Our ancestors might have made a big mistake a long time ago.
Yuval Noah Harari seems to think so. In his book, Sapiens, Harari declared, "The Agricultural Revolution was history's biggest fraud". Our ancestors, at one time, were forced by a harsh climate to stay still. They had to replace foraging for farming. They went from a world of abundance to obedience. And while this hard work might have meant more food, it also required more people to do the work, until food production and human reproduction rolled into one big continuous mess. It might have been necessary to survive but it left no way to turn back.
We've come a long way from that transition, but the idea of constant growth has burrowed itself deep in American's roots. We've seen it strike a fever-pitch lately while 100,000 are dead and others are desperate to go back to business as usual.
But comedian Patton Oswalt had a great point this week on the Joe Rogan Experience when he recalled that the only thing that grows forever is cancer.
Or, you know, maybe a global virus.
Did we ever pause to consider if the growth we're working toward is worth it?
Paul Jarvis has been wondering about this for some time. I stumbled on his blog this week. Even though he's been writing since 1997, I guess I never came across him before because he makes it a point not to exalt growth. As a matter of fact, he wrote a piece remembering the days when growth was a byproduct of a blog. If a blog (or anything) was cool enough you'd share it with your friends. Now, growth has become the sole focus. Something is nothing if thousands aren't following. Viral content is the only way to succeed.
But in regards to the goal of making viral content, Jarvis wrote that "creating for everyone means you aren’t creating for anyone specifically. And this the state of content online currently: for it to matter or be valued, it has to be seen by as many people as possible and creators will do almost anything to make that happen."
He continues, "By chasing the current state of content we can lose what made the internet awesome in the first place: unique voices, sharing specific ideas, for a tiny subset of folks interested in them, clicks and viral-ness be damned."
Like our ancestors, we keep going forward until growth is no longer a question.
YouTuber Anna (of Anna's Analysis) explored this idea alongside the online fascination for #vanlife. You've probably had at least one friend dream out loud about making a career by driving a van around the world. But for all the fancy drone footage and beach-side lounging, Anna reminds us that there is a ton of grueling and boring work behind the scenes. Living in a van for the sake of social media means hours of editing videos and getting the perfect photo. If you're driving, you don't stand up for hours. If you don't want to gain a thousand pounds on drive-thru food, you need to learn to cook in an enclosed space. And if you're not stopping at public toilets, you're probably driving your shit around with you.
Worse of all, as Jarvis echoes, you're always subconsciously surrendering your life for content, for clicks, for growth.
Bringing this reality into focus is key. Author David Foster Wallace wrote about it in This is Water: "Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And the compelling reason for maybe choosing some sort of god or spiritual-type thing to worship—be it JC or Allah, be it YHWH or the Wiccan Mother Goddess, or the Four Noble Truths, or some inviolable set of ethical principles—is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive."
Wallace says if you worship money and things, you'll never have enough. Worship beauty and you'll always feel ugly, especially as you get older. He continues, "On one level, we all know this stuff already. It's been codified as myths, proverbs, clichés, epigrams, parables; the skeleton of every great story. The whole trick is keeping the truth up front in daily consciousness.”
I think this pandemic is bringing the idea of growth by all means right up to our eyeballs.
Buzzfeed News Reporter Anne Helen Petersen wrote a heavy article titled "I Don't Feel Like Buying Stuff Anymore" about (a duh) what happens when people can't and won't buy things to keep the economy afloat. Among the stories, this 56-year-old Utah woman resonated with me the most:
"Ann misses musicians coming through the area; she’s worried about how dips in tourism will affect everyone she knows. But she also refuses to participate in a plan to revive the economy that places the burden on the consumer. “After 9/11, and again after the 2008 recession, there was the idea that consumers should somehow patriotically spend to revive the economy,” she said. “And who benefited disproportionately? Billionaires. This time, the billionaires can do the heavy lifting, not me.”"
If you're particularly cold-hearted and probably winning, you might say this is how the system works. Some people win and some people lose. But it doesn't need to be this way. Jeff Bezos doesn't need to be a trillionaire while some people in this world can't even get clean water. Fuck outta here.
At the end of the day, maybe the growth of food, of communities, of the world that damned our ancestors is what keeps us together. We're all stuck in this mess right now, but it doesn't mean we can't get out. It doesn't mean we can't find a better way. Maybe all we need to do is seek the truth right in front of us. Recognize it. And find a purpose for all, that won't eat us alive.
And on that weighty note, let's check out some of the cool shit I found surfing the Web this week:
YouTube Karsten Runquist took the time to highlight one of the funniest and absurdist SNL shorts you've probably never seen - "Dear Sister". Find out why.
Comedian Andrew Schulz discovers how Tekashi 6ix9ine and Trump are the same, and how that unfortunately explains everything.
With all this time at home, I've fallen down a deep rabbit hole of Apartment Therapy tiny home tours. It's been great for making me realize how I can make my apartment into my home. And even with most around three minutes long, there are some adorable vignettes of the lives of extraordinary, lovable people. Some of my favorites include: Ashley Ford's Brooklyn Apartment, "Younger" Star Molly Bernard's Brooklyn Home, and A Pop Art Museum In A NYC Apartment.
If you like Paul Jarvis, I recommend subscribing to his newsletter. Or, if you like video, check out his interview with Matt D'Avella - A Minimalist Approach to Business.
Carlos Maza (formerly of Vox) has started making independent videos. Coronavirus and America's death cult is his dark look at neoliberalism (and how you define it). It's worth the watch.
Until next time...