nihilism
Keely Adler and
nihilism
I was reading about “learned helplessness," a psychological condition that arises when one is not able to effect a change in one’s environment. It is characterized by “a drop in zest, decreasing clarity, withdrawal from connection, less self-knowledge, and a decrease in sense of self-worth.” To me, this is what it feels like to be on my seventh
... See moreAnn Friedman • Rock the LOTE
The shock we’re experiencing now can’t be summarized as present shock, which happens when we become blindly obsessed with the present moment. Nor is it a form of future shock, which happens when we feel that change is taking place too quickly. Instead, the shock we’re feeling today is an affront to our most basic understanding of reality. And the... See more
🏡 Shock and Awe
death salience + unfazed resiliency that are unspoken drivers behind so many behaviors today.
ZINE • 3_Trends_Vol.15: Sarah Unger: Memento Mori, Natural Awe + Four Day Week
“For a very long period of time, our index of negativity in American news articles fluctuated around a stable average,” the UPenn economist J. H. van Binsbergen, a co-author on the paper, told me. But since the 1970s, negativity has gone haywire. “News coverage has just gotten more and more negative every decade in the last 50 years, especially
... See moreWork in Progress, The Atlantic • America’s Top Export May Be Anxiety
Awash in a bleak mediascape, I had simply assumed that optimism had been long exiled to the realm of corny naivete, gone the way of “Live, Laugh, Loving” and #Girlbossing. So it came as a shock when my TikTok feed started filling up with posts about the “Indomitable Human Spirit.”