Unhappiness predates modernity by millenia

thanks for that b_b - that thought made me giggle.

organicAnt - you are asking many good questions, including this one:

What would you suggest that people who are unhappy do to help in our struggle?

and the previous two questions in response to b_b. These questions deserve long form answers and I'll put them in the queue. As for short answers:

1. Ways of leaving the system - yes, suicide was one thing I had in mind.

There are people who live without money. Watch the trailer for this video.

Ultimately, it depends on how you define "the system" and what parts of the system you want to leave. Do you want to leave libraries? Do you want to leave the world wide web? These are all parts of the system, created by people in jobs who pay taxes.

It might be a good idea to figure out which parts of the system you think are brilliant and which are oppressive.

Part of you is a consciousness vibrating from ear to ear. How much control do you even have over that? It is subject to hormonal changes, caloric intake and so on.

No one knows the answers to the questions you ask. Large-scale change in the direction of goodness is so glacially slow. Some changes seem to create more widespread happiness (various movements towards greater human rights and democracy); some changes seem to create more grief, some do both at once (the industrial revolution leading to environmental degradation, wage-slavery, and shit jobs but also labour-saving innovations that free up time for creativity.)

What can any of us do?

I think the Occupy movement was on the right track. Please immediately stop whatever you are doing and read this list of goals of the occupy movement. It is called This is our one demand. I think it will show you that many many people are thinking about the question, "what can any of us do?"