Nothing particularly insightful, but… It doesn’t surprise me in the slightest that this phenom is becoming more common…
Like, I’ve had some really bad stuff happen this week, because I let the wrong person into my life (again), but beyond that… Even just “going out into the world” can be so fucking hostile, it’s really no surprise people retreat like that…
“Social dysfunction” isn’t as obvious where I am as it might be elsewhere. Certainly, you don’t really see it, but have a conversation with the wrong person, or even just sit and observe long enough, and it becomes readily apparent that we’ve become a wider society of petty hostility and just general… Unpleasantness.
Places like NYC, Sydney and arguably Tokyo were always like this, but it’s largely “leaked” far beyond that now. Everyone feels like they’re out to get each other, or at each other’s throats, and that if you don’t play along with the odd beliefs of the person you are talking to? They might just decide to do something really nasty…
A 95-year old with dementia was tasered to death in a nursing home in Sydney a week ago (“She was carrying a knife!”). Just yesterday, a huge fire engulfed a massive historic building in Sydney, and no one put it out, until it was a raging inferno enough to destroy the entire thing (the circumstances of all that are very weird)…
Then there has been escalating brawls and attacks on police in several QLD cities this week.
It all feels… Increasingly hostile. And this is in Australia… “Commie shithole” aside, some of these things are quite unheard of…
So… Filtering this down into “ordinary interactions”, where people have become so hypersensitive and hostile about every disagreement, every little thing… It’s no wonder, honestly, that some young men have decided “Fuck this, why the fuck should I even bother anymore?”
I know I feel that way about “friendship” at this point, so for me, that’s pretty damn understandable…
Just my 10c.
Western society has been an empty husk of make-work nonsense and superficial relationships, since at least my childhood. For most of my life this was a great source of disillusionment, as I felt poisoned by malaise at the sight of people bustling and slaving away their youthful years, with no prospect of deeper lasting fulfilment in sight. The situation in 2023 is particularly bad, probably worse than it's ever been except during the twilight of other great civilisations. The kind of everyday life which so disillusioned me still served to provide comfort and routine to humanity at large - normies - as long as they weren't too inclined towards existential tail-chasing, but not any more. Even the most basic ideas of what life could and should be, the foundational assumptions of humanity and interpersonal trust, are breaking down through moral subversion. This is what's causing hikikomoris to cash out in great numbers - they're told to 'be a man' in one ear, then clawed and scratched for any assertion of masculinity, by feminists shrieking in their other ear. And it's the same party in both ears. Similar basic contradictions are the culprit for other people washing their hands of society in the way you mention.
On the flipside, I feel better than ever. The nihilist cloud I mentioned started to thin a little throughout my 30s and was finally blown away by the pandemic, by what I can only call a process of self-discovery. There is no blueprint to share (yet) other than to say you can get there by going to church, but it's not the only way nor was it my way. More important than knowledge of a greater power is knowledge of the power that animates you, a recognition of your own nature and an acceptance of your own vital impulse. A connection to life (and the infinite, if you want it) comes naturally once you've solved your own place within it. It boils down to knowing yourself, as in the first Delphic maxim.
Having walked this route doesn't turn you into the life of the party or a hedge fund manager or a film star nor does it tighten your abs. It doesn't necessarily make you trust the average person any more than you do now, but you do become more loving and accepting of the reality that most people are sheep, requiring guidance, and that there is a spiritual elite in the world. It helps you understand that masculinity is a human constant, among many other human constants, and it can't be factored out nor rationalised away by reddit soybeards. I think it's more evident than ever that this dried out mess of tangled ivy which passes for society, having lost it's few remaining roots, now needs true green shoots pushing up from beneath. Shaming tactics designed to force men into self-denial should be seen for what they are, and their growing loss of potency IMO accounts for the resurgence in shamelessly 'radical' and extreme viewpoints which the establishment is struggling to suppress. It's a cliche but the route to fixing everything else is fixing you.
On the personal level regarding your anecdotes, I don't see a reason to hold back or deflect with these people. For a start, if you see society as increasingly fraudulent, why even criticise the woman for cheating on her qualification? Perhaps it's someone to bond with over her spite towards empty academic credentials. Alternatively if it makes you angry, then do criticise her, tell her she's contributing to the downfall of society, and describe why she shouldn't be doing that.
Similarly the wiccan. Why deflect? Her saying something stupid costs you nothing, so ask for more info. If what she said sounds sounds evil say it's evil. If it's confusing say it's confusing. If you don't want to talk about shit like that, tell her why. Or state your own beliefs and say why they're better. These just sound like opportunities to assert your own identity. Rather than bemoan what looks like insanity, realise that femininity always resembles fucking madness when allowed to flow unchecked, which is why they seek out masculinity for pushback and surety in what is otherwise a formless and chaotic life, when you subtract several of the essential human elements. They want to be reminded masculinity exists. This also explains how this plays out on the societal level, when women rage at 'incels' for not playing the game that they themselves have browbeaten the men out of playing. It's a problem that can't be quickly fixed on the social level, but you can make a start through your personal interactions. Doesn't mean you have to get married afterwards either, ghost her if she's a waste of time. And your own time becomes much more valuable when you know yourself!
I'm still moving through the black pill phase and need to get closer to where you are.
The older I get the more I notice how The Matrix was stunningly representative of real life and philosophical consequences of living in post-post-modernism, even if that wasn't the intent by the writers. It's a template you can extend and apply to many social ills. (Simulacra and Simulation too)
On this point, I've accepted that the media and its amplification of accepted cultural or political narratives is like a self-defense mechanism for The System. It's easy to blame the architects of Control and desire to tear it down, but in truth the Collective wants their control and have cooperated in creating it. Most people need to live in that fake reality to function. Otherwise they would end up like us or worse.
Anyway I appreciated reading your bite of wisdom here and have bookmarked it, so thanks for that.
As much as I've gotten better at withholding my disdain for the Collective, I still seethe at the elements of Control. But it's less a result of the elitist control itself and more the fact that they're abusing their charge. The puppets submit to puppeteering by their nature, it's just not nice seeing them vandalised.
I often think of Slavoj Zizek's short breakdown of They Live, along these lines. There's little I agree with him on these days and he can't resist pigeonholing the movie as a classic of 'the left', but his analysis of why the fight scene lasts so long rings true. People will actively resist and fight against 'putting the glasses on', because their deluded existence is the more comfortable one. Even the knowledge on some level that they're deluded can't easily overturn this.
No problem, if it seems like wisdom to at least one other person then that's something. On blackpill detox, I have vague ideas of tying together everything that helped me and repackaging it in some form, at some date, but it's hard to know where to start because it varies so much on everybody's respective starting point. So rather than blather in circles, for now I cop out and tend to go back to 'know thyself'.