Licking the Razor's Edge (2015)

Addiction #21 – Freedom from SUCCESS
“Yesterday I told a chicken to cross the road.
It looked at me and replied, ‘What for?’” ~ Steven Wright
Americans put in more work hours than any other industrialized nation in the world. We
also get the least amount of vacation time (over 40% of them get no paid vacation at all).
In fact, the average U.S. worker now works more hours per day than did peasants in
medieval times. Indeed, all over the world, workers are told that the good boy or good
girl “stays busy”, that the good employee “works hard”, and that the good person strives
to “become successful”.
It seems that “workaholism” has turned into an international identity, and “productivity”
has become one of our species’ defining addictions.
THE SOURCE OF THE ADDICTION to “PRODUCTIVITY”
The addiction or being “productive” is founded in the base values of every westernized
industrial society, societies where we learn in childhood that we are “loved” (i.e.
complimented or praised) only when we are “industrious”, and that we are unloved (i.e.
ignored or scolded) whenever we are “lazy”.
This mind-set is re-enforced throughout our adult lives – every time we receive a raise for
“working hard” or a criticism from our employer for “not meeting company standards”;
every time we are jealous of another person who “earns more” or have pity on those who
“have nothing”; every time we meet someone new and they ask us what we do instead of
how we serve or what we believe in.
And yet the deepest source of this addiction is far more primal. Most of us are addicted to
making our lives “busy” &/or “productive” because we dread facing what exists when the
work is done …
*We dread being forced to look at lives that are somewhat meaningless -- with their
superficial goals and self-centered fixations;
*We dread being forced to look at lives that are mostly devoid of real intimacy and real
interconnection with others;
*We dread being forced to look at lives that often feel empty & trivial – lives that
ironically feel somewhat lifeless.
So ins response to these fears, we fill our lives up with “busyness” and “wealth” and
“productivity” instead.
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