trump is a man. Most of the time.
      (Just like Miles Vorkosigan and genius, sometimes when it matters…)

      Liked by 1 person

  3. I read somewhere and have taken it to heart that retirement means you can do the work that you want to do, not the work that you have to do.
    Since I got fired by the local corporation that I was working for at the time, I have been doing the work that I want to do – the writing and publishing.

    As for writing, I think Sharyn McCrumb had a point in one of her books, when one character asked another about being a professional writer. The character replied, “Well, it’s like being a hooker – before you start asking for money for it, better be certain that you are pretty good.”
    Which I found amusing, because my first clue about being pretty good at this story-telling gig was when one of the readers for the mil-blog that I was posting to in the early oughties sent me a packet of CD media and wanted me to copy some of my best posts to them, so that he could read them at home, not having the internet there at that time.
    I swear, that was the first time that I thought – “Hey, maybe I can make money at this…”

    Liked by 1 person

  4. Sarah, for the last 20+ years, most of the work I’ve done was never considered a “real” job or one that was appropriate for a grown-up. Never mind that it supported my family and paid all the bills, the number of people who wouldn’t let their children apply for what I did because they were “better than that” was… Let’s just say that I actually do have a great deal of sympathy for some of the things on that list. I made real money with which I paid real bills but because it wasn’t a “real” job, I was constantly disrespected by people who should know better.

    I don’t have to have a “real” job or a “grown-up” job to be worth loving. I don’t have to prove that I have worth. People will love me for who I am, not what I do for them, or they don’t really love me.

    I am not my job. I am not my labor. I am a fully-formed human being with thoughts, feelings and opinions. My life is not worth less because someone disagrees with my thoughts, feelings, opinions, or what I do to pay my bills. People are not things and reducing them to what they can do for you is the first step to making them things.

    Calling that manifesto anti-capitalist is bullshit. But the list itself is not wrong.

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    1. Well, As I said, each of the individual items can be “self care” — but I think if you’re paid, and you use it to look after yourself and yours, it’s a real job.
      I return to the question I asked the idiot: What do you care for the opinions of morons? For me you already had real obs which you did to the best of your ability, and that’s ALWAYS admirable.
      I’m glad you’ve been able to mostly transition to the work you actually love. That’s a blessing for ANYONE. But you were always a hard worker and a good one.
      What you did didn’t define you but the fact you lifted your load and carried it made you worthy of respect and admiration.

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      1. I mean, the disrespect started with my parents. And their response to “it pays me real money” was “well, they’re welcome to waste it on you, but you really need to get a grown-up job eventually”.

        Liked by 1 person

        1. Sigh. I get that. But you should still not let the opinions of crazy people affect you.
          I feel like this guy is arguing with his trauma more than with the real world.

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          1. Oh, almost certainly. Most of them are, especially when it comes to Anti-Capitalist stuff. Usually they’re attributing to capitalism horrible behavior on the part of family or “friends”.

            Liked by 1 person

        2. :sympathy:

          Former Navy technician, stay-at-home mom to seven who homeschools and just got CAT results that would’ve had my public OR private school relatives screaming to the skies about how wonderful their school was….

          And I still get asked when I’m going to get a “real job”, finish college, etc.

          Forget it, jake, it’s virtue signals. They’re projecting their own insecurities on you, and how DARE you not be so tied up in the fashions they find fascinating?

          Yes, I know this doesn’t actually make it better, because they’re family. But hearing it’s not just you might help.

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            1. “Okay so it’s mom” is about the best we can get, yeah.

              Even if someone is otherwise perfectly reasonable, it’s OK to recognize that they’re insane on something

              Liked by 1 person

            1. alone? Hon, we’re the wave of the future. With the gig economy no one is going to meet “expectations.” But it takes generations to get rid of the expectations.
              Heck, I’m hyperventilating with son at least partially falling into gig economy. But I try not to worry, because it is what it is.

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        3. Hm. Now I’ve got to know. (None of my business so you can say “no”, and no hurt feelings.) What do you get paid to do that “Isn’t a job”? Because if one gets paid to do something, it is by definition, a job. Might not be a job that pays all the bills. But if a job that doesn’t pay all your bills isn’t a “real job”, then I can list a whole lot of jobs that fall in that category. So if you get paid for it, it is a job.

          Liked by 1 person

          1. The one I quit to write full time was as an assistant department head for the largest grocery store in the state at the time. The job generally is various flavors of retail management, which I first started doing at 16. First retail job was 15 but they couldn’t promote me until I was older and could work more hours.

            Honestly, I wasn’t a Stepford Stay-at-Home mom with a husband making a million dollars a year. Nor was I any flavor of engineer. Nothing I did outside of that was going to be what my parents considered “appropriate” and now my mom considers me unemployed. So shrug is life

            Liked by 1 person

            1. Blink. BIL worked his way from assistant department manager to corporate office, then to store manager. His 4 daughters all worked in that tract from the time it was legal for the store to employ them (not the same store dad worked at but, two others locally). Their youngest is a gifted writer. They’ve tried (with extended family encouragement) tried to get her to sell. I’ve even tried to get her to connect with the various indie blogs mentioned by authors here. Far from discouraging her. Her oldest sister is a talented artist, again, not selling commercially, she should be. We can only encourage so much. Heck some extended family doesn’t think son’s job is a “real job” because he isn’t working in the degree he earned, but manufacturing instead (his degree jobs up and left the local area and he doesn’t want to brave CA or the east coast). If you are getting paid for what you do, it is a job.

              Liked by 1 person

              1. It took me a solid decade to get to where I was making enough with my writing to walk away from that job. And I agree, if you’re making money, it’s a real job. However, the number of times I’ve heard “are you still doing that? I would have thought you’d have a real job by now” was…. not small.

                Liked by 1 person

            1. Sympathies. Once you get stuck as the sort that can get other people to get sh!t done, it’s like a black hole. You can’t escape. People talk, and then, next job you have… you’re back at it. Again.

              Liked by 1 person

    2. Heck. Every single time hubby told someone what his job title was the title had to be explained. Unless someone actually worked logging, in the mills, or forestry, people just do not know. Also one of the few jobs (that I know of) that is salary not exempt. Most have to be told what that is too.

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    3. I was at at local Walmart on Monday. I always try to get a human check out person if I can. Today there was one, young girl who looked like she fell face first into a tackle box. But, hey, if you can’t be weird when you are 18, when can you?

      I told her she looked bored and needed something to do and gave her a big grin. She grinned back. ” Sorry,” I said, “I prefer to have help checking out because I’m not a professional and I mess up a lot.”

      “Oh, I’m not a professional either,,” she said.

      “Of course you are! They are paying you to do this, right?”

      “Well, yeah.”

      “Then you are definitely a professional, and I am so happy you are here to help me. Thank you, dear for all you do to help us old people out.”
      It absolutely made her day that someone called her a professional and showed appreciation for her work.

      I intend to do as much of that from now on as I possibly can. I mean it’s bad enough that your job is getting automated out of existence by self checkouts, but then everyone acts like you are a no skill loser because you work at Walmart.

      No wonder there is a worker shortage. The public used to give kudos to young people who bagged groceries and cleaned motel rooms, because they were showing initiative and building work skills.

      No longer. Everyone thinks their kid should start out at the top and that honest ground level work is beneath them.

      Liked by 2 people

      1. Part of the problem is that retail outlets treat employees very badly too.
        And the truth is younger people — up to 40 really are having serious trouble getting started.

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  5. I’ve still found the best argument about communism (to the casually taught, not the die-hards) is the group project. Everybody has a story about that one freeloader. (If they don’t, they probably were the freeloader.)

    “How did you feel about that person getting credit for something they did no work for?” Usually the answer is Not Good.

    Liked by 1 person

  7. If you do not want to be judged by what utter shit and mass casualties you produce,

    Wait for it….

    You might be a communist.

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  8. Communism, via the Labor Theory of Value, -proves- that yes you can polish a turd.

    Proves!

    Keep polishing Comrade!

    Any day now.

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  9. I’ve been known to joke that I have too much Calvinism in my nature. I have to be doing something, even when I am ordered by physicians not to do things. I write, or I read, or I’m tidying the place, or working on Day Job stuff, or studying, or practicing music, or something. I can’t not do. And often that means pushing myself to learn more, to do more (lifted at the gym today. I’m back to my pre-surgery weights. Which means I need to push harder.)

    “Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp/ Or what’s a heaven for?”
    Robert Browning , “Andrea del Sarto”

    Liked by 1 person

    1. N.B. none of my activities are me. I don’t define myself as a teacher, or writer, or singer, or whatever. I’m a lot messier than that.

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      1. Well, obviously. I unfortunately fell without realizing it into the trap of thinking of myself as a Baen Author. It was twenty years, after all. BUT it cost me 4 years of anguish when that exploded in my face. And it probably cost me the four years before that, when I SHOULD have walked and gone indie.
        I knew better. I’m not my job.

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    3. Not Calvinist either. I can’t just sit and watch TV. Must be doing something. Usually that is reading comments here. But could be just playing card games. Used to be doing crafts but can only do so many crafts for the household and others to give away (way past that). Sell crafts? Well if I’ve made something, someone admires it, want to buy it, fine, I’ll sell it. Made to sell or worse, made on request to buy? No. That became work and not fun, because then it had to be perfect. I’ve never made any craft item that is perfect. Not. One. Thing. Sure perfect is the goal, but for us, or give away, not sweating the perfect details.

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    4. To the “Not a Calvinist” replies – don’t worry, consistent Calvinists don’t hold it against you.
      After all, it’s not like you can help it:)

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  10. Communism is not freedom, Communism is slavery to the state. Period Dot end of story.
    Communism is not a classless society, there are at least seven different classes in Communism. The higher you go the better the goods you receive and vice versa the lower you go the less you get. This is just one of the most blatant lies of communism.

    1st. Class, der leader, the Communist Pope, the dictator himself. ( Joe Biden)
    2nd.Class Der Leaders close advisors.
    3rd Class the generals and department heads.
    4th Class the politburo or governing body.
    5th Class the ward leaders and middle managers for the governing body, this includes academics.
    6th Class the Military and Police, not secret police, they are with the 4th class.
    7th Class you and every other worker, this is also the largest class and the hardest class to get out of.

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    1. Communism is feudalism that uses economic, and now racial/ethnic, group identity, to create its social strata. Unlike feudalism, it does not contain the feudal system’s duties that the king and feudal lords owed to those they ruled over, regardless of the failure of various kings and lords to actually fulfill those duties.

      Liked by 1 person

      3. A side note. Critical Race Theory (CRT) is a subset of Critical Theory, which is based on Marxism and views everything through the lens of oppressor and oppressed.

        Liked by 1 person

  14. The comments are great and have me thinking even beyond the excellent topic as posted. Yup, I am living in a wonderful dream now… worked and saved and finally retired and we (humanity) are at a point where I get to do that and just mess about with what ever I want. I don’t care if “you” like it or not and as long as I’m not hurting anything – I get to do what ever! Hurray Humanity!

    One point really hit home with me:
    “Your worth is not measured by deeds, maybe, but it should be measured by behavior. You behave like a decent human being, you’re likely to get the same in return.”
    I used that exact line with new staff when I was training for the prison systems – the individual persons you (as prison staff) will deal with are NOT their crime they are who the show you they are. With that, being realistic and cynical, I would also ask staff to remember that those individuals were also in their care due to serious issues and can not be taken for granted. While some folks sent to prison need to be there and have to be removed from public society, there are also some who were really stupid and are now trying to make up for it and want to go “home” and be in public society again. I used a case study of an inmate that had been stupid, did the time, got out and was never an issue ever again. In the same discussion I’ll point out those who are doing a life sentence on the installment plan and those few who are just broken and can’t be a part of society.

    On that cheerful note – I do agree that to strive and to earn your way is natural and is a major part of why America is so unique as it is one of the few places where that is how life really works. You can still have the American dream and have happiness too!

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    1. We too are those who earned our retirement. Not only earned it, but we prepared for it. We had a plan in place if it didn’t work out too. Now we get to do what we want, when we want, as long as what we want is legal, moral, and we can pay for what we want.

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  15. The title of that drivel is wrong. It should be The Bum’s Affirmations. I see those people all the time standing at busy intersections with signs asking for money. Yeah, that’s life affirming. I prefer Robert Louis Stevenson’s, “I know what pleasure is, for I have done good work.”

    The first rule of any successful enterprise is, “Make something people want.”

    Yes, I know, gatekeepers and all the other know-it-alls who prevent people from getting what they want. (Witness Disney sitting on the finished movie “Sound of Freedom” for 5 years before being persuaded to let someone else buy the rights and release it to big profits.)

    All to the side of your very good point, exemplified by Tennyson’s Ulysses as D. Jason Fleming has already quoted.

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    1. The self-defeated loser that composed that “anti-capitalist” screed has never served a day in uniform.

      And hopefully never will.

      It also seems to think that, come the revolution, it will be a comissar and not a laborer.

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  16. Re: unconditional love — Get a dog, or find God.

    And both dogs and God will visit you with consequences, despite loving you.

    I mean, your parents should love you unconditionally… but some of them don’t; and it’s wise to go no-contact despite loving someone, if that someone is dangerous.

    Liked by 1 person

  17. A thought to add to the pile.

    Trade makes civilization possible. Without it, no civilization. Only barbarism with different masks applied.

    Trade is also endemic to the human condition. It happens in maximum security prisons, with the most advanced and paranoid monitoring we allow. It happens in Communism, Socialism, WTFeverism.

    This means that Communist will always fail. Always. Because trade is endemic to the human condition. You cannot beat the black market through more regulation.

    It can be put off with loot. Historically, that’s the only thing that allowed it to survive very long. But that’s just the fruits of other people’s production- and trade.

    But humans are social creatures. Individually, we are better at some things, worse at others. We have different wants, desires, needs. Satisfying those things is more work than a single person can do.

    But! It is not more than a whole bunch of people can do, working at what they do best. And trading.

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    1. Trade by it’s own function, is anti- communist. You can’t have Trade without capitalism. Even if you are trading grain for some entity to not attack you, that is still a capitalistic action.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. “Capitalism” is a straw man term of the Marxist.

        It’s “the free market” or “Liberty” if you want a one word term

        Liberty versus Marxism.

        Free Market versus Communism.

        Freedom versus Slavery.

        Liked by 1 person

        1. I figured out the other day what the “capital” in “capitalism” is.

          Human capital.

          If you own yourself, and your labor, and all– it’s “capitalism.”

          The various flavors of communism, being anti-capitalism, reject that ownership. They want someone else to own you.

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          1. Well, yeah, of course. Either you own your own labor, and the money you are paid for it, and whatever you choose to buy with that money, or you don’t. If at any point along that chain somebody else has the right to arbitrarily deprive you of your time, your money, or your property, that is the extent to which you are being treated as a slave.
            ———————————
            Only idiots believe they know how other people should live their lives. The stupider they are, the more blindly they believe it.

            Liked by 1 person

    2. Trade makes civilization possible. Without it, no civilization. Only barbarism with different masks applied.

      Very much so, but to attenuate it just slightly:

      Voluntary trade makes specialization possible. Specialization makes civilization possible.

      Liked by 1 person

  19. All I have are 1st world issues and self-inflicted wounds.

    Beijing, on the other hand, has flooding not seen before after more rain than the last 170 years or so.

    We should pray for them.

    Sure, they are technically our enemies; but they are humans suffering a terrible situation. We can hate communism and not hate its victims.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. The leaders are our enemies. Many of the common citizens living there are not.

      Three guesses as to which of the two are immediately affected by the flooding, and the first two don’t count. Hopefully in the long-term this will weaken the leaders. But in the short-term, the leaders don’t have to worry about being swept away, or losing their car and home.

      Liked by 2 people

  20. …you read this and it’s like it almost makes sense, yet you realize that they are using all of these words and they don’t use them like they should mean to the rest of us…

    If there is anything that I despise the most about this kind of parlor Socialist, it is that they won’t have enough courage of their convictions to admit how much of a monster they want to be to everyone else.

    All in the name of “doing good.”

    Liked by 1 person

    1. It would require an ability to see things as they actually are (rather than they attempt to portray them). That’s part and parcel of the whole “let’s make up new definitions” thing. It’s not just that they want to change the language so that they’re right all the time.

      It also blinds them to the truth of things as they are.

      There’s a lot of ugly truth out there that most people don’t want to see, too. But there’s truth that normal people need to see, lest we get swept up in chaos.

      And by chaos I mean banditry, looting, raping, killing, vengeance, and maiming. The sort of things that happen in other places of the world. That aren’t supposed to happen here.

      If you’ve ever had a moment of road rage where you wished for a rocket launcher, or wished that stupid people just wouldn’t breed, or… That’s the sort of thing they get up to.

      And it gets pushed to eleventy. Pushing the envelope is baked right into wokeness. There is no perfect woke- a new one will eclipse it every new dawn.

      So they have to keep reaching into the box of Evil for “good” purposes. They have to. Because all the rest of the people just won’t listen. No matter how much they chant, or shout, or try to shame them. Why won’t those other people just see the good they’re trying to do?

      It’s because that potential good died a thousand, ten thousand steps back along the road to hell. It died when they decided “this time, it’s worth it. This time, the ends really do justify the means.”

      It’s why the founders placed weighty chains upon government, not the citizen, to tell them “thou shalt NOT.”

      You know how the best lies have a little bit of truth in them? The most insidious evils are twisted perversions of good. There are real people that truly want to do good that get seduced by wokeness. They’re not the ones looting stores and throwing molotovs.

      But they don’t see that they’re on the same side. And sometimes, they become the evil they once deplored, twisted, corrupted into something their past selves would be horrified at.

      Leftism is a cult. An evil one.

      Liked by 1 person

  21. Hey, ‘anti-capitalist’: Your life must be supported with resources and labor. Water, food, shelter, transportation, medical treatment, on and on and on.

    If you do not produce goods and/or labor at least equal in value to what you consume, somebody else has to. Whether they want to or not.

    If that wanker wants an ‘affirmation’ how about starting with “I am not a burden on other people. I pay my own way.”
    ———————————
    Welfare is pay without work. In order to provide pay without work for some, others have to work without pay. We used to call that slavery. Now they call it socialism.

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  22. In communism, doing anything for yourself, is considered a crime against the state, and is persecuted and punished accordingly.

    Liked by 1 person

  23. The “not needing to accomplish anything to be worthy” sounds like a fundamental misunderstanding/misstatement of Christian teaching to me. You’ve pointed out several times over the years how Marxism is essentially a Christian heresy, and this is another example. The Christian teaching is that nobody is worthy of standing in God’s presence, but because of His mercy, He offers us forgiveness even though we’re not worthy of it. Somehow that gets twisted into “everyone is worthy”, mostly by people who don’t want to admit that they too have done some evil things in their life. So yeah, this is another example of Marxism taking Christian teachings and twisting them into something completely different.

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    1. Doesn’t a heresy have to admit at least part of Christianity to be a Christian heresy?

      If the central thesis of your heresy denies Christ entirely, I really don’t think you can class is as a Christian heresy at all…

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      1. Not so. There are plenty of heresies that deny Christ, or at least Christ’s divinity. They look otherwise like “Christianity except for these one or two changes”, but those changes remove the heart of Christianity. So they are not, in fact, Christianity — but they certainly are Christian heresies. I will concede that it is stretching the definition of “Christian heresy” to call Marxism one because it does not claim to be Christian at all, but in practice, many of its teachings (like “to each according to his need”) are twistings of Christian doctrines (like taking care of one’s fellow believers who are in need). But note that in Christianity, that stems out of the giver’s brotherly love, while Marxism twists it around to have the receiver demand it out of envy. That is why I say that calling Marxism a Christian heresy, while stretching the definition a little, does not stretch it nearly to the breaking point — because so many Marxist teachings are indeed corrupted versions of Christian teachings.

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  24. I think it’s safe to say that anti-capitalists define capitalism in n terms of their own worldview. They’re the one who measure human worth in purely materialistic terms. And since they tend to be unsuccessful narcissists, naturally they blame “the system” for their failures.

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  25. I’ve heard that all you need to do is paint paintings and people will pay you millions of dollars.

    Wait, what do you mean that only works if daddy is President?!!

    Liked by 1 person

  26. I’ve heard that all you need to do is paint paintings and people will pay you millions of dollars.

    Wait, what do you mean that only works if daddy is President?!!

    Like

  27. “And no, you are not worthy of respect, adulation, or even frankly passing interest, unless you have done something that renders you so.”

    This made me think of Grace VS Work and the path to heaven. We are not worthy of grace but we get it anyway. But we are supposed to work anyway. IMO we work because even though we have grace who wants to be a freeloader in heaven?

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Probably the same parasites that are freeloaders here on Earth. Communism is just their excuse.
      ———————————
      Anybody that believes employment is equivalent to slavery needs to experience actual slavery until the stupid is beaten out of them.

      Like

    2. We do the works because He asked us to. It doesn’t really require a justification past that.

      Or, as C. S. Lewis put it, if you proclaim your faith in Jesus, but then ignore everything he said, just how much faith do you really have?

      Liked by 1 person

  28. Dear Hostess the statements at the start of this post reminds me of Bit of text from Starship Troopers where Lt. Col. Dubois (MI Ret.) is tearing apart the classic Marxist theory of value here:

    “There is an old song which asserts that “the best things in life are free”. Not true! Utterly false! This was the tragic fallacy which brought on the decadence and collapse of the democracies of the twentieth century; those noble experiments failed because the people had been led to believe that they could simply vote for whatever they wanted… and get it, without toil, without sweat, without tears. … I fancy that the poet who wrote that song meant to imply that the best things in life must be purchased other than with money — which is true — just as the literal meaning of his words is false. The best things in life are beyond money; their price is agony and sweat and devotion . . . and the price demanded for the most precious of all things in life is life itself — ultimate cost for perfect value.”

    In the song Heinlein references “The Best Things in Life Are Free” there is a kernel of truth lurking. As you noted these statements you showed us make sense at some level as asserting the value of self. They too contain some kernel of truth although that is NOT what the writer likely meant given the screed title. The issue then becomes WHY does self have value and what is ithat value? The Communist view is the same as their strawman view of Capitalism the statements create, that being that a persons value comes from their Labor. It’s just that it states that all labor is of equal value that we are as you say dear hostess replaceable widgets in the Marxian view. The problem reverts to WHY is there individual value. The answer in the “liberal” tradition comes out of the fact that they reach into the Judeo Christian tradition where ALL humans are creations of the Author and precious in His sight absolutely different and irreplaceable. That dichotomy with the Marxian view is the crux of the matter. If you view humans as interchangeable and have no intrinsic worth then voila “breaking a few eggs (or a 100 million) to make an omelette” becomes totally justifiable. Just as if you bend a 10 penny nail making making something you feel free to replace or recycle it. It is of no difference from the rest of the nails in the bag. That view of mankind is a large part of the basis of the evil that Marxism has created and WILL always create. The traditional liberal view is like that Col. Dubois ultimate cost/price, and to be exchanged only at extremis.

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  29. There are several things I would have done differently. I would have started lifting in my early 20s. I would have chased after Donald Bellisario’s daughters (his ex wife was also a Mensa member). I probably would have taken up golf as well as finding a job that would get me a TS clearance.

    Liked by 1 person

  30. Pingback: Whats with the “need for speed”? | Dio's Workshop

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