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here are parts of the industrial society that have me in a chokehold. i struggle with surrogate activities and tech addiction. (SA: an action done to progress an artificial goal we have made for ourselves for the sole purpose of having something to work towards/for fulfillment)
essentially, if you wouldn’t truly feel distressed/deprived by not obtaining that goal, it’s a SA. of course, not everything that can be classified as one is /always/ an SA. it isn’t if there are more reasons to doing it than simply wanting to achieve a goal. i disagree with ted-
-when he says, particularly that art and literary creation is a SA because i think they’re essential to the human experience, however i definitely do things often only because i feel like i’m not doing enough. i fill up my schedule with meaningless things i don’t enjoy, such as-
-diving before i quit, which i only did for accolades and success despite hating it. i’ve always felt like what i do isn’t ‘meaningful’ enough, but that’s because i force myself into strict expectations of what meaningful is according to society. one of the biggest things i took-
-from ISAF was “they say that happiness is always something that you are anticipating in the future, not something that you have right now... when you get out of the system and become re-adapted to a different way of life, happiness is often something that you have right now.” -
- i mean, god, isn’t that the problem? we’re constantly told we’ll be happy when we have a good job, a family, a life according to what is deemed acceptable, but we won’t because we’ve spent our whole life vying for something that gives us no true fulfillment. we live by THEIR-
-rules of what fulfillment is. we work years at a job we hate that won’t let us take a break unless it won’t interfere with their profits. we’re only allowed to live our lives once we play our role long enough, churn our cog for the giant machine. i also think that, though not-
-made to control, technology has become a tool to do so. i for one will certainly admit i’m addicted to tech, validation and catching up with what everyone’s doing despite not truly caring. though i’m getting better, the worst time is with COVID right now where we’re required in-
-every facet of life to use it, from work to school to communication. i wish i could just shrink away and read and create and learn rather than speak to anyone. yet it’s not a choice. it never was. we get the illusion of choice, where we get to choose our profession and pick out-
-fancy new things, yet the second we don’t contribute the way we’re supposed to we’re punished. remember, “it is important not to confuse freedom with mere permissiveness.” there is no freedom under the industrial society, rather, a false sense of accomplishment by doing-
-what benefits those in power, nothing more, nothing less. FIN.
