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- Is God beating me up or trying to get me to move?
- How can I break out of our capitalistic system and still survive?
- Should I just build my business or get a job as a safety net?
- Should I take a pay cut and hate my work to make my wife happy?
- I want to find my passions and dream vocation really bad but it’s like my brain and heart are drowning.
Question #2 is interesting – from what I’ve read and heard of communism, it’s all about “survival” – not thriving. Many years ago, Vladimir Pozner (a staunch advocate of communism) wrote a book with a glowing overview of the communist utopian ideal. It wasn’t until his final chapter that he revealed the reality of the Soviet Union – the rates of alcoholism and drug abuse in young people was close to 50%, and the reason they gave was that they were “bored,” their lives were meaningless and they knew their futures by the time they were 13 or so. Under communism, every person is guaranteed a job – and the government puts you in the job that IT believes you are capable of and / or that is necessary for the good of the collective. So, that 13 year old with ADHD has no chance of going to university – that’s the one shunted into the ditch-digging brigade, because the state doesn’t want to waste resources to educate him / her. Ballet icon Rudolph Nureyev defected to the United States because the Party was going to send him to university to become an engineer.
Breaking out of “capitalism” may seem like a wonderful thing, because everything is guaranteed – food, shelter, employment, and yes, health care. The hell of communism is because everything is guaranteed – food, shelter, employment, health care; the difference is the individual has NO choices or options to make changes in any of those categories.
Perfect example: The government program that is supposed to help mothers and children in need stay nourished, WIC (Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children) sounds like a great idea but you are very limited on what brands you can buy such as milk. You can’t buy a healthier alternative on the shelf if it’s not been approved by the system. (Totally useless in my opinion. Not that I’d ever be apart of such a program…) I just heard a co-worker talking about it. The point is no choice = no freedom = no passion!