Why Don’t You Just Get a Job?
A gem from Dickon Edwards’ diaries:
A frequently asked question: Why don’t you just get a job?
Answer: Because I’ve got too much else to do.
Answer: Because I’m too busy to get a job.
Answer: Being unemployed is a full-time job in itself, involving skills and time in order to survive. So I do have a job. It’s just atrociously paid.
Answer: Because I’ve never lasted in the many Wage Slave-type jobs I’ve had in the past. It’s only a matter of time before I’m dismissed, or have to leave to avoid collapsing in tears on a daily basis.
Answer: I _am_ trying to find something, it just has to be something I can do well, as opposed to pretend to do well.
Answer: I’m too far gone.
Answer: This _is_ my job. It’s a kind of busking with text. I just haven’t managed to earn money from it. Yet.
Answer: Don’t you know who I _am_?
Having said all that, of course, I do engage in a small amount of perfectly normal things for the Green Party: envelope stuffing, posting leaflets through hundreds of letterboxes, helping out here and there. It’s just that that’s all voluntary work.
It’s the view that some things matter to one, and some things don’t. We should be free to choose how we spend the time of our lives without threat of destitution.
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New Escapologist Issue 19 and the anniversary edition of Escape Everything! are both available now. The fascinating Mr. Edwards is also interviewed in Issue 18.
About Robert Wringham
Robert Wringham is the editor of New Escapologist. He also writes books and articles. Read more at wringham.co.uk
Interesting! “We should be free to choose how we spend the time of our lives without threat of destitution”… and how should this work?
I tend to agree but that’s through a very positive minded view of humanity, that most people would do good with this lifestyle. If not, then there is a slight shudder in my mind at those who would abuse such an ability to live.