Reflections on the World

40 insights about life, society, the human condition, and the world that we live in today, written during the winter of 2023-2024

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“It is my ambition to say in ten sentences what everyone else says in a book; what everyone else does not say in a book…”

Friedrich Nietzsche, The Twilight of the Idols

1. To enjoy the fruits of the real world, one needs to develop specific skills. The development of those skills, however, is often hindered today by the comfort that the virtual world provides. To put it simply, when you do not have that comfort, you necessarily have to bear and overcome the inconvenience that accompanies the development of those skills. This applies particularly to young people today, who are exposed to the virtual world from a very early age, thus hindering their development. What can be done about it?

Structural education changes, as some people suggest, could indeed contribute to foster the development of those skills and inspire young people to live a good, real life. However, the most important thing for the development of those skills is to limit the access to the virtual world to the young people or, at least, regulate that access. Only then young people will manage to develop the necessary skills and enjoy the fruits of the real world.

In any case, to perceive social media, and the virtual world in general, as something innocent and, therefore, something which should be used freely, would be as much a mistake as allowing one's kids play with harmful tools.

1b. A trend is slowly occurring today where people start realising that living digitally is vain and boring. Therefore, they quit social media and they start focusing on the real world. However, a lot of them soon experience that living in the real world is often as bad as living in the digital world, and then they go back to the digital world. What many of them fail to acknowledge is that the real world is not automatically better than the digital world. The difference, however, is that the real world can be very nice, whereas the digital world, as they have realised themselves, cannot.

But why do many people get disappointed by the real world as soon as they abandon the virtual world? Well, most people’s necessary skills to make the best of the real world have either not developed at all or they have been atrophied. This is precisely because many of them have got used to live in the digital world for too long. Therefore, inevitably, they do not find the real world particularly interesting. It is like putting together twenty two people to play football, while they do not even know what football is. Most likely, at first, they will find it boring.

My advice to those who might be struggling with enjoying the real world is the following: stick with the real world, explore the capabilities of the real world, develop the necessary parts of yourself which would allow you to make the best of the real world, be patient and receptive, and eventually you will be fine. Even the process itself, I must say, despite the initial discomfort, will be much more interesting than the comfortable and dull digital life!

2. If there is one thing in common among the elderly it is that many of them have regrets. And yet, even if many young people, in one way or another, are aware of this fact, they still remain, unfortunately, too narcissistic and absorbed in themselves to devote time and energy to reflect on their life, read what other people have to say about life, and realise now that many of the things they do may be wrong.¹ Essentially, many people think that when they will get old, they will not regret things. But this is wrong. Very wrong. And this arrogant distorted belief prevents them from living what I call a truly beautiful life, which would result from the transformation that self-reflection would bring about — something which, unfortunately, people usually realise only too late…

3. In an era where most people are inevitably confused,² it is stupid and naive to hope that somehow things will get better, as if things getting better does not depend on people. Most problems in the world will persist and the next fifteen to twenty years, in many respects, will be worse than the present is today — unless, of course, people take a break from most of the things they are doing and let themselves some time to rest, heal, and then engage with life and the world all over again…

3b. That people like Peterson and Zizek are considered some of the greatest intellectuals in the world today should come with no surprise. It would be a contradiction if that was not the case. The same people who, directly or indirectly, contribute to all the problems that exist in the world, are the ones who also make people like Peterson and Zizek to be “great intellectuals”.

4. One fundamental feature of the capitalist system – or, I would even say, of any system – is its ability to reinforce itself. So many people, today, play the capitalist game, although it is fundamentally alienating and unnecessarily complicates life. Eventually, most people realise how ridiculous it is and they regret for having played it. But they regret it quite late in life... And then, a whole life has been wasted, only because people, for too long, were rationalising all sorts of absurd things…

5. What people proclaim their values to be are almost never the values they actually embody. Human beings most of the times act unconsciously, and only rarely they manifest the values they proclaim to embody. What people actually manifest when they act, depends on the way they have been moulded over the years, and western culture and the capitalist structure of society do not mold human beings according to the values that western civilisation claims, or would like, to prioritise.