Man, money
It's funny and interesting how everything revolves around money. Either directly or indirectly, everything we do in life has money involved, and every single action we engage in costs money one way or another. I've done a couple of posts regarding this very same topic, about how everything we do has an opportunity cost and every action we take is either adding money to our wallet or taking money from it.
This is a toxic way to look at life, because when you measure every single one of your actions in terms of adding or substracting money to your whole self, you stop enjoying the little things in life. I actually had to actively work on this mindset to be able to take the money side of things into account without letting it affect my life.
Everything has a cost
We need money to have the life we want. We need to work to generate money. We need energy to be able to work. We need substenance to generate energy. We need money to provide substenance. But we also need money to have leisure time, because if we don't have leisure time and spare time to spend with our family and loved ones doing those things we enjoy and that allows us to clear our mind. So as you can see, the circle is completed.
But it all starts with money and ends with money. Without money we just can't have the life we want, we can't do the things we need to do.
But let's get cynical. Whatever you do, you will never get out of the rat race, its all about distractions to make our boring life more bearable and the system knows this and takes advantage from this.
Or why do you think they encourage mindless behaviors like social media addiction?
There is little to no chance of getting out of the system and the odds are definitely not in your favor for you to jump out of the wheel, in order for anyone of us to escape the rat race we have to make it. It's all about financial independence, but in order to achieve that we need financial literacy, which is something that the system is actively working to stop us from reaching.
There's no escape
The system, mainstream media, the governments, big corp, the elite - and I'll stop because I'm starting to sound like a conspiracy looney, which I am, but if I radicalize this post too much maybe you will be distracted my opinions and will take your eyes off from the arguments - they are all working towards making consumism a normal aspect of our life.
We see it all the time in social media, targeted marketing has won the battle and we are now constantly, daily, non-stop bombarded with advertisements that aim to keep us distracted from learning and acquiring life-changing experiences and strive to make us stay poor or living paycheck to paycheck.
But hey, at least you got that iPhone 27 on last black friday and your National team just made it to the round of 16 in the world cup
I mean, not everything is a psy-op, some companies just leverage the current state of modern society to make money. It's not like YouPorn exists to desensitize young men and kill the real world notion of relationships, and it's not like Vogue magazine aims to turn happy little teenagers into insecure, man-hating, blue haired entities. And both of these are obviously not part of a greater, longer term agenda driven by certain narrative. Not everything is a conspiracy theory, man.
Maybe we do have a chance of escaping the rat race
Well, in order to make it and drop the rat race we would actually need to become the best at something, whatever that may be we won't make it unless we excel at it.
We are all slaves serving a bigger wheel, but not everything is lost, yet. We are still able to make it, but it takes a lot of effort, time, knowledge and well, 99.99% of us will not make it. We just don't have what it takes to do it, we lack the willpower and we lack the focus - and don't be fooled, everything around you is meant to distract you, discourage you, and keep you under control.
But the odds are stacked against us from a very, very young age. If you don't believe me ask the gaming industry. Man, all the time I've wasted gaming over my 33 years is enough to master 129 skills, some of which would've already taken me out of the rat race.
And yes, of course I am still part of the rat race, and so are you, don't fool yourself. Having a couple million dollars in fun internet money doesn't mean you are not helping the wheel keep rolling.
But back to the money aspect
Gaming in your small as fuck room that is your only property feels great, but you can't have privacy even inside your room. In order to make it, you have to spend money, because nothing is free, not even the chance at freedom and privacy.
Let's look at your cellphone. No matter the app you have open right now, either you consume and spend your hard earned energy points or you endure the constant advertisement all the time.
The middle class is a lie. There's no middle class, you're either the high class that lives to entertain the lower class and make money on a comfy life (but still inside the fucking system), or you are the energy creators. It's like that black mirror episode called 12 million credits or something like that, I can't recall the actual name but that's enough for you to google it - while getting bombarded by ads by the way.
Even if you are part of the upper class, like footballers or actors that exist to entertain the lower class while making bank out of it - but remember, still being part of the system - you need money to make money even at those levels.
We are all disposable.
There's no point in saving money, because you will always be inside the exploiting system. I mean, how much can you really save in 30 years? Even if you make a lot of money compared to your fellow low class sheep, how much can you actually save? Will that spare your children from living inside the wheel? Nope. You are doomed to survive being part of the system, and by saving money you are dooming your brethren to live the very same life you are living right now.
The classism is real even between low class people like you and me, there are shades of poor, but we are all poor, man.
Even in the bathroom you are bombarded with ads, because even your most private moments are not yours.
Bathrooms are shared, because after all you are a rat.
Soap on a public bathroom costs you energy points, nothing is free here, because that money you struggle to make must be squeezed out of you.
Vidya comes in the form of retaliation of real life scenarios.
The constant hope of a life changing scenario is what keeps thinking people going, those who are ok with this life get enough distractions to make life bearable, but not worth living. That's why we buy the next 100x, that's why we allow our favorite football team to provide us with wins that we claim ours just because we wear the same colors.
But hey, it is what it is
Or at least that's what you tell yourself when you wake up at 5am and take a shower in order to eat a fast and shitty breakfast so you can make it to work at 8am after dropping your ungrateful kids to a school that will brainwash them into being a good rat, a rat that helps the system keep working the way it works.
But at least we have merit points
That's the Twitter retweets you get, or the instagram little hearts you get from posting a nice picture, and even the karma you receive on Reddit for stating things that align to how the mob thinks.
But hey, at least you are getting endorphins, a false sense of accomplishment and in the end you get enough drive to wake up tomorrow and do the same shitty things you did the day before.
These brownie points you get in social media are used to improve your online life, without improving your real life, or to spend them into improving your life inside the cage, but you can never leave the cage.
The audience you get in social media is made up of avatars, because there are no real life interactions, the audience comes from the rat race people.
And don't get me started with the concept of the metaverse... I think you know where the narrative is going. The worst part is that cryptocurrency is the flagship of the metaverse. The very same people who are fighting the system at a foundation level are also pushing the rat race expansion.
We won't only be part of the rat race in real life, we will also be part of the rat race in the metaverse.
But at least we'll have brownie points and funny internet tokens for it.
That's the system, that's the status quo, either you play by it, get eaten by it, or stay powering it
To not spend money, that money that is part of your whole self, you must become a zombie, a zombie that lives against the system while complying until one day you have enough funds to try and make a go for it and try to escape the race.
I am a zombie. I am constantly trying to escape the system. I am constantly working on myself, learning, learning and learning. Money rules my life, the cost of opportunity on everything I do rules every single one of my decisions.
I will make it
What about you?