Claiming insanity so you can write

[Anonymous No.3683971]

So this guy purposely went on disability support so he could think, write, and devote his life to philosophy.

He saw a psychiatrist and argued that his purpose in life is to find "the truth" and contemplate philosophy deeply instead of working a normal 9-5.

After 18 months of review they made up some sort of disorder and he has been living comfortably off disability since 1994.

>At root, my condition was philosophical, rather than medical. I was applying for the DSP on the basis that I had a strong philosophic nature and valued wisdom “excessively”.
>Even though my livelihood was on the line, I found the whole situation very amusing and I had a lot of fun dealing with the system in this manner.

>That was in 1994, and now it is 2012 and I am still on this pension, which means for all that time I have been receiving an income from the government – that is to say, from the Australian taxpayers – and have contributed nothing of any economic value in return.

http://geniusrealms.com/blogosphere/?p=269

This is the type of support a lot of writers, thinkers and artists need. Without having to label us as suffering from a disorder.

[Anonymous No.3683974]

Why? Like he said they contribute nothing, so they get nothing.

[Anonymous No.3683979]

>>3683974
>Like he said they contribute nothing, so they get nothing.

Economic value isn't the only sort of value one can contribute.

[Anonymous No.3683986]

It is very disturbing that all these NEETs seem to think the only thing that's keeping them from literary success is the fear that they'll have to earn money for 40 hours out of the 168 in a week.

"Yeah, all I need is MORE free time. Then I'll be a good writer!"

Nah, you'll be shit no matter how many hours you have for 4chan, wastrels.

[Anonymous No.3683981]

>>3683974
He's saying "noting of economic value" though. So he may just be playing you a catch

[Anonymous No.3683996]

Many working Australians complain loudly about the “dole bludgers” who live the high life at the taxpayers’ expense, but the truth is very few people at the moment can bear such a lifestyle. Most people need structure and purpose in their lives and instinctively look outwards to society to provide these things for them. I have personally known quite a few people, intelligent types with an interest in philosophical matters, who have attempted to live for an extended time on the dole and it was not long before they were crawling up the walls in boredom and frustration. To them, it felt like a living death. You really need to have a strong inner purpose and a mind that can create its own entertainment to find life on the dole fulfilling. When you are on the dole you have no money to do anything, you are on the lowest rung on the social ladder, men treat you with ridicule and contempt, women look past you as though you were invisible, and you have endless amounts of time to brood. For most people, this is the very definition of hell.

The question of having free time into order to properly settle the mind and think clearly is not the only issue at hand. There is also the question of values. Given the way society currently is, it is impossible to imagine anyone lasting a week in an employment situation while remaining faithful to the truth. Can you imagine asking the boss for three days off because you wanted to explore a fantastic new insight into reality that occurred to you overnight? Or the boss’s reaction if you refused to perform a particular instruction because you considered it to be dishonest and exploitative? You would be out on your ear in no time. Employers demand loyalty – to them. They could not care less about your mental and spiritual development.

[Anonymous No.3684019]

>>3683986
>40hours a week isn't much

Except when you factor in all the maintenance involved in those 40hours.
You have to groom yourself, shower more than necessary, go to sleep early so you can wake up early. You have to commute to work--this could add another 1-2 hours on your time. Prepare a lunch and other things. Some people take work home with them.

The 8hours easily turns into 10hours for almost everyone who works full time because of the "work maintenance" involved.

And this is just for work, never mind the normal errands people have to do.

>"Yeah, all I need is MORE free time. Then I'll be a good writer!"

The amount of actual free-time I have, with no distractions, is maybe 2-3hours a day.
And during that time I just want to relax and not think about anything too intensely.

[Anonymous No.3684029]

>Some people have told me that if I feel so strongly about these matters, then I should completely divorce myself from society and live on a plot of land somewhere, growing my own vegetables and living a self-sufficient lifestyle. However, divorcing oneself from society is not the answer. It is a sign that one has given up on the human race, which I have not. I want to help people. I believe in the capacity of the human brain and its potential. We can see in the technology around us what a marvel the human mind is. It just needs help in being liberated from its limited frameworks. People sometimes need a spark, a stimulating interaction, to help free their minds from their habitual ways of looking at the world, enabling them to see that what they normally consider to be important is really not so important. Being on the pension allows me to provide some of these sparks, while remaining true to myself.

living the life.

[Anonymous No.3684046]

>>3684019
Psst. You can read on public transit. You can listen to audiobooks and podcasts in your car or on public transit.

Very few people take work home with them.

You're blowing it all out of proportion--"but there's time I don't get paid for--!" Make it yours, you big cry baby.

[Anonymous No.3684058]

Perhaps such a system could be put in place for those who show themselves to be competent and influential intellectuals under regular circumstances. But you shouldn't be given a free rise through life just because
>hurr im so much smarter then everyone else everywhere all the time forever and iv got 2 much of the smartz 2 work why cant i be a philosopher king?

[Anonymous No.3684066]

>>3683979
>Economic value isn't the only sort of value one can contribute.
Literature and philosophy majors have some sort of bizarre desire to be a kind of modern day aristocracy - they seem to feel that the books they read and the thoughts they think are just so important that the fruits of working class people should just be given to them so they can read their books and think their thoughts without having to earn their keep.

You do realize that the same morons who once devoted themselves to find numerological patterns in the bible in hopes of divining the secrets of the universe felt their work was similarly oh so special?

[Anonymous No.3684069]

>>3684058

free ride*

[Anonymous No.3684068]

>>3684046

There's no sense in justifying something inherently undesirable, that people have to be paid/bribed to do.

The time problem is a practical inconvenience that not only limits your ability to think and write but limits the amount of experiences you could potentially have in this life.

It sounds like you don't commute to work, everyone I know who works in the city wastes 1-2hours commuting each day. 10hours of your day gone is quite a big deal when people are only away for 16hours. The other 6 hours are punctuated by errands, chores, tasks, and regular human affairs that have to be dealt with.

Leaving myself, and I assume many others only 2-3hours a day if they are lucky.

The other issue is the psychological impact of punctuating your day with trivial bullshit just so you can get a pay cheque. It's like never being allowed to have a good nights sleep.

[Anonymous No.3684078]

>>3684068
Who said work is fun? For most people it isn't. That doesn't change the fact the guy in the OP is a worthless leech.

[Anonymous No.3684081]

>>3684058
>Perhaps such a system could be put in place for those who show themselves to be competent and influential intellectuals under regular circumstances.

That only perpetuates the status quo, a unique thinker won't be appreciated instantly because he's not operating within the systems normal values.

And then of course you'll get arguments from STEM types who would say all arts and most theoretical sciences are useless and all money should go to the engineers doing practical thinking.

[Anonymous No.3684088]

>>3684078
>Who said work is fun? For most people it isn't.

Society conditions you to value it and think those who reject it are leeches.

>guy is a leech

given your current value system which is a product of a wage-driven consumerist market

[Anonymous No.3684092]

What in Sam Hell is going on around here?

[Anonymous No.3684094]

>>3684068
>regular human affairs that have to be dealt with
Luckily there are some like me who have reached euphoria through atheism and have risen above such childish societal obligations.

Religion is for fools.

[Anonymous No.3684095]

>>3684081

I don't care man. I really don't. Until you can prove yourself to be a competent, intelligent human being living the normal life, why should society baby you? What have you to show that you're a good thinker? You expect society to throw money at everyone who once read a book of philosophy? You're foolish, manipulative, and evil. People have, throughout the ages, shown they can be intellectuals while still being normal people. The inability to think AND function is a sign of mental weakness, and those who are mentally weak should not be given money for their mind.

[Anonymous No.3684098]

>>3684094
>I have no friends.

You're a rockstar.

[Anonymous No.3684102]

>>3684098
>friends
Forced onto you by the deity you worship to compensate for a lackadaisical mind.

[Anonymous No.3684111]

>>3684095

Also, all that post-structuralist mumbo-jumbo about the status quo and all that is sophist bullshit, Clearly you are nothing but an intellectual trickster. You should not be endorsed.

[Anonymous No.3684112]

>>3684095
>why should society baby you?

I'm okay with working 4hours a day, 3days a week--or something reasonable like that.

I think people's lives should revolve around what interests them and what they are passionate about not a job they get a salary at, and not something they can convert into a money making business to justify their passion for it.

[Anonymous No.3684114]

>>3684088
>Society conditions you to value it and think those who reject it are leeches.
Look at people in hunter-gatherer societies then. They have more free time than us, certainly, though they also die much sooner. Even so, they all know how to fight wars, hunt, fish, build bows, build huts, weave clothes, forage, and perform other useful skills.

You just seem to desperately wish for a society in which you sitting around pontificating about capitalism matters at all. Have you ever even taken an economics 101 course?

[Anonymous No.3684119]

>>3684095
>I don't care man. I really don't. Until you can prove yourself to be a competent, intelligent human being living the normal life, why should society baby you?

Do you realize how many great artists and even scientists were ignored by society until 50-100 years after they died?

Luckily they managed to make a living in other ways. Being instantly recognized as a genius shouldn't be a criteria for support. Society already supports these types.

[Anonymous No.3684124]

>>3684112
>I'm okay with working 4hours a day, 3days a week--or something reasonable like that.
Then find a part time job and see how well you live on that. Nobody's stopping you, bro.

[Anonymous No.3684126]

>>3684114
>You just seem to desperately wish for a society in which you sitting around pontificating about capitalism matters at all.

Take it easy bro
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMUiwTubYu0

>Have you ever even taken an economics 101 course?

I have a degree in Econ actually, why do you ask?

[Anonymous No.3684130]

>I firmly believe that my work is of tremendous relevance to all human beings, whether they realize it or not, and thoroughly deserving of the small pittance I receive for it. There are a lot of people, such as politicians, public servants, administrators and academics, who also derive their income from the taxpayers. Can they also claim that their work is of great significance to humanity? Many professors enjoy enormous salaries that completely dwarf my income for work that has a fraction of the value of my own. Should they be called upon to justify their parasitic ways?


>It would be a strange thing indeed if you observed a person who is committed to the principle of human equality working for the Ku Klux Klan. The clash of values alone would be striking. From my perspective as a spiritual man, nearly everything that happens in society, both within the work-place environment and beyond, is equivalent to the inner workings of the Ku Klux Klan. The same kind of insanity and violence is in play, although expressed in a multitude of different ways. How could I, a lover of truth, possibly involve myself in these places in an official capacity and actively promote their values? It is unthinkable.

This guy's a fucking goldmine.

[Anonymous No.3684132]

>>3684112

>the economy does not exist because I do not want it to
>society exists, but it does not effect me

If you were such an excellent thinker, you would realize there's a reason we have people working.

[Anonymous No.3684133]

>>3684124
>Then find a part time job and see how well you live on that. Nobody's stopping you, bro.

That's my plan actually. Except I'm going to do it in SE Asia where the cost of living is 1/10 of what it is here.

I estimate I can live off my savings without working for 2-3 years, and then I plan on teaching english part time, 16-20hours a week

[Anonymous No.3684137]

>>3684132
>If you were such an excellent thinker, you would realize there's a reason we have people working.

I understand the reality of our current system. I just don't want to be a slave to it like the others.

[Anonymous No.3684140]

>>3684137
>everyone who works for a living, even if they enjoy what they do, is a slave

[Anonymous No.3684157]

>>3684140
>>everyone who works for a living, even if they enjoy what they do, is a slave

even if a small number of people "enjoy" their work they would prefer to do it outside the structure of paid-labor, a schedule, a contract, a necessary commute, a necessary chain of command.

People enjoy playing starcraft, and there are pros who play starcraft as a job. They would prefer to just play starcraft itself instead of having that job. The job is stressful, requires a schedule, advertising and making appearances, and all sorts of headaches.

The work itself might be enjoyable in a certain context, but when you turn it into an obligation and attach conditions to it, you have something else entirely.

[Anonymous No.3684158]

hey guys what if we didn't work all day and had a good work life balance?

>go fuck yourself leech, contribute to society, sacrifice yourself for the motherland!!!! your pleasure doesn't help THE CAUSE!!!!

lol

[Anonymous No.3684163]

>>3684158
>Deride people who work for a living for not seeing past "the system".
>Demand that they fund you jacking off and reading Zizek all day.

[Anonymous No.3684165]

>>3684137

Then go become a wise man out in the woods, occasionally showing up to society to provide your immense knowledge.

[Anonymous No.3684175]

>>3684165
>Then go become a wise man out in the woods, occasionally showing up to society to provide your immense knowledge.

Hopefully in my 3 year vacation I'll create something of value that will support me for my whole life, without having to work, if not, i'll teach part time
see: >>3684133

[Anonymous No.3684183]

>>3684157
Can't have pleasure without suffering. Jobs may be stressful and not always a good time, but there's a chance, a good chance, that it will all be worth it in the end. assuming we're talking about people who enjoy what they do, which is not -that- small.

[Anonymous No.3684207]

>>3684183
>a good chance, that it will all be worth it in the end.

what does this even mean?

[Anonymous No.3684211]

>>3684207
You'll have spent your life doing something that you enjoy and likely accomplished something significant in the process.
Banal and vacuous, I know. I apologize, and will retreat from this debate.