Sorry, but I don’t buy into the ‘your self-worth is not tied to your productivity’ narrative. I just don’t like the idea of a society full of idle and useless people who believe they are infinitely valuable and beautiful just because they exist. I’m not against you taking a vacation, a period of time off, where you don’t work at all. This isn’t an attack on resting, having fun, enjoying doing stuff that you love, or seeking pleasure. This isn’t a call to keep working non-stop without ever taking a break or pausing to catch your breath even if that is making you miserable because you don’t matter, but the good of the collective or the society as a whole is all that matters. I totally believe in individualism. I am a Liberal. I’m also not against you caring about your mood or how good you feel. This is of utmost importance. Your emotional well-being matters. I went as far as saying that it matters and should be sought after for its own sake, not as a means of being more successful in life or doing anything else better. Not as a means of being more productive. And you don’t need anybody else’s permission first to take care of your mental, psychological, emotional, and physical needs and well-being. I am not only okay will all of the above, but I am also in favor of the fact that all of the above are things that should be encouraged, never fought against, should be considered as human rights, and are things that are totally underrated, even demonized, only to justify abusing people and manipulating them into doing what you want. You gotta liberate yourself from the shackles of whatever that means that you, and your dreams, aspirations, quality of life, standard of living, ambition, life and happiness on your own terms, doing what you want, your consent, your well-being, and freedom, are stuff that doesn’t matter, because of whatever reasons anyone tells you to justify that you are just a statistic and you must sacrifice your happiness in order to do good or be a good person. I’m totally and strongly in favor of all of the above.
Still, I would gladly like to clarify that too much self-acceptance is not healthy. And I’m not talking about that being the case here because God told you so. I’m talking about that being wrong or not for your own good from a biological basis or perspective. You will always feel miserable and be unfulfilled if you felt or detected that you are entirely useless or your presence or existence in this world is not making any difference compared to your absence or non-existence. It’s called the human needs for contribution and significance. The things that make you feel like you truly matter, not a burden on the world that the absence of which wouldn’t lead to any negative effect whatsoever.
You have to have the ambition and desire to improve yourself. You are not good the way you are. You have to work on yourself and become a better person, not morally, but in terms of capabilities, skills, knowledge, experience, character. It’s so widely accepted that everybody should go to the gym and that we’re not physically perfect the way we are without exercising our bodies. Why when it comes to the mind we’re all perfect the way we are? Why doesn’t anyone aspire to become better intellectually or mentally? And to add insult to injury, we also don’t have to work to earn our self-worth! We can be totally idle and useless and still valued because we belong to the human species! How wonderful could that be?
Why is degeneracy becoming a virtue? Why is weakness now considered ‘better’?
Why the word better is so readily dismissed because it is being encouraged now to consider what’s better to be subjective and a matter of opinion? Like apples and oranges?
Why am I being considered the bad guy for having those thoughts?