Have we traded meaning and humanity for efficiency and endless ambition? Yes. But there’s time for a better, more real future.
By Carlos Soto-Angulo
There’s a quiet desperation in the hum of fluorescent lights above late-night convenience stores. The monotony of the 9-to-5 “grind,” the endless scroll of bad news on our phones and the hollow promises of a “better future” weigh heavy. Yes, modernism has failed us–spectacularly, unapologetically and perhaps irreparably. We’re told that we are free. Free to choose, to express, to succeed. But freedom in its current form feels like a made-up lie, doesn’t it? Beneath the façade of progress lies a world that has replaced meaning with materialism, connection with convince and purpose with productivity. From a third-person viewpoint, society has been designed to fail from the beginning.
It didn't happen all at once. The neglect crept in slowly, hidden in the promises of a brighter future. Innovate and life will be easier. Grow, and there will be enough for everyone. But somewhere along the way, the promises fractured. The pursuit of ease made life more complex. This obsession with growth has impacted people worldwide.
For example, in the wealthiest country in the world, Forbes estimates that 78% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck, unable to cover an unexpected $500 expense. The pursuit of material comfort sold to us as the pinnacle of success, has left us drowning in financial anxiety. Meanwhile, corporate profits soared. According to the Economic Policy Institute, CEO compensation has grown by 1,209% since 1978, while the average worker’s wages increased by only 15% in the same period.
Even our relationship with the natural world has been sourced. Our World in Data estimates that each year, 10 million hectares of forest—an area the size of Portugal—are destroyed, and over 1 million species face extinction because of human activity. Once, the earth was a partner, a source of wonder and sustenance. Now, it is a resource to be mined, paved over, reshaped to fit our desires. We’ve disconnected ourselves from its rhythms, pretending that the seasons are irrelevant and the air is infinite. But nature is patient, and it will not wait forever for us to remember that we are a part of it, not above it.
And what of each other? Modern life promised connection, but it delivered competition. In fact, an American Psychiatric Association study shows that one in every three, or 33 percent of, Americans feels lonely every week. And loneliness is now considered as harmful to health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day–which seems absurd—as shown by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The most tragic failure of all, though, is our loss of meaning. The human soul was not built for endless motion. It was not built for constant striving, for numbers and checkboxes or endless comparisons. It was built for stillness, for reflection, for the pursuit of something greater than itself. But in a world that glorifies productivity, stillness feels like wrongdoing. And so, we press on, too busy to wonder if we’re heading in the right direction.
But this is not irreversible. There is still time to stop, to look around, to ask the questions society has taught us to ignore. What do we want our lives to mean, not amount to? What kind of world do we want to leave behind? What matters more: the size of what we build or the depth of what we feel? The future doesn’t have to be this endless, restless march. It can be a slow, deliberate walk towards something better. All we have to do is stop running long enough to see where we are.
Maybe modern society’s greatest gift is the crack in its foundation. And although the flowers are withering, in those cracks, there’s always more time to plant new ones.
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