Please don’t tell me “see a therapist” I know that already.
She’s utterly wrong. Take Robin Williams as an example: he was famous, rich, loved by everybody, stupendously funny. Still had depression. Still suffered.
It has nothing to do with people’s “value” or their work ethic.
My rebuttal is that your mom’s a bitch and there’s no reason to pay attention to anything she says.
Pinpoint her ideology or religion and you will find venerated figures that didn’t “provide value.” For instance if we’re talking about productive labour in the capitalist sense, Jesus didn’t have a job (for most of the bible’s narrative). Confucius? Similar story, I think. Any philosopher or religious figure…
Value really becomes subjective. If you’re a writer like Ayn Rand or George Orwell, of course you have been very successful, but many people don’t find value in your work, because they disagree with you.
Our ability to provide value is also fairly contingent on those around us, the head-start they’ve given to us, and the problems or trauma we have to overcome.
Was Ayn Rand on welfare?
Nothing wrong with welfare, just that she’s not the best example of successful seeing as she wrote about rugged self reliance and railed against welfare while also being dependent on it.
She collected Social Security up until her death. It wasn’t welfare, but it was a government social program.
Typical libertarian. Spend a lifetime deriding socialism, only to die peacefully and comfortably because of the very programs they rail against.
Thank you for the clarification. I knee it was something which made her an absolute fraud and hypocrite with an espoused philosophy built on selfishness and greed.
Your mom is unfortunately mentally ill. Whether from upbringing or from organic damage to the brain… who knows. There’s really not much you can do about it - parents especially are highly unlikely to listen to advice or anything from their children. Try to remove yourself from your mother as far as possible. Minimal communication, minimal contact.
