Excruciatingly Boring Dystopia - Our lives are the most mundane lives ever lived—and that is becoming a problem.

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Locke03@reddit

The author is, I think, correctly identifying symptoms but somewhat misdiagnosing what the problem actually is.

Life has, for almost all humans throughout almost all of history, been banal and routine be they a medieval serf or a modern office worker and it has always been an infinitesimally small number of individuals that actually got to live interesting and eventful lives, outside those that got to live interesting lives because outside events forced peril on them. The real difference with modern developed societies I believe lies in two things.

The first, which is touched on, being the destruction of strong extended family bonds and strong social connections (the village) under capitalism's ever advancing project to turn the human into nothing more than a production & consumption machine that can be exploited for profit by the capital-holding class. There have always been efforts in this direction, but modern efforts have been extremely efficient & effective in this, with it really taking off in the post WW2 US with vehicle-centric suburbanization, the promotion of "individualism" & self-reliance (a cultural problem arguably going back to the founding of the US), and isolation of the "nuclear family" at the expense of all other social connections, a culture which was rapidly exported to the rest of the soon to be developed world.

And the second being that the medieval serf didn't really know how the nobility lived. They may have caught a glimpse of it on occasion, but for the most part their worlds were separate. Thanks to modern media however this is no longer the case and we serfs are continually bombarded with reminders of how lacking our lives are in comparison to our betters and because of our ever increasing isolation, this is increasingly all we have to compare our own existence to and all we have for stimulation. There is no heading down to the tavern after the days work is done to meet with people that you grew up along side to talk and play music on whatever instruments you have. There are no neighbors that have known each other their whole lives and can rely on each other for whatever they need. There is no strong shared life experience to connect people to those around them. It's part of the reason that often people talk about their teens and college years as being so much better, because those are the times where they had these strong bonds and shared experiences.

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KingZiptie@reddit

A thoughtful comment! Something came to mind while reading the first part; it's more my particular expanded thoughts on your first point which I agree with:

Life has, for almost all humans throughout almost all of history, been banal and routine be they a medieval serf or a modern office worker and it has always been an infinitesimally small number of individuals that actually got to live interesting and eventful lives, outside those that got to live interesting lives because outside events forced peril on them

They had stories which they told to each other which created entertainment, passed down wisdom, and which encouraged human interaction. The stories varied across cultures and were largely arbitrary: it is the social exchange, cultural imparting, and so on that define the value of the story. It is true their occupations were mundane, but they owned the necessary social space to create an interesting counterpart. They had the time and third space to dance, to tell stories, etc etc.

Today the mundane exists, but the majority of stories come from a very different and far off place. They are largely told by hierarchically powerful entities; news media, advertisers, movie studios, publishing companies, HBO, video game studios, politicians, suits, etc. And as you would expect with this being the case, the stories become part of a commodified third-space: to connect to the stories, you must pass through a paywall. The paywall is increasingly expensive in terms of time, attention, and money. Now, even AI (or at least what we call AI) is generating a third-space social slop. Everything that paywalls or muddies the third-spaces that remain results in a cognitive dissonance in the mind that must be rectified either by anger or apathy; pathologies multiply (drug abuse, depression, suicide, mass shootings, etc being manifest) .

I think the end result is that individuals are alone even when right next to others. I think that the stories told might provide dopamine hits from the various parts of storytelling which we have evolved to understand as important, but the stories themselves do not serve to connect us to one another nor do they allow us to communicate all the nuances of more local in-person communication forms.

Your second point adds gasoline to the "cognitive dissonance" that must be rectified as well. These (as you say) "reminders of how lacking our lives are in comparison to our betters" screams hierarchy in storytelling format.

I agree with your comment very much.

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galactic-corndog@reddit

It’s the way human beings are discouraged from engaging with natural curiosity. I’m not the most eloquent person to post here, but I think there’s a connection with the lack of ability to pursue creative interests due to time constraints or not being able to afford the foundational education or the supplies to pursue a curiosity and the deep existential boredom seen I min society.

When you physically lack the ability to explore a curiosity, consuming stories from far off places is the next best thing. But it’s always going to be second best. So yeah, it doesn’t feel fulfilling, but I can’t help but feel empathetic for all of us when so many of us are restricted from having innate curiosity at multiple stages.

I think I’ve seen studies that talk about curiosity being a motivating factor in terms of dopamine as well, though I might be misremembering the specifics.

Curiosity is a hugely important human trait! And it feels like it’s being squashed at every turn sometimes.

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KingZiptie@reddit

I cannot agree more with this- curiosity is absolutely a casualty of our attention-dominating time-capturing neoliberal system.

A good example (at least IMO) is the over-structuring of childhood- not just school but afterschool activities and extra training, and of course the glowing rectangles which capture and constrain. Childhood curiosity often goes hand-in-hand with childhood imagination: kids need unstructured time where they are not in a system of rules governed by others but rather by their imagination.

Like so many things, I think their "solution" for more profits/control is self-defeating: by constraining curiosity and imagination, you kill the engine that can solve problems in novel ways; without the ability to solve problems, the system is destroyed by them... including the system they rely on for profit/power.

Personally I think this is why we are trending towards fascism and autocracy.

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galactic-corndog@reddit

Not just childhood curiosity, adult curiosity as well.

I don’t know if I believe it’s intentional or whether it’s a byproduct of a society that encourages consumer-driven behavior, though I lean towards the latter- the determination of neoliberal capitalism seems to be determined to strip us of and then sell back to us every aspect of our humanity, including curiosity.

When you lack the means to explore, the next best thing becomes secondhand stories from far off places. It becomes “what’s the next post when I scroll down.”

How can you ever appreciate an amazing dish then?

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laeiryn@reddit

I mean, can you imagine eating the entire time you're awake? Munching on snacks, having meals, drinking, bingeing. And yeah, you can avoid feeling hunger completely. But oh my goodness, you would lose your appetite, no food would taste good, you're just satiated and full the entire day.

How can you ever appreciate an amazing dish then?

Cannabis has entered the chat

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excher@reddit

Hi,
I’d love for you to post your content in my new community, it looks just perfect!

The place is r/longexchanges

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yes, there are some examples, youre right. though none with people living through something as final and irreversible as climate change. we have been given a terminal illness as a species. science has said it is far too late. the planet is dying and were all here fighting over little green pieces of paper like they mean anything if we're all dead. and there's no shortage of other disasters... human rights being rescinded, wars, famine, homelessness, invasions. the average person cant afford rent let alone a kid. it is large scale unprecedented loss that we are all hyper aware of and largely incapable of healing. no one in history has experienced anything quite so... overwhelming. brutal, yes. but this is something new and its no wonder we are so incapable of enduring it.

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Unfair_Creme9398@reddit

Back then, we all thought that the Earth was the center of the Universe.

They didn’t have any concept of Deep Time in the 14th century, let alone climate change.

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Costco1L@reddit

This is an insightful, under-appreciated comment.

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Locke03@reddit

Yeah, but I think its a bit more than just that. There have been plenty of points of long and significant regression in history after all. But for the most part no one actually knew what was going on to any significant degree outside their immediate community. It was much easier to have hope when you didn't know how bad things were. We're the first where the average peon, if we want it, has access to all the data, all the models, all the projections, and all the individual evidence from others like us all over the planet of how bad things are, how bad they can and are likely to get, and we have a pretty good idea of who and what is responsible for it, and what could have been done to prevent a lot of it but simply wasn't. On a long enough arc, assuming we don't get something like an anoxic ocean event leading to outright human extinction, I do believe things will improve again, but there is every indication that the next century or so will be some of the most difficult times our species has faced in a long time.

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syncraticidiocy@reddit

yes.. the human mind has barely adjusted to consciousness, we are not ready to actively participate in the collective consciousness of a globally connected communication system. we were meant to be contemplating death in small villages, not diving into the deep well of corporate greed and several wars before breakfast. it's no wonder we all have serious mental health issues. we are living in the total perspective vortex.

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JorgasBorgas@reddit

Been a while since I've read such a resonant comment! this jives with my own conclusions earlier in my life (ironically when I had more time and energy to devote to thinking about this stuff...) which sank into my subconscious long ago

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drhugs@reddit

bombarded with reminders of how lacking our lives are in comparison

I'm reminded of the picture from years ago now, of a TV set sitting on a vegetable crate. On-screen was "The Lives of the Rich and Famous' or similar.

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Ghostwoods@reddit

This is absolutely the correct answer.

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PsychologyPurple5694@reddit

Sucks to be some people then, hey!

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krazykat357@reddit

Most people only do their 9-to-5s and then come home to social media and TV shows. There is no true purpose, nothing to work toward

You HAVE to get a hobby, pick up an art or trade and DON'T DO IT FOR SOCIAL MEDIA. Do it for yourself, or for your friends. Best if it's something you can do with other people (ttrpgs are my go-to). You have to lead a creative life to avoid this mundanity, do not let yourself fall into the spiral of thinking that art isn't for you to make. Make it anyway.

https://youtu.be/m71vVPBwAok?si=MEFxIOpe0j-gChYr

https://youtu.be/lkTAC-8-BL0?si=PfyqUxdeg0Lh3HI2

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comadrejautista@reddit

thank you. After reading and watching both videos it made me pick the acoustic guitar I've been neglecting for months (or more like years).

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krazykat357@reddit

That's awesome to hear. Colville got me to pick up running ttrpgs years ago and has been a wellspring of motivation and inspiration from me since.

I've had to interrogate myself regarding making art in the face of collapse, I don't really have a clear answer. Despite that, the desire doesn't diminish and the alternative of being effectively braindead and passive was more terrifying than collapse itself.

I hope your guitar playing is fun and going well! Are you learning to play anything specific?

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comadrejautista@reddit

Colville got me to pick up running ttrpgs years ago and has been a wellspring of motivation and inspiration from me since.

Never done that, maybe I should try...especially since I realized I can talk for hours about things, in seemingly entertaining enough ways that I've some people stick with me for 3-5+ hours in various occasions while musing about existential topics and what not.

I've had to interrogate myself regarding making art in the face of collapse, I don't really have a clear answer. Despite that, the desire doesn't diminish and the alternative of being effectively braindead and passive was more terrifying than collapse itself.

TL;DR for below paragraphs: Art is a weird thing humans do which can be useful or detrimental for survival. Some people are more inclined to it than others, and artists still need someone to do a lot of work for them (farming, tools, etc) or else they'd have no time for complex art forms. And every art piece is an exercise in futility in the context of this universe, as everything will die and be forgotten eventually.

Making art has always been a weird thing. It's not essential per se for the body to survive. I don't think that NOT making art means being brain dead or passive. If you have the spark, use it. If you don't, well, you'll have to do something else. Most artists do need someone to make them their tools, food, etc. or else they'd have no time for making art. But as a whole, art still presents either a net benefit or a disadvantage for your own survival (and that of others) depending on the context. And considering collapse, there will be conflicting views. I suppose an artist might lift up the mood in very shitty situations, but it'll also be a resource drain for some. I guess only the most skilled/naturally inclined artists will get the resources, and any person who doesn't have the required skill to please the most people will just get denied and forced to do something else.

In the massive context of this universe, art still means nothing in the end. We all die, and all art we make will absolutely be forgotten after a long enough time frame. Regardless of what we do as a species, in the face of collapse of species/civilization, the death of this planet is pretty much guaranteed once the sun goes through its cycle. And then there's the whole thing about the heat death of the universe. So everything has always been double fucked and no art will survive forever. Because of that, I think art was always about the process rather than the misguided legacy some artists desperately focus on.

I believe some people do have an inherent desire to make art for whatever reason, in whatever shape. Others not so much. Is it genes? Brain shapes? Upbringing? I barely have that spark/creativity. Was this, in my case, stifled by the environment? Or do I just have a small "creative spark generation" region in my brain? I'm not sure. I still enjoy music and visual arts, though.

I hope your guitar playing is fun and going well! Are you learning to play anything specific?

It went okay. I was just playing random melodies I remember, and doing improv with whatever comes. Definitely not in the mood to try to learn songs, scales, chords, any complex stuff right now. Also, I lost the calluses on the left hand after years of neglect. Back to the starting point it seems.

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shivamahaii@reddit

My hot take: if social media makes it difficult to read a book, maybe books were never that important to you.

Because it was always difficult. Possibly the vast majority of humans who ever lived has never read one. Bread & circus was always more convenient, and the hard physical labor in the fields was arguably more exhausting than the white collar work of today.

If anything, if you want to read any given book from the vast libraries left to us from the past, there's no better time than now.

Same applies for everything else - it's easier now to get started with anything than at any point in the past. Specially if you are in the first world, but not limited to that. It does mean it is easy. But then again, it never was.

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_LarryM_@reddit

What a poor argument. So many screens and social media does change you. Growing up I had a teacher ban me from the bookshelf. My mom would only let me checkout the amount of books I could carry from the library each week. I tested as a college reading level in 5th grade.

Yet reading is still extremely difficult nowadays. Every time you get a little immersed your phone buzzes. If you turn it off now you have anxiety that someone is trying to contact you with an emergency even if there's like zero chance of that. We feel the need to be aware of everything all the time.

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fretfulferret@reddit

Having anxiety over turning off your phone is wild to me.

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shivamahaii@reddit

Yet you can still walk into your neighborhood library and pick any volume of your choosing, right now.

Pre-industrial folk could only dream of that, if that ever even crossed their minds. Putting the phone down is a much lower hurdle than coming across a single volume in the past.

Who here can read a truly meaningful book after staring at a screen all day? Who here can organize and resist when they are taking our souls?

That hit me hard. I've been on the fence about leaving Reddit as my last social media. Lately, I've been thinking about how I wish I could bring myself to read a book, do random little house projects, spend more time in the real world rather than looking at screens quite literally all fucking day.

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salamipope@reddit

I mostly just use reddit when i have a problem needing solved, but ill admit ive been scrolling more lately. This has helped me put things into perspective. thanks

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ahulau@reddit

I have managed to successfully confine 99% of my reddit time to when I'm at work, or on the shitter. Though yt shorts usually wins when it comes to the shitter, as that is the only time I allow myself to watch short form content.

Even with that though, I still feel this need to leave this website behind, yet I can't find better places to news/interesting things about these various niche communities I'm into, even this one.

That said, a large part of the appeal is getting an idea of the zeitgeist, yet this site has increasingly become both an echo chamber, and full of bots. I expect both of those things to accelerate exponentially by this time next year, and I might actually be able to walk away completely if that happens.

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Fickle_Stills@reddit

Dang they wiped out your whole profile too :/

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sertulariae@reddit

Would it kill you to read the Introduction or first Chapter of a book? You dont necesarily have to quit other habits to make room for a new one. Just make some time to read. It doesnt have to be a long reading session, start off with a few pages then put the bookmark in. Each time you do that it will be easier to do it the next time. We form habits not by wishing but by doing the thing in baby steps. Good luck and i hope you do begin reading.

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Classic-Today-4367@reddit

I used to be a voracious bookworm. Staying up all night to read a good book in 24 hours kinda thing.

Nowadays I find it hard to sit and read for more than half an hour before I need to scroll.

Its no wonder kids these days have the attention span of a gnat and have trouble learning.

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nahivibes@reddit

Maybe start with audiobooks? That helped me. Also I picked thrillers at first because they got me sucked in quickly because I wanted to know what would happen lol.

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wobbyelelo@reddit

people really underestimate how draining cognitive work is, I've spent the last year thinking I had some sort of serious chronic fatigue issue like long covid or pre-diabetes. I took a week long vacation and all of my energy problems magically disappeared. Thought it might be burnout so was careful easing back into work when I came back and..

I legitimately have no idea how tf I was carrying all this shit in my head before I went away??? I work in indie game dev, with small teams that means wearing many hats. I do art, marketing, game design, some of the bizdev stuff, documentation, producer things etc. In order to be able to keep track of all that, I simply never stopped thinking about work. The second I did - poof, all the information is gone. It now takes me 2 hours to do a task that used to take 20 minutes. Because, which folder did we used to keep that asset in? What resolution do I export to? What am I even supposed to be working on today? - I genuinely used to have all of this stuff memorized????

After we ship this game I'm probably peacing out, maybe I can worm my way into something outdoors like landscaping IDK. Anything has to be better than this.

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gardening_gamer@reddit

Try going a week without it? Same with giving anything up - either it's easy, in which case no great loss, or it's hard in which case it can act as a wake-up call as to why it's so hard to give up.

It’s still a ‘screen’ but it’s ink and reads like paper. It can store so many books and you have your own personal library in one device. You can easily read at night in bed, which was a game changer for me. There are no apps either, so nothing to get sucked into accidentally.

Yeah, it took a while to change habits.

I'm using AppBlock at the moment. It's a bit expensive, but extremely customizable, and you still get a fair amount of utility with the free version.

If anyone has another app that they like for this purpose, please reply.

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Proffesional-Fix4481@reddit

opal

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stfupcakes@reddit

Screenzen

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Gretschish@reddit

This has worked well for me too. I wish I had the discipline to not need it, but it is what it is.

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nycink@reddit

this is a great idea! I really hope people think more deeply about the necessity of using social media-none of this is mandatory. At the very least, maybe people will start going back to Lo-Fi vs spending hours on phone scrolling. I just bought a turn table to listen to albums I haven't played in 40 years. Now, I listen to an album in the morning instead of scrolling.

There is a Mediterranean market next to a Korean market next to an Asian market next to a Halal food market next to a fish market next to a butcher etc etc in my city

Ugh...another cosmopolitan cesspool.

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laeiryn@reddit

I'm guessing that the wealthy, privileged dude deciding that his ennui is the same as death of culture is just struggling with his first bout of existential dis-integration.

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maoterracottasoldier@reddit

Boring is different to different people. Personally, I’ve come to realize that I get bored if I’m not involved in activities directly related to my survival. Like pulling weeds is truly exciting if I believe it’s going to result in my goal of a happy productive garden. Chopping wood to have heat is exciting. I’ve gone winter camping in the snow where all I did was gather firewood and collect water and read, but I felt fulfilled because I was ensuring my survival. Almost like we evolved to fill our day with certain tasks, and it feels good to do them.

Modern life is designed to take away those things. I think some people struggle more than others to find meaning in a sanitized life.

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iggyazalea12@reddit

I think this is why people are spoiling for a civil war online (i dont think anyone really wants on pe they just talk smack online) , attacked the capital, etc. they are bored out of their damn. Inds

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_LarryM_@reddit

Nuke everyone. Glass the planet!

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Formulaic dramas man I'm at the stage I'm watching 8 hour YouTube videos of an AI voice butchering manwha levels of bored.

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MoreRopePlease@reddit

a medium of education and cultural enrichment

This is probably the saddest thing about modern life. I've learned so much from youtube and chatGPT, and reddit too (not to mention the rest of the internet).

Had so much musical enrichment from Spotify and youtube (e.g. I was reading a book about the history of the blues, and every time they mentioned some artist or recording, I was able to find it and sample the music while I was reading about it. It really brought to life the descriptions in the text.)

agrarian societies

with depleted soils and climate disasters, I think it will be a rough time.

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Freud-Network@reddit

I never said they would live happily ever after.

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errie_tholluxe@reddit

Bootstrapping current technology will be impossible. So it'll have to be entirely new technology.

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victor4700@reddit

This reminds me of a recent take I saw on Reddit about late 90s “my life is so horrible” movies “but I have a job and money” (office space, fight club).

Both can be true?

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breaducate@reddit

Both can be true, and conditions have deteriorated enough since then that mere stability is seen as enviable.

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_LarryM_@reddit

Current jobs just feel like they aren't worth it. My last w2 job was IT with the most involved idiot owner for only 13 an hour pay your own benefits.

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victor4700@reddit

100% agree on deterioration. Wage rate vs inflation…

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Such-Tap6737@reddit

Even back then Capitalism was a soul-sucking way to live, but the misery was buoyed by treats and consumer pleasures, even the occasional vacation. As the treats become less and less accessible to more and more people there's nothing left to salve the wound.

Right.

It's not like there was a concerted effort to enclose the commons for the express purpose of proletarianising peasants who were capable of living off the land or anything.

Do you have any political opinions that don't rely on total myopia and ahistoricism?

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lpmq9@reddit

I keep seeing people on this sub say this but what is your alternative? Idk, I think capitalism is by far the best system we have invented. I can type on my laptop five days a week (for my "evil corporate overlords who don't care about me") from the comfort of my own house and live a life of luxury that was unimaginable even just a few decades ago. What other system would enable this standard of living?

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Hi, Straight-Razor666. Thanks for contributing. However, your comment was removed from /r/collapse for:

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Eve_O@reddit

Yeah but the life of luxury and comfort you are praising and privileged to comes at an immense cost, right?

smegma_yogurt@reddit

Capitalism has a lot of problems, such as destroying civilization

Thanks for making the point for us

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datarbeiter@reddit

I think the point is not to go back, but to move forward.

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NotTheBrian@reddit

“The less you eat, drink, buy books, go to the theatre or to balls, or to the public house, and the less you think, love, theorize, sing, paint, fence, etc. the more you will be able to save and the greater will become your treasure which neither moth nor rust will corrupt – your capital.”

Karl Marx

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datarbeiter@reddit

“For as soon as the distribution of labour comes into being, each man has a particular, exclusive sphere of activity, which is forced upon him and from which he cannot escape. He is a hunter, a fisherman, a herdsman, or a critical critic, and must remain so if he does not want to lose his means of livelihood; while in communist society, where nobody has one exclusive sphere of activity but each can become accomplished in any branch he wishes, society regulates the general production and thus makes it possible for me to do one thing today and another tomorrow, to hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, criticise after dinner, just as I have a mind, without ever becoming hunter, fisherman, herdsman or critic.”

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Eve_O@reddit

Although, really, if Musk or Bezos or many other of these hyper-wealthy fucks are the "best version" of themselves, then, holy fuck, I'd hate to see what lesser versions are like.

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ShaneBarnstormer@reddit

"We are bored we're all bored now, but has it ever occurred to you, Wally, that the process that creates this boredom that we see in the world now may very well be a self-perpetuating unconscious form of brainwashing created by a world totalitarian government based on money, and that all of this is much more dangerous than one thinks? And it's not just a question of individual survival, Wally, but that somebody who's bored is asleep, and somebody who's asleep will not say no." - from My Dinner With Andre

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breaducate@reddit

And if I remember, the movie framed this character as being crazed and wrong?

Which would make it another brick in the wall.

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ShaneBarnstormer@reddit

Neither was wrong, that's the beauty of it.

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keitamaki@reddit

I didn't see it that way. I think I generally sided with Wally's prioritization of the personal over the political and his focus on individual experience and needs rather than Andre's obsession with systemic forces and global conspiracies. However, I felt that that was just a personal bias of mine and that another person might well connect more with Andre's point of view. I didn't necessarily feel that the film itself tried to suggest to the viewer that one point of view was superior to another, but I don't know for certain.

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Why do you think neodadaism has been thriving for over twice as long as the original dadaist movement ;)

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Lioconvoycheatcodes@reddit

Eh, this is some Fight Club-ass nonsense. Rather this life than working 14 hours shifts down a coal mine and dying at age 35 of black lung.

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nightswimsofficial@reddit

What a dumb article

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c3n7r4lv0id@reddit

Every day is exactly the same.

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theguyfromgermany@reddit

Upper middle class and above escape into consumption and travel... and actually don't realy improve on the problem.

People need to write, learn music, engage with politics, play sports, and be an active part in neighborhood development.

Yet they don't do any of it. Social media and TV shows.

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Bluest_waters@reddit

this is the biggest thing IMO, social media has decimated the local scene. ALL the local scenes. Music scene, art scene, political scene, whatever. Its all online now.

We need to get back to the local scene man. I am dead serious too.

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Icy_Bowl_170@reddit

But for some reason, I hate it. I don't like my neighbours, they probably don't like me. The best day is when I don't see or hear any of them.

I know it's wrong, but how can I change that?

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CherryHaterade@reddit

Music scene is still alive for EDM at least. Lot of local $5/$10 party tier going on everywhere. It's not all festivals, thank God.

I think underground hip-hop has a small grip still, but the local band scenes (rock, punk, etc) feel super DOA. Is anyone still driving around the country in a van with their buddies?

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Bluest_waters@reddit

Is anyone still driving around the country in a van with their buddies?

no, you can't make any money doing that. In fact it costs money to do that even if you fill medium sized venues all across the country.

Live Nation makes money, everyone else suffers.

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throwaway-lolol@reddit

recently did this in order to lose money

One of the benefits of AI, is soon it will get to a point where you won't be able to tell if that book you're reading, show you're watching, or music you're listening to is a real human or not.

This is going to lead to a paradigm shift in our civilization, because the only way to find truth then will be to witness it live by going to a concert or a play, or touching the paint with your fingers.

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Imagine the advertisers being decimated because their products will get data driven by artificial interaction LMAO. Dying to see it

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Cultural-Answer-321@reddit

The bots will be lying to the other bots.

It would be funny as hell except we'll all be caught in the crossfire.

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BitchfulThinking@reddit

I miss how much more lively streets felt when buskers were out singing, playing instruments, and dancing, and not just to film content for social media.

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Serplantprotector@reddit

Not just this. Holding physical things and products is just... so much better. When I got a new Linkin Park album for Christmas, it was like a holy shit moment. Holding a new CD for the first time in at least 10 years, putting it in a CD player and pressing play... it wasn't even an album I like that much, but there was no urge to skip a song or skip sections of songs. It made me really sad as well.

It seems the wealthy are the bored ones. They amuse themselves by tormenting others. No material good is outside their reach so they create chaos, stand back, and watch all the people scramble for scraps.

We are responsible for how we spend our time. If he wants to live in interesting times, he can do that from his enviable perch. Fuck this guy.

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TheWhalersOnTheMoon@reddit

Yeah, this is a pretty shit take. I always think back to the Kierkegaard quote - "boredom is the root of all evil", guys like this want shit to be "interesting" because for some reason having a stable environment doesn't fit his worldview.

I can't remember the last time I thought to myself that "I am so bored" - maybe a mild annoyance as you stated waiting in line or something. Are you kidding, I have a million things I can do either for myself, around the house, or with/for my family. Is it always "fun"? No, but the point of life isn't to be amused or bemused, it is what you make of it.

My people!

I've posted this song in the /r/CollapseMusic subreddit before.

Another suggestion that captures the global clusterfuck of climate change etc is "In This Twilight" off of Year Zero.

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gadfly1999@reddit

“This video is not available.” What a great way to illustrate a boring dystopia.

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ScrumpleRipskin@reddit

Also fitting is this super underrated Blue Man Group song: The Current. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MD5PiK14Gd8 (wish there was a better quality version)

The theme is having every single person and all of the information in the world at your fingertips but living an isolated and meaningless existence. And this was in 2003 when it came out.

Current flows, but I don't know where it goes
I don't care, I just get it there
Took this job 'cause I needed one
That was seven years since I've seen the sun
All day long, I'm underground

That is, you're never more contrived than when you're horny.

Hi, adeptusminor. Thanks for contributing. However, your comment was removed from /r/collapse for:

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travelstuff@reddit

That's fucking disgusting. Don't compare the millions of consenting adults who enjoy more than plain vanilla sex to a rapist. Liking BDSM is not at all related to the crimes he and Amanda Plamer engaged in, and it's actually really disrespectful to their victims to throw this around so casually, with a stupid smile emoji to boot.

Guess we found the person who thinks SA is a joke ☝️😁

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OpinionsInTheVoid@reddit

Right because a sexually empowered woman is definitely the same as a full-blown predator.

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BloodWorried7446@reddit

for most of the population on this planet this is not the case.

Most are working to survive. keep/ get food and water on the table and roof over their heads. Lots to work towards. imagined hope for a better future for their kids.

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Someone privileged in Western Europe would only be bored if they had literally nothing between their ears.

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laeiryn@reddit

It's never been EASIER for someone to write a book and then have it printed, or to put their music out without being signed to a label.... we're sort of in an ironically open golden age of creativity, it's just that tons of people don't have the time or opportunity to create their works even if disseminating them is accessible more than ever.

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PeanutTraditional568@reddit

laeiryn@reddit

One gives you plenty of time and space to create your own meaning.

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laeiryn@reddit

The oped linked makes some HUGE assumptions and then treats them as fact and it really, really undermines any relevant argument (i.e., that capitalism drains civilization of its creativity). It's weird to see it accepted so blithely by such a critical group.

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errie_tholluxe@reddit

You say that as if being a wage slave to the system isn't pretty much the same. Is it the same as starving to death in the middle of A food desert? No. Do they have a lot in common? Yes.

And I like how you said imagine hope for a better future because at this point that's what it is: imagination. If it won't get better for the so-called civilized world, how is it going to get better for the so-called third world?

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JustAnotherUser8432@reddit

That’s acknowledged in both the submission statement and the article itself. But it is also the population with a LOT of guns and a big military arsenal and the time and resources to make war.

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Toni253@reddit (OP)

Submission statement:

This article explores and discusses the fact that our lives are, for the most part, extremely boring, pre-determined, and structured and how that affects our lives. Most people only do their 9-to-5s and then come home to social media and TV shows. There is no true purpose, nothing to work toward, the world is ending in extremism and climate disaster and economic inequality while we carry ourselves to our meaningless jobs.

This relates to collapse because a bored populace with nothing to hope for can very quickly turn into a violent populace that craves wars and destruction rather than let things remain in the status quo. The surge of the far right in all of the Western world is a testament to that.

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-kerosene-@reddit

Not really buying it. The world was and still is, far more brutal in places where the people aren’t burdened by suburbia and dull 9 to 5s.

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whydidyoureadthis17@reddit

You are correct, and it is no wonder why those places are descending into chaos. But I think the more interesting thing is why 21st century westerners, who live objectively more comfortable lives than any other group of humans ever, are choosing to burn down the institutions that provide their stability, comfort, and protection. This is not laziness or complacency that is destroying these institutions; the election of Trump in the US as well as the popularization of other far right parties in Europe is the result of a deep-seeded hatred of the status quo, and many are cheering as the system which has created so much wealth for them is torn apart. I think it is worth examining why such unprecedented privilege that most of the world would kill for, is making westerners so miserable.

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Mrod2162@reddit

The answer to that is everyone wants to live an “American Upper Middle Class” lifestyle and only the top 20% percent of income earners can do that if not less. They want;

1: High income (ideally over $250k) 2: Large house with a lot of land in or extremely close to a fun city 3: Multiple international vacations per year 4: A few luxury cars 5: 2-4 kids who are happy, healthy and high achieving 6: Stable/happy long term marriage 7: Respect of their friends, family, co workers 8: No medical debt, mortgage debt, car debt, or credit card debt 9: Fulfilling competitive hobbies such as golf, skiing ext 10. Fulfilling, challenging, high paying job that offers endless opportunity for advancement and respect

What percent of westerners can achieve this? This is the standard that is subconsciously drilled into us by culture and social media. When most people realize they can’t attain this, depression sets in and they are seduced by the far right who offers scapegoats.

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reeeelllaaaayyy823@reddit

I don't want kids. 😂

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MoreRopePlease@reddit

Having all of that simultaneously is utterly fantasy, lol. Even rich people probably don't have one or more of those things. Who has happy kids and marriages?

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Mrod2162@reddit

LOL yeah that’s true having a happy marriage, happy kids, and being rich is less than 1% of the population.

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Kootenay4@reddit

People actually working a job that can support this lifestyle (e.g. doctor, lawyer, software engineer busting ass 60hrs a week) probably don’t even have the time and energy to enjoy it. My parents know a lot of people like this, the “upper 20% middle class” with 500k incomes, and even though they have nice toys, anecdotally they seem like the most stressed, miserable people.

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Zestyclose-Ad-9420@reddit

It is objectively more comfortable though. Imagine doing your job 100 years ago lol. And then imagine living in that climate 1000 years ago. "more comfort" doesnt mean free of suffering...

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throwawaytrumper@reddit

100 years ago my trade would pay enough for me to live well, raise a family, and purchase a home.

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Zestyclose-Ad-9420@reddit

just in time to lose it all in the great depression. also no penicillin and smallpox is still around.

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B4SSF4C3@reddit

When you come home, do you have indoor plumbing? Are able to take a shit on a porcelain toilet? Get a shower, and drink the tap water?

Hi, kissmequick. Thanks for contributing. However, your comment was removed from /r/collapse for:

Rule 1: In addition to enforcing Reddit's content policy, we will also remove comments and content that is abusive or predatory in nature. You may attack each other's ideas, not each other.

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yodelingblewcheese@reddit

Weak rebuttal. Disappointing.

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Fiddle_Dork@reddit

Lack of meaning is not something people talk about much

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Human0id77@reddit

Maybe neither of those systems is the the right way to live

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SparseGhostC2C@reddit

I think there's some merit to the idea that being far enough divorced from actual violence and it's implications can make us complacent to the realities of actually facing it in person.

Third worlder here. Same deal except our excitement comes from the ever-looming threat of sectarian violence, a corrupt and plundering regime, rising inequality, and dwindling economic opportunities.

Right now, I can’t find a job as an engineer. I live with my parents and spend my days watching the world’s morals and institutions become more medieval. The crooks we’ve elected are hiding money in half-empty luxury apartments — they’re cropping up like weeds. More sports cars are cruising around our moldering roadways as the government abducts protesters and our Chinese debt grows. My mom can’t retire — the government garnishes half her paycheck. Austerity for the working class. I’m bored AND scared for my future — a frog in boiling water. Helpless. It’s the worst of all worlds. This is the bad ending and eventually we’ll all be Brazil.

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MaxFourr@reddit

that's the point of those in power letting/forcing (take your pick) the world to stagnate or devolve in this way, it enriches their lives as they hold increasingly more power over us for their entertainment while the mindless drones support their egos and wallets.

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IsItAnyWander@reddit

But we're allowed to indebt ourselves for a car and house! Totally worth it!!

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MaxFourr@reddit

if you don't house the peasants they die from exposure and then can't produce money for them anymore!!

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Beginning_Bat_7255@reddit

"War drums beat faster because destruction to some looks more exciting than this endless, suffocating cycle of brand loyalty and mindless productivity."

once bullets start flying these bored a-holes will be the first to cry about how they wish they could return to peaceful times.

"only boring people suffer from boredom"

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doryfishie@reddit

I wish I had a boring life. I wish my friends had boring lives. What privilege! We are all dealing with a shit ton of trauma—emotional or physical abuse, sexual assault, medical traumas…idk how we all found each other like trauma bonded ducklings but we did. I would love to have an ennui filled life instead of one in which I dig through pain daily just to get to a place where I can function. We’re trapped in a dystopia but I promise you we’re not BORED.

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Deus_is_Mocking_Us@reddit

Nicholas Kristof once called people like us the "broken class," and members of the broken class always find each other. It's all we know.

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doryfishie@reddit

I’m sorry that you’re in this club too, it’s not a great one. I wish we at least got jackets.

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Proffesional-Fix4481@reddit

im a psych student diagnosed with cptsd, personally i dont find it entertaining, but to each their own. You are conveying that your life is hectic which i get what you are saying, it keeps you from being stagnant, but its not ‘truly’ fulfilling since you are understandably experiencing psychological distress.

The the context of the post is however moreso describing how we generally all have the same routines & live average lives because of how society works & the repetition is boring

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NyriasNeo@reddit

"The people here love bureaucracy because bureaucracy is boring."

If people love boring, what is the problem? Are you suggesting chaos, anarchy and war? Ask the ukrainians how exciting it is without knowing if a Russian missile is going to drop on their head at any time.

Humanity spent a lot of effort, throughout the ages, to earn "boring".

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Karahi00@reddit

Humans made a mistake. Heaven isn't in the vacuum of space or some cubicle. It's when you get to build a village with a family and friends and do drugs and have sex and not worry about how you're going to afford a babysitter and then you die before you get a chance to grow world-weary.

We earned nothing and now we have to undo it the hard way or wait for nature to clean up our mess for us.

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errie_tholluxe@reddit

Boring is relative. Gee, I have nothing to do. What should I do to fill my time today? That's a boring that people can figure out what to do with. Boring as in g. I have 20 minutes in between this and that that has to be done and there's absolutely nothing I can do within that time frame. Sucks ass. And that's most people's lives nowadays In the west. From what I understand, that's a good chunk of people's lives over in the Southeast Asian market.

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laeiryn@reddit

Do people just. ... not enjoy time thinking anymore? Twenty minutes to just relax would be amazing. Not every chunk of time needs to produce something. You're not the sum of your exploitable labor.

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TheOldPug@reddit

I have 20 minutes in between this and that that has to be done and there's absolutely nothing I can do within that time frame

Nonsense, peasant - you can sit up straight and LOOK busy! Stare intently at your screen. Furrow your brow. Or, if you want some exercise, pick up some papers with stuff on them and stride meaningfully across the office. This is really why people stuck in bullshit office jobs want to work from home, though. During that 20 minutes you could load the dishwasher, start it up, and wipe down the kitchen counters. Instead you're forced to sit in your cell pretending, sometimes for hours at a stretch, while all that shit sits and waits for you at home, to fill the last few hours of the day you would otherwise have to yourself.

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redpillsrule@reddit

Watch the documentary 2073 if you want to see where this all leads us to.

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Cultural-Answer-321@reddit

When I was younger, I had exciting times. Most of it not good.

Mundane is good.

There will be more than enough "excitement" for everyone in the near future. MORE than enough.

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intrepidone66@reddit

I blame social media and the internet as a whole.

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bluedragonflames@reddit

“Boredom sets into the boring mind” -Metallica

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postconsumerwat@reddit

There are a lot of plants and animals in the world to be excited about... human society and culture is disconnected. Wake up early and watch the sunrise, another gorgeous painting... too many sociopaths and psychos breeding and they got all over the place. Oh well. Life is short. And only going to run out quicker by the day... unless you do all kinds of new stuff... these last few years have been stretching out for me because I have no choice but to learn all kinds of new stuff.

Yes unfortunately people suck.. don't be like them

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No_ConMKUltrapenis@reddit

No it isnt

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hamsterkaufen_nein@reddit

I once asked my weed deler how he was doing, and he said to me 'Yeah, good, everything always same'.

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Xtrems876@reddit

That's a good thing. The last thing I want in my life is a disruption to my routine. I love a smooth-sailing life. I want to wake up every day knowing I'll drink my coffee, eat my müsli, work for 8 hours, eat a heathy meal, watch some anime and kiss my wife goodnight. And I want to do this next day and the next day and the next day.

I was born a hobbit, not an adventurer. Sauron may well be coming for us all but I'm not leaving my goddamn hut behind.

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Minimum_Crow_8198@reddit

Someone came up with a pretty good theory on the alienation of the workers in capitalism

Small part here

"First, the fact that labor is external to the worker, i.e., it does not belong to his intrinsic nature; that in his work, therefore, he does not affirm himself but denies himself, does not feel content but unhappy, does not develop freely his physical and mental energy but mortifies his body and ruins his mind. The worker therefore only feels himself outside his work, and in his work feels outside himself. He feels at home when he is not working, and when he is working he does not feel at home. His labor is therefore not voluntary, but coerced; it is forced labor. It is therefore not the satisfaction of a need; it is merely a means to satisfy needs external to it. Its alien character emerges clearly in the fact that as soon as no physical or other compulsion exists, labor is shunned like the plague. External labor, labor in which man alienates himself, is a labor of self-sacrifice, of mortification. Lastly, the external character of labor for the worker appears in the fact that it is not his own, but someone else’s, that it does not belong to him, that in it he belongs, not to himself, but to another. Just as in religion the spontaneous activity of the human imagination, of the human brain and the human heart, operates on the individual independently of him – that is, operates as an alien, divine or diabolical activity – so is the worker’s activity not his spontaneous activity. It belongs to another; it is the loss of his self. As a result, therefore, man (the worker) only feels himself freely active in his animal functions – eating, drinking, procreating, or at most in his dwelling and in dressing-up, etc.; and in his human functions he no longer feels himself to be anything but an animal. What is animal becomes human and what is human becomes animal"

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verdant11@reddit

r/boringdystopia

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archons_reptile@reddit

So much shit happening these days I feel like I'm slowly moving away from myself and my body like a slow death.

Be happy to be not at the pinnacle, because it's all downhill from there.

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cleverCLEVERcharming@reddit

This is the thought that keeps me feeling just absolutely devastated. Given all the mental capacity, flexibility, and innovation the human brain is capable of, that we chose to do just…. this…

It makes me so angry and sad. We are capable of so much more. And we’ve been conditioned to believe that we cannot or that it’s not “for us.”

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balcon@reddit

Cole Porter wrote a song about it decades ago.

“In olden days a glimpse of stocking was looked upon as something shocking. Now heaven knows, anything goes.”

The “crisis of men” (I’m not an expert, but I see it all around me) is a true crisis because, let’s be real, we were definitely not made for such lives (neither were women, of course). It’s a failure of the left, I must admit, that we offer no solutions to monotony. The far-right has always been better at propaganda and people are fucking stupid and think wars are something to be excited about. Bored and disillusioned men will be the downfall of the current paradigm—but for the worse.

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laeiryn@reddit

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7kVtw-rFFk

"Sometimes when I take a peek outside of my little cage

Everyone looks so asleep, will they die before they wake?"

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DariusIV@reddit

I'm sure roman mine slaves had very interesting and exciting lives. Likewise the average medieval peasant.

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Kosmophilos@reddit

So it's either this hellscape or being a Roman mine slave?

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errie_tholluxe@reddit

And the difference between none and now is less physical labor? Less feedings?

Difference between a Roman mine slave and a modern wage slave is that one thinks that they're free. Pays all their own expenses. Thinks that there's hope and for a better future.

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DariusIV@reddit

Yeah okay buddy, the average person who puts in a 8 hour shift to go home to a warm bed, plentiful food and the occasional vacation to somewhere new and interesting has the exact same quality of life to a roman mine slave who will be worked to death before they are 30.

Also at any point you can just leave, go start a farm in Montana. Change your career, go back to education. It isn't easy, but it's possible.

Yes, the developed world has it better than poor countries.

It's the same system, though. The same dystopia has wound its tendrils everywhere -- as has overpopulation and enforced impoverishment, inflated work pressure, and the bombardment of what the effectively-mythic perfect life looks like.

(Even the most gorgeous 22yo influencers don't live the lives they pretend to, folks. They're hucksters, selling fantasy.)

And yes, life in earlier versions of this system was also prone to repetitive drudgery. What's new is how completely Neoliberalism has isolated us.

This endemic destruction of community ties across the developed world is new, and deeply toxic. Replacing it with the banal mass-telepathy of the internet is also deeply toxic.

We're social creatures. We're not meant to live like bugs in a hive. And yes, it is becoming a problem. A terminal one.

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Human0id77@reddit

It isn't better in the US. It's the same.

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My life is still pretty exciting. Almost on the daily.

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wdjm@reddit

It's really only boring to those who take being fed their daily schedule (get up, go to work, come home, pay bills, etc) instead of thinking for themselves. If you're bored with your daily schedule, do something else. Pick up a new hobby. Invent a new product. Learn something new. Build something. Volunteer somewhere.

If you're bored....it's your own damn fault.

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AsissSculptor@reddit

so true king

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waitingundergravity@reddit

This is probably a naively individualist way of looking at it. Your environment to a certain extent circumscribes your psychology. Certain ways of being are just more boring than others, and our ability to break out of that (while never gone) is also circumscribed.

Despite all my rage ..

Ancient Chinese curse:

“May you live in interesting times.”

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Freud-Network@reddit

Ancient misattributed quote

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This relates to collapse because a bored populace with nothing to hope for can very quickly turn into a violent populace that craves wars and destruction rather than let things remain in the status quo. The surge of the far right in all of the Western world is a testament to that.

Please reply to OP's comment here: https://old.reddit.com/r/collapse/comments/1i2pg59/excruciatingly_boring_dystopia_our_lives_are_the/m7g8sml/