>This passage answers itself, doesn't it? You can sense those things you postponed fun for (work and the apparatus around its struggle) were never worth it.

This is what you don't get. _I_ already know it's not worth it. I've always known. It's everyone else! It's a wife who cares whether or not her husband has a good career. It's the police who care if you look like you're poor. It's the way every single person in society obsessively cares about the status of others.

What in the world makes you think I've had to build up status for my own sake? It's absolutely baffling that anyone could be confused about this.

It's baffling to people that don't care that much about what other people think.