Saturday, 5 February 2022

Dilemma of Happiness: Is it Really a Dog's Life?

 


Arya on His Happiness Mode

Whoever coined the phrase, "its a dogs life" in the 16th century (term first recorded) must regret saying so, if he/she lived today. Our Arya lives a good life, with good food, good health care and most importantly receives abundance of love from everyone at home. What could anyone ask for more?  

Mercantile Capitalism to Industrial Capitalism and now Information Capitalism, only the form has changed but the context of a captured mind since the European Renaissance is deeply rooted in consumerist society of today.

For a little while the dialectical materialism dazzled the imagination of some, but that too did not withstand to the power of capitalist economy. Despite the many evolution of economic modelling the prescription laid by Adam Smith with his invisible hand metaphor still holds steed and has given commercial elites vacuum to act with impunity, continuously bedazzling the masses with illusory hope and aspiration about what constitute happiness.

Whether it was the British worker in the early 19th century or the American worker in the 40’s or the Japanese worker in 60’s or the Koreans in the 70’s, they were all principally driven by the foundation laid which can be traced to the Baconian programme during the 17th century. This saw what is known as the Enlightenment Age which followed throughout the 18th century, primarily focusing on applying natural philosophy and expanding knowledge in solving technology related issues towards economic prosperity.

I see this as the beginning of the colonization of the western mind which eventually led to the globalization of the same.

This article captures the essence of how the working class has been wired to this ideagogue without them even realizing that they are co contributors to this malaise, and made to feel guilty for not being able to live up to the illusory expectation imposed on their minds.

This article is definitely a wakeup call, but whether one is going to wake up, or pretend to sleep is left to that individual. Lesson learned, for the Commercial Elites is, old school template on workers has to change. There is already a shift on how workers perceive work and life, thus approach to managing people, has to fit into this new dynamics. Failure to accommodate would only result, the best to move away.

What more with the approach of a “gig economy”, every individual with an expertise can become an entrepreneur, marketing their talent, and only would engage if they find it brings them happiness, both material gains and most importantly socio-psychological comfort. 

Below is the original Guardian article, "Your work is not your god: welcome to the age of the burnout epidemic".

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2022/jan/06/burnout-epidemic-work-lives-meaning?CMP=fb_gu&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook#Echobox=1641813048  


by

ravivarmmakkanniappan133706022022@3.0567° N, 101.5851° E       

3 comments:

  1. Even the concept of childhood has morphed. From the pre-industrial era where children merely replace the adult in a transition, the children needed nurturing, schooling and memories of a childhood, which they say, has an everlasting effect on the type of adult the child grows up to be.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Surely the current management of any nation can see that was coming years ago when social media was actively used, so those who didn't see it must still be sleeping niw

    ReplyDelete