(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

[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" ...