Humans are running an operating system that is many thousands of years old. We are dealing with a culture that is far more complex than that which our mind evolved to deal with. We are aliens in a world of our own creation. We have created an organism that is out of our control. We've ceded our identity to that of a larger whole just as the cells of your body give way to the person that is you.
Society dictates who we must be. Society tells us that we must work forty plus hours a week while siphoning our wills along with our time and income. We spend the little time we have remaining with the TV screen, the bottle, or thin white lines, trying to forget who we are. Those that don't fit in are medicated and incarcerated.
When faced with external stressors our ancestors would either run, or fight. Either option would usually result in the resolution of their problems. In our day and age however, there is little we can do to escape the pressures of the world around us. Until very recently in human history, humans had the option of escaping most stressors, or at least had the choice to do so. When you remove the ability for man to exercise his natural instincts to fight or flight, when you slowly back the beast into a corner, even the most passive man will fight back or surrender. Everyone cracks differently. From quiet sobs in the dark, to spectacular selfish machinations.
Sometimes we invent a complex web of lies we tell ourselves to justify who we are and what we're doing here. For most these lies are so engrained in a persons identity that they themselves are unaware of the excuses they make on their own behalf and that of society.
Sure, we have much to be grateful for. We are witnessing momentous leaps in technology, medicine, and science. All of these supposedly in the name of making our lives more safe and convenient. But how much have we lost in the name of progress? I know we can't go back. But I often time find myself envious of those ghosts of past generations.
We tell ourselves that we have freedoms. We tell ourselves that humanity is better off than before. And in some ways that is true. But let me ask you this, do you feel free?