Setbacks are a part of life, and despite the need to gloss over them, I genuinely believe they can make me a better person. Every time, I learn how to problem solve and take advantage of that knowledge in later circumstances. There is one thing that I have never expected: that I will “bounce back better.” In the United States empire, there is a delusional belief that regardless of a setback, someone will always be better off after a negative circumstance. If people are paying attention, they need to understand that it is more emotionally mature to let go of such a notion.
These days, there is a war on the poor, and too many comfortable people with money are pretending that it occurs only in our minds. Confronting such people leads them to silence, because they know that they benefit from such a war, but have no concrete plans for stopping. This war largely consists of the inability to quickly acquire a living-wage job, and now, the relentless assault of automation on all the “lesser skilled” jobs. Everyone is running through financial reserves and people with opportunities are too self-important to understand that nobody can afford to wait forever, even for the best opportunities
A lot of snide trade workers like to boast that they acquired “real” skills, and that too many people want to work without sweating. These same practitioners are shocked when they offer to apprentice people for extremely low wages, and nobody wants to take them up on it because the money fails to pay the bills. Reality states that training takes time, and even a trade genius needs to learn, make mistakes, and get better with practice. Additionally, it costs money to get certified in any trade, and there will be a fierce competition for jobs once the training is completed. Meanwhile, there are bills while waiting for these magical certifications, as well as people who need to feed themselves, with automation and AI chomping at the bit to impoverish the masses.
Most importantly, people seem to constantly want more every single time they experience a setback. If they were middle class before, they want to be rich when everything falls into place. If someone had a relatively livable job, they want a flashy and important job when they finally stabilize. Almost nobody uses a setback to think about what it is they really want. Too many people keep obsessing about the possibility of “more,” which makes them even more depressed because the chances to get “more” are vanishing.
One imperial mindset that can be conquered is the idea that everyone can have a lot if we just “work harder.” If we continue chasing that ideology, we will burn ourselves into the ground. Rather, we all need to start working on how we can maintain a reasonable equilibrium in our lives. No, there will not always be a bigger, brighter future where we can continue doing whatever we want and get whatever we seek. We can, however, figure out a way to do what it takes to allow ourselves to socially and emotionally flourish without destroying everything in the process.
Chasing A Dying Empire 