It's all broke - Julian Summerhayes

What?

Our culture
Our values
Our lives

All in all, the world as we know it isn’t getting any better. Factor in scarcity, wars, climate catastrophe, the annihilation of our non-human cousins and it’s a wonder…well, it’s a wonder we still keep going.

But of course, there’s always hope.

What?

You know, that imaginal state where we see things getting better.

When?

When do they change?

I wish someone could answer that question.

You see, this far out — 54 years to be precise (20,007 days) — I can see my wake and it ain’t pretty. In fact, there are times when I wonder why I was brought into this world if my only job was to…work.

Oh, woe is me!

But it’s true. All my life I’ve worked and I don’t see that ending anytime soon. And that means I’ll keep consuming and even though I’ll do my best to go as small as possible, I’ll still add to the earth’s woes.

Do you remember what Bukowski said:

The courage it took to get out of bed each morning to face the same things over and over was enormous.

And that’s often how I feel.

What am I trying to say?

We need to stop pretending that everything’s fine and we’ll find a solution to the human condition. We won’t. We’re hard-wired to destroy, to be selfish and live through entirely anthropocentric eyes. If there was a conversation to be had and here I’m ready for the brickbats it’s whether we should exist at all. Yes, that means talking about antinatalism or effilism (if there’s such a thing). If not those subjects then how we wake up from our narcissistic torpor and become more animistic so that we don’t see ourselves separate and apart from nature.

Will either happen?

Nah.

Like I keep saying, it’s way too late. In fact, as nihilistic as it sounds, it’s my belief that we’ve consigned ourselves to certain extinction — alongside billions of other sentient creatures.

Will the world survive?

Yes, but it will, sadly, look very different to the one I was born into.

Onwards as they say.