In the past I imagine that people were usually trying to ‘be a serious person’. And that’s still true. But somehow being a serious person is now faker. And I think maybe its because they’re being a very scared serious person. Somehow they’re a lot more vulnerable from every direction. Or there’s a lot more directions they’re vulnerable from.
Thanks; this resonates for me and I hadn’t thought of it here.
The guess that makes sense to me along these lines: maybe it’s less about individual vulnerability from attack/etc. And more that they can sense somehow that the fundamentals of the our collective situation are not viable (environmental collapse, AI, social collapse, who knows, from that visceral perspective I imagine them to have), and yet they don’t have a frame for understanding the “this can’t keep working,” and so it lands in the “in denial” bucket and their “serious person” is fake. (I don’t think the “fake” comes from “scared” alone, I think you need also “in denial about it.” For example, I think military units in war often do not feel fake, although their people are scared.)
(Alternative theory for scared: maybe it is just that we are lacking tribe.)
Only on my third read did I read it correctly – I thought you said that everyone being a serious person now is “a faker”. It’s harsher than what you said, but I kind of still believe it.
Attempting to blindsight the answer:
In the past I imagine that people were usually trying to ‘be a serious person’. And that’s still true. But somehow being a serious person is now faker. And I think maybe its because they’re being a very scared serious person. Somehow they’re a lot more vulnerable from every direction. Or there’s a lot more directions they’re vulnerable from.
Thanks; this resonates for me and I hadn’t thought of it here.
The guess that makes sense to me along these lines: maybe it’s less about individual vulnerability from attack/etc. And more that they can sense somehow that the fundamentals of the our collective situation are not viable (environmental collapse, AI, social collapse, who knows, from that visceral perspective I imagine them to have), and yet they don’t have a frame for understanding the “this can’t keep working,” and so it lands in the “in denial” bucket and their “serious person” is fake. (I don’t think the “fake” comes from “scared” alone, I think you need also “in denial about it.” For example, I think military units in war often do not feel fake, although their people are scared.)
(Alternative theory for scared: maybe it is just that we are lacking tribe.)
Only on my third read did I read it correctly – I thought you said that everyone being a serious person now is “a faker”. It’s harsher than what you said, but I kind of still believe it.