12 Comments
User's avatar
Explorer's avatar

The most devastating line in the entire essay is the absolute architectural truth of the enclosure: "Why is this the thing we've made unaffordable while claiming it as a zero on the books?" and the realization that human care is "booked at zero on the culture's ledger and as loss on ours."

​That is the exact mathematical loss function of the egregore.

Coleen Teverini's avatar

So true that the people in greatest need generally are the ones who suffer in silence. The greatest gift we can offer others is our time.

Rip Parker's avatar

This will sound common. It is. It is also true. You know you have a “Poor me attitude” when in fact your answers are inside you.

I’ll pontificate no further, except to say you are more blessed than you admit. Hang in there you will see.

Explorer's avatar

Rip I know exactly where ur coming from and I know you mean the best. That internal grit is real and it's how people survive.

But here's the trap we accidentally spring on each other when we say it in this context.

When we look at a guy pointing at a fundamentally broken math problem and tell him he just has a "poor me attitude", we're actually just acting as the immune system for the machine that's crushing him. Anthony isn't lacking gratitude. He's pointing out that society extracts all our energy for capital but books raising the next generation as a literal zero on the culture's ledger.

If we individualize a massive systemic failure and tell him to just fix his mindset because "it will pay off one day", the system gets a free pass to keep extracting. It forces the victim to absorb the whole cost so the architecture never has to change. We can totally respect your internal strength without letting the broken grid off the hook ya know?

👊💪🤟♾️

Beth Young's avatar

Bingo! Overwhelm is real. Exhaustion is real. Having many privileges is real, but those privileges don’t make a tired person less tired.

Beth Young's avatar

No one is suggesting sporadic.

Andrew tonti's avatar

Offering sporadic relief to a beleaguered populace is actually humiliating and insulting

Andrew tonti's avatar

This is the scourge of life in a capitalist society. We try to search for relief individually, but the most effective way is to come together in purpose, organize, plan, and begin to fight back with all we got!

Phar Percheron's avatar

apparently some countries encourage parenting with actual Financial incentives. I'm sorry this is not one of them.

F G's avatar

Yes, but we have that where I live and sadly it has major downside implications

kristine kurro's avatar

Find Your ChildHood Joy; recognize, embrace and run with that so your kids can know what it is and feels like. Imagination and fearlessness will reignite your spirit.😵‍💫👍🏼🤪👑🎟️🤭👾⚡️🥳👏🏼✨🎶🥸💥🫵