How to be happy though human / by W. Béran Wolfe.
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205 (canvas 225)
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colleagues makes him an inhuman slave-driver toward his
employees. No one loves a “ high-pressure go-getter
Hate and hurry bind him to the beauties of life. At the
end of the day he is exhausted by his unobjective work
methods, and he seeks relaxation in brutish amusement
which he often pursues in the same graceless way.
His relations with people are tainted with egoistic
ambition. He cannot be interested in anyone who is not
immediately useful to him. Members of the opposite
sex are similarly exploited for purely selfish ends.
One of the characteristic indicators of this type of
individual is the so-called holiday neurosis ”. Many
men and women are perfectly happy while they are at
their job and can sense a certain success in driving them¬
selves and others to the fictitious goal of “ success ”.
But a holiday is a tragedy to the ambitious “ go-getter ”.
If possible he remains at work. If he cannot work, he
mopes and broods and despairs, is irascible and bad-
tempered because he has not prepared for anything in
life but an onslaught on his business. These people have
no friends with whom to pass the time, and no hobbies
to absorb their creative energies. They have developed
neither the patience to read books nor the disinterestedness
to enjoy nature. Sexual contacts are valued as mere
physiological exercises and have no more emotional
interest than so many evacuations of bowels and bladder.
Consequently no sexual intimacy can relieve their sense
of isolation and depression or help to recreate their
fatigued energies.
1 he holiday neurosis is an epitome of what happens to
men and women who “ succeed M as a result of putting
oyer the strategy of massed attack on the work sector.
Not infrequently a man of this type develops a veritable
genius in his chosen profession or activity, by virtue of
one-sidedness, persistence in training, and complete
disinterestedness in the rest of the world. Occasionally
he reaches the very pinnacle of success and attains the
envy and admiration of his friends.