Competition has come to define living in this epoch, it has never been worse to just be average or below average. This low-intensity conflict in all areas of life, from chasing money and career, to dating and social status, culminates in a war of one against all. There's no surprise that the linguistics used by Generation Z is shaped by the world they inherit, which they adopted from terminally online incel slang: hyper-optimized minning and maxxing, mogging, cortisol nuking, ascending, one shotting, -cels and -chads, coping and seething.
There are hierarchies everywhere for those with eyes to see. Even if one does not want to compete or participate in this system, one is by default: low on the ladder. As much as I disagree with Marx and Engels, they had a fitting term for these people: the lumpenproletariat, which has come to include higher and higher levels of society, such as AI researchers, scientists, doctors, lawyers, big tech engineers, actuaries and quants. Basically everyone who is below the threshold of the top 0.01% global elite is the new underclass. The modern world is a hellscape that has exceeded the predictions of dystopian novelists.
The French novelist, Michel Houellebecq wrote a novel about the intrusion of competition in all aspects of life, Extension du domaine de la lutte, or Whatever in English. It was his first novel published in 1994, and foresaw the "vanishing freedom of a world governed by science and by the empty rituals of daily life."
“It is interesting to note that the "sexual revolution" was sometimes portrayed as a communal utopia, whereas in fact it was simply another stage in the historical rise of individualism. As the lovely word "household" suggests, the couple and the family would be the last bastion of primitive communism in liberal society. The sexual revolution was to destroy these intermediary communities, the last to separate the individual from the market. The destruction continues to this day.” - Michel Houellebecq, Whatever
Structural violence
Lethalitymaxxing is an official slogan used by the comically named Department of War. A not so thinly veiled threat against enemies of the state, both foreign and domestic. Just comply with all the laws, rules and regulations of a world order that is increasingly incoherent or else we will lethalitymaxx you. National, provincial, and even local governments are hostile, belligerent organizations that are humiliating and impoverishing their own people. By being in constant conflict against each other, we are unable to resist the oppression from above.
People do not understand that their government does not work for them especially if they receive benefits, and for many younger people, it has never benefitted them from the moment they were born, and exists solely to extract taxes. It exists to enforce a dominance hierarchy where the transnational elite and the political class are above all, which forms a conspiracy against the human race. Every political leaning feels they are oppressed and they are right, but are happy to oppress others when it is their perceived side that is doing the oppressing.
It is a contradiction to be pro first amendment, while also supporting censorship and the surveillance state. It is impossible to be pro second amendment, while also being a bootlicker. A heavily armed populace with effective organization is the enemy of any state, as they threaten power structures. The policeman is a modern invention that exists out of a misguided desire for public safety, and by extension, the nuclear weapon.
Dissolution of familiar structures
When consuming media from even a few decades ago, it is undeniable that there was a sense of community, belonging, friendship, that is lacking today. Even things such as nightlife, going clubbing, social drinking, is on the decline as it has been replaced with parallel systems, mainly social media, dating apps, or nothing at all. Old memories invoke the obligatory meme of people living in the moment, no smartphones in sight.
There are no subcultures anymore, only cosplayers, LARPers, and tourists. The fact is that subcultures used to be alternate hierarchies, where if one was ostracized or low ranking in the mainstream culture, one could find a place within a subculture. The flattening of global hierarchies have reduced subcultures into signs without originals, meaningless paraphernalia. They will let you be as deviant as you want as long as you never threaten the powers that be. Having an anime profile picture has never been more tame.
Without local communities, it could be said that one belongs to a global community, everyone is a global citizen, but this too is a lie. Everyone is basically competing with people around the world, for attention, money, status, fame, everything and anything. A blue-collar worker in the US up until around the 1980s could reasonably expect to find work and raise a family, and not have to compete against the global sweatshop.
The Capital God
The most obvious ranking system in most modern societies has become money. Fiat currencies are inherently fake, lacking in intrinsic value since they are no longer backed by physical assets at all, though arguably backed by military force more than ever. The US sanctions nations which trade without dollars or Euros, or even threaten military actions against them.
The god of money has come to supersede all modern mainstream religions, each in different ways. Those who have not come to terms with the money god have seen their followers and congregations diminish, their buildings of worship shut down, their smug moral superiority destroyed. Those who have come to embrace money, have their architecture replaced with a stark, brutalist aesthetic, catering to the lowest common denominator, inviting all to come worship money together.
American culture in particular, has conflated morality with bank accounts, and the laws are not only multi-tiered, they do not exist for the transnational elite. The people who crossed borders illegally into the USA are assumed to be the worst leeches of society, while ignoring the structural imbalances which led to the impoverishment of the societies they came from, and the political class (obligate parasites) which continues to rob them. Ironically, it's the neoliberal, law and order, "just comply" types who are the poorest and would be losers in the hierarchy which they uphold.
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