"Every product is a bait with which to seduce away the other’s very being, his money; every real and possible need is a weakness which will lead the fly to the glue-pot." - Karl Marx, Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844

"The need for money is therefore the true need produced by the economic system, and it is the only need which the latter produces. The quantity of money becomes to an ever greater degree its sole effective quality. Just as it reduces everything to its abstract form, so it reduces itself in the course of its own movement to quantitative being. Excess and intemperance come to be its true norm." - Karl Marx, Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844

Machinery is used by capitalists, not to lighten human toil, but to extract more surplus-value, intensify the pace of work, lengthen the work day.

The Sources:

Marx's writing: Human Requirements and Division of Labour Under the Rule of Private Property

Marx's Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Marx

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJV6Fl3E56c&t=322s

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We’ve been strategically stripped of our ability to relax, which has taken away our ability to create, and most of us have completely forgotten how to have fun and goof off and play. Without our ability to relax, create, and play, we lose our ability to simply exist.

There’s always so much to do, so many moving parts to keep spinning. And if I’m lucky enough to get a second to breathe, there’s absolutely no way I have the capacity to do anything else with it but dissociate or nap or cry or stare blankly at a wall or a screen until the next thing demands my attention.

All work and no play means chronic stress, sleep deprivation, long hours, endless grinding, and bleak visions for the future.

Reforms aimed at promoting work-life balance, limiting overtime hours, and ensuring adequate rest can work.

The Sources:

Marx's writing: Human Requirements and Division of Labour Under the Rule of Private Property

PubMed: Unveiling the Global Surge: Unraveling the Factors Fueling the Spread of Karoshi Syndrome

YouTube: Will We All Work Until We Die?

Forbes: Micro-retirement

Forbes: Karoshi

Article: Negotiating a 4 day workweek

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The addict has found the right door but is using the wrong key.

Research: People hate to think

Reading: Jung on addiction

Article: How to Stop Phone Addiction

Video: 7 Science-Based Ways to Beat Phone Addiction

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You are born worthy, and you are worthy now. No matter how productive you are, you are still inherently valuable. It's time we designed a system that reflected that reality.

1. map out community run networks: food + skill sharing, tool libraries, mutual aid.
2. create a borrowing/lending economy within your community: sharing is caring.
3. reclaim your time from the attention economy: create intentional friction.
4. stop commodifying your attention: starve the algorithm, add physical and mental friction to break the habit of constant scrolling.

Article: How to Stop Phone Addiction

Video: 7 Science-Based Ways to Beat Phone Addiction

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Remember, C's get degrees and nobody is checking your grades after you graduate.

Resist identifying with your work ethic. Resist the hedonic treadmill. Resist shaming yourself for your humanity.

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Doing nothing doesn't mean turning your back on the world. Instead, we must "stand apart" and view things from a new perspective without withdrawing completely.

You can't isolate yourself into an improved world. You can only improve things when you're actively witnessing them. Learn new ways to participate and start there.

"The decision to refuse (not once, not twice, but perpetually until things have changed) means the development of and adherence to individual and collective commitments from which our actions proceed." - Jenny Odell

BUY JENNY ODELL'S BOOK HERE: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/600671/how-to-do-nothing-by-jenny-odell/

Read it here: https://www.valpo.edu/christ-college/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2025/05/How-to-Do-Nothing.pdf

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Rather than fleeing society completely, the idea of "doing nothing" means disengaging from the toxic demands of continuous capitalist productivity, social media optimization, and personal branding. It's about "standing apart" not "standing without". Finding resistance in refusal.

Odell notes that our enemy isn't the physical world itself, but rather the commercial digital channels and algorithms through which we are forced to experience it every day. By reclaiming our attention from screens, we can redirect it toward our immediate physical environments, local ecosystems, and community history.

BUY JENNY ODELL'S BOOK HERE: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/600671/how-to-do-nothing-by-jenny-odell/

Read it here: https://www.valpo.edu/christ-college/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2025/05/How-to-Do-Nothing.pdf

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This is real. You are real. You reading this is real. Extend the time you have by paying attention to what is real. Even when it's uncomfortable. This is how you reclaim your attention + do "nothing" so you can be more effective at the somethings that are required of you.

BUY JENNY ODELL'S BOOK HERE: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/600671/how-to-do-nothing-by-jenny-odell/

https://www.valpo.edu/christ-college/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2025/05/How-to-Do-Nothing.pdf

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Capitalism has shaped our economies, our politics, and our emotional psychology. A society that puts profits > people will trickle down into our own personal value systems. We will never feel worthy in a culture that only focuses on profit motives. It's time we reshape our social values and the way that we think.

TODAY'S RESOURCE:

https://madinsouthasia.org/profit-competition-and-ownership-capitalism/

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Capitalism has turned the natural, balancing, grounding act of creation into just another way to make money. It’s turned every feeling into a hostile takeover of our money making potential.

And capitalism exploits our emotions in so many ways to keep us from resisting it. It demands our isolation. We drive in our personal little boxes to our personal little boxes at work where we spend every hour of daylight working on a little box, before coming home to our little box and eating from a little box before laying on a little box to return to the same boxes tomorrow.

This isolation keeps us alienated. This means everyone is suffering, but we are forced to suffer alone. This isolation becomes internalized and we blame ourselves for it. We have no energy to revolt or change anything. We don’t even have energy to reach out to people we love. The only energy we have is for survival, which means we have to continue putting every ounce of ourselves into our labor and productivity.

All we have left is our labor, which means there’s no energy left to fight the people exploiting it.

The “cost of living” is killing yourself to barely stay alive.

Our physical and emotional vitality is tied to our creativity and passion, but these too, have been coopted by a society that puts value only on economics.

Capitalism worked hard to keep us from ourselves.

Our politicians use emotional agitation and manipulation to keep us compliant and/or defeated. We’re forced to stay in the role of the laborer.

And because they’ve designed the system to keep us isolated no matter how bleak it gets, we have no appropriate outlets to release this emotional weight. Most people have no idea how to even identify their emotions let alone process them effectively, so we end up blaming ourselves for having them. We see everyone else in their boxes and we assume they’re doing just fine and we blame ourselves for being “broken” or unable to keep up. We internalize the shame and pain instead of externalizing it, which is part of the cycle that keeps the pain coming.

What we don’t realize is that everyone of us who labors or works for a paycheck is struggling in some capacity. We are lonely, terrified, and defeated. We’ve been convinced we can “win” and “catch up” if we just keep our head down and work hard. But productivity is up and profits are up, but wages are down and as a result, so is hope.

We blame ourselves for being human and we hide in shame when we feel any emotions. The problem is, nobody can keep up.

If you love urself, you can rest without shame, and the shareholders cannot make a profit on that. If you love yourself you won’t buy endless products thinking the next one is gonna be the one to help you get your shit together finally, and shareholders can’t profit off of that. Shareholders have manufactured self-loathing and shame in each of us, much to their benefit.

Reclaim your emotions. Reclaim "unproductive" output. Reclaim connection. Do the work to push back against the people exploiting us.

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We have been conditioned to believe emotions are irrational, feminine, and something to be suppressed. But rationality and emotionality are not mutually exclusive. In fact, they are intertwined. Without emotions, we would not have any motivation towards rationality.

Our assumption that emotions are irrational tends to refer to our reactions to the emotion, rather than the emotion itself.

Rationality is not emotionless. Emotions are not completely irrational.

SOURCES:

1. someonewithopinions's MEDIUM POST: The Politics of Feeling: How Emotions Move, Shape, and Control Us
2. YouTube Video: Emotions are Rational
3. YouTube Video: The Calculus of Feeling: Why Emotions are Rational Algorithms
4. Study: Rationality and emotions

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