251004. Why are we dying?
From the earliest days, our parents ask questions - to themselves and to every member in the family - who will he/she become? In my view, one of the most stupid questions that parents can serve, but what you can do. You are their property (they think), you have to do what they tell you.
They are watching you and associate your temporary whims (toys) with destination, future and what not. The more siblings there are, the worse. Who will be better, who will be best... Who will earn most... Before the first year in the school, everybody is trying to “position” the poor child somewhere in the world. Ambitious professions, like chimney sweepers or plumbers, have no chance. Useless, overpopulated posts like PhD, doctors, lawyers or teachers lead the rankings.
The “adults” are asking the same stupid question whenever they can, and they compare the replies with earlier results. No pilot any more? Why? Why not? No president any more?
The poor child is being programmed and reprogrammed multiple times, not even being aware what “who you want to become” means. Vague associations are imprinted in their brains, and the children try to find ways and paths how to find the target “me”. Learn coding. No, learn signing. Learn this or that. Learn more. By the time the learning results in the level promising anything reasonable, the child is 5 years older and all earlier “dreams” are not longer valid. The world has changed.
Now the best part in the world is an influencer - doing nothing useful, earning hefty money for being useless for the society only because the smarter gamers know how to manipulate the battlefield. The child does not need a purpose in life, a role to perform, a position to fill in and be useful. Blind copying of short-term fancy snapshots will do.
The plans change, ambitions disappear, desires to develop do not have enough time and soil to grow. Learn more. Learn something different. Or don’t learn anything, only stick to the “right” people...
And the big gamers come into the game. They set up universes. Learn designing electric cars or solar panels or spaceships - it will be handy next year. Oh, a change in plans, now learn to design drones, that’s a new big market. Before you manage the basics, next January will make promises about ultrathin battery packs that are impossible to fire up and explode - learn to design them...
Whenever you think you are ready for something, the ground is being taken away from under your feet and you fall down miserably. Because you were not good enough or fast enough or wise enough. Or you didn’t have the right connections.
Stop learning things, start networking. You may mean nothing and know nothing, but your contacts will make you rich. In 40 years, your parents will ask you, “Who are you? What are you doing”, and you will sincerely answer, “I’ve lost my way.” I am a professional CEO or lawyer or CFO and I don’t care what I do, I am only checking the digits in my account.
Faster than you could expect, your productive, creative age is gone and one day you make a conclusion that this life is not worth its face value. You lose the willingness to go on. You spent your lifetime playing toys of other people, no fun, no satisfaction. Why continue?
Deep down, you disengage from life. Younger generations come up with new plans, new inventions and new ways to get rid of you. You don’t have the energy and power that you had 40 years ago - you were so rebellious then... Now you only have enough strength to move aside...
Maybe next time...