COMMENTS FROM ARTICLE IN THE NEW YORK TIMES:
- Nuschler
- Cambridge
Addition to first comment.
Before my husband killed himself in November of 2009, we had made plans for our first trip to France. My spouse had been stationed three different times in Germany. He loved Europe.
I practiced my French religiously. Then he was gone. My doctor and colleagues encouraged me to still go.
30 hour trip to Paris from Honolulu. For three weeks I immersed myself in French culture…I spoke to everyone I could..in French. I dressed well, was polite, and everyone thought I was from Canada instead of the USA. (Les Etats-Unis)
I talked to shopkeepers, business men on the Metro, people seated next to me at the French Open…my spouse and I were doubles players. I talked with the doyennes at all the great museums, I sat at outdoor cafes on the Champs-Elysees for hours. I sat and cried at the Arc de Triomphe by the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from WWI.
For three weeks NOT ONE FRENCH CITIZEN ASKED ME WHAT I DID FOR A LIVING!! Not one!! I asked them all: “Why doesn’t anyone ask me what my job is?”
And they all said: “Because your job is not who you are!!!” Here in the USA our second or third question we ask anyone is “Hey what do you do for a living? Where do you work?”
We define ourselves in America by our profession. But I am not JUST a medical doctor! You all are not JUST business men, lawyers, teachers, writers…
But here in America that is EXACTLY how we define ourselves! We lose our job? We no longer know who we are.
- May 3, 2013 at 9:09 a.m.
- Recommended by 92 readers
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- Tim Niles
- Minneapolis
Indeed, this is a complex issue. Take the nature of the economy: for a long time now we have not NEEDED 100% of the adult population to work 40 hours per week to supply all the needs (and probably most of the wants) for the whole population. We are now in more severe turbulence related to the kinds of changes to our society and individuals which this will demand. So much of the learning that we do as children and definitely as adults (with familial responsibilities) is derived from how well we interact with the mechanisms of the economic matrix; our fundamental survival and general behavior is shaped by these mechanisms. So what happens if this system of rewards and negative reinforcers breaks down? What happens if the structure of the economic system turns into something like the NBA: where you have the owners (super wealthy, enough to spend mega bucks on a game!) and the players (no guarantee of career length, but high pay and high visibility)… and everybody else can hope to be a towel boys or maybe a trainer? Some future, huh? What’s the alternative? In the present we actually have options but given the nature of money/media, it is unlikely that the matrix of the possible will be considered until a revolution occurs. Nothing like a grossly less than zero sum game to thin the herd. Suicide for these reasons is a rational decision, not frivolous. Ten million dead bodies here, ten million dead bodies there… pretty soon you are talking extinction level event.
- May 3, 2013 at 9:23 a.m.
- Recommended by 8 readers
treetrunkdings 