Higher education

One key to happiness is having a goal toward which you always strive because keeping your brain busy and preoccupied makes time move faster. Animals are happy in nature because they are constantly exercising their mental faculties for mere survival, but they also have plenty of leisure time to balance out the stress of daily survival, and humans could do well to learn from their example. Once you come to the realization that all animals have this hardwired biological compulsion to move forward through change toward a goal, is it possible to overcome this perpetual condition through sheer will and meditation? Maybe that is exactly what I am trying to do with my life; I am trying to stay in the present without goals in sight. I am trying to practice the art of sheer being, of observing nature and reality through stillness and repose. Because what the human species has done is taken this perfectly healthy biological goal orienting tendency and turned it into a grotesque destructive force.

To reject society's ideals about civilization's progress as essential to individual happiness is indeed not easy to do. You end up puzzling and frustrating people close to you who have swallowed the blue pill and accepted whatever version of fantasy fed to them by greedy corporate players. You confuse them either because they want you to be happy by society's definition or because they themselves want what you are doing but feel shackled by their own oppressive belief systems, or both.

The same biological urge that drives squirrels to collect and store acorns for the winter months, also drives the human ambition of higher education in order to become respected high wage earners. It is imagined that the non-schooled are like the non acorn collectors. Those that don't collect, perish. However this analogy is flawed in two ways: There are no lazy squirrels in nature, and non-schooled humans don't necessarily perish. Healthy survival is perfectly possible without schooling. Schooling is thus superfluous; a social construct for solidifying the human pecking order.

Yesterday I felt like a failure at life and I felt sorry for myself for lacking the kind of social skills required to climb up the economic ladder that is so deeply connected with social status. This because of a single conversation I had with my sister, who is succeeding socioeconomically on the basis of her ability to influence and win people -- sheer charm. Later in the day, I went home and stumbled upon the Canadian documentary "the corporation," and that instantly made me feel better about my position and role in society. It seemed to justify my choices in life: I have simply refused to participate in a destructive system other than what is absolutely required to stay alive safely, i.e., food, rent, and transportation. True, if I worked harder at psychological games, I would have a more respected job. However, for me the work and stress is not worth the benefits -- I do no wish to expend my mental energies on superficial endeavors for which I possess no natural talent.

I have no ill-feeling toward my sister's participation in the system even though she deludes herself into believing she's working for the greater good. All around I see band-aids that hide deep wounds that actually require sutures, and I for one have no wish to compound the problem by joining the chaos created by the mindless doers.

Most all careers the system has to offer are far from the nobility and utility they claim to have. Everything from medicine to engineering to academia is detrimental to environmental and human well being. The main attraction of these professions are social status and intellectual challenge, even though the latter can be had through far less costly means.