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I am personally greatly troubled by the idea of working at a job that means nothing to me so as to achieve the ultimate "End", which, for me as well, is happiness. I want to be happy, but, for me, having the work that I do mean something rather than being a means to and end, is what would make me happy. I find myself most miserable when I am catering to the "man" by doing meaningless assignments in and cannot see any benefit. Some of the work we get in high school is a perfect example. There are times when I have a french grammar exercises or math problems that I know how to do without actually doing them, but if I don't do them, then my grade goes down and a natural progression of not getting into college, not getting a good job, etc pursues. However, in the past year, I have found myself not completing these tasks. I love sleep, and I much rather be happy while sleeping than staying up that extra hour to complete meaningless tasks. Have my grades suffered, yes, but I am more happy and well rested than if I were to have given into the pressure and completed those meaningless assignments. I guess my question is, if the ultimate goal is happiness, why spend a good 10 years of your life (and the time when you are supposed to enjoy yourself the most as youth is fleeting) working your ass off at an entry level job so that you can be happy when you are old and cranky? Or, if you are just going to school and getting good grades so that you may get into a good college and for no other reason, why attend school at all or pay for a school as expensive at UHS? Why not take that money and go skiing and to baseball games now? If you are going to be spending a great amount of your life working, why not be happy when doing your work if happiness is the ultimate End? This is all something we will have to struggle with in our lives, and there are no easy answers. I face this struggle every day as I sit down to do homework. I don't want to seem like I am being critical of anyone. I completely understand wanting security in life. I just think it is interesting that we all seem to want to be happy but think that the only way to be happy is to make a lot of money, even if you are miserable while doing it, so that we can have a few weeks vacation every year to actually be happy.
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ReplyDeleteSo, why do you do your homework? Artaud says that : "Habit is the ballast that chains a dog to its vomit." Or, perhaps there may be a sense, dim maybe, that there is something of value intrinsic to the process--power to be had... what do you think? What actually makes you happy?
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