The modern curse of too many choices
White world problems: we are allowed to be whatever we want to be, we have millions of choices and what we really do is sit on our couches and wonder what we should do while our life flies away.
Yes, I might be idealizing the past a little (OK, a little more - comes with being a history fan). But the truth is that in a world with a clear set of rules preventing you from reaching your inner purpose, you are more motivated to discover and fight for what you really want. Human lives thrive in adversity, (most of) the best people that have lived since the beginning of times are people that were born or placed in difficult times and places and had to learn how to manage. And so they went on to do great things.
We live in a world that (I am talking about the Western civilization now) raises its children in comfort and keeps its people in a comfort that numbs the mind. We are no longer challenged by life - unless we proactively seek that challenge. The lack of challenge allows us to choose the most comfortable alternative, which for most of us means sitting in front of the TV or playing a computer game that will do nothing for us or the quality of our lives. Every second that passes by is a second we are never getting back, a second we get closer to the end of our lives and yet we choose to waste many of those seconds doing absolutely nothing.
If chance will have it that one in the billions of people who don't have access to the same comforts I do will actually read this post, that person will laugh in my face. Yes, I am aware of how ridiculous it is to complain about how comfortable life is killing my mind when there are people out there starving, fighting to live another day. And yet this, as I see it, is the curse of the modern world we live in. We are numbed down to the point where our existence has no point. We are all zombies on the way to the supermarket, watching yet another TV show and having another drunken night out.
The sad part is that I see no cure for this. We cannot tell the parents of today to not keep their children comfortable. It is our purpose as humans to keep our cubs safe and happy. Yet it is that safety that we give them that will bring them right where we are: on a couch, in front of a TV, doing nothing.
Yes, I might be idealizing the past a little (OK, a little more - comes with being a history fan). But the truth is that in a world with a clear set of rules preventing you from reaching your inner purpose, you are more motivated to discover and fight for what you really want. Human lives thrive in adversity, (most of) the best people that have lived since the beginning of times are people that were born or placed in difficult times and places and had to learn how to manage. And so they went on to do great things.
We live in a world that (I am talking about the Western civilization now) raises its children in comfort and keeps its people in a comfort that numbs the mind. We are no longer challenged by life - unless we proactively seek that challenge. The lack of challenge allows us to choose the most comfortable alternative, which for most of us means sitting in front of the TV or playing a computer game that will do nothing for us or the quality of our lives. Every second that passes by is a second we are never getting back, a second we get closer to the end of our lives and yet we choose to waste many of those seconds doing absolutely nothing.
If chance will have it that one in the billions of people who don't have access to the same comforts I do will actually read this post, that person will laugh in my face. Yes, I am aware of how ridiculous it is to complain about how comfortable life is killing my mind when there are people out there starving, fighting to live another day. And yet this, as I see it, is the curse of the modern world we live in. We are numbed down to the point where our existence has no point. We are all zombies on the way to the supermarket, watching yet another TV show and having another drunken night out.
The sad part is that I see no cure for this. We cannot tell the parents of today to not keep their children comfortable. It is our purpose as humans to keep our cubs safe and happy. Yet it is that safety that we give them that will bring them right where we are: on a couch, in front of a TV, doing nothing.
Comments
Post a Comment
Don't spam, I'll delete it anyway. Anything else works.