Cross-posted from "No, it's not 'normal'." by @DougHolland@lemmy.world in !aiop@lemmy.world


“No, it's not 'normal' for humans to be in competition all the time. It's not normal to work for most of your waking hours during the day. It's not normal to be stressed 24/7. Stop taking a few hundred years of capitalism and pretending that's just how being human is. It's not.” —Hilary Agro, PhD (anthropologist & community organizer)
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[–] 12 points 2 months ago (2 children)

The post appears to be an overall response to the idea that modern society as we know it is "just how it is." The point isn't "be like our ancient ancestors" so much as "the system we have now isn't the only way things can be." That is, we've all grown up in this society with the work grind as our default. Some people will defend the way things are on the basis of it being some aspect of "human nature" to always compete and work hard, but societies of the past survived through co-operation and sharing resources. It's pretty much the opposite to what is expected today.

What's a valid argument in favor of today's system? Wouldn't that be a recency bias?

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago* (1 child)

    People generally like working i.e. creating stuff and even if we had all resources met I'd argue that majority of people will continue on creating. In fact the universal basic income experiments prove exactly that every time.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 months ago

    Right. Working of our own volition, on projects of our choosing. Not high-pressure "grind" lifestyles that serve to enrich a small few while we overwork ourselves just to scrape by. I'd love to make art all day, for my own enjoyment. Not commissioned, not hired to do it, so not as "work." The post isn't about hobbies, though, it's about being pressured into a stressful lifestyle.

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