Capitalism, Mystification and the Great Man of the Soul

How the glorification of work mystifies us and demoralizes us

Matthew David
Embodying Philosophy

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Photo by Scott Rodgerson on Unsplash

I am an American. I’ve always lived in America and haven’t traveled outside of America (yet).

Except one time I went to rural Canada, but that doesn’t really count. The only culture shock I experienced was buying milk that came in a bag instead of a carton.

I start with this because this is simply the world I grew up in. I grew up in a society that values work and commitment to work above most all.

To be clear, I am not complaining about working. Every society, no matter what economic system, has to have it’s residents work in some manner. This is obvious. And capitalism does offer its citizens (or non-citizens) to engage (somewhat) freely in a career of their choosing. In non-capitalistic societies, you would simply be given a job by the government and told to do that. You have less freedom to be what you can and perhaps, should be.

But it seems to me that we are in a capitalistic system that does not really allow for this kind of freedom. The cost of living has ballooned so much, jobs pay too little and corporations are not truly held accountable for their greed. We must take jobs that seem mostly pointless for survival. Now it doesn’t all come…

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Matthew David
Embodying Philosophy

Philosopher. Writer. Coffee Addict. I write about Philosophy from the Ancient Greeks to Existentialism. https://medium.com/@matthew-david/about ←Learn more here