Corporate ass-kissing

I knew that I had become cynical in the two months since graduation, but until I reread these posts, I did not realize how brutally unhappy I have been. And Pangloss is right -- a Real Job is something I want to have, but not something I want. Dissect that syntax and see what it tells you about commodification in modern society.

Pangloss, I think you're correct in saying that the modern world trains us to love things and forces us to play Pavlov's dog to the bell of prestige, but you must be careful not to overly romanticize the past. It's easy to do that, but "a world of farmers and ranchers, artists and craftsmen" would incorporate a lot of the things that you think are so detestable now. Farmers and ranchers often had subsistence existences, where the thing that kept them alive consumed all of their life. You know this, and maybe you wish for a farming existence more present in non-western or ancient cultures. But I guess when I think of life as an artist in another era, there was still the same corporate ass-kissing. After all, can you imagine trying to convince a spoiled Duke that you really were the best person for him to patronize as a poet?