Spot on with your observations and suggestions. It can be very unsettling at first when you see the world for what it actually is, but that also equips you to position and plan how you want to live as all of this unfolds. Time to stop believing the stories we continue to be told and make our own.
The noise is blinding. Add to that work, life, dinner...many have little battery strength left.
I think we all can benefit from purposely slowing down so we can see what's happening to this world. Investing the time to read articles like this is a great way to do that.
100 percent. Maybe for my next post, I'll revisit that whole idea of stepping away from social media and phones, etc. So often, it's presented as a superficial mental health hack. The way I do it: It's not like I'm going to forget all our problems if I spend one day not constantly checking my phone for updates or engaging with everyone and responding to every post I see. And it's often not the information I need a break from, it's all the hot takes and trolls. When I step away, it's because I want to think about the current state of the world and solve a problem it produces--not ignore it.
Wow, I'd love to see that link if you have it. Yeah, that's the world we live in. I guess a downside of civilizational destruction for the institutional investor is that the institutions you invest in and all your investments... aren't worth anything? I dunno, just my doomer take.
I'm bouncing along the bottom of okay right now. I know I need to take a break, but I have a driving need to know what's going on. It's definitely scary times and disconcerting how so many people just do not have a clue what's happening, on purpose. Thank you for this writing. As grave as your report is I don't feel quite as alone as I did before reading .
Very insightful read. You definitely hit on some high points of concern. My deepest concern is the amount of chaos that is running rampant every which way is our minds are always changing the line in the sand. Each day presents new challenges when we haven’t quite reconciled with how we should deal with the day before, it’s difficulty is trying to process stuff before the next shoe drops hence the more chaos. It creates a sort of holding the breath thinking things will stand still for a moment 🤔 but it doesn’t work 😳
"No doubt, all of this represents an extension of U.S. neoliberal policy and doctrine rather than a departure, but it’s quite the evolution, isn’t it? The gloves have really come off in a big way. The masks have really slipped down."
Any regime becomes unfree and monstrous when the ROI for Energy and/or Manufacturing becomes too unfavorable for it to keep going (either through thermodynamics and/or through ideological mismanagement [like ignoring cybernetics and computing for decades till the West buried them with it]). After Kruschev attempted his economic and civil liberties thaw thing in the 50s and 60s...it all went back to Brezhnew stagnation and the eventual implosion in the late 80s.
The US currently has both been hitting thermodynamical limits AND ideological mismanagement. I rhink I do not need to talk about the anti-scientific and anti-technological bent of this admin, being Pro-AI and Pro-Cybernetics at the expense of everything else doesnt cover the multiple gaps it intentionally created....the reverse of the Soviet Union's ideological blindspot ironically.
Your reference to Khrushchev is spot on. Knowledge of a little bit of history can certainly take you a very, very long way.
When the US committed to a set of living arrangements, the suburbs, in the 1950s and 60s their unquenchable desire for liquid fossil fuels was set in stone, and their adventures in the ME were bound to follow, just as night follows day.
Brilliant. Profound. Moving! Great writing. I couldn't detect an iota of AI. You're preaching to the converted, the choir, whatever the April, 2026 cliché is. Would that those who NEED to read your essay, would read it. They won't. Too long. Too many big words. They already intuit that you're woke.Too difficult to grasp. And WAAAY outside their indoctrination bubbles. Even so, brava. You did a great service, Jessica. You are a very good communicator.
This is a good assessment of our exclusive “we,” at least mine, as I have this luxury to live on two wavelengths: “ We live on two wavelengths now, one where we hold on to the moral and ethical center that never allows us to become desensitized to the horrors unfolding, while simultaneously growing mental and emotional callouses that allow us to function in a world with soul-crushing, stupefying amounts of cruelty.”
Thank you for this... I was just talking to a friend about how much I miss the 2010s, when at least those in power paid lip service to wanting the best for the world population. I knew things were really bad then, but most of us had more of a sense of agency if not optimism. I'm 35 and lately I've been really grieving not having a child and not thinking it's right for me to have a baby, with the world view and outlook on the future I have. I don't want to know what the future holds, so it feels like I shouldn't kind of extend my own life. I was kind of raised as a doomer and never even considered it until last year. Loss of the future feels like loss of meaning. I'm trying to work through this and get past it to some degree so I can be my best, despite how deeply sad it all is.
or a testosterone-fueled ejaculation morphing into a mushroom cloud. (sorry for poor taste --- i've been carrying that image now for a month and it begged for expression). i am married to good-hearted man who, despite his loving nature and respect for all beings, just loves watching things blow up (on TV, or in the movies). i will never understand this fascination with violence.
Remember that the Emperor's New Clothes ends with him getting caught and going right on parading about naked. Is it because he has no shame? Or because he's innured to his power, or perhaps because he knows nobody would stop him?
On the other hand we have that thing they say about being in the mob: 'When you're in you're powerful untouchable and nobody can stop you, you can have anything you want and do whatever you like. It's great... Until the last 15 minutes, and then it gets ugly'
Spot on with your observations and suggestions. It can be very unsettling at first when you see the world for what it actually is, but that also equips you to position and plan how you want to live as all of this unfolds. Time to stop believing the stories we continue to be told and make our own.
100 percent agreement, we need to push through the discomfort and see the world as it is.
The noise is blinding. Add to that work, life, dinner...many have little battery strength left.
I think we all can benefit from purposely slowing down so we can see what's happening to this world. Investing the time to read articles like this is a great way to do that.
100 percent. Maybe for my next post, I'll revisit that whole idea of stepping away from social media and phones, etc. So often, it's presented as a superficial mental health hack. The way I do it: It's not like I'm going to forget all our problems if I spend one day not constantly checking my phone for updates or engaging with everyone and responding to every post I see. And it's often not the information I need a break from, it's all the hot takes and trolls. When I step away, it's because I want to think about the current state of the world and solve a problem it produces--not ignore it.
I remember when Instagram was a fun way to share pics with friends. It got me into photograhy for a while. It was an escape at that time.
Or should that be "deafening"
L actually liked your mixed metaphor
I just heard a CNN host ask a financial commentator, "In the event of civilizational destruction,
what are the downside and upside risks for the institutional investor?" That's the world we're living in.
Wow, I'd love to see that link if you have it. Yeah, that's the world we live in. I guess a downside of civilizational destruction for the institutional investor is that the institutions you invest in and all your investments... aren't worth anything? I dunno, just my doomer take.
Well composed and written. Sanest voice I run into on Substack (or elsewhere).
Thank you for your support. :)
You share information on numerous subjects I’m unfamiliar with so ty as well. I’m certain you worked hard doing so.
If you are interested in the voice of sanity, you might find Steven J Newbury, on substack, richly rewarding.
I'm bouncing along the bottom of okay right now. I know I need to take a break, but I have a driving need to know what's going on. It's definitely scary times and disconcerting how so many people just do not have a clue what's happening, on purpose. Thank you for this writing. As grave as your report is I don't feel quite as alone as I did before reading .
Thank you. My big goal is to make people feel less alone and more grounded by talking about truth and reality, no matter how unpleasant.
I feel like a juggler with one batton on fire and wondering which catch is going to burn!
Excellent metaphor.
Very insightful read. You definitely hit on some high points of concern. My deepest concern is the amount of chaos that is running rampant every which way is our minds are always changing the line in the sand. Each day presents new challenges when we haven’t quite reconciled with how we should deal with the day before, it’s difficulty is trying to process stuff before the next shoe drops hence the more chaos. It creates a sort of holding the breath thinking things will stand still for a moment 🤔 but it doesn’t work 😳
"No doubt, all of this represents an extension of U.S. neoliberal policy and doctrine rather than a departure, but it’s quite the evolution, isn’t it? The gloves have really come off in a big way. The masks have really slipped down."
Any regime becomes unfree and monstrous when the ROI for Energy and/or Manufacturing becomes too unfavorable for it to keep going (either through thermodynamics and/or through ideological mismanagement [like ignoring cybernetics and computing for decades till the West buried them with it]). After Kruschev attempted his economic and civil liberties thaw thing in the 50s and 60s...it all went back to Brezhnew stagnation and the eventual implosion in the late 80s.
The US currently has both been hitting thermodynamical limits AND ideological mismanagement. I rhink I do not need to talk about the anti-scientific and anti-technological bent of this admin, being Pro-AI and Pro-Cybernetics at the expense of everything else doesnt cover the multiple gaps it intentionally created....the reverse of the Soviet Union's ideological blindspot ironically.
Your reference to Khrushchev is spot on. Knowledge of a little bit of history can certainly take you a very, very long way.
When the US committed to a set of living arrangements, the suburbs, in the 1950s and 60s their unquenchable desire for liquid fossil fuels was set in stone, and their adventures in the ME were bound to follow, just as night follows day.
Brilliant. Profound. Moving! Great writing. I couldn't detect an iota of AI. You're preaching to the converted, the choir, whatever the April, 2026 cliché is. Would that those who NEED to read your essay, would read it. They won't. Too long. Too many big words. They already intuit that you're woke.Too difficult to grasp. And WAAAY outside their indoctrination bubbles. Even so, brava. You did a great service, Jessica. You are a very good communicator.
agreed.
Happy to see you back!
This is a good assessment of our exclusive “we,” at least mine, as I have this luxury to live on two wavelengths: “ We live on two wavelengths now, one where we hold on to the moral and ethical center that never allows us to become desensitized to the horrors unfolding, while simultaneously growing mental and emotional callouses that allow us to function in a world with soul-crushing, stupefying amounts of cruelty.”
Well said.
Excellent.
Thank you for this... I was just talking to a friend about how much I miss the 2010s, when at least those in power paid lip service to wanting the best for the world population. I knew things were really bad then, but most of us had more of a sense of agency if not optimism. I'm 35 and lately I've been really grieving not having a child and not thinking it's right for me to have a baby, with the world view and outlook on the future I have. I don't want to know what the future holds, so it feels like I shouldn't kind of extend my own life. I was kind of raised as a doomer and never even considered it until last year. Loss of the future feels like loss of meaning. I'm trying to work through this and get past it to some degree so I can be my best, despite how deeply sad it all is.
"Loss of the future feels like loss of meaning." spot on. that describes much of what i feel.
A better picture would be a rocket blowing up.
or a testosterone-fueled ejaculation morphing into a mushroom cloud. (sorry for poor taste --- i've been carrying that image now for a month and it begged for expression). i am married to good-hearted man who, despite his loving nature and respect for all beings, just loves watching things blow up (on TV, or in the movies). i will never understand this fascination with violence.
🤣🤣🤣
Remember that the Emperor's New Clothes ends with him getting caught and going right on parading about naked. Is it because he has no shame? Or because he's innured to his power, or perhaps because he knows nobody would stop him?
On the other hand we have that thing they say about being in the mob: 'When you're in you're powerful untouchable and nobody can stop you, you can have anything you want and do whatever you like. It's great... Until the last 15 minutes, and then it gets ugly'
Tick tock.