Our modern society is so wonderful in many ways. We have better communication now and we can rely on technology for most of our everyday tasks and chores. We also have a lot of advancement in other fields, not just in technology. But what if I told you that this modern society is so powerful and tragically geared to causing a high background level of anxiety and widespread low-level depression?
We are also being controlled to do a lot of stupid things that we always saw online and our brain thinks that it is still proper to do so even if it’s not. One day you will just realize that your life is already sucked by the internet and technology.
There are also a lot of toxic cultures that are already being treated by this modern society as normal things to do so. So we decided to do a list of the most toxic things that are happening in our modern society. I hope this article will wake you up to reality and do better things in your life.
Meritocracy
Our modern society tells us that everyone is free to make it if they have the talent and energy. The downside of this ostensibly liberating and beautiful idea is that any perceived lack of success is taken to be not, as in the past, an accident or misfortune, but a sure sign of a lack of talent or laziness. If those at the top deserve all their success, then those at the bottom must surely deserve all their failure.
A society that thinks of itself as meritocratic turns poverty from a problem to evidence of damnation and those who have failed from unfortunate to losers. The cure for this toxic modern society thinking is a strong, culturally endorsed belief in two big ideas: luck, which says success doesn’t just depend on talent and effort; and tragedy, which says good, decent people can fail and deserve compassion, rather than contempt.
See Also: 7 Toxic Things Of Modernity
Individualism
Our modern society is so individualistic and it preaches that the individual and their achievements are everything and that everyone is capable of a special destiny. It is not the community that matters; the group is for no-hopers. To be an ‘ordinary person’ is regarded as a curse.
The result is that the very thing that most of us will end up being, statically speaking, is associated, with freakish failure. The cure for this problem in our modern society is by being contented of ordinary life with proper appreciation of the pleasures and quiet heroism of the everyday.
Secularism
Secular societies cease to believe in anything bigger than or beyond themselves. Religions used to perform the useful service of keeping our petty ways and status battles in perspective. But now there is nothing to awe or relativize humans, whose triumphs and mishaps end up feeling like the be-all and end-all.
The solution for this problem in our modern society would involve regularly using sources of transcendence to generate a benign, relativizing perspective on our sorrows: music, the stars at night, and the vast spaces of the desert, or the ocean would humble us all in consoling ways.
See Also: Why is society so toxic? The top 13 reasons
Romanticism
The philosophy of romanticism tells us that each of us has one very special person out there who can make us completely happy. Yet mostly we have to settle for moderately bearable relationships with someone who is very nice in a few ways and pretty difficult in many others. It also feels like a disaster in comparison with our original huge hopes.
The solution for this modern society mindset is to realize that we didn’t go wrong: we were encouraged to believe in something very improbable. Instead, we should build up our ambitions around friendships and nonsexual love.
The Media
The media has immense prestige and a huge place in our lives but routinely directs our attention to things that scare, worry, panic, and enrage us, while denying us any chance for effective personal action. It typically attends to the least admirable sides of human nature, without a balancing exposure to normal good intentions, responsibility, and decency. And at its worst, it edges us toward mob justice.
The cure for this very devastating effect of media in this modern society would be news that concentrated on presenting solutions rather than generating outrage, that was alive to systemic problems rather than gleefully emphasizing scapegoats and emblematic monsters. And that would regularly remind us that the news we most need to focus on comes from our own lives and direct experiences.
Perfectibility
Our modern society stresses that it is within our remit to be profoundly content, sane and accomplished. As a result, we end up loathing ourselves, feeling weak, and sensing we’ve wasted our lives.
The solution for this problem in our modern society would be a culture that endlessly promotes the idea that perfection is not within our grasp that being mentally slightly unwell is an inescapable part of the human condition and that what we need above all are good friends with with whom we can sit and honestly discuss our real fears and vulnerabilities.
Toxic Entertainment Contents
Garbage in, garbage out. That’s a solid rule for diet and for many other aspects of life. It applies very well to modern society’s habit of consuming absolute dreck and then wondering why they’re on edge, hopeless, anxious, etc. We watch films, TV series and other content that is full of meaningless violence, sex, mindf*ck storylines and all around twisted, psychopathic content.
Then we wonder why society is becoming so toxic?
It’s becoming toxic because we’re shoveling radioactive mind poison into our eyeballs all day.
We’ve developed a thirst for shallow information and entertainment. I’m not saying we should all start reading classics by candlelight (as peaceful as that sounds). But there’s much to be gained about enjoying books and movies with more substance.
The forces of psychological distress in our world are currently much wealthier and more active than the needed solutions. We deserve tender pity for the price we have to pay for being born in modern times.
