Hope Under Capitalism: A Job Like Any Other
Dear reader, aren’t you tired of waking up every day? Me too. And so are your neighbors. But don’t worry—it’s by design.
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What Can you Hope for? The answer is simple: the structure of everyday life. The structure of everyday life is invisible, the cycles that define our existence—the arrival and departure of trains, the roads, and antennas that connect us—these form the system or structure of our everyday life. And so, our hopes are confined within it. You can’t hope for a train to arrive every five minutes when you know the schedule dictates otherwise. At best, you hope it arrives on time.
Now, ask yourself: where do my hopes come from?
Our dreams are curated by the very system we serve. The pursuit of a better job, a higher salary, a reward for our efforts—these are not autonomous aspirations but scripted desires, designed to keep us in motion. We behave in ways that drive profits, hoping to receive the rewards the system allows, believing ourselves to be its masters when in reality, we are simply following a path that has already been laid out for us. The only free will we maintain is if we make it late or on time to the train.
We dance for our master, hoping that our movements will be rewarded. And so, our dreams recycle themselves endlessly, reinforcing the very structure that limits them.
The Solution: Censor Your Own Dreams
If we want to break free, we must stop recycling the same fantasies. We need to reclaim the power to do nothing.
Try this: the next time you catch yourself consuming media for hours—YouTube, Substack, Instagram, TikTok—reward yourself with sitting in silence. But don’t fall asleep. This is crucial. Experience the discomfort of doing nothing. Feel the pull towards distraction and resist it. No music, no scrolling, no external stimulation. Just stillness.
After a few minutes, an urge will build inside you—the craving for input, entertainment, and the next thing to occupy your mind. But instead of indulging it, ask yourself: what did I do when I was bored as a child? If you’re too young to remember a time before digital distractions, savor this rare opportunity and find out what is it that you do when there is no media. If you are older, reconnect with passions that once required your full presence—before screens dictated your every spare moment. Fall in love with your own time again.
The Crisis of Collective Dreams
In university, my classmates and I often discussed our future aspirations. Some wanted jobs at Fortune 500 firms, others aimed to become teachers, and many weren’t sure but sought a lifestyle that was “comfortable.” Some pursued further education to secure specialized careers.
Over the decades, these dreams haven’t changed. If anything, they’ve become more uniform. The dominant aspirations for men are in finance, computer science, or trade skills & women remain within social science- both repeating a cycle that simply was given to them. Even those who dream of starting their own business often do so with the same underlying goal: to build their dream job.
This cycle repeats itself, unbroken. But why? And more importantly, what would it take to escape it?
We must dream differently. But individual rebellion is not enough—we need thousands, even millions, to align their dreams with a better future. In other words, we need new dreams!
A future where hope is not just another job.
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