A Rat Race To Nowhere
To many people born into wealthy families, a life of material stability and steady career advancement is an unbearable prospect.
by Ben Cohen
Growing up in a well off family and having almost unlimited education opportunities is not the classic definition of a difficult childhood. But to many people born into wealthy families, a life of material stability and steady career advancement is an unbearable prospect.
This was the predicament I faced when leaving college — a gnawing sensation that everything I had grown up believing was, well, not quite right. I saw friends of mine head off to the city to work in banking, media and law. They worked hard and many moved their way up their respective corporate hierarchies towards financial stability and success. This was not something I felt I could do, and instead moved to Los Angeles and eked out a living teaching and training in Martial Arts, writing about boxing, and starting a political blog.
From a financial point of view, this was not a particularly great strategy. I rarely knew how much money I was going to make from one month to the next, could barely pay my rent, and had to sacrifice almost all material luxuries. I chose freedom over money and an unconventional career path that had absolutely no guarantees. This cost me relationships, savings, career opportunities and caused a great deal of existential anguish. By conventional standards, I was a complete failure, and there were many days I felt like that. But I was doing what I wanted, and found some solace in the fact that I wasn’t in a job I hated and had an enormous amount of flexibility in my life.
Thankfully, my parents were extremely supportive (and generous) so I was able to travel home regularly, fix my car (after totaling it), and buy food during months when nothing was coming in. So I wasn’t starving, and compared to most of the human population, I was absolutely fine. But it wasn’t easy, and still isn’t given I’ve yet to have a proper job and have no idea how much money I will make from one year to the next. I’m married and have a little boy now, so the stakes are higher, and on occasion, the fear and doubts creep in and tell me I’ve done it all wrong. But I am who I am, and at 37 it’s too late to start a career in banking.
So what exactly was my problem with the nine to five, a conventional career, and making as much money as possible? Why are many others opting out of college and not buying into the previous generation’s perception of success? Here’s my best attempt to explain it:
Over the past decade college students have suffered from truly astonishing levels of mental illness and anxiety. They are unable to withstand the brutal workload, competitiveness and stress of enormous student debt, and as a result, are dropping out of college like flies and entering the work force with no real qualifications. Having bought into their parent’s mantra that they must get a job, take out a credit card, and purchase a house, many are now crippled with self doubt and insecurity about their self worth. Their culture tells them they are unproductive losers with no drive, no ambition, and no respect for what their parents went through.
The problem is, this has been going on for quite some time, and more and more young adults are rejecting the premise altogether. Increasingly, they don’t want to take part in a system that requires them to sign their life away to debt and corporate servitude. They don’t want to live a life defined by career achievement and material consumption, and value their freedom over everything else. The incredible rise of the sharing economy is evidence of this, as is the burgeoning environmental movement that is questioning the basis of capitalism. The artist Banksy said:
“The human race is an unfair and stupid competition. A lot of the runners don’t even get decent sneakers or clean drinking water. Some people are born with a massive head start, every possible help along the way and still the referees seem to be on their side. It’s not surprising some people have given up competing altogether and gone to sit in the grandstand, eat junk food and shout abuse. What we need in this race is a lot more streakers.”
Perhaps I am, and always have been one of the streakers — a growing band of dissenters trying to point out that there is nowhere to run to. Rather than competing in a pointless race that creates enormous amounts of stress and anxiety, we might as well enjoy our time on earth and try to do something we actually like. In a society full of Very Serious People, this attitude is always frowned upon. But now the race is so competitive, so brutal, and so soul destroying, the decision to opt out is getting easier and easier. No one in their right mind would go $200,000 into debt in their early twenties in order to get an education, so not going to college is now a pretty sensible idea. Not that I’m dismissing higher education altogether, but it is high time we began questioning some very basic assumptions.
These were thoughts I grappled with in my early 20’s, and I’m very glad I did.
I have learned over the years is that money and career success rarely translates to happiness or fulfillment. The number of rich people I know who suffer from mental illness, strained familial relationships, and related physical ailments grows by the year. They often hate their jobs and yearn to do something they love, but lack the courage to do anything about it. As they get older, they become more resigned to their lives and spend more money trying to numb themselves from the pain. This is, I think, why we live in such a materialistic society.
The younger you are when you begin see all of this, the better. I don’t think it is ever too late, but it is certainly harder to pack in your high paying job when you are in your 40’s to start a career teaching guitar (and if that is you, then I would highly recommend doing it, regardless of what those Very Serious People have to say about it).
If I had allowed my upbringing and the society I was born into define my success, I would regard myself as having failed miserably. However, I have worked extremely hard to redefine what it means to be successful. There are still days when I forget, but I have developed enough discipline to override those feelings of anxiety and doubt. This is a skill I highly recommend developing, particularly if you don’t enjoy what you are doing and would like to make a change.
I’ve always thought the saying “Even if you win the rat race, you are still a rat,” was too harsh. You can be successful and still be a good person. You just might have been happier not racing in the first place.
(image source: Steve Cutts)
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