la vie ordinaire

 A road to success. Labour, grinding, plowing away and hustling.

Want a hot body, Bugatti, Maserati, Lamborghini, sippin' martinis, look hot in a bikini, live fancy, in a big mansion or party in France? Then you better bring it on, ring the alarm, don’t stop now, just be the champion, no time to quit now, just time to get it now, keep it moving higher, and higher, keep it building higher, and higher. Work, work, work, work - you better work b**ch.

Don’t try to deny it, I know it sounds familiar. You might say those are the words of Ms. Spears and yes, you are not wrong, but it’s also the formula of our capitalist society. No, I can’t believe that I have just quoted a chunk of Britney’s song either. Did she lie though? When you think about it, the lyrics are a somewhat accurate representation of the present.

But enough about pop singers. Let’s talk about more noble things, like virtues, instead. Some of the most important ones in our culture are diligence and industriousness - we are constantly reminded of the importance of working and grinding now to rest later. Diligence is one of the key virtues in our most respected and renowned pieces of literature. Yeah, I even wrote an essay on that at school.

While in older literature labour and industry are equated with virtuousness and honour, in our modern world sense of accomplishment is often tied to happiness. A lot of humans, asked how or what they are doing, talk about their job, productivity and achievements rather than feelings or thoughts. I often hear people (myself included) complain about being unproductive and, thus, unhappy. Let me give you a simple equation of how most of us see it: productiveness = accomplishment = success = happiness. Despite being so common, this formula seems very much wrong to me. We stick to it because of the culture, pressure and mindset imposed on us. Not by some higher powers, but paradoxically - by ourselves, society and its norms.

We are conditioned and/or learn to condition ourselves to feel happiness after accomplishing certain (usually tangible) goals. And not only does this dominating mindset make us constantly strive for achievement and success, but it also determines what can be considered productivity and accomplishment. Reading fiction, going for a walk, meditating, discussions with friends or baking bread do not usually match the criteria. We are reminded to hustle (and start it at a young age) to build a respectable and, naturally, profitable career or at least an excellent reputation and image. Make connections, constantly update your LinkedIn, do networking, find internships which look good on our CV, get a lovely 9-5 corporate job or work with investments, have savings, get a car, mansion, go on vacation to fancy places. Read the last sentence again – yes, it’s Britney’s song with a slightly different choice of vocabulary. 

And so many people end up not knowing how and when to stop, nor the reasons behind it. University, internships, job, networking, promotion, pay rise, promotion, more networking, pay rise, saving <…>, promotion, pay rise, saving, retirement and then…what? Then, my dear, you can finally start enjoying the benefits of capitalism, relaxing, going on holidays, getting new hobbies and doing the things you have always wanted to do. Oh yeah, but not extreme sport, your knee joints might not survive that. And don't forget that bungee jumping can lead to heart failure. Sorry, you won’t be able to master the piano this late in life. Dancing? Unfortunately you’re too old and not flexible enough -  should have started it when you were young. Oh yeah, my bad, I forgot you were working then. It is, of course, possible to move to a charming cottage in the countryside, go for walks, do gardening, grow your own food, bake bread or read books. After working all your life you can finally have some peace and happiness. But my question is, do we really need to grind for decades to be happy and at ease? Perhaps if we stopped and thought about the purpose of all this hustling and the reasons behind it, we could simply…move to the countryside, bake bread and grow our own food without waiting for retirement? Yes, probably without a Maserati, mansion, a lot of numbers in our bank accounts and knowing all the important people or being one of them. But could we start new hobbies, do the things we really want to do, learn to be content and at ease with ourselves without constantly working and striving for accomplishment, reputation and a (fragile) image of success? 

Keep in mind that I'm not suggesting that everyone quit their jobs, stop working and move to the countryside. I know that in our world, everyone inevitably needs some money and social security (unless you decide to go all the way and become a hermit or something). It's not the work itself I'm questioning but rather the culture which dictates the dominating approach to work, stating that you have to build a decent career with an elite job position, become someone important and always have savings. And if you don't - if you work as a housewife (by choice!), farmer, caretaker, pole dancer, truck driver or dishwasher, if you don't have real estate and have to rent your flat, don't own a vehicle, live in a monastry collecting donations from people and so forth - then you are very likely to be considered less successful.

Yes, obviously the underlying idea behind all of these words is that money is not everything. How original and never heard before, huh? Idealistic as well. You see, this sounds cool and all: don’t be materialistic, work, money and accomplishment-oriented culture is bad and so on. But I'm aware that I’m writing this from the position of privilege, not having to earn money for food, rent or electricity. I’m also one of those people who study at a university, which is considered prestigious, and have internship that looks good on my CV. It is easy for me to speak, not so easy to do.

It seems like we (or is it just me?) to some extent admire and want to be, in certain aspects, free like Clamence or Meursalt (Yeah yeah characters created by the one and only Camus). Perhaps society condemns them publicly because people are jealous of their freedom from meeting others’ expectations and achieving the standard of success. On the other hand, some of us, readers praise and respect Camus’ characters for their independency and yet, in real life we can not be like them. It’s too difficult to liberate oneself from the dominating standards, culture and goals. We read and relate to Camus’ ideas when we’re young and rebellious but most of us inevitably end up becoming the subjects of Britney’s song as adults.