How to be well adjusted in a profoundly sick society

[cjsmith]

I was going to write “Why is it so scary to tell someone what you really want?”

Then I realized what the title of the post would need to be, and that answered that. (“Vulnerability.”)

So then I was going to ask what I’m afraid of: what would the worst outcome be?

As always, when I expand that question to its logical conclusion, the answer is being alone and homeless and penniless and hungry with health problems and no access to care.

So then I was going to rant about how the society I am living in is awful.

But I had to admit I wasn’t looking forward to hearing chirps of “oh yes, it’s truly terrible” from people who have other choices and who choose this one because this one treats them better than anything else (and better in many ways than this one treats me).

So then I was going to rant about how it’s fashionable to insult things that are unjust even if you’re the beneficiary, but honestly who cares; either they’re also working to dismantle it or that’s just shallow virtue signaling and not really worth a rant.

Or maybe rant about how it’s fashionable to pretend to care about other people’s very real problems even when you’re the beneficiary, but honestly same as above (and this is why expressions of sympathy aren’t what I’d want either). If Shel Silverstein wrote “The Giving Tree” today he’d make sure that the child made lots of “there, there, that must be so difficult for you, it’s truly awful that this happens” comments to the tree.

And thus it was that I found I could encapsulate all of this in something short enough for a tweet.

Comments

[minoanmiss]

You know, it's pretty nifty that this post is about the process of its own writing. (Also, you're absolutely right.)

[cjsmith]

Thanks! It's wildly self-referential, even its own title, and I find that kind of fun. And I got a pithy tweet out of it. :)

[pauamma]

Out of curiosity, have you read the Sturgeon novella, _Maturity_?