(no subject)

[maelorin]

Quoting James McConvill's article on Online Opinion: "It’s time for positive politics" ...

The architect of positive psychology, Professor Martin Seligman of the University of Pennsylvania, wrote in his best-selling work, Authentic Happiness (Random House, 2002), that “people want more than just to correct their weaknesses. They want lives … with meaning, and not just to fidget until they die.”

While James' article calls for what he calls "Positive Politics" to replace the artificial Left and Right of current politics, I'm focussing on this quote.

I'm definitely wanting a life "with meaning" ... all this fidgeting just drives me bonkers.

For me, a life with meaning™ is not just about having a nice job, its also about being able to do something I find worthwhile.


To quote Depeche Mode: "Dream On" ...

Comments

[paigedayspring.livejournal.com]

I am currently on the verge of fidgetting to death!

fidget

[maelorin]

fidget


fidget, fidget, fidget



fidget





fidget

Re: fidget

[paigedayspring.livejournal.com]

*ish ded*

Re: fidget

[maelorin]

*hugs*

[verdigriis.livejournal.com]

I've spent the last two years fidgeting, and I think I'm only now realising how damaging it is. It's not about boredom - I have plenty of fun things to do. It's not even just about meaning. It's also (for me anyway) about providing for myself and being in controll of my own life. Welfare sucks at my self esteem like nothing else. The whole system is set up to tell you how worthless and dodgy you are...

[maelorin]

i hear you, and i agree.

the system is also set up to enable it to blame you if nothing gets better.

"you need to make a genuine effort ..." O_o wtf!

as if i have any control over whether an employer chooses me over the easier option of a twenty-something kid they feel they can mould as they choose ...

[verdigriis.livejournal.com]

The system isn't just set up to blame you - it's set up to make you feel like a worthless and dishonnest parasite right from the word go. They also persist in this belief that people with degrees and no experience outside their field can pick up some kind of retail or admin work just like that. Heh. Sure. Asside from actually wanting your education to be useful, it isn't that easy. Can you say "overqualified"?

[maelorin]

the system manages to do several things at once. you get blamed for failing to get a job. you get blamed for needing a 'benefit'. you get blamed for 'not doing enough' to change things.

i have two honours degrees. that puts me in about 1-2% of the population. rarer than phds.

goddess forbid that i'd actually finished my phd! i'd be in esoteric-land.

i can't work in retail or admin, despite my mothers harping on about it being 'better than nothing'. as you say, overqualified. besides, there is this disability thing ...

i'm beyond fucked off about being unemployed four years after graduating. ignoring my hecs debt for the moment, my income is less than a third what i was worth four years ago. all of my classmates are associates or similar. i'll be that guy at the reunion who was considered 'most likely' by his peers, but never got anywhere.

i've been told time and again that people cannot believe that i'm still unemployed. these days i point out that that is exactly why i'm not working. every employer seems to figure, "well if not this job, he'll get the next one" ...