Celebrity actors, musicians & athletes are revered as gods of Mount Olympus because they do labor sufficient to earn a living that is creative and that they do not dislike. Meanwhile the average person must do labor they do not like or labor that they might like, but that is under oppressive/ exploitative/coercive conditions. Celebrities, it appears, may work, but they do not toil.
To live in a society in which only a minute group of people do work that is creative, involves autonomy and is not highly exploitive is quite bizarre. A study of the anthropological record and the ability to be in touch with one's deep self allows one to understand how such a set of living arrangements goes entirely against our DNA as human beings and how we evolved.
As one gazes upon urban and suburban wildlife, one does not get the idea that other species exist under such an extraordinary arrangement. Walking down 18th St. in Pilsen, I do not observe a tiny group of pigeons engaging in free and independent flying, perching, strutting and scavenging, while the other 99% of pigeons do rote, coerced labor grudgingly, resentfully, against their will. It appears that all pigeons engage in cooing, feather flapping, pecking, nest building & popcorn eating. As a result, we do not see pigeons tumbling into depression, needing to take medication for it or self-medicating with peach scnapps and Hamms beer.
Richard Alle Allen Reese is finishing writing a book called Wild, Happy & Free. The title is a descriptor of how humans and most (all?) other species are designed to live. Certainly for humans, living any other way is the way of misery.
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