The Ghost Of The Boomers
You cannot think yourself out of hell, you have to throw yourself out. The darkness in your life is merely a sign that what you are doing right now, truly matters.
What happens if you were to follow most of societies rules and chances are, you have done so in the past at least to some degree. As a child, we are fully expected to act in accordance to what we are told to do, and in all fairness, in most cases, that's good. The problem arises in adulthood where we keep acting in accordance to what other adults are telling us to do. That is so ... weird. Who are you to tell me what to do and how to act? Even more interesting, in a lot of cases its not even a specific person but just the supposed(!) will of the collective, be it "the neighbors", or "society". There are far too many problems with that. First of all, there is no such thing as "the neighbors". It doesn't exist as an entity you can talk to. "Society" doesn't exist either. They are not people. But we still listen to them. What's even more schizophrenic is that we suppose we know what these collectives want from us. And it gets better still. In a lot of cases, we are not even following the will of the collective we call contemporary society. In many cases, yes, I'd argue in most cases we're acting in accordance to the norms of societies made by people who died 100 years ago.
In a lot of cases, this may look like this: Get up at 6 in the morning, take a shower and get dressed. Put on an uncomfortable pair of blue pants, a white shirt, some strange scarf we call a tie (for whatever reason) and a jacket. Why are we wearing ties? Why is not wearing a tie a sign of disrespect and only allowed on casual Friday? Fuck knows, but we do it anyway. Why would you wear a Jeans and a T-Shirt to sit behind a computer when you can dress like a clown in the court of King Charles II in 1666. Because THATs where our suits come from. I mean ... ok
Argh. Wait a minute, I just had a strange feeling like I had clean up my room immediately. Afterall, the road to hell is paved with misplaced items. And I ain't stayin there. Back to writing the article. Where was I ... ah yes, societal norms. Here we go:
By 6:30 AM you should be ready to eat "the most important meal of the day". Then you drive of to work where you should stay for at least 8 hours because that's the magic number. Eight. Doesn't matter how much work you're doing and if you're faster or more efficient than others. EIGHT! (and please do limit your bowel movements to an acceptable number)
Obviously there is much more to live than just work. There is a lot more you need to finely tune to societies standards. Your should get into debt as early as possible and as much as possible. Afterall, the square footage of your home directly correlates to personal fulfillment.
You did that? Awesome. Now you can work EIGHT hours with the added stress of knowing that you need to do make that mortgage payment. Achievement unlocked!
Wait, you didn't do any of that because you don't make enough money?
Loser! Ohh you didn't do that, despite making enough money? Loser!
There is more inertia in our lives than we are aware of. We live in accordance to rules, made by people who died long ago. And one more thing.
They. Dont. Work.
They. Dont. Work. If they did, you wouldn't be reading this. If the rules of this ghost we call "society" were so great, then why are we all depressed and anxious. Here is the thing. They haven't worked for you and they haven't worked for a LOT of people in the past 30 years at least.
The way out of whatever it is that is your personal hell is this: Lets go back to the beginning of the article. You cannot think yourself out of hell, you have to throw yourself out. The only way out is the relentless pursuit of divinely inspired novelty in your life. In other less pretentious words, do what you know in your heart you want to do.
The ghost of the boomers is just that, a ghost. Instead of desperately trying to emulate a boomer lifestyle, do what that deepest of inner voices tells you to do and you will be infinitely more happy. Throw yourself out and pursue novelty for its own sake.
And you don't have to go it alone.