"what do you want to be when you grow up"

[suffering]

I hate this line so much: "what do you want to be when you grow up?". As if the only thing that gives you an identity is to work. It's not even a matter of having an option, the question automatically assumes you have to 'be' something (doctor, pilot, etc). Society brainwashes us since we are little, telling us that we absolutely must become something, something else, something productive. The brainwashing is so deep, because it's subtle, it's an implied affirmation already in the question, as if asking 'what torture do you want this evening?' (instead of 'do you want to be tortured this evening? no problem if you don't), which already signals that the torture is something to be had, as if it's normal (both questions are bad but the first one is more evil). And the word to 'be', instead of 'do', like your whole being depends on it. Even if the question was 'what do you want to do when you grow old', it would have already been bad enough, as it stresses the imposed need of action, but to 'be' is even worse. It's an attack to our core. I hate society, mankind, everything. What if I just want to 'be' me? to be left alone to just fucking be.

 

[Deleted member 17949]

It's a slightly weird question when you consider the fact that until some point in recent history most people would 'be' generic workers in minimal effort jobs. Nobody ever answers that question with 'shop worker' or 'cleaner' or anything of the sort. I'd have to guess the term is meant to give aspirations to kids in modern education so that they understand the real reasons behind working hard and planning a future.