covid;
yeah, the pandemic is over. the hospitals aren’t as flooded as they were in 2020. I like to use the term Covid to define the era. A simple label for the ramifications of the pandemic, and the chain reactions that have been subsequentially spawning off of one another as a result.
Most countries are becoming quite dystopian and/or unstable. Sure, it was never really great in many places, but a worsening condition is not really something to celebrate.
One notable exception is the United States, which feels like it’s doing the exact opposite. I’d argue we’re stalling out rather than becoming more rowdy.
Tonight, just like every other night, hundreds of thousands of Americans will sit in their beds alone scrolling through TikTok or something similar. Another good few hundred thousand will probably sit in their beds alone watching porn - just being honest. A good few million will be asleep dreading the thought of work tomorrow. Maybe some are out partying, but drinks are pricey now. Everything is more pricey now, and the quality of most products/services either flatlined or is trending downward. The concerning part is no one really seems to give a shit right now.
Many of us are just employed-enough to look like a passably decent statistic. That doesn’t mean we’re actually doing okay. Barely anyone contributes to meaningful innovation, or social movements that don’t turn out to be for-profit money vacuums.
The chaos we’re seeing is detractive. Decisions seem to be driven by desperation, or malicious actors taking advantage of all the hiccups. It’s been coming in waves. When something detractive isn’t happening, we aren’t really doing much else. This is the cycle we’re caught in. This is the stagnation.
Zooming out, the picture isn’t great, but offers some insight.
The U.S. has collectively racked up over 50 trillion in debt, if you combine Government and Household debt totals. I strongly assume this is the main thing keeping the ship afloat underneath the hood. That might sound like a moot point to some of you, but I needed a logical bedrock that appears to maintain stability, and I picked that.
We are not completely screwed yet because we use credit card for necessities, and because they printed so much money that it plugged a lot of holes for the time being. That’s my logic.
Being on life support is not exactly the gold standard for letting people flourish.
Zooming back in to you and me, it’s not hard to feel things getting stale.
We can only watch so many videos, buy so many toys, work so many hours, lose so much weight, try dating for so long before it all starts to feel meaningless.
The only silver lining is that we’ve been gifted a lot of opportunity to reflect between the chaotic episodes of the post-covid era. I think it’s good to have a grasp on the world around us.
How Did We Get Here. Take a minute to piece it together yourself. Maybe you’ll come to a different conclusion than I did.
I know reflection doesn’t pay the bills. To be fair, reading this doesn’t pay your bills either. I have no idea how to solve any problem mentioned, and wanted to end with something tangible.
All I know is that no singular individuals success is going to be enough to change course. Maybe we can’t. It doesn’t hurt to have awareness in the worst case scenario. Best case, maybe we can work together and figure something out.