cold sunrise: the great con of 'easy'

we don’t live anymore. we just exist in a state of continuous, curated maintenance.

i watched a video recently, it was a montage of processed meat, flickering screens, and detached influencers, overlaid with the quiet, terrifying thought: we are being made compliant. and the darkest part? i’m holding the device that’s doing it to me.

i am a total hypocrite. if you looked at my screen time on a day off, you wouldn’t see a person living; you’d see a person optimizing their own distraction. i crave the silence of a forest or the rush of a hike, yet i spend my hours scrolling through the digital simulation of a life i’m not actually leading. i want to “unplug,” but i’m terrified of what i’d have to face if the screen went black.

we have made life “easier.” that’s the lie we’re fed, right? we have apps for food, apps for dates, apps for work, and apps for leisure. but at what cost?

the “ease” is a luxury good. it’s a product sold to us. for the ultra-wealthy, convenience is a life-hack; they can afford to outsource their drudgery. they can “unplug” because they can pay others to keep the machine running. but for the rest of us? the “ease” is just a more efficient way to stay on the treadmill. we aren’t saving time; we’re just filling the gaps with more noise. the rich get the freedom to escape the system, and the poor get the system sold to them as a convenience.

it’s the greatest con job ever. we’ve traded our agency for comfort, and our autonomy for compliance. we are less stressed in one sense, we don’t have to hunt or gather, but we are deeply, existentially exhausted because we don’t know why we’re doing any of it. we are fed, clothed, and entertained, but we are hollowed out.

there’s a scene in the video that ends with a waterfall, a “cold sunrise.” it feels like the only honest thing in the edit. it’s nature, unmediated. it doesn’t need a screen, it doesn’t need an algorithm, and it certainly doesn’t care about my daily habits.

i’m not saying i have the answer. i’m still here, staring at the blue light, feeling the cognitive dissonance of knowing i’m trapped and scrolling anyway. but maybe the first step isn’t burning the world down. maybe the first step is just realizing that the “easy” life we’ve been sold is actually a cage.

i don’t want to be “compliant.” i don’t want to be “obedient.” i want to live. and if that means dealing with the discomfort of actually being present, even if i’m a hypocrite for now, then i guess that’s where i start.