Work til Death...

I was thinking... Ever since our ancestors migrated to America, we have had the mentality that working hard will bring us success. America is the land of opportunity and you will become successful with hard work, but I have to wonder, how much work is it worth to try becoming successful?

Is it worth being a selfish person only looking out for yourself?
Is it worth spending no time with your family?
Is it worth waking up day after day and dreading what's to come for the day?
Is it worth working yourself so hard you think that perhaps dying will be you're one and only time of peace?

There needs to be a balance of work and time for life. I know some people from the Philippines and they don't have a lot of worldy possessions but they do have a lot of friends and family. They value the natural things in life, laughing, loving, family, friends, natural no trill foods, they seem to live below their means. Now this isn't only Philippine people that live this way, there's many cultures and ethnicities that value the more "natural", "free" things of life and not so concentrated at being rich with money. I remember reading that the Japanese have a psychology of everyone working together as a team rather than against each other. They help one another, even if their strangers they still respect everyone and willing to help. Their mentality is actually why car makers like Toyota and Honda have such great reputations over there and here. Their employees value their work like it was their own company. I feel that Americans are more likely to stab someone in the back to get a promotion if required. Of course this doesn't apply to everyone but I think anyone who is too obsessed with being successful may become corrupted in it.

What made me think of this is watching the movie, Cool Hand Luke. I normally don't mind a depressing movie if it had a good story, but this movie was only about someone unwilling to conform to the way of working and living to work trying to become successful. Now I commend him for thinking this way, thinking of expecting something more from his life other than working for all of it. What I also got from it was a glimpse into someone else's way of thinking. They said it was one of their favorite movies and this is why I was writing this blog. I was wondering on why someone would consider this their favorite movie. Perhaps they related to this movie which is why they liked it so much. I mean think of your favorite movie, surely there is something you can relate to it about. I think this old "American Dream" is a sickness we've gotten in our minds, it's something that had repercussions we weren't aware of. If we don't learn from our mistakes and get some sort of balance in our life, we're going to live a life we regret. The only part of our life we're going to enjoy is our death. That's a horrible way to spend your time here on earth and not how our time on earth was supposed to be spent.