Humanity, and Striving Towards a Lack Thereof
Photo by Stephen Leonardi on Unsplash “We are not reliable.” A friend of mine recently exploded in indignation and fury, pointing out that despite high levels of intelligence, sometimes there were those of us who could be brought down by a bout of depression at any time. She felt that judging us on the basis of the good work we did when we were able was unfair, that expecting us to continue that level of work at all times was unfair. “We need to stop placing pressure on everyone to be productive, regardless of their health and social situation.” – A heavily paraphrased, anonymous quote I remember seeing online. That is an essential expectation of our capitalistic system – that everyone earn their own keep. That one is only entitled to what one ‘earns.’ Of course, this concept grows problematic the more one stares at it, regardless of which social class is under scrutiny. When taken as a whole, it is easily noted that each class above benefits, in ...