Alizée is vital in maintaining your sanity in a working world

[Rictor]

I just came to the realization that Alizée is the only reason I have not gone nuts from working.

I didn't understand this until maybe last year or so. It's very simple: work is slavery. Make no mistake about it; if you are required to spend a certain amount of time on certain days in order to acquire BASIC human needs such as money for food, water, etc, then you are a slave. All of us who work for someone else are slaves, regardless of how much one enjoys their job (which, to be fair, very few do).

The following is an excerpt from Bob Black's "The Abolition of Work":

"The degradation which most workers experience on the job is the sum of assorted indignities which can be denominated as 'discipline.' Discipline consists of the totality of totalitarian controls at the workplace -- surveillance, rotework, imposed work tempos, production quotas, punching -in and -out, etc. Discipline is what the factory and the office and the store share with the prison and the school and the mental hospital. It is something historically original and horrible. It was beyond the capacities of such demonic dictators of yore as Nero and Genghis Khan and Ivan the Terrible. For all their bad intentions they just didn't have the machinery to control their subjects as thoroughly as modern despots do."

Before anyone starts to say, "well if you don't want to work, you are simply lazy." False. I am passionate about other things, but if I have to be forced to do something under the direction of someone else, I am basically a slave. It is indirect coercion. Technically, no one is FORCING us to work. We can choose to have no money, be homeless, and die off somewhere. But how many of us would be willing to choose that option? Unless you are wealthy, you do not have the luxury of choosing to NOT work. So in essence, we ARE forced to work for someone else. And depending on where you work, your educational background, etc. you will have varying degrees of contempt for your job. Not only that, but with the U.S. economy the way it is, we are told that we should be GRATEFUL to have a job. "Grateful." We should be grateful that we can be someone's bitch.

Ok, so how are workers kept from going insane? Very simple - through bullshit. Think about the last time you or someone you knew sat through an entertaining movie or tv show or something else media related. In that moment, you were completely absorbed in what you were watching. You temporarily forgot about your troubles and instead focused on meaningless crap. Same goes for video games where many people can live vicariously through their characters in the games. This is how many people are forced to "recharge" during weekends or days off in order to get ready for YET ANOTHER CRAPPY WORK WEEK.

I won't lie, there have been moments where I thought about dying. I felt like my life was ebbing away and that it really wasn't fair that we all have to live this way. That's when I take a step back, and Alizée steps in. "J'ai Pas Vingt Ans" reminds me time and time again that life is worth living, and worth fighting for.

I'm really glad the rest of you share my love for Alizée. She truly is special. Until we find a better way to obtain adequate food and shelter for ALL, we will continue to have to put up with the unbelievable hardships of work. Luckily for us, Alizée will be there, providing us with hope and helping us get through another day.

[MarkL]

Without IPods and MP3s containing Alizee I couldnt live...

[Människöpesten]

alizée does some work. tis true.

[Azhiri]

Interesting perspective, Rictor. I always thought of jobs as a way to give back to the community, not just earning money to sustain your own life. Like if you're a rocket scientist, like my dad, you're contributing to our knowledge of space and such. If you're a doctor or nurse, you're helping people get better. Even if your job is one that is considered "easy" or even "unimportant," like a cashier at McDonald's, you're helping people in some way.

I certainly can't talk since I've never had a job before, I'm just trying to put kind of a positive light on the job thing. I do know that jobs are exhausting, though. If something like school takes a lot out of me, I can only imagine how an actual job must be.

It's true, though, Alizee's music has definitely helped me stay sane during my first week of high school. Even if that's not actual work.

[Rictor]

Originally Posted by Azhiri

Interesting perspective, Rictor. I always thought of jobs as a way to give back to the community, not just earning money to sustain your own life. Like if you're a rocket scientist, like my dad, you're contributing to our knowledge of space and such. If you're a doctor or nurse, you're helping people get better. Even if your job is one that is considered "easy" or even "unimportant," like a cashier at McDonald's, you're helping people in some way.

If you happen to have a job where you're able to help people as part of the job description, that is definitely, as you say, a positive thing. That's one of the reasons why I majored in Social Work. But it never works out the way you think it will. Even though you can gain satisfaction through helping others, there are other things you have to deal with - such as coworkers gossiping about you, the demeaning way in which your superiors sometimes talk to you. E.g. a supervisor at a previous job I had made a really sexist comment while "coaching" me and I had to restrain my urge to smack her. She said something like, "you didn't do this as well as (insert name of other worker here), maybe it's because you're a man and men are simple minded..."

And again, if we were to do our jobs simply out of joy or SOLELY to help others, it would not be a problem. But since there are so many things you are FORCED to deal with, it's not quite that simple.

Also, have you noticed a lot of people say that they're "bored" every once in a while? You know why? It's because of what we've become. In the days of the hunter/gatherers, people didn't "get bored." They simply spent most of their day looking for food, eating, sleeping, resting. And guess what? There were no instances of diabetes, cancer, or high blood pressure. They just chilled all day, didn't fuck up nature, and if you had a problem with someone in your tribe, you can LEAVE. On top of that, despite the fact that their diets were high in fat and protein, there was no such thing as heart disease or anything of that nature. They were in fact much healthier than we are. They didn't have to deal with the stresses of work and they didn't grow up eating processed foods and other junk. They're able to live without it because IT DIDN'T EVEN EXIST. You can't miss what you never had, right?

[Människöpesten]

highschool is pretty chill. gogo senior year.

[ALS]

I work with women everyday and probably the only reason I don't hate all women is Alizée. When your General Manager walks into your office and closes the door you know she is annoyed. Sits down and looks at me about two months ago and says "I hate them", referring to my female employees. I replied and you wondered why I try so hard not to talk to them.

When your around people all day that bitch moan and complain just to hear themselves talk you really don't think much of your fellow man.

Example: Women employee gets married in mid-March and cuts another six hours out of her weekly schedule. Then sits there and complains how her bi-weekly paycheck has really dropped.

When your only working twenty five hours a week how could you expect a decent paycheck. I couldn't get her to work forty hours a week if her life depended on it.

I have one single mom with a sixteen year old daughter that is making really good money. She normally makes around $35 per hour with her commissions and bonuses, and will take all the hours I can give her. The others all they do is criticize her for every little thing she does.

She does the same job yet makes fifty percent more to double the money they do per hour. Difference she wants to make money and some of the others want put in as little time as possible for their paycheck. They work when they are here they just keep cutting their hours then complain how they are making less this year over last year.

I always tell them "The more I work around you people the more I like Alizée."

[Rictor]

Originally Posted by ALS

I work with women everyday and probably the only reason I don't hate all women is Alizée. When your around people all day that bitch moan and complain just to hear themselves talk you really don't think much of your fellow man.

I hate people who complain about every little task. These are the same people who can never be satisfied no matter what they get.

Sometimes I feel like I'm one of the few people left in this world who just shuts up and does the work. Maybe that's why I usually have greater respect for hard working laborers as opposed to idiots who sit at a desk all day doing nothing and STILL find SOMETHING to complain about while going for their tenth cup of Starbucks coffee.

And the type of women we run into in the workplace....ah...they will hate on you for a variety of reasons.

- If you look better than they do - they hate you.

- If you mind your own business, do your own work and don't give them the same attention they get from the horndog guys - they will interpret that as you thinking you're better than them and hate on you.

- If you don't join in their discussions where they complain about shit, they automatically hate on you too and will make you part of their targets for gossip.

It's not the actual work that make working suck, it's certain PEOPLE that make work suck.

Edit:

Also - if you think that you're done dealing with stereotypes, prejudice and all this childish crap that we all encounter in childhood, school, etc....you've got another thing coming. These people can be well into their 30's and 40's and NEVER grow up. At least not when it comes to intellectual capacity and having a modicum of refinement.

[Människöpesten]

Originally Posted by Rictor

I hate people who complain about every little task. These are the same people who can never be satisfied no matter what they get.

Sometimes I feel like I'm one of the few people left in this world who just shuts up and does the work. Maybe that's why I usually have greater respect for hard working laborers as opposed to idiots who sit at a desk all day doing nothing and STILL find SOMETHING to complain about while going for their tenth cup of Starbucks coffee.

And the type of women we run into in the workplace....ah...they will hate on you for a variety of reasons.

- If you look better than they do - they hate you.

- If you mind your own business, do your own work and don't give them the same attention they get from the horndog guys - they will interpret that as you thinking you're better than them and hate on you.

- If you don't join in their discussions where they complain about shit, they automatically hate on you too and will make you part of their targets for gossip.

It's not the actual work that make working suck, it's certain PEOPLE that make work suck.

Edit:

Also - if you think that you're done dealing with stereotypes, prejudice and all this childish crap that we all encounter in childhood, school, etc....you've got another thing coming. These people can be well into their 30's and 40's and NEVER grow up. At least not when it comes to intellectual capacity and having a modicum of refinement.

seconded.

[Rictor]

Originally Posted by Människöpesten

seconded.

I think that's what draws people like us to Metal in the first place. The lyrical and musical content in Metal usually satisfy the feelings we have about these kinds of things. But I'm sure none of us really want to be pissed off all the time. And maybe that's why we're also into Alizée - because she represents that other side of humanity that we LIKE. Just an absolute beauty floating around in an ugly world. Someone who just seems to ooze positivity in spite of everything that's going on around us. Alizée IS love.