Gautam BakshiI got this idea a few days ago while listening to a philosphy podcast.
If someone is straving, we will give them food. If a society is withholding food from people we will rise up and consider that society monsters.
Yet that is where it ends. After our physical needs are met, the spiritual and human needs are left to their own.
As nothing is left to protect those needs, other people's agendas start to creep up. We start to see our value in the context of our work, our output, our material goods, and so on.
I remember how bad I felt as a kid when I had the "fake" version of popular snacks(My mom didn't realize the damage she did to any potentional dates I would get when she purchased "Crisp Rice" with asian writing on the packaging instead of "Rice Crispys").
Over time our values get taken over by others
This is super dangerous because it not just harms us but it harms society as a whole, because everyone starts to conform into a single value system. This is not the way we should operate.
In graph theory, this would be considered a constentrated network. It would be when everyone is connected with a single idea. This is often how communist societies operate and folks with political idology.
On the other side, when we see people act on their own, we as a society admire them from far. As much hate as Elon Musk or Kayne get, they are still popular and have legions of fans. The more they show they dont' care, the more people like them.
The interesting thing is the most vocal opponents to Elon, for example, are goverment and polical leaders who may simple see people like him damaging their closed network.
What is the solution?
I have no idea.
But maybe the solution isn't the point. Maybe the options aren't to be Kayne or a Robot. Maybe those are just choices one can make within the range of options. Perhaps the first step is to be aware that as people we do not have time - We are time.
With that realization, regardless of if we adopted others views to fit in or because we agree with it that level of awareness can help us see our place.
I cannot say what the meaning of life is, but for me I love creating and building. The act of expression makes me feel alive and unique regardless of billions of people have done what I have done before(I may not be the first to make pizza but how many people do you know that expirement with Korean and Jamaican spices on their pizza!!).
The point is, the system left to it's own vices will turn you into a robot. It will encourage you to put everything into a job that you don't like, to impress people who reenforce those beliefs, and at the end of your life you may feel that it went by so far.
Seneca said in his essay on the shortness of life that life is NOT short. We use waste it chasing things that we later realize don't matter to us.