🤔 its hard to imagine something that's done more harm to the human soul and society at large than "the Protestant work ethic."
Man, I miss Asia... The chill Asia. You could divide it into north and south, and put the dividing line maybe around Taiwan, and chill is south and unchill is north, although I think southern attitudes extend in tendrils northward.
People coming from a culture shaped by the Protestant work ethic - North America or northern Europe - tend to view such chillness with disdain. Among northerners, including in Asia, there's this idea that harsh winters keep people disciplined, and that explains the wealth disparity between north and south. That's bullshit. What it is is values. Some people value the game, and they play it. Some people don't like the game, and don't. The Protestants got their theology wrong, but were very convinced, and they went around preaching their worldview, which was clearly distinct from the Catholic worldview, and it included their "work ethic." Its the fundamental belief that work is inherently good, regardless of result. To these people, "work smarter, not harder," is only acceptable because of the word "work," but they see it as sinful (literally) to try to work less, as well as sinful to try to be knowledgeable, so working smarter is proof that you're a sinner. In their eyes. And not usually consciously - its implicit in their mostly unarticulated worldview. And from this worldview, we get the general state of things in northern countries - a default of "fuck you" built in to every system - exemplified by the Empire of Fuck You, the US. Things can't simply work - everything must maximize the work you must do to interface with things. We must have rules, and punishments for violators. We can't leave each other alone. Everyone must conform. Everyone must behave. Everyone must be constantly stressed and on guard, lest they break some rule unknowingly and be punished, sometimes by an official who found outlet for their psychopathy in their paid gig, and sometimes by automated systems. No one is simply leaving each other alone.
And I must stress this point - its all founded on bad theology. Its incoherent, ignorant, un-self-aware garbage. They repeat, "in the world but not of it," and maybe it registers somewhere in them that they're reacting to the general state of horribleness around them, but it doesn't register that if they actually lived by the meaning of the phrase, it would all be so much less horrible. Things might even be pleasant. Such a thing really does exist, though in my experience, only in Asia. Maybe in South America, too. Theologically, its a misunderstanding because they haven't bothered to think about what their bibles say. They won the right to read their bibles in their own language, which I think is great, but then they quit thinking. Critically thinking about what it means? Oh no, that's too far, you heretic! But the truth is, they don't read their Bibles. They buy Bibles with tabs already on them, set to various significant verses they never look at, and highlighting already printed on the pages, and almost half the page given to some kind of rather un-useful commentary. That un-useful commentary really massages the Protestant work ethic - it **_looks_** like a lot of work went into it, and you are some degree **_more serious_** if you have that kind of Bible. Garbage. I could spell out the correct understanding... Should I?... No. Protestant work ethic aside, some things really should be earned. Not "earned" - that word emphasizes the work over the result. The result negates the work. Bah... I'm not saying it.
And in Asia, the theology coming up from the south is really quite genius. I'm talking mostly about Buddhism, but there's some overlap with Hinduism and Taoism, and amazingly little disagreement with Catholicism, though I don't know if the Catholics know it. Basically the whole schtick with Buddhism is that the game is garbage. They don't want to play it. This world is to be overcome, and it sure would be nice to escape it. But the only way to overcome it is to see the humor of it. See the trickster, and not only call him out, but join in the fun. Its all the same anyways. Oh you think you're under attack by archons, or in more dumbed down modern terms, demons? Well maybe... I can point to a string of attacks recently... But the point of the attack is to see the truth. Its you. Stop taking yourself so seriously. Stop overthinking things. Don't even stop - that implies **_doing something_** - stop stopping. Just get over it. You're causing problems - immediate now-karma - by leading with your thinking. That "Protestant work ethic" is just this human impulse to control formalized into a phrase. But its sin. Not the "sin" they preach in church - that understanding of sin is the result of sin. You leading with your mind is disobedience to God. Or denial of truth. Its a diversion, its missing the mark. Its like, you kind of see the outline of reality, but its a model, and you follow its course to its conclusions, but its the conclusions of a model and not reality. The only answer is to just be. Stop being and be.
Man, I miss Asia... The chill Asia. You could divide it into north and south, and put the dividing line maybe around Taiwan, and chill is south and unchill is north, although I think southern attitudes extend in tendrils northward.
People coming from a culture shaped by the Protestant work ethic - North America or northern Europe - tend to view such chillness with disdain. Among northerners, including in Asia, there's this idea that harsh winters keep people disciplined, and that explains the wealth disparity between north and south. That's bullshit. What it is is values. Some people value the game, and they play it. Some people don't like the game, and don't. The Protestants got their theology wrong, but were very convinced, and they went around preaching their worldview, which was clearly distinct from the Catholic worldview, and it included their "work ethic." Its the fundamental belief that work is inherently good, regardless of result. To these people, "work smarter, not harder," is only acceptable because of the word "work," but they see it as sinful (literally) to try to work less, as well as sinful to try to be knowledgeable, so working smarter is proof that you're a sinner. In their eyes. And not usually consciously - its implicit in their mostly unarticulated worldview. And from this worldview, we get the general state of things in northern countries - a default of "fuck you" built in to every system - exemplified by the Empire of Fuck You, the US. Things can't simply work - everything must maximize the work you must do to interface with things. We must have rules, and punishments for violators. We can't leave each other alone. Everyone must conform. Everyone must behave. Everyone must be constantly stressed and on guard, lest they break some rule unknowingly and be punished, sometimes by an official who found outlet for their psychopathy in their paid gig, and sometimes by automated systems. No one is simply leaving each other alone.
And I must stress this point - its all founded on bad theology. Its incoherent, ignorant, un-self-aware garbage. They repeat, "in the world but not of it," and maybe it registers somewhere in them that they're reacting to the general state of horribleness around them, but it doesn't register that if they actually lived by the meaning of the phrase, it would all be so much less horrible. Things might even be pleasant. Such a thing really does exist, though in my experience, only in Asia. Maybe in South America, too. Theologically, its a misunderstanding because they haven't bothered to think about what their bibles say. They won the right to read their bibles in their own language, which I think is great, but then they quit thinking. Critically thinking about what it means? Oh no, that's too far, you heretic! But the truth is, they don't read their Bibles. They buy Bibles with tabs already on them, set to various significant verses they never look at, and highlighting already printed on the pages, and almost half the page given to some kind of rather un-useful commentary. That un-useful commentary really massages the Protestant work ethic - it **_looks_** like a lot of work went into it, and you are some degree **_more serious_** if you have that kind of Bible. Garbage. I could spell out the correct understanding... Should I?... No. Protestant work ethic aside, some things really should be earned. Not "earned" - that word emphasizes the work over the result. The result negates the work. Bah... I'm not saying it.
And in Asia, the theology coming up from the south is really quite genius. I'm talking mostly about Buddhism, but there's some overlap with Hinduism and Taoism, and amazingly little disagreement with Catholicism, though I don't know if the Catholics know it. Basically the whole schtick with Buddhism is that the game is garbage. They don't want to play it. This world is to be overcome, and it sure would be nice to escape it. But the only way to overcome it is to see the humor of it. See the trickster, and not only call him out, but join in the fun. Its all the same anyways. Oh you think you're under attack by archons, or in more dumbed down modern terms, demons? Well maybe... I can point to a string of attacks recently... But the point of the attack is to see the truth. Its you. Stop taking yourself so seriously. Stop overthinking things. Don't even stop - that implies **_doing something_** - stop stopping. Just get over it. You're causing problems - immediate now-karma - by leading with your thinking. That "Protestant work ethic" is just this human impulse to control formalized into a phrase. But its sin. Not the "sin" they preach in church - that understanding of sin is the result of sin. You leading with your mind is disobedience to God. Or denial of truth. Its a diversion, its missing the mark. Its like, you kind of see the outline of reality, but its a model, and you follow its course to its conclusions, but its the conclusions of a model and not reality. The only answer is to just be. Stop being and be.
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