I’ve associated with a tonne of PMC types and they are all exactly the same person.
Core to this is that they have mainlined ideology (schniff) since birth and lead completely unexamined lives. They have absolutely no goals or dreams of their own, they’ve just absorbed the goals that society has set for them – office job and rise through the ranks, buy car, find stable and “sensible” partner, do travel, get married, purchase house, have children, have a successful career, die slightly ahead on points compared to your contemporaries.
There is an absolutely hollow core at the centre of their lives, and they have never considered for a second “what would actually make me happy?”. They certainly haven’t ever considered anything beyond themselves (or at most their social circle), except maybe some safe volunteering because it looks good on a CV and instagram. They are absolutely starved of meaning and they are completely oblivious to this, and their brains grasp on to whatever arbitrary meaning they can find.
So they grasp on to appearing successful, for moulding the perfect facebook/instagram image of your life. None of it is actually even for enjoyment or happiness, even the "fun" bits. I went travelling with a bunch of them once, we went to one of the most stunning lookout spots imaginable and not one of them actually looked and took in the view, it was just constant selfies and the second they got back into wifi range it was a competition to get the pictures onto Instagram (one of them no joke posted them with #mylifeisbetterthanyours). On the way back when I mentioned a protest, one of them asked “why would you protest?”, not to antagonise but as if the concept of caring about anything outside your personal circle was so foreign and alien that it had never even crossed their mind.
And forefront in all their minds is just “progressing my career” for the sake of progressing their career. I honestly think it’s not even for the money, it’s that they literally have no conception of what else to do. Even when they’re already burnt-out into lifeless husks, they still keep trying to climb the ladder to jobs that will burn them out even more, knowing absolutely that it will hurt them but doing it anyway because that’s success baby. And because their jobs and lives are so meaningless, their brains subconsciously absorb bullshit about the corporate mission and they assume that it must be a great company with great people because it would be devastating for their little bubble world if it wasn’t. So they love their bosses and the corporate culture and all the other bullshit even as it sucks them dry. And they scoff with disdain at the receptionists and janitors and admin etc who just do what they're paid for in their 8 hours and no more, then go home and focus their energies on enjoying the rest of their lives with their families and friends, because who would possibly live like that?
In amongst all the conversations about fucking mortgages and shit, you can occasionally see their brains desperately trying to rebel, little jokes about wanting to give it all up to become a yoga instructor hohoho how delightfully absurd, but they know full well that they’re never gonna do anything but keep climbing that shitty fucking ladder forever.
I work a PMC job and while there is truth to what you're saying I haven't ever encountered soulless husks like that.
I live in Europe where I'd say most people have their head on straight when it comes to the most basic things at least, for example I very rarely see people significantly sacrifice their family life for their careers, politically they're all absolute brainwashed morons of course but they're not completely lobotomized. That said I think it's getting worse with the younger generations. But also the younger generations tend to be more politically active so it's a mixed bag overall.
This is the experience I've had from Australia, which is supposed to be the "laid-back" country. It's definitely not that they completely sacrifice the other aspects of their life for their career - a vitally-important part of the whole affair is that they have the house and the partner and the overseas holidays, and they work overtime but not 24/7 like lots of American PMCs do, and they take time for their brunches and fancy dinners (they have an absolutely encyclopaedic fucking knowledge of every trendy overpriced new restaurant). The meetings with friends are all about their travels and their mortgages and wedding plans and shit and it's all this exhausting fucking one-upmanship about their "successes" in each of the checkbox items, like they're Patrick Bateman with a new business card.
The essence of it is that it's all about "doing what you're supposed to" and doing it better than your peers, and never examining why you're doing any of it or whether it makes you happy or fulfilled. And it just happens that climbing the career ladder is a core part of doing what you're supposed to, so therefore it must be good, right? And the managers must be good because that's where I am going to be in 2-4 years in this psychotically-detailed map of how every aspect of my life is going to unfold. It's just the same old Keeping Up With The Joneses shit, it's just sad to see it first-hand in so many people.
EDIT: I've got a good friend from old lab nerd days who's only half in to the PMC bullshit but she's gone to work for big pharma and they have absolutely drained her dry with overwork and bullshit, like she looks like a shell of the person she once was and she knows it's killing her inside, and I can see she's not quite indoctrinated enough to uncritically believe all this bullshit. But she can't fight it, she's excited about the workplace opportunities and the career progression and can't fight this pressure even though she knows it's gonna be even more work and bullshit and draining, it's just What You Do. And the bosses are so supportive and lovely in giving her career progression opportunities (ie throwing even more fucking work at her and pretending like it's a favour). And I can see my objections to this craziness go in and even connect, but then they get washed away again because "my career progression". It's sadder to see in someone who wasn't a lost cause from the very start.
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I’ve associated with a tonne of PMC types and they are all exactly the same person.
Core to this is that they have mainlined ideology (schniff) since birth and lead completely unexamined lives. They have absolutely no goals or dreams of their own, they’ve just absorbed the goals that society has set for them – office job and rise through the ranks, buy car, find stable and “sensible” partner, do travel, get married, purchase house, have children, have a successful career, die slightly ahead on points compared to your contemporaries.
There is an absolutely hollow core at the centre of their lives, and they have never considered for a second “what would actually make me happy?”. They certainly haven’t ever considered anything beyond themselves (or at most their social circle), except maybe some safe volunteering because it looks good on a CV and instagram. They are absolutely starved of meaning and they are completely oblivious to this, and their brains grasp on to whatever arbitrary meaning they can find.
So they grasp on to appearing successful, for moulding the perfect facebook/instagram image of your life. None of it is actually even for enjoyment or happiness, even the "fun" bits. I went travelling with a bunch of them once, we went to one of the most stunning lookout spots imaginable and not one of them actually looked and took in the view, it was just constant selfies and the second they got back into wifi range it was a competition to get the pictures onto Instagram (one of them no joke posted them with #mylifeisbetterthanyours). On the way back when I mentioned a protest, one of them asked “why would you protest?”, not to antagonise but as if the concept of caring about anything outside your personal circle was so foreign and alien that it had never even crossed their mind.
And forefront in all their minds is just “progressing my career” for the sake of progressing their career. I honestly think it’s not even for the money, it’s that they literally have no conception of what else to do. Even when they’re already burnt-out into lifeless husks, they still keep trying to climb the ladder to jobs that will burn them out even more, knowing absolutely that it will hurt them but doing it anyway because that’s success baby. And because their jobs and lives are so meaningless, their brains subconsciously absorb bullshit about the corporate mission and they assume that it must be a great company with great people because it would be devastating for their little bubble world if it wasn’t. So they love their bosses and the corporate culture and all the other bullshit even as it sucks them dry. And they scoff with disdain at the receptionists and janitors and admin etc who just do what they're paid for in their 8 hours and no more, then go home and focus their energies on enjoying the rest of their lives with their families and friends, because who would possibly live like that?
In amongst all the conversations about fucking mortgages and shit, you can occasionally see their brains desperately trying to rebel, little jokes about wanting to give it all up to become a yoga instructor hohoho how delightfully absurd, but they know full well that they’re never gonna do anything but keep climbing that shitty fucking ladder forever.
Yeah it’s really fucking sad
I work a PMC job and while there is truth to what you're saying I haven't ever encountered soulless husks like that.
I live in Europe where I'd say most people have their head on straight when it comes to the most basic things at least, for example I very rarely see people significantly sacrifice their family life for their careers, politically they're all absolute brainwashed morons of course but they're not completely lobotomized. That said I think it's getting worse with the younger generations. But also the younger generations tend to be more politically active so it's a mixed bag overall.
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Yeah that sounds like hell, my country is part of a decomposing corpse of a dead socialist country but I'll take that over what you guys have.
I can see my country looking like that in 20 years if nothing changes though.
This is the experience I've had from Australia, which is supposed to be the "laid-back" country. It's definitely not that they completely sacrifice the other aspects of their life for their career - a vitally-important part of the whole affair is that they have the house and the partner and the overseas holidays, and they work overtime but not 24/7 like lots of American PMCs do, and they take time for their brunches and fancy dinners (they have an absolutely encyclopaedic fucking knowledge of every trendy overpriced new restaurant). The meetings with friends are all about their travels and their mortgages and wedding plans and shit and it's all this exhausting fucking one-upmanship about their "successes" in each of the checkbox items, like they're Patrick Bateman with a new business card.
The essence of it is that it's all about "doing what you're supposed to" and doing it better than your peers, and never examining why you're doing any of it or whether it makes you happy or fulfilled. And it just happens that climbing the career ladder is a core part of doing what you're supposed to, so therefore it must be good, right? And the managers must be good because that's where I am going to be in 2-4 years in this psychotically-detailed map of how every aspect of my life is going to unfold. It's just the same old Keeping Up With The Joneses shit, it's just sad to see it first-hand in so many people.
EDIT: I've got a good friend from old lab nerd days who's only half in to the PMC bullshit but she's gone to work for big pharma and they have absolutely drained her dry with overwork and bullshit, like she looks like a shell of the person she once was and she knows it's killing her inside, and I can see she's not quite indoctrinated enough to uncritically believe all this bullshit. But she can't fight it, she's excited about the workplace opportunities and the career progression and can't fight this pressure even though she knows it's gonna be even more work and bullshit and draining, it's just What You Do. And the bosses are so supportive and lovely in giving her career progression opportunities (ie throwing even more fucking work at her and pretending like it's a favour). And I can see my objections to this craziness go in and even connect, but then they get washed away again because "my career progression". It's sadder to see in someone who wasn't a lost cause from the very start.
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Can you elaborate on mainlined ideology? I know what ideology is but what’s mainlined?
Mainline, verb (slang) - to inject a narcotic, especially heroin, directly into a vein
Ahhhh got it. Thank you.
Yes
Haha
Yes!
:sicko-spin: