Flex Your Head

I was sitting in lecture today, the only one i find remotely interesting or purposeful, and my professor mentioned the deterioration of the social safety nets in North America. Things like welfare, health care, pensions, etc. He was arguing that policies that allow people to access these things are necessary because as new technology gets developed more and more people lose their livelihoods. That's not the only reason for job loss, but it's one of the systemic reasons.

This got me thinking, I'm at the point in my life where i need to make difficult decisions that will more than likely impact the rest of my future, i need to find a "career" or a profession of some sort so that i can eat and sleep under some sort of adequate shelter. I think a lot of kids jump right into this, they take jobs doing some sort of trade or working for a company they believe can provide them with a decent income doing mind numbing work. I know in some cases it's just a stop-gap solution but in a lot of cases it's a lifelong commitment. Given the volatility of the economy and the way in which the workplace has been drastically altered in the past twenty or so years, it's difficult to see any line of work, outside of ones that provide for the basic services of society, being a sure thing in the long term.

I don't know where this is going, but the point is instead of putting all your pennies in one jar or honing a particular trade, (not that there's anything wrong with this) harvest your mind. If you think about it, your job can be yanked out from under your feet, your livelihood destroyed and you can be left with nothing if you have nothing to fall back on. If you harvest your mind or "flex your head" so to speak, regularly, nobody, nothing can take that away. You might not have any material value left but at least your most valuable aspect will be intact and you'll have your dignity. I'll use an example of Puerto Rican immigrants who moved to East Harlem in the mid 1900's and started working in garment factories. They're whole identity become tied up in these factories, not only was it their livelihood, it was who they were, without those jobs they had no place staked out in American society. Those factories left for free trade zones and cheap labor and those workers and their families went spiraling into poverty, then came drug use and gangs and all the rest. I know East Harlem was a racialized area before they arrived and there were a lot of other dynamics outside of their engulfment in their work that led to the hardships they face today but still it's an example of the devastation job loss can have.

It's frustrating seeing so many kids at university shutting off their true ability to think. Most people are too concerned with how much money they'll make or how much "prestige" their degree will give them, which is just stupid. They might do well for themselves, more than likely they'll make more money than i ever will but their heads will be dormant capsules of self indulgence and morbid disregard for the world around them. Start thinking about the world, it's internal dynamics and your place in it and how you can do little or big things to make it better and worries about how your going to make a living seem so insignificant. If you give all of yourself that you can manage to give to those purposes things will fall in line, the world still has a place for selflessness and people who give out of pureness and not some distraught motivations.

If you don't exercise your mind you wont have any capacity to to be a positive force in the world, you'll just be another pawn, produced by the system, maintained by the system, and ultimately killed by the system. That's the vast majority of people, it sucks. Use your brain, not your biceps, don't bother breaking your back for an employee that will regurgitate you like a bad meal the second things get hard. I know, i know i have no right to say anything because i haven't experienced the real world to its fullest most brutal extent. I breathe the same air, my eyes and ears are working at full capacity, there's a difference between idealism and truth.

The First Step are a great youth crew band and i really relate to their lyrics, here are the lyrics to a song from their "What We Know " LP that speaks to what i said above:

"Get Wise"

Out on the street I come face to face
With what little concern we have for the others, in this human race.
You can choose the view you want to see but
It's harder to care than to live in apathy!

JUST GET WISE!

When it's ten years later and we've had our turn
Will our foundation crack or will it stand firm?

Poverty, hunger, addiction and disease.
I want to lend a hand to those in need.
I hear the critics but I know these thoughts are real
And I know part of you feels the way i feel!
I'll open my eyes and just get wise.
And live my life so that suffering may cease.
I'll live my life so one may walk in peace!