American Samsāra

The hypnotic, trances, Trump's aura, and the state of the American slave.

~15 years ago I was on the subway and noticed that everyone in the car was staring at their phone for the entire ride. Nobody looked up once. I realized I was one person watching over a group of people who were completely lost in a world that I wasn’t in, that I had power over them and they didn’t know it. I was more aware of myself and my surroundings than they were. I could slap their phone out of their hand, or worse, and they wouldn’t see it coming. This took place before ‘Black Mirror’ debuted, so the dystopian feel was very distinct at the time. Now, the situation I’m describing is the norm. Phone Addiction, or more accurately, Screen Addiction, is expected in 2024.

Screen addiction means something different for everyone. When it comes to X, you could become addicted to posting (me), addicted to scrolling (lurkers) or addicted to gossiping in group chats (faggots). I’m not a TikTok guy, but the few times I have used it, I quickly noticed their algorithm is pristine because the recommendations are extremely personalized. An infinite stream of young hot skinny girls? I had to delete the app quickly. I know my limits.

Then there’s screen addictions I can’t relate to. Some people get addicted to watching vlogs. Watching someone else describe their day-to-day life. Some get addicted to video game streaming, a phenomenon I truly can’t wrap my head around. My video game era was pre-internet and ended when I hit puberty, so I just cannot relate.

Some people get addicted to porn. I never had a problem with porn (in terms of watching too often) and haven’t watched it in years, but I understand the cycle. Really, it’s an addiction to depression and feeling cucked, but that’s another subject entirely.

Regardless of the poison, a lot of people live their lives entirely on their phones now. It’s easy to do that. You could wake up, check your notifications, check your group chats, do work on the internet while scrolling social media, order delivery then use the internet for the rest of the night until you die. Most people live their lives like this now. Even worse, most people’s entire perception of the world, and ultimately who they end up becoming, is entirely shaped by which part of the internet they’re consuming.

Americans Are The Walking Dead

I feel disgust towards boring people. Not to kiss my own ass, but I have an impeccable ability to read people. I look at someone for a millisecond and can figure them out on a gut level almost instantly, pending they’re not very unique. It’s pretty rare that I meet genuinely interesting people. Most people are kind of just…there. They’re alive, they have a pulse. But I can tell they either don’t have much to say or don’t have the courage to say what they want to say. Most people I meet are trapped under layers of self-imposed (even if culturally-induced) fear of being themselves, stress, and anxiety. That’s an extremely American quality. I’m not trying to say everyone outside of America is exciting and interesting, but it’s far too easy to find Americans who can best be described as boring and exhausted.

Most people I see died a long time ago. You can tell by the look in their eye. Life? They could take it or leave it. In all likelihood, they haven’t really thought about it much. Most people live their lives on autopilot and don’t think about who they are, what they want, or why they do what they do. For the hyper-aware, this seems like blissful vacation. Imagine not needing to think about the dark side of things? But in reality, that kind of live is ruled by pressure and existential dread.

Context is critical here. If you’ve ever spent time in Southern Europe, you realize how much the American lifestyle sucsk. I won’t bore you with the economic pros and cons of each system, but when work is not the end-all-be-all of life, you get to enjoy a lot more of it. You have more time to feel human. A lifestyle that allows for sitting outside with your friends to talk casually while drinking and eating slowly for hours late into the night is objectively better than the suffocating 4HL of the average American.

To add more context, American values come from the top down. The media dictates what’s allowable in polite conversation. Most people are secretly on edge and confused about the political situation here. There’s a lot of things you’re not allowed to question, think, or talk about. Being honest is a liability. Sprinkle some screen addiction where they’re being fed a vortex of lies, and you’re barely looking at an actual person. You’re looking at a pre-programmed chatbot.

“Ignorance Is Bliss”

On my podcast I’ve been asked what I think about Bronze Age Mindset by my friend Bronze Age Pervert. While his book articulated many feelings I felt crazy for having and awakened thoughts I didn’t realize I was suppressing, many men have had the same experience. One of the more under-discussed parts about BAM is how he talks about natural selection. BAP points out that we observe animals at length mostly in controlled environments and rarely in their natural state in the wild, therefore we don’t actually know that much about them.

“Animals walk around in a state of permanent religious intoxication. This is the natural condition of the mind and intellect, the moment-to-moment perception, of man as well. But we have been sold a bill of goods by the dispossessed and the envious, who say that this state is a kind of fall from grace, a primitive and undesirable condition. No, it is the very height of being.”