Published on 12, July, 2020
Work, consume, die and never question why
I believe this is what we are being taught every day. Children at school are not taught to learn, develop, think for themselves and have enquiring minds. They are taught to become part of the system, good little cogs in the wheel, and never question why. Im a teacher so I know this first hand
In adulthood we are taught that the only way to happiness is by acquiring posessions. We are taught we need big houses, nice cars, designer clothes and endless updated technology to be happy. The I phone 14 will soon be out and no doubt Apple will be convincing all the millions that it has technology that wasn't in the first 13 phones, your old phone is now completely inferior and you really need this new one and the £50 a month direct debit contract to be happy! We always need bigger TVs and faster broadband. I find it interesting that in this cost of living crisis (which I am suffering from myself, having lost my job and had my energy bills tripled) the one thing people cannot live without is their smartphones. I honestly think people would rather starve or freeze than give up their phones. Some I think would rather not be able to feed their kids properly than give up their phone. I have just bought a £6 basic LG texting and calling phone from Oxfam and I couldn't be happier with it. We dont need this stuff, its just a marketing trick! I have an old iphone that I dont pay a penny for and just connect to the wi fi to reply to whats app messages but I am thinking of selling it.
Social media deadens the human mind. Endless scrolling has a numbing, almost hypnotising effect and reduces human intelligence. We numb ourselves with social media and endless expensive subscriptions to streaming services where we "consume content"
If you support a football team you have to buy a £70 piece of cheap polyester every few months to show you support them. You have to pay a £120 for a pair of shoes worth £20 just cos it has a tick on the side.
You are bombarded with adds for deliveroo and uber eats to buy endless takeaways and then bombarded with further adds to pay £50 a month to join a gym to get fit again afterwards. Gyms are the biggest con of all. £50 direct debit to do the same exercises indoors that you can do outdoors in the fresh air for free
The only way to acquire all this stuff you "need to be happy" is to work every hour under the sun at a job you hate and never leave it for your whole life. Of course even then you still cant afford everything so you will need the greatest con of all, credit cards, to buy this stuff. You then get into debt and become even more enslaved to the system as then you can never leave your job or you wont be able to pay your debts.
Guess what....... Its all a con! You dont need any of this stuff to be happy and the human race has survived for thousands of years living a simple life without any of it. None of this stuff brings happiness and the more you chase it the more unhappy you will get.
I am trying to change my life and escape the system. Once you see through it all you can never view life the same again
You have seen the light and there is another way.
Google FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early) and you will find a worldwide online community of people who have decided to take a different path and reject consumerism.
Once you realise that you can live frugally you no longer need to be a slave to the workplace for 50 years. It gives choices. You may decide to work full time and build up enough savings to retire early. Alternatively you could choose to work part time or take a lower paid job doing something you love.
However the current cost of living crisis does make it increasingly difficult to live frugally. Finding enough to keep a roof over your head, eat and pay the energy bills is hard enough without all the extra consumerism.
I like to watch the TV show 'Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild' for some inspirational and more extreme stories of people who have escaped the system.
Yes - it’s getting harder and harder to live on a low income. We have always lived quite frugally and we didn’t mind not having luxuries - we were never impressed by having the latest fashionable things or new stuff - we liked making stuff, buying second hand and recycling things etc.
But now the basics are becoming so expensive it’s not that simple. I also really enjoy programmes like ‘New Lives in the Wild’ but let’s face it these people usually have enough money to BUY land and/or property - which let’s face it requires a lot of money! When I was much younger I was very interested in New Age Travellers and ways of living more freely. Capitalism gives people very little room for escaping conventional forms of living. Another thing I’m interested in is Wild Camping - it’s quite extraordinary that it isn’t technically legal to do this in England. To think that you are breaking the law to just put up a tent and sleep in the countryside in most of the U.K. is pretty shocking. How much freedom do we actually have? If we can’t even do this without paying someone?
I’ve come to the conclusion that only some sort of ‘half way house’ regarding this is possible. Also if you don’t own your own house then you’ll always be a slave to landlords. Rents now are unacceptably high, fuel bills are unacceptably high.
Tory governments always make these issues worse. Don’t vote Conservative- they are inherently against alternative ways of living. Labour aren’t much better at the moment - but any government is still better than a Tory government.
I'm too envious of the people on this programme to watch it. At the same the ones I have seen always seem to have people who are in a comfortable position to begin with. Not that there's anything wrong with that but I think it's out of reach for a lot of people.
Do you remember the TV show The Good LIfe? That has always inspired me
I will look this up. It sounds very interesting, my sort of thing. Yes the system is a con, it tricks us into thinking we need all this stuff so we will stay inside and work and produce for them for 50 years. The corperations and banks etc dont want us to realise there is another way