Many people in the world are fully occupied with basic survival. That includes people in the more affluent parts of the world, people who might not need to worry about where their next meal comes from, but are constantly worried about how to pay their next bill. Most people in the world are constantly worried about finding a sufficient and secure income, and then struggle to keep it, and saving as much money as they can so they could someday finally reach the point where they can relax a little bit. And as long as people are in this marathon they rarely stop and think ‘why am I even bothering?’ ‘Is all this so one day I can sit back and not worry about the bills?’ ‘Can it be that the only reward for reaching the finish line is that I can finally stop racing?’
And if that day ever comes at all, it’s usually when people are already too old, tired, worn out, and dispirited to do the things they really want to. And that is if they know what they want to do. Most have no clue, as far as they go they just want to stop running. And that’s why they have been running all these years – so one day they could finally stop. That is absolutely lunatic and dreadful. It is like running a marathon, and not one lasting 42 kilometers but one that lasts almost an entire lifetime, just to experience stop running.
Not running is not really an option in this world. Everybody has to run. Some must run as fast as they possibly can, while others can run much more casually, but everybody needs to run. And tragically, despite that most people run because they want to someday stop, most of them can never stop. Usually it is because they have children to care for, for some it is other family members who need assistance, for others it is health issues, accidents or any other disaster that comes their way and forces them to keep running, and some can’t stop running for psychological reasons such as the feeling that idleness would drive them nuts more than keep running, or because they are so used to running that they have no idea how to stop. And of course many constantly fall on the treadmill, some flat on their faces.
When some people get just comfortable enough to excuse themselves from the daily race for survival, unfortunately only a tiny minority of them manage to think a little bit outside their private race and have renewed observations regarding their pointless run to nowhere, realizing that they are constantly running on a treadmill. Most, for most of their life, have been so occupied with surviving that they are already so deeply immersed in life that it is hard for them to look at it differently.
Seemingly ironically, but also quite obvious, the less immersed people are in their daily survival, the more available they are to reflect over their daily survival. But unfortunately and disappointingly that is very rare. One could expect that many more people, at least at some point, would come to realize how pointless, senseless, devoid and hollow this whole thing is. People with some more time (because they are less occupied with survival) are expected to realize how senseless the survival pursuit is, how pointless, indefinite, vain and circuital it is. To realize that it is as if life has a life of its own, that life is self-moving without the living themselves controlling it or without any external motive or justification. That it exists because it exists.
But that rarely happens. Most people don’t ask themselves why am I even bothering to roll a rock up the hill over and over? Why am I running like hell when I’ll never reach heaven?
However, despite that the vast majority of people don’t seem to bother reflecting over their endless, pointless run to nowhere, and that is obviously very disappointing, the critical argument here is not of the people who keep running. Most of them don’t really have much of a choice but to go on. The criticism is of them throwing others on the treadmill.
I don’t necessarily criticize people for not stop running despite that it is goalless, pointless and senseless, because I understand how hard, if not impossible, it is to stop. I am criticizing them for forcing others to run and partly exactly because it is goalless, pointless and senseless. If you are running because you can’t really stop and not because you really want to reach (or thinking that you can reach) some goal, or because you really believe you have started running out of your own free will and not because otherwise you would fall on your face, why force others onto the same infinite treadmill fraught with difficulties and dangers?
The people who have been thrown onto the infinite treadmill fraught with difficulties and dangers are stuck on it, it is not their fault that they are on it. But it is definitely their fault if they decide to throw others on it as well.
The fact that most people are too occupied with surviving and so are way too deeply immersed in life to find the time to reflect on it, and the fact that out of the few who can find the time to reflect on life very few ever bother to do so, and the fact that out of the few who do so very few are reflecting on what they are condemning their children with, is very conclusive about the chances of people ever deciding not to force more and more people on the infinite treadmill fraught with difficulties and dangers. Therefore the only way to make them stop is not by trying to convince them not to force others onto the infinite treadmill fraught with difficulties and dangers, but by somehow cutting the power.
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