I take pity on Japan as the only nation on Earth to fully internalize grind culture as their source of existential meaning to an even more toxic degree than the United States.
If they didn’t exist, I probably would deem such a thing unsustainably improbable, but there it is.
To be clear, I’m not referring to places where the poor are exploited to work even longer hours at more physically brutal jobs for basic survival, I’m talking about self proclaimed “developed” nations whose citizens are indoctrinated to proudly jump into the productivity volcano as some kind of honor/life’s purpose/sense of identity in itself, and who wouldn’t have it any other way.
That said, when there was a proposal to increase standard work hours in South Korea recently, the people rejected it loudly. There is a desire in SK by many to achieve work life balance, which would be something of a slur in Japan.
Everything I’ve ever seen of Japanese culture would indicate so much as speaking against something like that would get you ostracized by the vast majority.
alt textFirst panel: [blank white space with black text] Jogging from the perspective of animals Second panel: Wolf by a tree looking at a man jogging. “What are you running from, apex predator” Third panel: Wolf: “Are you chasing prey?” “You need to conserve energy” Last panel: [second wolf peeking in] “The hell...
Im not in the minority of acknowledging it being canon, I’m in the minority calling it essential canon. A lot of people hated it for its B story that I personally thought was fine.
I think they missed the Disney shows which are of course canon.
I’m in the minority here, but I consider Obi-wan especially to be primary canon, as necessary as Movies 1-6. They retconned in the emotional core of the whole damn saga with Obi-wan and fully realized Vader’s confrontation and resolution. That moment truly bridged the OT and prequels for me like nothing else had.
alt textHalloween costume meme, labelled “Former Gifted Child”. The package is empty, and on it there is written: "Nothing included When people ask, “What are you supposed to be?” just reply, “I was supposed to be a lot of things.”
Exactly. The rich monkeys are joined in common purpose, but not out of some grand coordinated conspiracy. Their wealth class values and interests simply align.
George Carlin said it best on an episode of politically incorrect once:
"You don’t need a formal conspiracy when interests converge. These people went to the same universities, they’re on the same boards of directors, they’re in the same country clubs. They have like interests, they don’t need to call a meeting. They know what’s good for them."
In my experience, the most driven, most successful people, at least in western culture, tend to be vacant idiots that never question or consider their impulses or actions. Ready, fire, aim people are rewarded over careful planners.
“Gifted” people tend to be cursed to overconsider their own actions, often to the point of indolence, all the while being expected to respect and appreciate our backwater, superstitious civilization controlled by obvious con-artists manipulating that superstition, altering the language to embed their con into the culture(ex: greedy fuck businessman = “rationally self-interested job creator”), etc, all to aquire more power and wealth, because it’s never enough. Our leaders have no grand intellectual vision or endgame, just “give me more!”
Possessing great intellect in this civilization is more curse than blessing. You know better, but are hopelessly outnumbered by selfish animals far more concerned with getting more than their fellow humans than maximizing happiness for the species and homeostasis for our sole, shared habitat.
It’s very important for one’s mental health to remember that everything humans do is fleeting and ultimately unimportant on a long enough time scale. The idea of meeting accomplishment metrics society imposes is just a manipulation to get you to do stuff you otherwise wouldn’t to benefit people that have never and will never care about you. You’ll only find fleeting, shallow, false purpose falling into the trap of chasing their approval.
Find connections that give you bliss if you can, beyond that, to hell with not meeting the standards of the sociopaths in charge. Dictate your own purpose, and don’t fill it with unnecessary pressure.
I mean, it’s fine to disobey orders if it turns out obeying orders would have killed everyone.
Just as with Kirk, kind of hard to make the call to demote someone who can credibly state “you and everyone everyone loves would be a borg, dead, or living in a fascist dystopia if I followed your orders.”
It’s kind of a derivation on “If you aim to kill the king, best not miss.” if you aim to flout the rules without consequences, you better get species saving outcomes.
Japan is living in the future that the 1990s dreamed of. (startrek.website)
Bets on the next one? (startrek.website)
"Jogging From the Perspective of Animals" by Jake Likes Onions (files.mastodon.social)
alt textFirst panel: [blank white space with black text] Jogging from the perspective of animals Second panel: Wolf by a tree looking at a man jogging. “What are you running from, apex predator” Third panel: Wolf: “Are you chasing prey?” “You need to conserve energy” Last panel: [second wolf peeking in] “The hell...
The art of saying nothing (thumbsnap.com)
Every time (media.wetdry.world)
alt textwayward vagabond from homestuck: we should improve technology somewhat. well dweller: xkcd 927 “standards”
Starfleet Academy of Delinquents and Troublemakers (pixelfed.social)
Is there a good list of which materials are considered canon beyond the films and how definitive is that list?
Is it clear which works are considered canon and which ones are not?
Halloween costume (media.tech.lgbt)
alt textHalloween costume meme, labelled “Former Gifted Child”. The package is empty, and on it there is written: "Nothing included When people ask, “What are you supposed to be?” just reply, “I was supposed to be a lot of things.”
This is an outrageous demand. (startrek.website)
POV: you're American (lemmy.world)
Not a great idea [Mr Lovenstein] (startrek.website)
MrLovenstein Source Links:...
Where Obi Wan threatens R2 to keep his dirty droid mouth shut about everything he saw the past fourty years: war crimes, births and deaths, betrayals, sand, His New Empire? (dmv.social)
Poor R4…
MRW there is a sick meme on Lemmy but its not from Star Trek (startrek.website)
Random 1-16-2016 (sh.itjust.works)
The trouble with Qo'noS, is that it's full of Klingons (pxscdn.com)
Introverts unite (separately)! (lemmy.zip)
I'm not saying he's a bad captain, but... (lemmy.world)
27 November 2023 (sh.itjust.works)