Life, as a concept, is fairly universal in its meaning. If you asked 100 random people to define Life, I expect 90+ responses would be rooted in the idea that it is some combination of being alive/ existing, moving through the world as a sentient creature, and generally trying to move from one day/month/year to the next while finding better/easier ways to maintain. The remaining responses may well run the gamut from the most extreme philosophies on existentialism & nihilism to interpretations of the teachings of Confucius and Kant, stoics, joy chasers, absurdists et al. Regardless of one’s particular lens, the primary vision is the same, figure out what keeps you moving and go with it. But… within each philosophy, there is an underlying question – what happens when people no longer care whether or not they’re alive.
To live, to be alive, to face each day with the belief that it will be good, relatively speaking, even in the face of difficulties and unknowns is the goal, more or less. But sometimes, people no longer care about the goal. They find that the journey stopped being a worthy utilization of their time and energy and they’ve long since given up on even considering the destination, if there ever was one. When this happens, people usually go one of two ways – either they actively seek a way to put an end to the life they know (quitting their job, ending a relationship, giving up on a dream, or in the most dire cases, ending their life) or they embrace the inner voice that’s been telling them to stop giving a fuck, about most everything.
The former choice is often accompanied by enormous emotional releases, letting go of all that’s been building inside the self for years or decades even. And this tide of emotions can lead to all kinds of rash decisions resulting in further emotional turmoil. Yet,it can also be the thing that is needed in order to return one’s life back into a reasonable existence that isn’t beset by bitterness & riddled with regret. The latter, and I believe more common today, is based in the knowledge that at the end of the day the world will not end if you ignore, sidestep, or half-ass most everything you are confronted with. Sure, there may be consequences for one’s inaction in some cases but would they be any worse than if you had put forth the effort to address the issue and wound up with little to no appreciable benefit? Probably not, or at least that’s what it seems more people are projecting. And this is not to say that people who don’t have any fucks to give are cold-hearted or indifferent to the pain and suffering they witness, it just means that they no longer possess the capacity to give so much of their emotional self to processing those feels. This is where we are, societally; millions of humans wake-up every day, feigning concern for daily tasks as needed, to escape the questions that come when not playing the part, and go about their routine as though life is perfectly fine – or at least not god-fucking-awful.
The reasons for this are varied but at the heart of it I believe we’ve arrived here due in large part to the disintegration of humanity as viewed through the lens of wealth disparity. The richest 1,000 Americans possess more wealth than 1/2 the populace. And if those uber-rich assholes had a modicum of decency in their d.n.a., we wouldn’t be in the current socio-political situation that has overwhelmed our collective conscious. This type of pandemic (haves and have nots) is not conducive to the longevity of a species or community or world. The only ways to fix the status quo is to elect public officials who will institute a far more progressive tax code… or to initiate warfare against the members of the ultra elite and their apologists. Anything short of this will give us the most recent version of Rome’s demise. And while I say this knowing full-well I’m not ready to give said fucks, so too, I’m fully present in this chaotic episode of 21st century shitfuckery and am ready to take the necessary actions, whatever those may be. When the people have reached their limit and rise together to oppose those who would have us as their perpetual minions, our collective existence will turn a corner and begin the healing process. Until such time (which might be closer than we think), we must do what we can, as life permits, and not exhaust ourselves in the process.