pleasure of pain

"People love to suffer fear and pain--think of all the recreational activities based on experiencing these things--from horror movies to roller coaster rides, and from aerobics classes to dieting. People will even pay good money to suffer fear and pain. They need it, they have to have it, they won't be happy without it." --Crystal Dawn and Stephen Flowers, Carnal Alchemy

Pain is the new pleasure. Well, it's not really new. The motto "No pain, no gain!" has been gathering friends and believers for centuries. Flagellating monks in the dark ages knew how to beat the exciting side of physical, emotional, and spiritual pain into the open. Hardworking men and women of the 21st millennium are facing fresh new sets of painful challenges. Yet they adapt quickly to exploit even gloomy areas of their reality for the purpose of extracting pure fun.

The fact that 87% of employees hate what they do can mean two different things: they are either too stupid to do what they love to do, or hating what they do IS EXACTLY what they love to be doing. Yes Ma'am, hating what they do is BETTER than doing what they love, because what they love to do is depising a lousy job. Isn't that obvious?

People aren't dumb! Give individuals some credit and yep, that includes yourself. We are making mistakes and we run into dead ends, once in awhile--that's how evolution works--but we do know what we want to do and where we'd like to go. We don't need ninny nannies and safety Nazis who are eager to protect us from ourselves, but who see us capable of paying for their exorbitant bills.

You want equality or freedom? You can't have both. They are mutually exclusive. If you value equality over freedom, you see your fellow human beings as weak or certifiably irresponsible idiots, incompetent to do what it takes to live their lives. It doesn't matter whether you want to destroy or protect people who appear to be somewhat subhuman from your perspective. I am sorry, but identifying a "lesser" class of people who desperately needs your patronizing help differs not from stigmatizing a defined group you plan to harass and hate.

You will hate me for saying this: movements for equality have fascist roots, one group trying to dominate the other. What's so bad about freedom, other than the fact that it scares the bejeezus out of us? Freedom respects your choices as an individual, assumes your capability, and expresses trust that you know better what's good for you than anybody else does. Cries for equality murder individuality in its slumber. Yours!

Hating a job means dealing with controllable portions of pain. Both, unemployment and self-employment, come with a high probability of going beyond the threshold into spheres of unpredictable and unbearable pain levels. Doing what you love and turning it into a business has the potential of lifelong torture and total self-destruction built in to it. Am I joking? I wish! No, risks and possibilities of self-employment and entrepreneurship are not limited to financial ups and downs. The chance that you will always love what you say you love is slim. You won't. It is more realistic to expect that you will hit moments when you hate the day you were born, during your career as a self-employed business person.

Thus is the price of freedom and I am willing to pay it. You don't have to be self-employed, and you continue to have my undivided respect if you don't. Being employed is still an expression of that same freedom and hating what one does is the price the majority of employees pays. There is no right or wrong here. But don't let the surface fool you:

Those who hate what they are doing, are doing what they love!

Egbert Sukop