A confession. I started this post with the intention of ridiculing the Career Opportunities Group--not very Stoic. The acronym produces the word "cog" as in a cog in the machine: an unimportant person performing some often trivial function in a large organization. I found that funny and went down the path of criticizing business culture and all the energy and intelligence expended to produce services and products that are rather useless--think Candy Crush and having consumer products delivered overnight. I was critical of business types and their efforts at self-improvement, self-inflation, and self-importance, but then had to look in the mirror and fully accept that I have never been more than a cog in the machine as, in the end, 99% of us are. That's how an economy works and most of us feel lucky to be one of those cogs. All that would be fine if there was also a broad understanding of that fact. These CEO's that make 1,000 times more than the average worker are often just replaceable cogs that establish their importance more by their compensation than by their actual accomplishments for the business. I don't know what's really in the minds of these business types reading their email as they walk down the sidewalk on a beautiful day. The sad part is if that's all there is, if we walk around spouting business speak thinking we really are performing some meaningful function when in fact we are only mixing up what already exists. Is Amazon really that much more than a Sears catalog? Is the internet, for most of us, much more than the Yellow Pages and the Encyclopedia Britannica rolled into one? Point being, most of us aren't doing anything of much importance, and, on top of that, we ignore our inner life and don't work towards having a clear view of things as they really are.
Tedium is not a sickness brought on by the boredom of having nothing do do but the worse sickness of feeling that nothing is worth doing. And thus, the more one has to do the worse the tedium of all.
The Book of Disquiet
- Fernando Pessoa
He does not know what is the true good of man, but fancies, as you do too, that it is to have fine clothes.
The Discourses
- Epictetus
Shake out all those things that complicate life like imagining that you are important, that anyone is paying attention or that anyone, other than your close family, friends, and partner, even cares about what you are doing--even then it might just be your partner that cares. Are your friends interested in your trip to Hawaii or the promotion you just got? Not only are they not interested, they likely resent you for any success you may have. (Is Facebook, for many, anything more than a child's tool for bragging about what they did over the summer?) Show modesty in all things, show restraint, let things go, and show a willingness to accept what is: accept your coghood and then move towards having a good, meaningful life. Does this mean you don't better yourself, that you don't work hard, that you don't participate in the world fighting injustice? No, but all those things are done with a calmness, focus, and awareness that we are all, we humans, imperfect beings struggling to be good. Just because you are stuck in the machine at work, a tool of the tool (Thoreau), doesn't mean you have to remain stuck for the remaining time. Life is not short, it's that we waste so much of it (Seneca) on trivial undertakings.
In the end, we need to use our minds, our reason, and see the world clearly. That thing you want and are struggling to achieve will be attained (or not) and then, possibly, there will be another day. Keep well.
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