I am not in a survival situation.

[Worm Rider]

I have only just now put this all together: I am not in a constant fight for survival. I realize that I've been in survival mode all my life, to one extent or another.

I am looking for a job. I have graduated with a PhD, but have no permanent job lined up. I am currently making 14,000 a year teaching as an adjunct. I have sent out several applications to teaching positions, and heard back from very few of them, all in the negative.

This can be viewed as a survival situation. If I don't get a better job, my survival will be compromised. Everyone around me has better jobs, all the full-time faculty at the college have guaranteed jobs, and they prance around smugly ignoring my dire situation. I become accustomed to behaving like an obedient sheep in survival situations because of this. I also become passive-aggressive because I resent that I must do silly things like fill out paperwork so the dean's office has a copy of my office hours. They are making me jump through some stupid hoop so that I can survive! I quietly disobey and fester, cultivating bile.

This can be viewed as a fun situation. All of my survival needs are met. I have plenty of money and support from my family. I know I will not starve, or be forced to live on the street; even if I am evicted and make no money, my family will support me. Therefore, every dime I earn is for fun. I go to work so that I can have a neat, shiny car and house and do fun things. I go to a job that is fun –teaching biology. Other people have more money, but they also have less-fun jobs, and that just means they get to have nicer cars and big houses with fancy stuff. I bet I can have just as much fun without all the money. I'm willing to do dumb shit like let the dean know my office hours because I am doing this job for fun. This is all a game. If I am ever put in an actual survival situation, I will act quickly and decisively because I can clearly mark the distinction between what I want (to have fun) and what I need (to survive). I am not resentful, nor constantly living in grouchy submission.

It seems like hyperbole, like some problem of the well fed: a middle class white male privilege dilemma. But the script in my brain doesn't know that. The script says I am in mortal danger. It says this all the time. Well fed people die every day, not of gluttony (even when they are fat), or too much privilege. They die of stress. The perceived, mental stress invoked by this constantly running script turns what should be a life of luxury and fun into a dire, bleak, gray hell, then cuts it short, ensuring your worst fears come true. Heart disease is the number one cause of death. A disease exacerbated, if not entirely cause by, fear.

On a funny note, I think what we need are PSA's addressing the plight of the white, middle class male with everything he could want except the ability to see it. For the price of a cup of coffee a day, you could provide this man with the peace of mind necessary to enjoy his morning commute in the 325i he is leasing for $350 per month. You can help him file his TPS reports with a smile because he will know he is doing it all for the fun of having a neat car to drive, because it is more fun to live in the nice part of town in a big new house.

The reason that filing TPS reports is so soul sucking is that we live in the illusion that we work for our survival. This is false. We have plenty of resources and technology to meet all of our survival needs. Being a salesperson for Dunder Mifflin paper company does not help humanity survive. The only thing it can do is provide you with an entertaining way to pass the time and make some money so that you can have some fun. Greyface came along and told you it was for your survival, that work is very serious, and that you must have a job to survive. That view isn't even productive. I sure doesn't make you happy. It doesn't even make you a more effective worker. It makes you less effective, because you aren't able to have fun with it, to think creatively and interact cheerfully and genuinely with your coworkers, because you are in such a funk about working in a slave camp. Wage slavery is only wage slavery when 1. you really need the wages to survive, 2. you think you need the wages to survive. If 1., then revolt, pull a Patrick Henry and mean it. If 2., snap out of it. True survival situations demand clear, decisive action aimed at getting you out of the survival situation as quickly as possible. All other situations require playfulness, lightheartedness, and slack. 

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Trying to figure out what your point is, exactly.

[Payne]

Perhaps "Work = fun. If you have a family to throw money at you. And if you don't WAYSA?"

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Perhaps "Work = fun. If you have a family to throw money at you. And if you don't WAYSA?"

Yeah. 

[Freeky]

I dunno, /i thought the point was more along the lines of "I need to learn to chill the fuck out and realize that I have things really good, and they could be a hell of a lot worse."

[Doktor Howl]

I dunno, /i thought the point was more along the lines of "I need to learn to chill the fuck out and realize that I have things really good, and they could be a hell of a lot worse."

That's how I took it.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I dunno, /i thought the point was more along the lines of "I need to learn to chill the fuck out and realize that I have things really good, and they could be a hell of a lot worse."

That's how I took it.

I can get behind that concept.

The OP is pretty unclear, though.

[Doktor Howl]

I dunno, /i thought the point was more along the lines of "I need to learn to chill the fuck out and realize that I have things really good, and they could be a hell of a lot worse."

That's how I took it.

I can get behind that concept.

The OP is pretty unclear, though.

Ranting is a skill.  It gets better with practice.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I dunno, /i thought the point was more along the lines of "I need to learn to chill the fuck out and realize that I have things really good, and they could be a hell of a lot worse."

That's how I took it.

I can get behind that concept.

The OP is pretty unclear, though.

Ranting is a skill.  It gets better with practice.

True story.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I want Phlogiston to come back and explain. Responding to questions/criticism is an important part of the curve IMO.

[Worm Rider]

I want Phlogiston to come back and explain. Responding to questions/criticism is an important part of the curve IMO.

Personal point: I need to chill out.

Universal hypothesis based on taking my own subjective experience and assuming I am not a special, special snowflake: this type of confusion between wants and needs results in people acting like assholes, and may be responsible for much of the rampant assholism we see vis a vis teabaggers. The thing is, they aren't trying to be assholes; they are just trying to survive because belief in Christian God can make sure you are always in a survival mindset because everything you do in life is a condition for survival. Every thought you think is scrutinized and compared against an irrational standard set by God Himself. Not only are you fighting for your very survival at all times, you are fighting for your eternal survival. You will either survive in guaranteed satisfaction of all your biological and emotional needs, or you will suffer a fate of lasting insecurity devoid of any caring or empathy. This turns you into an asshole.

What I'm not talking about: actually being in a survival situation. This is stressful, and sucks, and would be less common if people that weren't in survival situations were aware of the difference (now I am talking about it) and helped out those who needed it.

I'm not sure how to clarify more without knowing where the muddiness is. I just wanted to let out what I've been thinking about. This is just a train of thought I've been having. I might not really have a point. Thoughts come, thoughts go.   

[Dysfunctional Cunt]

So you're stressed and want to just rant about it until you get your shit together, or you want advice on some very unclear problem or ummmm  I have no clue.

[Worm Rider]

So you're stressed and want to just rant about it until you get your shit together, or you want advice on some very unclear problem or ummmm  I have no clue.

Don't want advice. Just thought I'd share some thoughts. I am unclear on what is unclear.

[Dysfunctional Cunt]

So you're stressed and want to just rant about it until you get your shit together, or you want advice on some very unclear problem or ummmm  I have no clue.

Don't want advice. Just thought I'd share some thoughts. I am unclear on what is unclear.

Must just be me then. No worries.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I want Phlogiston to come back and explain. Responding to questions/criticism is an important part of the curve IMO.

Personal point: I need to chill out.

Universal hypothesis based on taking my own subjective experience and assuming I am not a special, special snowflake: this type of confusion between wants and needs results in people acting like assholes, and may be responsible for much of the rampant assholism we see vis a vis teabaggers. The thing is, they aren't trying to be assholes; they are just trying to survive because belief in Christian God can make sure you are always in a survival mindset because everything you do in life is a condition for survival. Every thought you think is scrutinized and compared against an irrational standard set by God Himself. Not only are you fighting for your very survival at all times, you are fighting for your eternal survival. You will either survive in guaranteed satisfaction of all your biological and emotional needs, or you will suffer a fate of lasting insecurity devoid of any caring or empathy. This turns you into an asshole.

What I'm not talking about: actually being in a survival situation. This is stressful, and sucks, and would be less common if people that weren't in survival situations were aware of the difference (now I am talking about it) and helped out those who needed it.

I'm not sure how to clarify more without knowing where the muddiness is. I just wanted to let out what I've been thinking about. This is just a train of thought I've been having. I might not really have a point. Thoughts come, thoughts go.   

I think that the disconnect comes in because you worded your OP as if it was generally applicable to the reader; when you address your readers as "we" you are being inclusive; you appear to extrapolate your own circumstances to apply to everyone. However, since many of your readers don't have the same circumstances, they lack the frame of reference to make sense of your OP.

You are not a special, special snowflake, but everyone else is not just like you, either.

You could clarify the OP by more specifically addressing it to people who ARE like you, rather than giving a general address to all readers.

You could take the defensive route of refusing to examine critique and saying that you just write "for yourself", but that won't make you a better writer. I assume that, like most of us, you share your writing for a reason, because if it was really just for yourself you wouldn't post it.

I was pretty much with you in the OP until the last paragraph. Then I was like, "Whoa, what is he talking about? Can't relate. Who is this meant for?"

"Wage slavery is only wage slavery when 1. you really need the wages to survive, 2. you think you need the wages to survive."

What?

I think you have a good point or two in there, but you do need to refine it a bit. And what the fuck is a TPS report?