We can fix it. I think, I hope...

Finding out how to structure a society that works in the long-term is actually quite easy.

You need people to Trust, you need them to Hope, and you need them to Help.

Trust that if they do their part in attempting to make it all work, needless hurdles will not be put in their way to do so.
Trust that if things happen and they need the help of the rest of us, there will be systems in place to facilitate that.
Trust that if someone actively tries to harm them, whether directly, indirectly, physically, economically, or reputationally, there is recourse and a fair system to both allow them to redress the wrong and argue their case in a secure process. You also need them to be able to trust that if they were to take part in such a process on another individual or group's behalf, they will not come to harm themselves for doing so.

Trust that SOMETHING is true. Or true enough.

And that enough of us can agree on it to act on it.

Hope.

Hope is what you show by forming relationships. You hope for a better future and one where you aren't alone, because none of us thrives in isolation. Hope is what makes people have kids, save money to buy a house, and plan vacations to see places near and far.

You hope there is something different and that that difference is a positive one.

We aren't solely skeletons within suits of flesh piloted by a wrinkly organ and animal needs.

We are vehicles of memory and experience from the moment we open our eyes and yell at the harsh light and cold until that light is snuffed out and we once again fade into darkness and return to the disparate atoms which made us, and our component parts, as they reenter the biochemistry which we all came from.

A hopeless individual tugs on all others near them, like how a hungry black hole attracts light and matter. If you have enough of these voids in a society they, like black holes, grow and consume all near them.

The antidote to all of this is Help. Giving and Receiving it. But helping rarely seems to come first these days, at least not always, or in sufficient quantity to guarantee success, or at the very least to stave off entropy.

It's a three-legged stool we're trying to balance here, and if one of the legs starts to buckle, they all eventually fall.

Now - just like any other human endeavour, once enough time passes this, like any other system will trend towards stagnation and entropy reasserting itself, much like how it works in nature. I do not have a clear solution to that problem, but all that vague babbling above is a good start. Keep doing that. If I had a silver bullet for this shit I would either start a religion or try to take over the world, and I'm not interested nor inclined to do either. But we have to keep in mind that if you cultivate something it's much like going to the gym or eating healthy. You keep doing it to maintain a good thing, you don't just cross a finish line and boom - utopia.

If things are starting to go way too fucking far out of whack - which I would definitely argue that they are right now - you need to pause, take inventory and proceed with a reasonable course of action. Spontaneity is good, but when it comes to how we all don't end up eating each-other at least some forethought is due.

Having preached all of that - I'm not capable of that entirely, else I wouldn't be shouting into the void like this, but I'm going to have a go at a solution/silver bullet.

If I could do one thing to fix this clusterfuck of a world we're in right now, it would be to revert the internet and personal device tech level to ca... 2000.

BOOM - All your anxieties, your posturing, your envy, your rage, echo-chambers, lust, greed, hatred - all the things the Silicon Valley vampires nurtured and fed back to you in an infinite loop towards self-destruction, GONE.

Now you may have to actually look at another human being in person to speak to them, or at the very least make a phonecall... ooooh, scary, right?

You know what it will also do, though? It will force you to see their facial expression, note their body language and hear their tone of voice so you don't put a screen and millions of miles of fiberoptic cabling and other infrastructure between you and the person you just told to end their own life because you knee-jerk disagreed with their opinion on any given topic.

It will also deprive the demagogues of at least some of the channels through which they spread their poison and the monetary incentive for doing so.

And it'll make teenagers less likely to off themselves because they don't have what has.
Be it physical attributes, money, or possessions. Heck, it might even make people want to start dating without laying down ground rules that leave them an escape hatch.

Invest. Invest in yourself and others. Much like the stock market, you are not guaranteed a return, but swiping and doing the walk of shame at 5:26 in the morning or treating other people like masturbation aids (or being one yourself) isn't going to make you happy either.

Fucking shit... this devolved real fast, but I guess that's why it is a rant posted here - ain't it.
Fucking Hypomania and insomnia - the wonders of adjusted medication.

Anyway.

If anyone actually got through that whole insane tirade above and ended up here.

Hi.

I don't know you, and barring some cosmic coincidence, you will never know me, but I love You. I love you because you're a fellow human being on this spinning ball hurtling through space at unfathomable speed, and who knows what the fuck happens tomorrow or next week... That's why I love You. It's also because I have spent so much time feeling sorry for myself and blaming circumstances for mine and other people's failures, and I'm fucking Done.

I don't know how successful I'll be, but aside from the odd freakout when I see yet another rage-inducing absurdity in the news, I will do my best to be a force for good in the world.
I'm a lonely, old, sometimes bitter Asshole, but I find that I'm the happiest when I give instead of Take.

Hey, they become clichés for a reason - it's because they ring true.

So have some Love. You deserve it.

Pay it forward.

---

Bubo Borealis Other April 29, 2026 at 11:37 pm 0 1