Well, "society" means people agree to trade some of their freedom for security
Unless we just live anarchy, no one will be 100% "free"
But Lets step over that and consider we are 95% "free"
Now in this constructed world,, some people get to live the life they want
And this comes, deliberately or accidentally, at the expense of others
At times i am purely in my element - i experience full flow
I am overseeing a project with 120 people putting in cumulative ~5000 hours a week
It is fun (for me) to direct this project to success
I would do it for free
I am conducting an orchestra to play a symphony i made up - i see my ideas happen
And im not the only one - i am confident at least some people on this team (probably top lieutenants) feel the same way
But this feeling comes at the expense of others
Some people have very tedious roles
The workday crawls along for them
They leave work exhausted, drained
With nothing positive to show for it except some wages earned
They are selling their labor
They probably feel some resentment -
I made way too much money in 2020
And im having fun while their hopes for something better evaporate
They have to bite their tongue and pretend to be okay with it
But they are not abused per se
No one yells or beats them
Their pain happens incidentally, over time
i dont think any of that 120 plan to pull a Rambo on the rest of us
But at least statisticslly, some people on the team must feel unhappy or trapped
It's just a job to them
And they will never feel joy
Can anything be done??
I don't think so
If everyone is an astronaut,, then who is cleaning the toilets at the nasa headquarters??
If everyone is the starting quarterback,, then who is making the footballs??
Etc
That's why mindfulness and meditation are popular concepts these days
It gives people another chance to find meaning or satisfaction in situations that might be meaningless or unsatisfactory