We're all cut off from nature. Seasons barely mean anything. We live our lives moving from one almost - hermetically sealed bubble to another. A morning coffee on the back deck, maybe a weekend hike? It doesn't matter how nice the zoo enclosure is, it's not the real thing and the animals inside know it.
We're cut off from each other. We all know about capitalist alienation here. We live in cities great and small and barely speak to anyone. Too tired and beaten down to go meet people in real life, we resort to choosing madness by arguing politics online. Our need to connect will prevail, even if it's forced down the most twisted paths.
We're cut off from ourselves, our own inner lives. How many of us feel like spectators to our own lives? More and more we have to choose life paths and ever-lengthening careers to avoid starvation and misery. Less and less time is left to us to think and feel and ponder and reflect. What little time we do have, we frantically rush to avoid thinking by endlessly scrolling and/or binge-watching. Our fountain of inner life ebbs to a trickle.
I don't know my neighbor and "nature" is a local park or that cold white shit on my car. No wonder we're all going fucking insane
None of this applies to me. I mean I'm currently in New York for a short period but I've lived most of my life in a rural environment in Central America that's very much connected to nature and full of community. This sounds more like the problems that every developed country seems to face.
I'm very happy to hear it!
You're right, but I wonder if there's a better term than "developed country" for the bleak alienated misery that tends to happen north of you.