How much do we mean what we say?
And how much do we say what we mean?
Corporations are not human. And they certainly are not your friend. With a goal to abstract, how can they be viewed as anything but a parasite? Sure, if I have a problem and need a hammer for this nail, I don’t call a corporation; I instead phone a friend.
If you understand that pro wrestling is fake, you know that it is a form of entertainment. And what we see online isn’t someone fighting a political battle or raising awareness for a specific cause. We see pro wrestlers. Optimizing the algorithm to monetize attention to make a buck. I’m stunned by how much attention these people receive, but more importantly, why people care so much about what they think. It’s certainly entertaining to see a chair thrown at the boss’s face, but I would never take them seriously when hooked up to a microphone to give a speech in the ring, either. Political theater is theater first.
One of the problems with the violent nature of capitalism is that it has left a scar so deep on us that we cannot even imagine a world without it. Add in the police state, the surveillance, and every action that can now be documented, and it’s no wonder we struggle to get past this idea: that capitalism is not determined to live forever. When the system reaches breaking points (which we have approached), we either change course or are forced to change when the system collapses.
One of my favorite prompts I like to use with AI is presenting an idea with as much detail as possible and then ask the chat box:
Are there any logical gaps in this train of thought?
What makes sense to one person may not make sense to another.
The origins of debt come from sin and guilt. To imagine a world through this lens of capitalism without debt is also to decouple ourselves from our sins and guilt, which is not ever possible. It is fantasy to therefore imagine a world where capitalism can work for everyone.
This has become a very overrated approach to organizing your life. As any new parent will point out, your life isn’t really your to decide when you have a newborn. Finding any type of balance is difficult in a hypercharged capitalist society. The reality is that when you have free time, you will fill it. What you choose to fill it with is indeed essential. And no, we don’t get to do what we want all the time. A better approach is to understand what you are building toward. However, an even higher level is to seek a way of life that is satisfactory for living well, as you define it. The goals don’t matter. They change and evolve. Nothing wrong with having goals. The goal of going through medical school and becoming a doctor is important. But an MD at the end of your name doesn’t make you who you are. Make the goal align with you as an individual—the paths we take and the process by which we do it should be the goal (no pun intended).
When we can’t help but think of our relationships and interactions as a form of exchange (this for that), we will quickly find that we are reconciling debt. You gave me this; I returned something of equal value. But a problem seems to arise here. What a strange way to organize ourselves. Contrary to popular belief, debts are not solely economic arrangements. While anyone can understand the financial interactions, we are blind to the social and cosmic debts we create. Indeed, we flood our psyche with exchange language, so much so that we forget how to operate any other way. Which, of course, is fiction.
Underneath the collective consciousness lies a spirit of negativity. Because underneath the surface lie all of our doubts, insecurities, fears, and so on. Perhaps we could tackle these things on our own. However, the stranger phenomenon is how, as a culture, we handle these challenges. We all experience these things, yet we often struggle to be patient with them. Culture is, indeed, a strong force that. The message to me is unclear. Is it possible that we want people to suck it up and go to work? Or is it more likely, that we are all simultaneously thinking suck it up cause this situation sucks for everyone? Perhaps, neither are correct. But something has to be said of the hustle culture we have created. When everyone wants to be a millionaire instead of master the art of living, this is what we get. (Or worse, this is what we deserve.)
When we spend an enormous amount of time sorting each other out, we can’t help but highlight the differences. This is undoubtedly a product of toxic individualism when taken to an extreme—me, my rights, my ideas, and my happiness —and so on.
However, we can also switch modes quite easily to talk about the we that we have so much more in common than we realize.
The differences make us unique individuals, but within a culture and society, we can do a far better job of defining ourselves by what we stand for rather than what we don’t.
Josh Allred's Blog 