Watching my Dad decline in his later years was really tough, the man I had known my entire life just fell apart month by month, week by week until he was just a shell of a person. I don’t know when it happened, but the person I had known my whole life had already died before his body died later on. Seeing what I saw over the course of years as he declined, I would’ve completely understood if he had committed suicide well before. It would’ve been shocking and hard to take, but if he realized what was happening, felt himself slipping away, I wonder if he hadn’t at least considered it. He retired a year before he died at 63 and never really got to enjoy his retirement.
The capitalists tortured your father out of your father month by month, week by week, until only a shell, no longer productive, was cut loose to die as it was no longer useful to them.
That is what the capitalists do to us while they live large and pat themselves on the back for it.
Are you deadass using suicide as a stage to spew agitprop? You should feel ashamed of yourself, this is beyond ghoulish.
Well when suicide rates are at an 80-year high, while the lack of a social safety net continues to deny people the dignity of life after work… well it’s not a huge leap.
It wrong to say it’s capitalism, since every avenue of governance is plagued by the same monopolization of power and wealth, but when capitalism is held as closely by some as their religious beliefs; and these same beliefs are manipulated so as to convince people to vote against the construction of said social safety net… well. again, not a huge leap.
Ah yes, never “the time” to talk about this work camp of a supposed society, especially when the suffering of its victims is brought up.
I’m ghoulish to cope with the absurdity of what we are coerced into doing to ourselves. Others cope by pretending there’s nothing wrong, even that they love propagating this exploitation/value maximization trap.
I’m not using this person’s father as an agitprop. That would imply I have reasonable hope for change for the better in our times. There is not. Too far captured, too far propagandized. That said, one thing I won’t let them have is my silent, obedient consent as they toss their dead capital batteries without a thought after spending most of their very real lives in service to running up their ego scores that have no meaningful impact on their already gluttonous lifestyles. If that makes me the bastard in your eyes, so be it, I’m a bastard if it makes you happy. I’m the bad guy.
It’s been studied. Books have been written about alienation and isolation in capitalism.
Saw this happen to my both my grandfathers, one died around 60 and the other around 80. Even the 60yo one, watching the mental decline was heartbreaking. Being left with literally nothing, losing your memories while you lose control of other parts of your body, these men were long gone long before they passed. Nothing in this world scares me like aging with dimentia does. You literally lose the person, sometimes completely, before they even die and you gotta sit there and be strong for them knowing that the slow desent will come for you too, and thats only if you’re lucky enough to get that old. It’s just not fair for anyone and there’s scarcely any dignity in death.
I feel myself heading this way. So much of my identity is wrapped up in what I can do and service I can provide. When my body fails, and it’s starting to slow down even now, what will my identity be?
All I can suggest is to start decoupling your identity from your productivity or what you think you are expected to do. Figure out what really matters to you, and what you would regret doing or not doing when you’re elderly.
I’ve gone through a bunch of crap in the past few years, and part of getting back to normal life has been letting go of things that don’t really matter to me (anxiety doesn’t always make this easy, of course) and figuring out what matters most and how I can best enjoy this weird temporary thing we call life.
