Thoreaus's famous quote. Is there a way out of the rat race? Life is too short to have that inner sense of despair that I see in a lot of people. What can we do about it?
2007-01-31 00:33:44 · 0 answers · asked by cap3382 4 in Arts & Humanities ➔ Philosophy
Many people slumber through most of their lives. They live on auto-pilot. Go to work, get married, have kids. Stay busy. Buy things. Earn the money to pay for your things, your family. Survive. They keep busy so they don't have to think too much. They watch tv. They ignore who they are. They forget what their dreams were if they ever knew...
What can we do about it? Wake up! Who are you? What do you really want? What does your life mean? Are you doing the things you do because it's what you chose or did your life choose you and you just let it happen? Are you just conforming to a society that tells you you must have/do these things? Are you living or just existing?
Why do people lead lives of quiet desperation? Because as bleak as it is, it's still easier than the alternative: a life of noisy hope! A life where you dare to go after your dreams even if you fail. A life where you don't quite "fit in" to society's norms. A life that people will call eccentric or selfish or bizarre. A life filled with successes & failures, joys & despairs. A life lived fully.
Quiet desperation blends into the background. It doesn't call attention to itself. You see it in the faces of suburbanites shovelling their driveway. Or a herd of commuters racing to catch the next train at the station.
There's a way out of the rat race. Refuse to be a rat. Break the mold. Be your own person. Live authentically. Be who you are. Do what you want. Follow your bliss...
I met a guy who used to be an attorney & he was miserable. It was what his family wanted for him. He finally decided to live life for himself. He became a tattoo artist. He is bald, tattooed & covered in piercings. No one who sees him would ever guess that he used to be a clean-cut lawyer in a three piece suit. I thought that was pretty cool. He doesn't care what people think. He's living the life he chooses. Sometimes people get tired of being desperate & they dare to hope. They risk everything. Quit their jobs, pick up & leave...fly to Hollywood to be an actress, move out to the country to be an artist, start their own business....the possibilities are endless. Whatever your soul yearns for...
As I type this, from my desk in a job that I hate (where the internet is my only salvation!) I realize that I'm quietly desperate. But I have not abandoned my dreams. I still write & play music as well as paint & show my artwork on my days off. I wish I could make a living at it but I'm too practical to quit my day job until then...My job is just my living not my life.
2007-01-31 01:12:58 · answer #1 · answered by amp 6 · 5⤊ 0⤋
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RE:
Why do the mass of men live lives of quiet desperation?
Thoreaus's famous quote. Is there a way out of the rat race? Life is too short to have that inner sense of despair that I see in a lot of people. What can we do about it?
2015-08-05 22:27:20 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
We are over civilized. Males were hunters and thiefs in a hierarchy based on strength and skill. We were driven to procreate with multiple females to ensure our genes were passed on. That is antithetical to modern society so we always are subconciously suppressing natural desires and often failing.
Society is evolving slightly faster than we can adapt.
As with any problem first you face it then you can deal with it.
You can get out of the rat race. Find what you love. Look for it.
Be with people who accept you and love you. Explore new things.
Find ways to exercise those primitive urges that are healthy not detrimental. EXERCISE. Be active.
2007-01-31 02:16:09 · answer #3 · answered by whlydg 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Who will listen if you complain, besides your bartender? Just accept that things will never be perfect and despair will move back a ways.
2007-01-31 01:15:53 · answer #4 · answered by BANANA 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Someone ask me if their would be a curse for aging and I said God already has that in place...death
2013-11-15 05:32:04 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋