In Amsterdam recently it occurred to me a prostitute isn’t just someone who sells sex, but some anyone who exchanges what is sacred for what is not. I define a “business prostitute” as anyone devoting their working life to an activity without a higher cause beyond profit.
I claim that our lives are sacred (in the sense of important, not necessarily any religious sense) and that just using it to make money is a waste of the precious life we have. I am not saying that making money or capitalism is bad, only that for me this is how I run a business, not why I run a business. Incidentally if you are a hedonist and all you want from life is pleasure, research shows that making money beyond the minimum to live is a dumb strategy too.
Often I hear people say “but I have to do this work to live, blah, blah, blah…”I have children to feed…blah, blah, blah” Bullshit, we are not serfs – people that say this are rarely at subsistence levels of survival, rather they are prioritizing consumerism. A down and out street prostitute who sell his or her wares to live I can understand, but what can those who are not starving buy that is more important than their lives?
Your children will thank you more for doing something of worth than for a big house and car (which if you do something you really love well you’ll probably be able to afford anyway- business prostitution doesn’t even make sense economically – people are much more likely to get rich doing something they love than something they don’t).
My message is this – If you are a business prostitute take personal responsibility and do something with your time that really matters to you. You may well be able to do that within a mainstream organisation without dropping out and joining a commune. It is a travesty to exchange what matters for what doesn’t. Don’t be a whore, get a life.