[–] chirogonemd ago (edited ago)
I think it depends on your values. If your values don't align with that culture, then it becomes depressing. I think there is sort of a revival happening in parallel with the conservative movement, and it has to do with the value of hard work, blue collar lifestyles, and appreciation of the working class that represents the foundation of the country.
Along with that, there is this realization through our vicarious experience of wealth and the upper echelons of society, that money/fame aren't as glamorous as all of us had been hypnotized to believe they were, from years of celebrity lifestyle adoration. The internet has caused their world to become more transparent over the years, and exposed the ivory towers as less desirable than they used to be.
Because the innate core needs of the human, on a philosophical and meaning level are still there, and the money isn't solving that. There are tradeoffs to everything. Fame and richness has its perks. No doubt. Adoration and importance are probably highly satisfying. But we are also realizing they trade a lot of the awesome aspects of simple life in exchange for those perks.
For someone who has values that don't center on wealth accumulation and social status, then being immersed in a culture that does will cause depression. You will feel "othered" in that group, and struggling to still find an identity/role within a group that you really don't care about. It's a recipe for being lost.
The key is to recognize it, decide now what your actual values are, and defend them. I think the "feeling lost" part comes when you get wishy washy on your values. You let social pressures, or some misconception about expectations of yourself (to play the game), shake your "value tree" and cause you to pursue things that really don't have that meaning for you, because everyone else is doing it. You've got to find your own values, set up boundaries around them, defend them, and pursue the places/jobs/people who share those. And what I mean by defending them is the ability to resist social pressures to mold your values for you. Many in my generation fell prey to this. Even if they had held blue collar values, they wouldn't admit it. You've got to go to college. Get out of the rural area. Get a fancy desk job in a high-rise office. That was the portrait of success. If you had values without boundaries to defend, then you were susceptible to being manipulated to feel shame/guilt about what you actually wanted.
You need tribe. Make no mistake. And you need a defined role or sense of self-identity within that tribe. Those are probably the most basic keys to being happy. People who aren't happy are probably in the wrong tribe, or they are lost without a defined/accepted role in that tribe. Where society comes in and tries to guide you is by telling you WHAT tribe is the desirable one. Forget that.
For pure and simple human happiness, what tribe it is is actually irrelevant. You take a blue collar guy with a family in a small town, who has a defined role there, people know him and appreciate him for that role, and he recognizes he does it well, he is probably one of the happiest humans on the planet and he could be relatively poor. Of course, if your values ARE wealth accumulation and power, then you have to imagine that there are people who are happy in that environment too. The rudiments of happiness are pretty universal across human beings, but the tribe and the values are what change. Society has just told you that everyone but the rich are worse off and less happy, which is a massive lie.
[–] BlowjaySimpson ago
@ho-lee-fuk lives self sufficiently on his own rural land. It's possible, and I wish to get there myself.
[–] MrShekelstein 0 points 2 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago
But think of all the cool sex parties they have that you get invited to.
Who doesn't want to fuck an 8 year old girl's mouth while hillary eats out her ass?
[–] aCuriousYahnz ago
Don't know about Beverly Hills, but all the really rich areas in my state are closer to the farms than they are the city. But yes, country >>>>city.
[–] Runaway-White-Slave 0 points 3 points 3 points (+3|-0) ago
That's why I live in farm country, and have noticed a lot of the woodland/farm people are just as fucked up and vacuous...
Love em anyway though.
[–] jamesed 0 points 3 points 3 points (+3|-0) ago (edited ago)
As a farm kid and having lived on a farm most my life, I will say this FARMING is just PLAIN HARD WORK WITH LOW PAY. How ever it does have it's benefits. No body give a shit if I brew my own beer, or make a still and distill something a little stronger. I can have my wood shop and build what ever I want at any time I want and don't have the neighbors complaining about noise to worry about. I can take my rifle out and shoot pests from my back door. Then there is the meat. I raise my own chickens, turkey's, cows and pigs and slaughter them for my meat witch I Butcher to my own specs. I also own a real honest to god wood fired smoker to make smoked meat and don't have to worry about neighbors complaining about smoke or the DEQ or any other Bull Shit government agency. Hell some of my neighbors were raising weed even before it became legal and nobody cared, (except the illegal weed growing syndicates growing weed on public lands). Living on a FARM is about Hard Work and FREEDOM.
[–] theshopper ago (edited ago)
I think the thing is we place such an emphasis on the luster of material things and not the utility of them. If you try your entire life to become wealthy and you achieve it what have you gotten? Trinkets. The real passion of living is not only working with your hands to make something new but contributing towards the advancement of the species.
Being rich and doing a bunch of blow on your yacht, while your balls deep in two Eurasian twins, is the fickle goal of those who have never dreamed larger than their own hedonistic desires.
Anyhow fuck materialism, consumerism, wall street, and the jews.