Transcription
Hey everybody. So today I want to talk about our modern great depression. So let's start with a radical idea. You might not actually be depressed. You might just be perceptive.
If you're not at least mildly depressed in today's world, I have questions. You're either heavily medicated, deeply in denial, or you've joined some doomsday sex cult in the desert. And honestly, good for you if that's the case. Because here's the thing. You're living in a world where your boss makes 400 times your salary and then sends you smiley face emojis when he cuts your hours back. Where entire industries exist just to distract you from the brutal reality of the human condition. And where every ad you see is screaming, "You're not enough. But if you buy this, you might be enough for a brief time until you buy more and more and more." And if that doesn't make you at least a little soul sick, congratulations. You're either a sociopath or you're already dead.
We are basically surface dwellers, helplessly caught between powerful environmental forces above and below us on a speck of rock floating in an infinite void. And if that wasn't bad enough, our fragile, short-lived species goes out of its way to destroy itself in a multitude of ways. And none of us even ask to be here. I tend to feel that our whole experience here revolves around and relies upon self-deception and delusion and delusion. I guess it's as if we need these things to fool ourselves and fool each other in order to get through this life. Because ultimately this is the price of self-consciousness which is pretty much uniquely human on planet Earth. And knowing that you have a finite amount of time in this life and that it could end at any moment is it's really a terrible weight to bear. And knowing that pain and suffering is inevitable and that very little is within your control sounds like a raw deal that we didn't ask for.
This is the pathology of the human condition. And when you look a little closer, you can observe that there's a veneer that sugarcoats everything we do. And these days, social media allows us to perpetuate our delusions on a whole other level. We've all seen those memes with the individual sitting in a building on fire while telling themselves, "This is fine. Everything's fine."
So depression today, it doesn't always look like a Sylvia Plath poem. Sometimes it's just replying to work emails with a cheerful "Sounds great" while fantasizing about faking your own death and starting over as a lighthouse keeper. Sometimes it's just smiling in meetings. Sometimes it's small talk about the weather while your inner monologue is screaming for escape. You're not curled up in bed all day. You're productive. You shower. You answer texts. You push a boulder slowly up a hill. Sound familiar? You even post inspirational quotes while decaying behind your eyeballs. Modern depression is a con artist. It wears clean clothes. It does yoga. It makes jokes at dinner parties so no one notices that your soul has been hollowed out and basically rented to Amazon Web Services.
So let's talk about a major cause of our modern malaise. It's the giant invisible hand of late-stage capitalism punching you in the throat every morning. You were not born to just work, pay bills, and struggle under massive wealth inequality, live in endless debt, and go through three marriages, then die. Or maybe you were. I don't know. All I know is it's a billionaire's world and you just happen to live in it. You were not meant to wake up and think, "How could I monetize my hobbies before they bring me any joy?" But that's the game. You don't rest, you optimize. You don't eat, you fuel. You don't create art, you generate content for imaginary algorithms that manipulate you. And if you do break down, you're told to download an app, track your moods, drink more water, work smarter, not harder, and cheer up because things could always be worse. You're told to use positive affirmations like, "I am whole. I am good enough. I'm smart enough. And doggone it, I am a cog in the machine designed to make Jeff Bezos cry tears of gold."
So, what can you do? Because I'm not just here to beat you over the head with total despair. You're exhausted, emotionally constipated, and have a vague desire to move to the woods and talk to the trees all day. Great, you're awake. That's the first step. Here are some unlicensed, questionably helpful suggestions.
Number one, stop pretending you're okay and that this system is okay. Everyone's pretending. That's why we're all miserable. The bar is underground. Meet it.
Number two, do the bare minimum. Brush your teeth. Eat something with fiber, touch something alive, even if it's just your sad, neglected house plant named Frank. Hey, Frank. Find nature. Breathe clean air.
Number three, lower your standards. Not in a bad way, in a liberating way. Like I wore pants. I only ate one bag of tortilla chips today. Victory.
Number four, quit the hustle cult. Your worth isn't tied to your productivity. If you have a job and it doesn't love you, stop giving it anniversary gifts and emotional labor.
Number five, find a person or a dog or a Reddit thread. Just connect with something that doesn't want to sell you something.
Number six, practice radical acceptance. That's the concept of acknowledging and embracing the present moment no matter how uncomfortable it may be. Don't try to control it or force it. I think a great deal of suffering in our lives comes from our inability to just let go of so many things that don't matter.
Number seven, it's a cliché, but it's true. It's the little things in life that actually bring any joy. A damn good cup of coffee. The smell of autumn leaves with the sun on your face. Uh, the purr of a cat who has trapped you by sitting on your lap. You get the idea.
So here's the truth. They don't want to put on mental health posters. Depression isn't the illness. Sometimes it's the immune system. It's your soul saying, "Hey buddy, this is... You see the... because I see the bullshit." So don't pathologize your awareness. Don't medicate your sensitivity into submission. Feel it. Name it. Laugh at it. Then go outside and scream into a bush if you need to. Frank won't judge you. You're not broken. You're just awake in a broken world that rewards numbness. And if that's not cause for a toast or at least a nap, I don't know what is.
So, that's all I got today. Thank you for watching and um, if you like, please subscribe and I hope to see you next time. Thanks.