I know how you feel. Especially last year, when my job was at a place that wasn't far above a sweatshop. I don't think we're brain washed as much as stuck. I would love to start my own business, but I hate taking risks and I'm afraid of people, so unless that gets changed, that's basically nothing more than a dream. People can live off the land, but tend to need money to get started. And even with those two options, its often even more exhausting, long hours of work than the more common option of getting a typical job (if you even can. I was unemployed for a year before finally getting hired, again). I often find myself thinking about what the point of life even is. You're born, suffer through school, get a crappy job, go through more school and graduate to higher paying, sometimes less crappy job. Again, if you're "lucky", cause you might end up chronically unemployed with the wonderful plus of lots of college debt. But, even if we were animals, they have to struggle to survive, relying on the luck of mother nature being on their side (which it isn't, many times). Seems that the person who said "Earth is some other planet's hell" wasn't far off.

But, I think that surviving your job ends up having to be a mix of finding your passion and using tricks to get through the day, if that's delayed for whatever reason. I work in fast food. I actually kind of like it, when we have a day that's not too busy and not to slow. Unfortunately, it's usually more slow, than anything. My passion is writing and drawing and I love music. So, when we have a slow day, I run my favorite songs through my head and I try to make up some plot points of a story I can write at home. Makes the day go by faster. Plus, I prefer to be as independent as possible and hate having to have help to survive, so I just remind myself of that. Quite a lot, lol. The stress of trying to figure out where my next bit of bill money was coming from was worse than standing through dull days of not having that many customers. Also, I like having some spending money and having breathing room. It's still hard, but maybe that could help? I dunno, you're right on it being rather pointless, the way we live. Maybe you could find a mentor or something that could help you make more money on selling your stuff online? I did stumble upon a website where you could find some people who were entrepreneurs and willing to help others. I can't remember what it was called, but you could Google it, if it's something you'd be interested in.