[ExI] Wrestling with Embodiment

[The Avantguardian]

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>From: Amon Zero <amon at doctrinezero.com>
>To: ExI chat list <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> 
>Sent: Wednesday, February 1, 2012 11:37 AM
>Subject: Re: [ExI] Wrestling with Embodiment
>
>
>On 1 February 2012 19:22, Kelly Anderson <kellycoinguy at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>>If you're
>>unemployed you should be depressed. That emotion is what gets you off
>>the couch and into the nearest Walmart applying for a job.*

Bullshit. Billionaires are unemployed as well. Employees have to pay income tax and billionaires don't want to. So they remain unemployed and pay capital gains instead. Billionaires aren't depressed.
 
 
>Uh, Kelly, I'm sure you were being glib there, but you do realise that's not how clinical depression generally works, right? It's not a motivator. If anything, it's a massive demotivator. Or to put it another way; it is a motivator - to have nothing to do with the situation that caused the depression.

Pull it together, Amon. Maybe you are depressed because you don't want a job and people are trying to force you to believe it is your only option. After I got fired in 2007, 5 1/2 months into the 6 month probationary period for a government job, I was furious. I had never been fired before in my life because I am the type to take pride in my work so I know it was pure office politics. Then two weeks later, my stock portfolio dropped in value from $25,000 to less than $5000 overnight. Then I was scared. Then in the long months of being on unemployment and looking for jobs I *didn't* really want while millions of others were looking for those same crappy jobs, made me depressed for a really long time. Then I realized something. Something fundamental:
 
I was free.
 
My whole life since the age of 16, I have labored loyaly for the profit of other men for a mere pittance of a share. All because I thought it was a small but *secure* income. In essence I had deluded myself into believing that the financial security of having a *job* was worth the sacrifice of crappy rewards of being another's bitch.
 
I was wrong. Security, even when you feel it is but an illusion. It doesn't matter who you are, the universe or even another hairless ape can pull the rug out from underneath you *at any time*.  So why not risk being your own man?
 
Since then I have started a company, written a patent application, I am working on two or three others. I am doing some interesting theoretical physics all while making ends meet by leasing a taxi cab five nights a week. Don't get me wrong, I had a higher standard of living being a well-paid slave, but I am enjoying being a broke businessman far more then I have ever had being an employee. I am living on the bleeding edge of capitalism and I am *loving* it.
 
So my advice to you is forget finding a job. Find a way to make a living so that maybe someday you can give other people jobs.
 
 
Stuart LaForge
 
"When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro." - Hunter S. Thompson