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Spiritsaid Happiness's avatar

It's funny, since I went nomadic and started living out of a suitcase, I buy way less stuff...no space for it. And I am much happier because I have so much more brain power now for other things than managing all my stuff.

But part of me feels guilty because I'm not doing my part to sustain all of the jobs of the people who produce the stuff I used to buy.

I think that's about feeling like I should be part of the flywheel even though I am super happy to have escaped it (or as much of it as I have figured out how to)! I loved the juxtaposition of Alex's essay and Marx. I do feel the work I'm doing now is so much more meaningful.

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Laura Moore | Strange Clarity's avatar

I'm in a battle within myself over stuff. I feel like I'm drowning in it and am in a constant battle to get stuff out of my house and yet... I could be better about limiting what comes in. (Although honestly, taking stock now, I've improved a lot in that area! Mostly it's an onslaught of gifts and hand-me-downs to our kids from people who mean well.)

This is all to say, I'm really envious of your single suitcase because the physical lightness produces mental nimbleness. I feel so much better mentally when I'm in an uncluttered space.

On feeling guilty, you shouldn't at all -- though I know it's hard to tell yourself how you "should" feel.

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Spiritsaid Happiness's avatar

I appreciate your encouragement not to feel guilty. I am working on that. But I agree about the battle to keep stuff out. Somehow the single suitcase just helped me make a hard no. But also I don't have kids or well-meaning neighbors, so perhaps it's easier and isolation. Sounds like you are aware, which is a great beginning step.

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April H's avatar

Don’t feel guilty. As someone who sells unnecessary consumer products for a living, I often long for a cultural shift that would decisively end my livelihood and force me into something more meaningful. We all have too much crap.

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Spiritsaid Happiness's avatar

Very true! I think social change is coming...

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Becoming Human's avatar

I think the first step is waking up. That we all believe(d) that capitalism was not only inevitable but uncruel is not necessarily our fault, but now that our eyes are opening, we should push it to be better or end.

The challenge is that capitalism creates monstrous power wells that may be impossible to displace, and capable of causing immense suffering.

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Laura Moore | Strange Clarity's avatar

Well stated, I agree with this.

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Veronica Goudzward's avatar

I love your writing so much! I feel like we are reading all the same posts on Substack, lol - I’ve been thinking about this since Alex’s blog came out! Thanks so much for making all these connections and articulating them so well.

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Laura Moore | Strange Clarity's avatar

Wow, thank you Veronica! That's high praise. Thank you so much for reading and commenting!

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Meghan Burke's avatar

Oof. I waited to read this until I had a runway not only for the smart ideas (as usual) but also the growing parasocial certainty that we’d be good friends IRL. (I used to teach about these theories, adding to the already-long Things We Have In Common list.) Forgive me if that’s creepy!

Here, i especially appreciate your focus on precision, though having only skimmed the post that inspired it, I think Alex’s could use a sharpened attention to the same. I’m thinking specifically of the role of consulting firms that sell problems in order to sell solutions that pose new problems, to then sell solutions, etc. But of course the larger analysis of analysis of alienation under capitalism that you so deftly share here, along with the messy questions it brings us, is no less urgent —and appreciated. Cheers!

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Laura Moore | Strange Clarity's avatar

Haha not creepy at all. In fact, developing "parasocial certainty" (great phrasing) that I'd be good friends with someone I've read online, and being self-conscious about that belief, is a very familiar experience for me! Is that yet more evidence we would be good friends IRL? Are we the same person? Lol, you're probably not as weird as I am (though I can hold out hope).

Thanks for your kind words about the piece!

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Jonathan's avatar

Been thinking about this for a while but my thoughts are still par baked. Maximizing shareholder value in that narrow, numbers-only way is of course the current state of play. Grossly reductionist and absolutely obviates the pride and joy. ESG is pathetic and the cost of negative externalities never factored, made clear from firsthand observation early in my career.

There's also a behavioural shift needed and just like global warming being couched only as a technical challenge, pursuit of the cheapest goods is taken for granted and i'm in a decent enough position to act snobbish about it.

That was a pretty incoherent ramble and there are so many more dimensions and complexities you've alluded to, it's late, and i'm just hardboiled. But i appreciate this post and it really should be something more people think about.

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Laura Moore | Strange Clarity's avatar

It wasn't incoherent to me -- you ran through how certain things look from your vantage point, and those things point toward a lot of pretense and empty gestures. Sounds like you're saying it's time for a conceptual reset, which I would agree with. Thanks for commenting!

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Ondrej David's avatar

Thanks for writing this. In my response essay, I started with the capitalist angle as well but then opted-in to focus on understanding the reason behind pretending. I believe you’ll enjoy reading my response as it gives a some surface level answers to your questions: https://maybegreat.substack.com/p/re-the-death-of-the-corporate-job

To your “But it’s clear that the current system is failing us as a society. And I have to believe that there’s a better option out there.” my other response on future of work might provide inspiration https://maybegreat.substack.com/i/172560547/no-one-told-you-when-to-run-you-missed-the-starting-gun -> “The human world will continue to move at a human pace, even as technology eclipses us.”

PS: Give people a subscribe button at the bottom of your article :)

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Muss es sein?'s avatar

EDIT: Oh my, I apologize that I accidentally uploaded the comment four times. I didn't know! I thought it wasn't posting.

This is a very thoughtful piece! It inspired me to write a comment (which was apparently too long for Substack) which enlarged in scope into a mini-essay concerning consciousness, profit, contradiction, and Tantalus.

From the essay:

TLDR; It might be worthwhile to consider, from a Marxist point of view, that “profit” is in contradiction in capitalism; it is simultaneously (1) the result of a society and economic system that is “free,” (unhindered, and endlessly creative); and (2) the very thing that makes our society *unfree,* (hindering, and stifling of individual development and actualization) as Moore has laid out in her article. This means that there might be something to be salvaged in profit - that it represents, or represented, something actually desirable in capitalism which nonetheless is paradoxically the condition and reason for our unfreedom. “Profit,” like all other economic concepts/realities, points beyond itself - into socialism, perhaps - and our contradictory apprehension of this social reality might indicate the necessity to overcome it.

https://mustitbe.substack.com/p/the-contradiction-of-the-apprehension

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