The "Cakes" of Lifetimes -- Your Lifetime As Another's Resource
Updated: Dec 3, 2024
Contrary to intransigently-conditioned popular opinion, progress would indeed continue with the removal of financial gain, it would simply be structured quite differently, but progress in all areas would be freed from the greedy, relentless demands of profit.
If we change our goals as a society, we change our own operating parameters, and will start viewing our existence as a cooperative, happier endeavour, versus a miserably unhealthy and unethical competition.. and slog-fest to be the one that dies with the most toys. -- Mr. John Duran
Introduction
Each lifetime is limited, and because of that it is precious. It is precious not only objectively, but also inter-subjectively. Precious, specifically, to the many people, sources, and organizations that are interested in taking a portion of your lifetime.
Part I: The Capitalistic Value of Time
Time is a resource of great capital. Despite of its greater worth, time is a resource just like any other, more-physical resource. From the time your genuine friends and family global corporations take, they are basically taking a resource from you. A limited resource, given that life is not lived immortally.
As small as the time people take from you may be, these smaller portions can still be essential.
This type resource that can be utilized in the name of consumerism and capital, or the "flow of cash".
Case Example: Time In the Addictive Industries
The role of addiction is for you to go ahead and buy the same goods and services repeatedly even though you don't have to. With the prioritization of addicting you, your time is likelier to be taken away from you by your own consumption habits.
For profit-oriented corporations, which do not sell essential products (AKA products for basic needs), addicting the customer is of their financial interest.
In the food industry for example, your appetite can grow unnecessarily upon the consumption of sugary food, and/or food with increased fat.
Given that sugar is addictive, addictions are there to take more and more of your time, as you invest more and more capital.
As addictions are not healthy whatsoever, this is one of the reasons some corporations should be limited, or at least regulated, in order to prevent corrupt trends.
Part II: Humans as Beings and Humans as Resources
Because time is a resource, this means humans, whose time belongs to them, are resources as well. As such, the term "human resources", although soulless in perception, is even truer in terms of time. We can consider the fact that this term goes beyond the regular description of a human workforce.
Through intent or mere habit some people will "convert" themselves to be a friend, a follower, a customer, and so on, to a service or product.
Every human life that interacts and consumes things and beings beyond their own self will partake in the external world (AKA, in society, or in the world beyond the solitude of homes).
Our time, can can easily become the product of others, the more we are influenced by them. Whenever we have this imperative collectible of attention, it is then when our time can be most utilized for others' gain.
As long as we do something, and not do nothing, we will seek ways to spend our time elsewhere.
As you can tell, doing nothing isn't as profitable as doing something can easily be.
Hence, to be constantly on the move is an elementary financial interest of countless organizations.
The "need" to be constantly on the move isn't necessarily a need. Thinking it is can be seen as a delusion of necessity.
We seek to spend our time externally because we have voids we need or want to fill inside of ourselves.
The need or desire to fill in these voids can easily make us selfish and ignore others.
Some people may claim that true strength comes from within. The less voids we have, the stronger we can be.
The stronger we can be, the more we can attend to others and to our dear ones specifically.
Alternative Case Example: True Love
We can regard our pursuit for love and affection as a very important time investment as well.
In conditional love, once the void has been fulfilled, or once the other side will fail at filling that void for you, you might feel compelled to leave them.
In unconditional love, also known as true love, the investment of time in each other is less relevant.
Given how rare true love is, some may even claim that there is no such thing as true love.
Look within. See for yourself if conditional love is worthy of your time as if it were a product you are consuming, like a YouTube video.
Part III: The Competition of Time
The competition for your time might be enormous, and even more than you might think.
He or she who will fail rising beyond the ceilings of irrelevancy/anonymity will stay socially irrelevant.
People may be enticed by relevancy because relevance is essential to success.
As such, there are so many advertisers, businesses, and content creators to choose from.
These bodies, both private individuals and more-collective enterprises, may invest much of their time catering to your ability to find them online, not just offline.
Competitors are not always about "content creators" or "news channels" and such.
The Additional Aspects of Attention
For global giants such as Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter to get so much of our time, that is a truly giant achievement. Some may use these products for hours, but technically even ten minutes a day is already a meaningful achievement for any possible source of attention.
The more they understand how their traffic operates, the more they bias said traffic towards their products and websites. They can create such a bias within their visitors, that it can be very hard to break.
These attention-competing bodies compete not only for your time but also for:
Your attachment to their products.
Your ability to focus on your products.
Your eagerness to consume their products again and again.
Your experience with these products.
It therefore would only be natural that so many attention-seeking bodies would have so little grip on the "cake" of your lifespan.
When we have free time, why would books be something hard to read for long?
Some of us have TVs, and within these TVs there are channels we like and like less, and we have a computer or a phone with apps we use more and use less...
In short, the temptations of distractions are wider to some of us than in any other period in human history.
And because of that, reading books is getting harder for many.
This goes to further demonstrate the value of free time when it comes to consumption of media. After all, what serves is a distraction is very often an addiction.
Are addictions moral when they take away from us our free time, or is our free time specifically for our addictions?
The answer to that question is subjective as our lives, and especially our own free time, belongs to us just as our lives belongs to us.
Isolation Within our Free Time
In today's standards, where work is an inevitable possibility for many, consuming small portions of products (like 1 or 2 levels in video games) might be seen as inevitable as well, as we don't necessarily have the free time for more-extensive products like movies, and luxuries many can't afford.
When we are physically isolated from the world, nowadays we have far-more accessible content to consume. As such, physical isolation in the digital revolution can be less severe unlike the times before it.
This raises the question: Is the consumption of content more relevant than spending time with others?
The reason as to why people might be lonelier than before could be exactly because of these private and public organizations constantly seeking our attention.
An average person lives around, what, 60-80 years? The exact number is irrelevant here, but it is nonetheless a very great "cake" in mathematical standards.
How much of that time is spent with others?
Spending less quality time with others can reduce the value of friendships, leading to greater alienation between people.
In general, that "cake" of yours, AKA your lifespan, is only reduced the more you live.
People's time is important so do not overestimate it! And the same goes for your time, too!
When you have free time, that time is yours to decide what to do with it. Utilize the power of choice for your hopes and dreams!
On Fame and Relentless Work: Final Insights
The relentless races of life often favors the privileged few, those who can leverage their success and influence to dominate industries.
Fame might be pursued by such ambitious individuals, despite the fact that fame is fleeting by nature.
While viral sensations capture attention quickly, the majority of hardworking individuals face a longer, far ruthless path to success. In their case, years of dedicated effort may be required, and the financial rewards may be modest.
The path to mastery, as such, is more about skill, less about validation from others. As such, becoming a master in a skill nowadays is extremely challenging in a fast-paced, dynamic human reality.
The need to capture your attention, and fast is therefore the interest for many, as speed and even addiction play a crucial role in them earning from their attention-grabbing efforts.
On the other hand, this desperation, especially in a very expensive world, could easily hand-in-hand destroy people's ability to be competent.
Nowadays, when jobs are treated necessarily as finance-driven, there is less passion in doing them. This eager need to earn quickly could serve as to why many people nowadays are incompetent. Their need to cater for your time is less honest a service for you, more a need for them to get the next pay-check.
Either way, The principle of equal opportunity remains, whether you treat your job with much hate, or dedicate your entire life, and heart, for it.
Obviously, when you live for your craft, your life can easily be a lonelier one, as a result.
Should you dedicate your life for your craft or choice or should you jump from job to job? That depends on whether you wish your share of the cake in people's time, or simply to hone your craft in inner peace.
%20(1).jpg)
Comments