A Facebook essay addressing this miserable world of ours
Hoooo-weee the depression posts on Facebook are strong this day. Which will trigger an exceedingly rare, serious, long-form Facebook post by yours truly! Yayyyyyy ::applause::
Like, I get the whole depression thing. Pretty much the entirety of the past 2.28219178 years (833 days; 19,992 hours, 1,199,520 seconds) — ever since I made the mistake of repatriating right before the 2016 election — have been garbage: Savings utterly devastated, massive debt accrued, job opportunities ever-fleeting despite now-decades of multi-linigual biz dev/PM/logistics management experience, romantic prospects decimated, first-ever psychotropic medications prescribed and quickly halted once the deleterious side effects were realized, the list goes on for miles.
Oh, and as an added bonus, extracting myself from this situation is itself a seemingly insurmountable task, though I keep trying.
I see friends around me all dealing with the disaster that is modernity in various ways — to each their own. Personally, I’m lucky enough to be able to develop a regiment of outstandingly hardcore workouts (Squats ftw), to focusing on reclaiming my once-considerable chef skills, and also pursuing creative outlet with my comrades in Bakushin.
Admittedly, the creative portion is feeling a pretty considerable hurt and has been since October 17th 2016, but hey I’ve had lulls before so I can deal.
I’ve also applied to, at this point, over 500 jobs and can barely pick up shifts at the 2 service industry jobs I currently work part-time at because… I honestly don’t know, I’ve tried asking, and never get a response. Prior to that, I was pretty well taken care of at an absurdly mismanaged and predatory tech org downtown that had not 1, not 2, but 3 rounds of layoffs because leadership was beyond garbage, yet because they had considerable funding they were allowed to get away with being dolts. But, I mean, what’s the alternative, giving up? I don’t buy that, so I keep reaching out.
Of all the people and all the ways that they’re dealing with the universe of dumpster fires that is the Modern World, so very many of them have, for whatever reason, never had the opportunity to experience alternative methods of organization and collaboration; it’s not that they’re grasping for straws in an environment that doesn’t allow many options, its that they haven’t even had the opportunity to imagine those alternatives.
All of us are immiserated in one way or another to such an incredible degree due to the social contracts we have been force fed and the administrative incompetence of a.) rich, frequently old, (usually) white, (usually) men and b.) Tech Brahs, but I am still hopeful because I have experienced first-hand the alternatives to what we’ve got right now that so many have difficulty envisioning, and am actively building liberational platforms and communities with that in mind.
If I didn’t have that — that which so many people actually don’t have — I can’t imagine where my head would be at because it’s already borderline unbearable, and so first of all, lemme once again reiterate my empathy. Everything sucks for me, and I’m a straight, white, cis male raised in upper-middle class suburbia. I mean it when I say I can’t imagine what others are going through, because if what I’ve got going for me is the best it gets, then holy hell.
But here’s the thing that scares me most: the creeping feeling that most people are unable to imagine — through no fault of their own — an alternative, and thus are unable to meaningfully act in support of that alternative. That, to me, feels like a vicious cycle, a downward spiral, a precipitous descent into the depths of nihilism and meaninglessness.
But I just want you to know that *this isn’t normal* and that *there are alternatives out there.* We just need to band together, support and love each other, have dialogue with one another to determine ways forward and also work in solidarity towards a collective vision of a brighter future.
Politicians aren’t going to do it. AOC is rad; Bernie’s kinda cool, but that’s about it and to be perfectly honest I’m convinced that no one in the world can extinguish the hellish inferno that is Neoliberal Capitalistic government, especially the USA which is, by all means, too big to not fail.
No Gods, No Masters. Kill your idols. Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law, Love is the Law, Love under Will. No war but Class War. Smash the State. I don’t care what you say, we’re all in this together, and, though it is hard, there *is* a way out of this misery. It is a path built on the tenets of love, of compassion, of empathy, of joy, and it is radically antithetical to the systems of oppression that we call constitutions.
We don’t need a revolution; we need a renaissance to lift our collective spirits out of the gutter they’ve been forced into. Its not much, but if there’s anything that I can do to help you realize your agency in a state that actively works to quash any self-determination, I’m happy to contribute what I can. I’m tired of sitting around waiting for “Elected Officials” and “Representatives” to make meaningful progress in a system that simply wants to extract as much value as it can from everything. The time for action is now, and I know we can do better, together.
