They have de-sensitized us with individualism.
With 30 Under 30s and VC funding and promotions and “getting the bag” and Instagram flexes and hard-to-get tickets and celebrity culture that is just one blue check mark away.
Meanwhile they have stolen our very humanity.
The thing that links us to one another. The ingredient that makes life worth living. The connection to a single being regardless of race or gender or religion or geography or socio-economic strata.
And what do we have to show for it?
Another school shooting with little political action expected to prevent a repeat. Another mass shooting of Black or brown people buying groceries or going to church. Another billionaire lauded while thousands go homeless or without food or healthcare.
We are complicit, of course.
We sought the recognition, the financial reward, the “come up,” the prestige, the plug to the famed athlete or star, the distraction, the vacation from our obligation to one another, the day off.
Keep your head down, we learned. Keep earning.
Another turn at the wheel of life striving to be lonely at the top even as kids can’t even safely learn.