Aspiration is sad.
Not because people shouldn’t strive or seek to build, but because so often it comes from:
- The hidden norms of our culture
- The grasping for-its-own-sake of our impulsive primate brains
- The calculated anxiety creation of the aspiration industry
- The lack of self-knowledge and meta-reflection
It’s easy to become infected by the idea that you should want something when all the aspiration sellers barrage you endlessly with ways to “get” this or that. You buy the thing because you think it’s a talisman to help you chase the thing. Cures and potions. Fame and fortune.
But the precondition for believing that you want them is thinking you are sick or lacking.
That’s the sadness of aspiration—its inherent exploitability.
And, collectively, its exploitation wants you to feel so empty and alone. Precarious. Unloved.
Don’t believe me? Keep scrolling for a minute or two. Feeling emptier and more anxious is a near certainty.
Read what you see and ask yourself better questions.
- How does what it says benefit from leaving you feeling unloved?
- How is it predicated on underlying sadness, on emptying you?
- What deal does it want to make with you to feel a little less precarious for even a moment?
The answers break the would-be spell of aspiration. They give you space to determine what it means for you not to believe all its whispers. They give you power to choose what to believe and do because they cause all those whispers to dissipate.
