14 hours ago
5
I’ve been writing something, though I’m not sure if it’s worth finishing. It started as an attempt to understand a feeling, something quiet but insistent, like a dull ache behind the eyes. Not despair exactly, but a kind of burden. The burden of repetition, of days that blur, of desires that feel borrowed rather than real.
The book is about that burden. About the way modern life doesn’t oppress us but dulls us. I try to show how every impulse is anticipated, packaged, and fed back to us before we even recognize it as our own. Addiction isn’t just a chemical thing anymore, it’s the way we consume without hunger, the way we scroll without thought, the way we buy self-improvement as if meaning can be delivered in a box. Even rebellion has been accounted for, turned into an aesthetic.
You’ve seen it. The modern Stoic who sells discipline while sitting in a luxury hotel, telling you that true freedom is only a few journal entries and a cold shower away. The Instagram philosopher who posts bite-sized wisdom between ads for watches and supplements. “Momento Mori,” they say, right before the promo code. Even detachment is now a lifestyle, a curated experience, just another thing to optimize.
I know the irony, writing about the trap might be another part of it. But maybe recognizing the loop is the first step in resisting it. Maybe it’s not about escape or rejection, but about seeing the machinery for what it is. The answer isn’t to run, nor is it to sink deeper into the loop in search of some hidden exit. Maybe it’s simpler than that. Maybe it’s about reclaiming the ability to feel something real, to move, to struggle, to wake up and taste the air without reaching for a distraction.
I’m not claiming to have the answers. I just think this feeling, this persistent burden, is worth examining, and maybe talking about it is the first step to understanding it.
Would something like this resonate? Would you read it? And if not, what is it that books like this always get wrong?
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