The Capacity to Enjoy Less
The Capacity to Enjoy Less
"The secret of happiness, you see, is not found in seeking more, but in developing the capacity to enjoy less." - Socrates
Comments
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"Today a young man on acid realized that all matter is merely energy condensed to a slow vibration, that we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively, there is no such thing as death, life is only a dream, and we are the imagination of ourselves.
Here's Tom with the Weather."
-- Bill Hicks
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As a young man (maybe) with acid experience, can confirm. It's a good time.
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Yeah, no. Let's not romanticize poverty.
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I dont see it as romanticising poverty, just trying to be happy with what you have. Looking on the bright side of everything.
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There is a difference between choosing minimalism and being forced into it by lack of options. If these two characters had steady income or a safety net, and chose to live like this, then good for them. But they don't; they are unemployed with a leaky roof and inadequate heat and presumably do not have the means to address those issues. This is an unstable situation to which nobody should aspire.
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...until one of them gets a toothache
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The difference is that here the characters appear to have chosen poverty in order to embrace a simple, ascetic lifestyle; they are not forced into it by circumistances outside their control, or at least the artist makes no effort to imply so.
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Where is the poverty? The author explicitly stated that they "get by".
This comic is condemning consumerism, not romanticizing poverty.
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Or drug addiction.
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Yeah and they aren’t spending most of their money on electricity. Likely it’s spent on food and water, and unless they own that land, they’re either precariously squatting or going to be constantly moving around, or that’s where the majority of their money will be going toward renting the woods.
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The problem is that the human body ages more between the ages of 25 and 30 than it does between 30 and 50. A 30 year old is, basically, a very healthy 50 year old.
It's going to be harder and harder for them to live rough as they get older. They won't sleep as well, or have the energy they have now.
Employers are going to be reluctant to hire low skill workers in their 30s.
And that trailer is already 'beat up.' How many bad winters can it take?
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Employers love the smell of desperation comming off of "low skill workers" in their 30s, especially when they come to work to escape the cold or heat.
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You're kinda making my point for me.
The bosses aren't going to pay those folks enough for them to move out of the beat up trailer.
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Yeah this comic is hopeful in tone but incredibly bleak when you take time to think it through.
This lifestyle is fun and romantic when you're in your 20's but is really unsustainable long term.
They're going to struggle badly when the stuff they currently have begins to break down and they can't repair or replace it.
This story usually ends with moving back in with your parents.
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I'll suggest you look up "Hell's Angels" by Hunter Thompson.
There's a section where he writes about the economics of being a hippie/biker/artist circa 1970. In those days a part time job could support this pair, and an ambitious person could get a good union job and save up enough in six months to live like that for two years.
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What happens when Carly gets sick and needs to go to the hospital?
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Found the USAmerican.
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They get free healthcare? It looks like a developed country.
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All developed countries take care of their people. Only shitholes countries exploit them.
What country do you want to live in?
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Same thing that happens to tons of other people with "better" living situations: crippling debt or just ignoring it
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Some people were never meant to be good little capitalistic drones capable of working long hours just to be profitable to some member of the Parasite Class who already has obscene amounts of wealth but desperately needs more.
Some people were just meant to go through life vibing with the universe.
And that’s OK, it just means they are wholly incompatible with our current civilization.
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how do you even pay for that food and weed without any kind of employment in the US?
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You sell weed
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Honestly I would consider that being a self-employed small business owner.
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"Employment" is a very modern post-industrial concept.
Well in the modern world we have the internet. OnlyFans is remarkably profitable for a lot fo people. But there could be other gig work like driving for Uber.
Traditionally, people like this "get by" doing odd jobs. Seasonal agricultural labor, babysitting, sewing and tailoring, helping people move things, repairing engines or farm equipment (fuck John Deere), gardening, hunting, fishing. Burt's Bees is an example- the dude spent time in the army, was briefly an independent photographer, settled down and decided to live a very humble lifestyle with a bit of beekeeping, selling enough honey to survive. Eventually a homeless woman convinced him to partner up and use the wax to make candles, which led to them growing the business and eventually selling it and retiring.
It's so odd to me that when indigenous peoples live these sorts of lifestyles, the world largely sees it as an important part of our collective cultural history. When white people have the right branding then it starts to become okay, like the Amish. Or when we read stories about white people who did it just a few generations ago they are reversed and get popular TV shows like Little House on the Prairie. But when white people in a trailer park do it they must be lazy or stupid.
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I know many people who travel from place to place in a semi nomadic life and work in the fields here and there. Never really heard any of them complaining about their life. They sure have their problems, but that's everyone.
In many countries the concept of employment is very feeble and most people just do their things and sell them to other people. They live just fine.
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Grow weed, sell weed don't live in the US. Build appendices to your trailer until it's a trailer mansion etc.
This life could be good but I'd need at least 4-5g tower nearby, If they could lay optic fiber into nature that would be great too.
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if you're homeless and/or struggling finding food, there are a bunch of ways to acquire it legally for free. may not get much choice, but you'll get calories.
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This works until private equity comes by and makes their trailer home just as expensive as any other home. Yes, this is a thing that is happening in the remaining trailer parks, because of course it is.
Capitalism is the best system.
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I was waiting for the part where Carly accidentally gets pregnant cause, you know, that happens a lot. And their happy life gets obliterated by being forced to carry the fetus to term, because of GOP abortion laws, and raise a child they didn't want all the while damaging the ever living fuck out the kid's mind through bad parenting via neglect and self hatred.
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Itt: tons of people judging these characters for being happy.
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Not for being happy, but for being immature
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Also the littering
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This comic speaks to me because both the general vibe and the specific actions are the kinds of things I've consciously been putting more into my life.
I have managed to curate an existence similar to the comic in many ways. As opposed to their tranquil little home being a camper in the woods, mine is more of a combination petting zoo and computer lab hidden in plain sight. It's a little old house in a blue collar neighborhood. Being old means even though it's quiet here, I'm located SO close to local resources and POIs.
Being able to walk my son to elementary school is also some next-level wholesome and calming stuff. I get just a dose of the walkable lifestyle, even though I expect I will be driving a car everywhere else for my entire life.
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i want to get rid of most of my technology and just live with the bare minimum. I don't like how my brain has been trained to be a good little piggy to these algorithms... but at the same time, its so hard to leave...
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I agree with the "enjoy the simple things" of this but this is not a smart plan for your future. You should absolutely make an effort to not only get by now, but also later when problems may arise.
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What is in this comic that implies they are not planning for their future? It is simply not addressed in the comic because that's not relevant to what the author is trying to convey.
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3rd panel
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I have a good friend of mine who may be related to this comic. He was a trucker and lost his job in the 2008 crisis. After that he decided he did not want to get a job anymore.
He set up a tent in the woods and lives there. He goes down town to read books every day and people give him some money. He has food, he has his place full of books and with the money he gets he can buy some wine to enjoy the day. Cool guy to be around and have nice chats.
He's got a good life he enjoys. What should he plan for? If he ever gets sick (and with his lifestyle he really doesn't get sick) he can go to the hospital and they'll treat him for free. He's got more clothes and stuff he may ever need as people just throw stuff away and he collects it. In fact he gifted me clothes, backpacks, pans and other stuff.
I do not think he needs to plan much more to maintain his lifestyle. I mean, some planning is good. I know he took down a few trees as he's planning to make a teepee to have a better kitchen area. But I don't think much more planning than that would significantly improve his life.
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A working healthcare system makes a huge difference yes!
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How is he getting free healthcare when no one else can? How does he take showers every day? How does he survive the cold brutal winters? The hot brutal summers? You know every square inch of land on the planet is owned by someone. A person can't just set up a tent somewhere and call it home, with no expectation of being forced to git. You are romanticizing this a bit too much.
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So he's essentially a parasite on society that takes and gives nothing in return?
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I would love to live in a place where I could see the stars again, even if it meant waking up in a cold bedroom.
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God damn i wish I could setup a camper somewhere and not be fucking kicked out.
Fuck the social contract, if society wants participants it can offer something of value in return.
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Fuck the social contract, if society wants participants it can offer something of value in return.
Having something in return is the whole point of the social contract. The social contract is already broken in the US, and slowly breaking eveywhere else.
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The problem with this simple life is that it's notthat simple.
The first time they need to repair something or someone has a medical problem reality hits. The little trailer home falls apart more and more every month but they can't afford the repairs. Food keeps getting more and more expensive. Medical conditions become chronic problems and soon every day is difficult. If they didn't have a drug problem before they do now. Just to cope with the hardship of being chronicle Ill. Theft and crime are common around you. What little you have is always vulnerable to being taken from you. Life is stressful and difficult. This kind of life is an endless downward slide, and the only way to get out is to claw your way out.
The only way this life is truly simple is if you have money and a lot of it. You can live a simple unemployed life as a trust fund baby. Or if your spouse has a good job and you just stay home and chill.
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I don't think it's about the "capacity to enjoy less".
I think it's about shedding the things we think we need. It's about surrounding ourselves with the beauty of the world, and allowing ourselves to enjoy these things while weathering the horrible things.
It's not easy, and I think the comic deliberately focuses on the beauty while also conveying hardship through the simple juxtaposition of abject poverty.
There's nothing wrong with "more", but sometimes when we must discard our dreams and visions of "more", and embrace less, we find ourselves ultimately enriched.
In short, society likes to lie to us about what we truly need and want. And those lies convince us all too often that we are failures if we don't meet or exceed certain societal and cultural expectations.
I'm sure many people took the quote to mean this, but I don't like wording... It's not about a "capacity" to enjoy less, it's about an ability to see more.
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Where are they getting money from? They sit around all day doing drugs. How can they afford chicken tenders & electricity & drugs?
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The secret ingredient is crime
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Government assitsence? Nobody specified where they live.
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"The secret of happiness, you see, is not found in seeking more, but in developing the capacity to enjoy less." - Socrates
"Dogs. Dogs know how to live."
— Diogenes, while masturbating in his barrel in full view of anyone passing by. -
Chicken fingerin' good!
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Sir, please stop fingerin' the chickens. This is not a Wendy's.
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I worry if this is the same woman (mother) I saw in the last comic of this series. Like these comics are going back in time.
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Can you link the series? Really curious to read the rest.
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https://davecontra.com/comics/stnzgl4n9xpxs2f-5zfze-gpx5g-fww75-x3mks-lh443-7c38d-tmbny was the part I saw. My bad, hair colour is different.
All at https://davecontra.com/
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I agree with the sentiment in a way to not endlessly want but the actual best thing that leads to happiness, fulfillment, and way more is:
Hope https://www.goodgoodgood.co/articles/hope-key-in-meaningful-life
Hope that your life will be alright. Hope that people will and are working together. Hope that the planet gets better. Hope that your relationship will continue to grow. Add that with purpose, action, and consistency then that is a well-lived life
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Last night I went to bed at nine instead of playing space marine two and drinking whiskey. This comic was the reason why
But tonight I will
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woah, that's beautiful. So simple
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Goddamn there are some really old people on lemmy.
One weird thing I've noticed about life, and especially since becoming terminally ill, is that generally the older people are, the more terrified they are of "the future" and the harder they cling to life.
When logically, it should be the other way around. You've already lived your life, old man. What are you so afraid of?
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Does this have something to do with chicken fingers?
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Kinda weird it says they're happy, yet don't appear to have the motivation to pick up the trash around their trailer, and seem to be coping with their situation with drugs.
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I see someone's lived a privileged life and never lived in a poor neighborhood.
So, in wealthy neighborhoods, it's not that people are cleaner and therefore somehow better than poor people. They actually have people to clean up the streets and yards for them. They also aren't as crowded and don't have as many shops near where they live. In poor neighborhoods, people can't afford to hire people to clean up their yard and streets, there's more people so there's more of a chance someone is a jerk and litters, and there's more shops so more people who don't live there come in and also potentially litter. It's an uphill battle to do it yourself all the time, so yeah, sometimes garbage drifts into your yard.
You ignored how clean and tidy the inside of their trailer is, where they have more control over their environment.
You're exactly the kind of person who could learn a lesson from this comic but it goes right over your head.
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Meh, I've lived similarly (trailer parks, a garage, slum apartments, etc) and know people that still do live similarly. It can be quite stressful and demoralizing struggling to just try to meet your basic needs. I'm not really trying to pass judgement, I just found it strange the artist included things that could be seen as contradicting the narrative. I haven't met anyone that was happy living like this, and it really takes a toll on people.
Well, I guess I have met some people in a small commune-like thing living in sheds, an old broken down school-bus, etc. They seemed "ok" with stuff like dumpster-diving for most of their food. They were definitely not the norm though, and were fortunate to have free housing/land that couldn't really be taken away.
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I've seen plenty of people who seem fully functional to an outside observer. Nice clean clothes, well-spoken, full-time job running in the rat race, own a house in the suburbs. You notice their car is parked in the driveway, not the garage because it's a hoarder house. I've cleaned out multiple hoarder houses in my day, and they were all in really "nice" suburban neighborhoods with no trash in the outside.
I also know plenty of people who are perfectly happy and functional but are known to leave the occasional plastic bag or empty bottle lying around. It doesn't necessarily mean you're depressed. Not to mention some of that "trash" is probably being recelycled. That coffee can is almost certainly being used to store something. That tire is just a spare for the trailer- no need to waste precious storage space keeping it inside when it's literally made to be outdoors for it's lifetime.
Pretty much every billionaire is doing tons of drugs but they never get the same judgement. Cocaine, ketamine, MDMA, all sorts of designer stuff. Using prescription stuff recreationally like Adderall and Ritalin. Or buying up all of the diabetes medication that has weight loss as a side effect so they can eat luxuriously without worrying about gaining weight. Is it really "coping with their situation" or is it possible that they have nothing to cope with and are just enjoying their lives?
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Gonna get crucified for this, but:
While the comic is cute, the message is bourgeois slave mentality propaganda.
If the capacity to enjoy less is so aspirational as scorates, ghandi et al. would have us believe, then why don't the rich ascend to this purer existence in a trailer park? Why is it always the poors? It's because they have class consciousness and we don't.
These people have an objectively shit life and shouldn't have to live like this.
Don't get me wrong - If they want to - that's fine, but you can't really say you truly love something you didn't go out of your way to choose - and it doesn't seem that way here, and either way - this is a comic glorifying poverty, when there are many who don't want to live like this but have to, and it's kinda gross, tbh.
Also, weed is 21st century opium. Yes it should be legal, but you shouldn't do it if you want to have a life, it's no different from excessive social media use, it is an artificial relief for an ancient instinct of boredom that you have for a reason - it is your brain telling you to get off your ass and do something. Using chemicals to quell it - is just brainrot coated in an appeal to nature fallacy and new age aestheticism to make it more palatable.
Agree with everything but the weed, the pain killing properties are the only thing keeping my mom sane with her chronic pains.
It's still not great, even if it's better than the alternative. Certainly better if you're forced into it rather than stepping into that habit willingly.
If you can't have weed in moderation I agree but straight up I don't have insurance right now and 25$ to make my brain just not feel like it's on fire for a few hours at the end of the night has genuinely made me a more productive and capable person. I've been able to think through things more clearly when I don't feel like the world is collapsing 24/7.
I'm biased against weed fwiw I'll admit that, shit spikes my heart rate to like 140, no other drug ever done that, not even borderline lethal doses of cocaine.
It's super uncomfortable unless doses are extremely moderate, a couple tiny buds barely ground and stuffed in a (so they'd actually stay in the bong bowl(?) and not fall down into the water) would last me like a week if not more of going for multiple tokes daily.
Even when it did feel good though, I don't miss it, same as I don't really miss xanax or valium or alcohol or codeine. For me it was not a very productive drug, sure I'd paint once in a while but never would I have called it relaxing or bringing any sort of clarity at all - if anything the complete opposite, its obnoxiously anxiety inducing, I relaxed more drinking coffee on hour 4 of an LSD trip than anything I ever had on weed.
I have been tempted to try it in a combo with Vyvanse to see if it's more chill that way though.
Fuck it, just to be a little bit contarian, how much of a selection bias do you think might actually be present in the assumption "...then why don't the rich ascend to this purer existence in a trailer park? Why is it always the poors?"
For sure we hear about the people that get rich and only want to get richer and fuck over everyone that gets in their way, but personally now that I think about it, I actually do know a few people that got lucky, made a bit, and thought "fuck it, I'm done. I'm going to go farm and smoke weed" or some similar equivalent. You'd never hear about those kind of people unless you directly know them. How many trust fund kids are out there just chilling and enjoying life without trying to exploit everyone around them?
There are plenty of trustafarians doing this in California, I assure you.
They get bored and travel and also go visit the doctor when they need to but many come back to this bucolic lifestyle.
I agree mostly, but my weed use usually inspires me to get off my ass and do something, not the other way around, let alone all the other people I know living pretty great lives. I don't think it's fair to paint it all the same
Totally agree, I love to do things high: clean, chores, yard work, going for walk, sleeping, cooking, showering. But weed is expensive if you're not growing it yourself, I've spent thousands on weed and I'm still a broke unemployed fuck. I just started tapering my cannabis use and its so fucking hard but I'm taking different medications, that are actually prescribed by a psychologist. I feel a lot better and want to do more things with my life then I get hit with the crushing weight of capitalism and realize I can't even help myself where I am... god I need am edible rn
Yeah, I was kind of with them for a second, but caricaturing weed with after school special stereotypes kind of ruined their point.
Yeah fast forward 20 years when the couple has chronic dental/health issues and they can’t afford treatment. Or the trailer rusts and vermin sneak in. Or any one of a million emergencies that money could fix. This lifestyle only works if you’re “lucky” for an extended period of time.
There have been many wealthy individuals throughout human history. None yet have had their wealth save them from death.
Is it worth giving up several decades of the prime of your life as a wage slave in order to eek out a couple extra years in the Twilight of your life?
Are the desires we chase in the industrialized world really worth chasing?
This lifestyle is what has worked for mkar of human history. The lifestyle they are escaping is the source of violence the source of climate change, the source of suffering in the world.
Your last point is just more Reefer Madness propaganda.
Uh-huh. You do you bro but I have better things to do than downers.
How the hell are they both wage-slaves and unemployed?
They’re not very good at being wage slaves
The people who are truly living these simple lifestyles aren't trying to sell you anything, so you don't hear about them. There HAS been a bit of an uptick the last few years with "cottage core" and "trad-life" influencers, but from what I've seen that is mostly the same capitalist grifters you see everywhere just trying to use the concept of humility to sell books and overcharge for "artisanal" products.
I've spent some time in trailer parks and known people like this who just... Aren't ambitious. You just don't hear about them because... Why would you? And the ambitious are constantly screaming into society, drowinging out everything else.
The comic is not "glorifying" poverty. It IS doing some handwaving by saying the couple "get by" somehow. There are plenty of people who live in cities, are completely sober, work multiple corporate jobs, and still live in poverty.
Calling weed "21st century opium" is an incredibly uninformed thing to say. Cannabis cultivation pre-dates cultivation of the opium poppy by somewhere between 3,000-5,000 years.
Saying "you shouldn't do it if you want to have a life" shows that you missed the whole point of this comic. Because that statement of yours is highly dependent upon how you are defining "have a life". The people in the comic are fulfilled, happy, and enjoying their lives. The source of problems for a lot of (I would argue most) people in the modern post-industrial world is the constant economic competition: getting a better job for better pay to buy and consume better things. The subjects of the comic have escaped that cycle.
I'd say the comic is taking a more Diogenes look at things, despite OPs Socrates quote
The rich are never satisfied, and they're always in competition with other rich people. That's why even if they have the best life they'll always seek for more even if they make people suffer.
That's clearly not true if you think about it for a second.
I'd argue it's going against the typical propaganda, which is saying that the poor, unemployed, drug using people at the bottom of the rung are miserable, stupid, hate their life and you should always fear that position in life. The solution presented is to work, for the benefit of a wealthy few. A comic that shows this station in life as desirable and good, that people living outside of the rat race can be happy, is subversive. It's not saying "know your place and stay there", it's saying "you can still have beauty in your life even if you're not wealthy".
Basically: if you don't have choice, you don't have freedom.
However, I see the value of reinterpreting your only option and get to love it not because you choose it, but because you can appreciate its (perhaps few) good things.
my two cents
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