Part 3 of 3: Individualism and the Pitfalls of Socialism

We have finally arrived at the culmination of the three part series where individualism and our uniqueness will be tied to the inevitable pitfalls of socialism as I see them.  There will admittedly be some repetition of previous statements in an attempt to portray as clearly as possible the connections between topics.  Started in part one, we discussed how every individual is unique based upon their accumulated memories and perceptions of life.  These memories and perceptions are the fundamental basis of who that person is on any given day.  As memories and perceptions of the world are accumulated through every day life a person constantly changes, either for the better or for the worse.  For the current topic, lets look specifically at how this affects a person in regards to employment and the work force.  From an early age, although we may not realize it at the time, we begin to formulate distinct perceptions of what it means to work, how to work, and why we should work.  These early perceptions are based primarily on our parents and their experience in the workforce.  As we grow older, more individuals eventually have in impact on our future lives as working individuals.  But lets start with our parents.  Every day when we were younger, we witnessed not what our parents did for work, but how it affected them.  They left in the morning for their jobs and came home in the evening.  The middle was unbeknownst to us as we were not there.  We could hear stories of their day, but this did not have as great an impact as the physical effect work had on them.   In the morning when they left, we either saw excitement in their eyes at the day ahead of them or a sense of boredom and dread at what they had to do that day.   There are many other factors that are associated with these feelings that we would have picked up on as well such as their posture upon leaving, their specific demeanor, or how they talked about it.  If we saw that they were happy going to work, excitement with their day ahead, we began to associate these feelings with their job.  The same holds true if they left feeling negative or downtrodden.  Although we may not have known specifically what they did at the time, the associations were being made.  Similarly, when they came home at the end of the day, we saw the effect that work had on them, positive or negative, full of energy or exhausted and also began to associate these feelings and emotions that they portrayed with the work that they did. 

As we grew up and began to tacitly understand what they did for work, the early associations we made based upon their portrayal of feelings and emotions as related to their work became more concrete in nature as we had something specific to relate these early memories to.   Growing even older, we began to see other adults, their jobs, and how it affected them although these perceptions were more vague as we did not relate to them on the same level as we related to our parents.  The biggest impact upon our perceptions and memories of work was had by our parents.  Consequently, when as teenagers we began to decide what we wanted to do with our lives, either consciously or unconsiously, we drew upon our earlier perceptions and used them in our decisions for a career choice.  Also tied into these memories and perceptions is work ethic.  Although we did not see how our parents worked, we heard about what they did, their struggles, and to a certain extent, we saw how they worked around the house, their dedication or lack thereof, and these in part developed our own sense of how to work, how much energy to dedicate to work, and how good of a job we should do in our daily work.  As every person had parents who were either happy or unhappy with their jobs and either did the best job they could or put in the minimum amount of effort, every person had subtely different perceptions of work and what it means.   So how does this relate to socialism.

Well, in a socialist society where there is supposedly a level playing field and equal opportunity for everyone, there is inherently less drive to do the best job possible.  If work is equally available to everyone and there is no worry about job loss, then there is no need to do the best job possible.  If we go even further where production is equal to the demands of the society and everyone is working, then there will be less work overall to do, further driving down the need to devote our full energy to work and doing the best job possible.  As generations progress and work becomes a general stability equal to the needs of society, every new generation of children begins to formulate their perceptions of work as something that everyone does and everyone benefits from.  While perceptions will still be different based upon a child's parents, more children begin to see a lack of drive to do the best job possible and also a general indifference when it comes to work.  As they grow older, they begin to see work as something that must be done because everyone does it and that it doesn't really matter what you do or how good you are at it, because everyone is compensated equally.  Therein lies the subtle stagnation that begins to take hold of a society through an equal workforce based on socialism.  While socialism maintains that equal work opportunity affords people more time to pursue other interests say in the arts or science, the overall mentality of a society based upon an equal workforce begins to inhibit their underlying desire to pursue other interests.   Now you might say, well what about lower income families in a capitalist society?  How are their children supposed to ever rise out of their situation if their parents impact their future lives in work and they are unhappy?

When children see their parents unhappy in their line of work and not making much money, they will carry those memories into the future and look for different means of making a living.  They see the unhappiness that their parents may have and decide that they want to do something that instills within them a sense of happiness.  They then begin looking for other influences and means of being happy.  Does this always happen?  No.  But it does.  A bigger problem is with parents who exhibit indifference or apathy.  These are issues that to me are more prevalent in a socialist society.  Indifference and apathy provide no drive to change anything.  If a child sees that their parents have what they need, works, but is neither happy nor unhappy, they see this as acceptable and continue forward with it.  Happiness and unhappiness are much greater motivating factors than indifference and apathy.  If you want a prime example, look at a union worker.   Most times, they do the work because thats what their parents did, they will not get fired from their job most likely and they will be provided for in the future.  Is it the best they could do, not necessarily, but they continue on because of job security and a pension.  If you talk to their children, they most likely say they are going to follow in their parents footsteps in the union because thats what their family has done.  This is how stagnation occurs and indifference and apathy are carried through generations.  We have all heard of generations of union workers continually employed in the same line of work because thats what their parents did.  There is more mobility between "classes" if unhappiness or happiness are brought into the home from the workplace.  Thus we see that socialism, while attempting to create a society of equal opportunity and general equality, inherently promotes indifference and apathy and stagnates society.  In addition to having that effect on society, it takes away the uniqueness of individuals by allowing more indifference and apathy to be passed along to children across the board. 

If we want to preserve the uniqueness of individuals and promote creativity when it comes to making life choices, we need to eradicate indifference and apathy from our society.  Those who make the biggest differences are those that are either happy or unhappy.  As horrible as unemployment is, it serves a purpose in our society.  During a recession there is obviously a larger percentage of the population that is unemployed, but under normal circumstances, unemployment serves as a motivating factor to do the best job you can and constantly seek to improve yourself.  Is this always the case, no, and there are many intricacies related to unemployment especially in a capitalist society which negates this.  But in general, unemployment can be a kick in the but to change careers, figure out who you are, and get on a different track.  Is any economic system perfect?  No, and there never will be because the population that is involved in that economic system, namely humans, are not perfect and contain too many differences and faults.   Thus any system, as perfect as it is in theory, will not meet the needs of every individual.  Socialism may look the best on paper, but is perhaps the worst in actuality.  Where does capitalism rate?  In my mind, somewhere in the middle which is about the best we can expect.   As we are all unique individuals with different backgrounds, different perspectives, and different memories constituting who we are, there will always be a constant struggle to find the perfect system or to improve upon the one that we have.  Inevitably, any improvements we make will not satisfy every need and could in the long run create other unforseen problems. 

Perhaps the most important part of all of this is the realization that we are all unique.  No two people are the same even if they are twins that have grown up together.  Any economic or social system which hampers this uniqueness or stifles it should not be accepted.  Again, this is my opinion and I am sure that there are many who would disagree with me.   So to sum it up, socialism stifles our uniqueness and our ability to create for ourselves a future of our own.   We must constantly look at who we are and improve ourselves.   While improving ourselves, there is the very real chance that we will cause someone else to consider improving themselves.  So until next time, lets take the time to look at who we are, where we came from and where we are headed.  Life is about constantly improving our situation (or at least should be) and only we can improve ourselves.  

What ever happened to being positive?

So if you are waiting for the final installment in the three part series on individualism and socialism, I am going to make you wait only one more day, promise.  In the meantime, lets look at another aspect that seems to be invading our social mentality, negativity.  Whenever I am out and about in the world, there seems to be a distinct negative cast that has become part of our every day lives.  Granted, we are struggling to recover from the worst economic recession in decades and there are millions of people out of work, but it seems to be increasingly overbearing.  I notice this especially when I walk into stores, banks, or other businesses and try to chat with people working there.  Normally, I try and start a conversation with a positive spin, normally with the weather and how it is getting better or some other trivial snippet.   Despite my best efforts to remain positive, people seem to be able to turn any comment either into something about their "miserable" life, how the weather sucks, or how everyone is going to get sick.  Just the other day, I ran into a store to grab a few quick supplies for work, started chatting up the clerk about the beautiful weather outside (sunny and 55 after 2 days of rain) and her rebuttal was, "Yeah, its nice, but everyone is going to get sick with the crazy weather."  What seems to be the problem with enjoying the weather for a day?

Its not just the weather, but people's concern in general with the trivial events that may happen or are happening to them and their ability to dwell immensely on the negative aspects of them.  We live in a tumultuous world where we are constantly bombarded by negativity from every angle, our family, co-workers, the media, government; you name it, they are negative about it.  There almost seems to be an addiction to finding the negative in any situation and exploiting it to its fullest potential, bringing down those around you in the process.  If you get sucked into this negativity, you are only doing yourself and those around you a disservice.  Regardless of what your situation is, there is something positive to be found in everything.   When you get into a rhythm of negativity, it seems that there are blinders put up to everything else around you and the focus is kept on what is wrong with the world or your life.  Its a debilitating cycle that is tough to get out of.   I will be the first to admit, I as well have a tendency to get sucked into this cycle from time to time.  If you look at my blog, you might say, most of what you write about has a negative cast.  That may be true, but while writing about it, I also try (focus on the try) to put a different spin on in, where it could either impact our lives in a beneficial way or provide us with a means for making a difference. 

Remaining positive is a daily struggle for everyone.  Its not easy to pull yourself away from the negativity circling through our society.   One negative comment from someone can set off a chain of negativity for the rest of the day sometimes.  Dwelling on the negative will only increase the stress in our lives and more importantly, negatively impact those around us.  I mentioned yesterday about trying to keep a playful, child like manner about us.  We should do the same today.  Did you ever watch a little child playing?  They are in ways immune to the broader negativity in our society.  They can't comprehend the economic recession or the impact it has, they don't care about any world wide crises, and they certainly don't care about the negativity coming from the media.  All they care about is the building blocks in front of them, nap time, their next meal, and the love they get from their parents.  In addition to imbuing our own lives with a more positive spin, if you have children, the greatest impact you could have is to remain positive around them.  Bring into your own lives that sense of fun and play that is so easy to them and things will seem a little bit brighter.  The only negativity that children know is the negativity that their parents may have or portray to them.  It will have a big impact on their future lives.  

Being positive, as I mentioned before, is a struggle.  The benefits of being positive however, far outweigh the downfalls of being negative.  Smiling, it has been shown, that simple act, can reduce stress, improve your life, and help you to live a longer life.  We could all do with a little more humor, smiling, and laughing.  Search for the positive in every situation and exploit it to its fullest potential.  Be the person walking down the street with a smile on your face, possibly infecting someone else with a little positivity.   Turn a negative situation into a positive one and make a little difference in your own life.  The world may be full of downers, but it doesn't mean you need to prescribe to them and get all doped up on negativity.  Its almost the weekend, one day of work left (unless you work on the weekend) and maybe start with that as the first positive influence of the day, the simple realization that within 24 hours, you could be relaxing with friends or family and enjoying yourself.   As always, I implore everyone to start making a difference by first making a difference in your own life.  People's attitudes are infectious.  If you go through the day being positive and happy, someone else will catch the fever and turn their crappy day into a good day.  I will end this on a corny note:  "Don't worry, be happy."

Message in a Bottle

The culmination of the series will be coming soon, but before we tread back into those waters, lets go with something a little more light-hearted today.  We have all heard of messages in bottles, either calls for help from ailing ships centuries ago or simply romantic letters thrown overboard on a whim.  But when was the last time this happened?   Well, a message in a bottle was found at the end of March on a beach on the Baltic Sea.  The bottle, with message still intact, was thrown overboard on a ferry trip by a 5 year old German boy 24 years ago and was just found by a 13 year old Russian boy.  Talk about delayed communication.  The message was quite simple, in fact fun in nature, an attempt to see if throwing a message in a bottle overboard would actually work.  The message simply requested that the finder of the bottle write back to the person who threw it overboard and he would then reply.  Simple, fun, and in the end exciting.  Surely the man, 29 years old now, had completely forgotten about the bottle and its entombed message.  I know I would have.  Yet 24 years later, he gets a response from a 13 year old and begins a dialogue between the two, nothing serious, just another potential friendship intitiated after 24 years.

In today's world of instant communication where we often feel slighted when we don't get an immediate response, it is sometimes good to remember that IM's and texts have not been around forever.  We live in a world today where we have almost completely forgotten what delayed gratification means when it comes to communication.  Granted, a message in a bottle was never a trusted method of communication, but it calls to mind a certain amount of imagination and speculation, wondering if that bottle will reach anyone and if it does, who it will reach.  In a twisted sense, it is like the internet (except with instant gratification), where we throw pieces of ourselves out into the unknown, often times not knowing who is viewing our missives or images.   With the internet, though, we know our content will be viewed by someone, maybe not many people, but at least a few curious souls.  But back to the bottle at hand.  I, myself have never thrown a message in a bottle out to sea, but this story stirs in me the desire to do so, to throw a something in the ocean, never knowing if it will reach someone or end up breaking and sinking to the bottom.  Messages in bottles today, can evoke childhood sentiments, those wonderful days filled with speculation and amazement at everyday life.  Maybe we could all use a little break from reality to throw a message out to sea in hopes of it reaching some far off land. 

Life is crazy.  I know that I tend to get caught up in the pandemonium of everyday life, making sure everything gets done and then distracting myself with useless things all to be repeated the next day.  I think we would all do well to revive the child within us, that playful, carefree person we used to be.  Not for an entire day, for then nothing would get done, but at least keep a playful attitude about us, a sense of amazement at the beauty the world has to offer, and excitement at those little surprises that pop up every now and then, like that message in the bottle.  We are all not going to find a message in the bottle buried in the sand on a beach, but life is full of little surprises if we just take the time to look around us and see them.  If you are in a city today, rushing through the throngs of people, take a few minutes, step to the side and watch the world go by.  Or if you happen to be driving a lot today, take a few minutes, find a beach or lake, and just park there and watch.  The world is full of amazing things, throngs of people to quiet nature, yet we often times rush through them not actually seeing what is going on around us.  An even better idea, to keep in tune with the article that I linked to, find a resealable bottle, write a little message, stuff it in and throw it over a bridge into the sea.  (Just make sure the police don't see you and give you a ticket for littering).  You never know, 20 years down the road or even 5, you may get a return message from a young boy who found it buried in the sand.  How cool would that be?