Wonderful piece today. This is so very true: "We ravage every quiet moment with noise—podcasts, social media, the nonstop churn of news—anything to avoid stillness. Silence has become our nemesis, so we desecrate it with a constant stream of distraction." I see this in friends, family, and catch myself following into it and then I reach into the hole and pull myself out.
Too much struggle, trauma and hardship can also leave us depleted and empty with no sense of purpose. I understand the point that you're trying to make but personally, I could take a long break and live in comfort for a while.
So true. I assume what the article is really getting at is not the hardship of extreme poverty, excessive grief, or lifelong bad luck (only those who haven’t experienced those could call them necessary!), and more the mild but constant resistance of physical exercise (including forgoing the comfort of an elevator for stairs, or a close parking spot for a further one, if one’s body allows) and continual mental challenges in the sense of problem-solving (learning new skills as the article mentioned, but also maybe just switching things up occasionally: trying a new role in work, taking a different route home, spending time with different people). I hope you catch a break and can enjoy the *good* kind of comfort for a while!
Exactly. This article ignores struggles other than living in a hunter-gatherer society and medieval conflicts. Just because we have smartphones and a couch doesn’t mean we haven’t faced any adversity.
Not sure if I agree with the current analysis of the state of the world. I wouldn’t describe it as comfortable. Millions in the United States struggle with hunger, a crises of belonging to various identities which in this new era have seen rampant violence against, and climate change which should be every human beings focus the moment they wake up in the morning. Even something like the “Atomic Clock” sort of analyses point to us being closer to midnight probably than any point ever before, save the actual missile crises of the 60s. People are depressed because no one in any sort of perceived power has offered us a way out. Writing about people being comfortable and that causing depression assumes that the majority of the world actually has access to said comfort. It certainly exists for many many people across the world. But the majority still suffer at the hands of the ultra comfortable few, and are left feeling like they could work their ass off to figure out a solution, but to what avail?
In contrast with the history of humanity, we live in a comfortable civilization. The obesity rate in the West isn't a secret. You know this. You're just trying to be "that guy."
Hardly the first time I’ve seen it suggested that a generation’s only problem is that it’s too soft. It’s a privileged take, and a boring one at that. But by all means, pat yourself on the back for being smarter than everyone else.
But the truth is, he’s not remotely smarter. This is ALL regurgitated think-piece panic documented by dozens of (better, I might add) writers before him.
I'm sorry... people aren't starving (some people), therefore they are comfortable? Look at the relative buying power of basics (groceries, housing, etc) of the average person in a wealthy society today vs 50 years ago. Look at the fracturing of communities along social, economical, racial, and cultural lines that serve our economic systems at the cost of isolating people. Look at the realities of productivity vs. pay.
Not to mention that this whole thing paints an extremely rose-tinted view of the mental and social well-being of peoples that struggled more in our history.
Methinks it is you, in fact, trying to be "that guy".
The average person in any developed country is so much better off now than in 1975 it’s almost unbelievable.
Smartphones, on-demand entertainment on your fancy sound system and your big flat-screen TV, air-conditioning and an array of listening options in your car (plus all the safety features), air conditioning (and no smoking!) in your public transport, amazing advances in healthcare, home-delivered goods and meals, cheap air travel, high quality consumer products from around the world delivered cheaply, great coffee everywhere, great food everywhere, and on and on.
If you forced the average 25 year old to spend a week in the reality of 1975 they would be horrified.
The metrics you’ve cited are one way of quantifying ‘better off’. Another might be to consider things like incomes vs housing costs, or wealth inequality, or the ability of a single-working-parent household to live in relative comfort, etc etc. These would probably paint a very different picture
Wealth inequality is an interesting metric for the type of society you live in, but it's not particularly interesting for this topic. By some measures, the USA has extreme wealth inequality, but it doesn't change the fact that the vast majority of US citizens live in fabulous comfort compared to most of the human beings who have ever lived, and even most of the people alive today.
You're right that it's hard for a single income to support a family today, but don't kid yourself that people lived in great comfort back in the day. Expectations of family life are so much higher than they were. Back when a single income could buy a house and a car and support the family, the house was very basic and so was the car. And the food was awful and your entertainment and travel options were extremely limited.
Like I said, if you put most modern Americans in one of those houses for any length of time they'd be begging to return to 2025.
Don't get me wrong: lack of affordable, high quality housing is a big problem in most developed countries. If only US citizens were sensible enough to vote for the type of leaders who might do something about it.
I've never heard obesity being described as comfortable though. We may have more access to ways to escape how we feel, but those ways don't actually work. Drug addiction, obesity, porn, video games...they are not comfortable companions. They are a different kind of discomfort.
I genuinely am not trying to be that guy. All I wanted to point out was that from a first person perspective, I completely agree. When I myself feel comfortable, I am depressed. And I don’t like how being at comfort is pushed onto us from all sides either. But to only analyze it from that perspective wouldn’t account for the people around me whose perspective isn’t as comfortable as mine. And I think that without being specific, if we look worldwide, the majority of people don’t get to experience this level of comfort, and even in our own society it’s probably far less that we’d hope. If I could edit your article and say that middle class America has a comfort problem, and we should all get outside and take a camping trip without phones together, then I’d say “this is a beautiful article”. And I think there are many parts of the article that are spot on. But a lot of times when I write something like this or read something like this, there’s a limited scope of perspective that isn’t addressed. And hopefully someone comes across this from a wildly different background from me. I bet if some billionaire read this they’d say “yea if you get complacent then you won’t earn a lot of money” or whatever their idea of a “successful life” looks like. I couldn’t even imagine…
This article is written for and about the US population in general.
And the US population in general has a comfortable place to live, a job, a smartphone, endless entertainment options, etc. Like other developed countries, whole generations have grown up with no worries in their day to day lives. There is no great ‘suffering’ going on for the vast majority.
For proof, look at how US citizens vote. They could seek leaders who will focus on affordable housing, better healthcare, or other things that will contribute to the wellbeing of ordinary citizens. But they don’t.
We’ve all read the stories about how US citizens ‘suffered’ when inflation spiked in the early 2020s. If this was true, and if the voting population were responsible adults who took their voting seriously, then voters would have rejected the candidate who was PROMISING them more inflation via his insane tariff policies. But they didn’t.
This is not the behaviour of responsible adults struggling to make their communities and their nation better. Instead, it’s the behaviour of bored children who think the important things will always be fine (because in their frame of reference, they always have been).
I like your analysis! Well formatted too. I think this is a good look at it. I’m no sociologist so I can’t really speak on any authority broadly. But it feels like the US population in general is quickly slipping into a life that isn’t “fine”. And I think the folks that voted for Trump probably feel even more so than me that the world is not fine, and America is not fine, and are hitting the panic button on each of their specific issues. Also the world at large is not fine and that’s why I brought up climate change and that will only be stopped from a complete effort at all levels of society. Forces bigger than any one person could vote away or pray away or pay away, etc. But yea I wish I had more time to type out more to this I like your response
Millions in the United States struggle with hunger, but every human being’s focus should be climate change from the moment they wake up in the morning?
The irony of this sort of virtue signaling is staggering.
This article is an exhausting, pernicious rehash of complaints we habitually make about ourselves - long, boring, and depressing, and which leads nowhere. It dwells on a subject that is thoroughly misunderstood.
I have read so much over the years that warns of the dangers of “comfort.” Comfort is not the right word for what is being described. Complacency, lack of motivation, laziness, over-indulgence, misguidedness , lostness - none of these are “comfort.”
This is what comfort really means:
Verb
Middle English comforten, conforten "to strengthen spiritually, inspire with courage, exort, cheer up, encourage, invigorate," borrowed from Anglo-French conforter, comforter, borrowed from Late Latin confortāre "to strengthen, restore strength to, invigorate, cure" (Medieval Latin also "to cheer, reassure"), from Latin con- CON- + Late Latin -fortāre, verbal derivative of Latin fortis "strong, robust" — more at FORT
Noun
Middle English comfort, counfort "invigoration, encouragement, assurance, feeling of relief, pleasure, gratification," borrowed from Anglo-French comfort, confort, cunfort "solace, encouragement, enjoyment, satisfaction," noun derivative of conforter, comforter "to strengthen, encourage, solace"
We’ve skewed the meaning of this word to fit an agenda against properly taking care of ourselves bc we’d rather beat ourselves than love ourselves.
Comfort, physically and psychologically, is absolutely necessary for health. As the centuries have piled on, especially into our “toxic male energy” and “toxic hustle” society and the bs spewed by Steven Pressfield that Art is a war, all derivative of the original “Puritan work ethic” neurosis, we have had it in for ourselves. There is a balance between action and rest which is still largely being disregarded in favor of “self-improvement”. This article is another subtle example of this.
It is natural, when in love and at peace with oneself that one will “work hard” enjoyably and feel accomplishment. One does not need “discipline” to accomplish this; one needs only a strong desire for a happy result. In order to learn how to play the piano well, one must sit comfortably or one will wreck one’s posture and ability to play. Comfort is at the root of every good result. Relaxation is the key.
Struggle never enters the picture.
“The disease of ease”?! Life is meant to be a gentle flow, not a fight.
To clarify, I wish we would get off this hard-ass, self-flagellating, pushy male attitude and relax, because when we do, we do our best work, make our best creations, and experience our greatest fulfillment. Ranting like what goes on in this article - which we’ve seen a million times before - needs to stop, bc all it is is self-hatred, not love. Sure, if I survive something terrible, if it doesn’t kill me, it will make me stronger, but that is not what life is supposed to be focused on, as this article unconsciously deviously implies.
What needs to start is a focus on trusting our natural flow and enjoying everything.
What keeps the balance is simple awareness and love of oneself. Enjoyment does not lead to decadence. Lack of awareness and sensitivity do.
Awareness of how one feels and what one wants guides the whole process of living healthfully. Comfort is the barometer of health.
The reason people have gotten off track with this is because they have looked outside themselves for fulfillment to material things. Not all souls are capable of having high integrity. The unversed just keeps making individuals in an effort to cultivate greater consciousness. It wants conscious beings; we are its tools, its agents, its sensory organs in the physical world.
Do you really think it wants us to be uncomfortable? Try stretching without relaxing into it comfortably and see what happens to your tendons.
even though i enjoyed the article, i cant help but agree with this comment. by biggest issue was the preconceived notion that the writer seemed to have when writing this piece: everyone who reads this is some level of an adjusted person in society not currently faced by struggle. my problem with that is that some people cannot afford to be endure the burdens of struggle and unpredictability given that’s the basis of the current situation they’re in.
You might be a comfortable person writing for other comfortable people, and that’s fine. If you’re running diagnostics on modern society, your response is silly.
People are suffering. Failing health care systems, homelessness, exploitation of laborers, mass incarceration, climate disaster, etc exist in our society even if you and your friends aren’t experiencing those things. Don’t conflate genuine suffering with the enlivening experiences of risk, passion, effort, and healthy discomfort. Not to be a downer, I realize not every piece of writing needs to address everyone and be all-encompassing. But this piece is trying to make a sweeping point about generations. Petit bourgeoisie talking to itself
I wholeheartedly and respectfully disagree with this perspective, although I think it contains many truths. My great grandmother was much more “connected with nature” than I was- as was her husband and all of her children as a depression-era family. But she certainly suffered much more hardship and by all accounts was not given the opportunity to seek contentment. Her entire life was spent birthing and caring for the children she birthed. I think part of the reason anxiety and depression rates are rising is because people are actually studying them now; psychology is a relatively new field. There’s also greater awareness of these conditions. And, no matter what time period you live in or what hardships you face, contentment is found within. It’s not dependent on external circumstances , yet it’s certainly easier to cultivate when we feel safe.
I certainly agree the amount of distraction in our world today likely contributes to feelings of overwhelm/anxiety/sense of purposelessness; these are new ways to fill internal voids.
While you didn’t touch on the subject of God and man’s suffering, your essay reminds me of the quote “we all have an infinite hole in our heart and try to fill it with finite things”. When we toss aside God and higher values, we’re left with a void which demands to be filled. We can distract and numb, but we can never overcome our design.
As good as anything I have read in a long time. I created a folder of quotes that I have discovered along the way in my continuing education, primarily for my kids to find once I am gone. I feel I need to create another for exceptional essays and articles. This will be the first entry. Thank you.
While I think you put forward excellent points, it’s not the whole story. It’s a bit of an over-index on the comfort crisis. There’s something called the single cause fallacy which says in the complex reality there is always an ecology of factors that give rise to symptoms.
The best over arching framework for the problems of the world I’ve found is the meta-crisis. If I had to pin it on specific flaws of the modern world it would have to do with lack of true belonging and robust cultural systems that connect humans to earth, to each other, and to transcendence.
What is striking about this post is how we all “know” this, yet you say it in way that makes me stop and reconsider everything again… really well written.
I disagree. I ended up skimming half the post because nothing in it felt new to me. I was waiting for some creative solutions or enlightening perspectives—and then the cop-out dropped: writers don't provide solutions. interesting.
The solution is a cultural change that expects adult-aged people to behave like adults.
Live for other people and engage in meaningful activities instead of just pursuing a life of play.
You can start small. For example, read Substack articles properly if you plan to comment on them. This is a good way to show respect for the author, and shows that you’re interested in learning from the community of people in the comments section.
Like a philosophical gut-punch. The idea that comfort, unchecked, quietly erodes us really hits (“spectators of our own decay”). Go deep outlaw. Loved it, thanks.
I'm sorry to hear of the possible layoff. But you've touched on an aspect I believe to be very significant.
I'm looking through this piece and comments. I don't see any mention of the commercial interests in all of the pain our "comfort" has caused. Yet for my money, therein is often the real culprit to our society's pain and distress... the debt load most this "comfort" costs and our struggle to maintain.
Man, I liked your piece right up to the Conclusion. I didn't need all that stuff about abysses and caves and daring, it was a bit purple for me. But I still thought a lot of what you said made sense. Then I turn to the Comments and see the dismissive way you're responding to people and then I have to do some work to keep your ideas separate from that small bit of unpleasantness. I simply can't see where that attitude gets you.
I remain challenged but unconvinced. When I think back to the times in my life when I've 'suffered more', they did not give me anything good, either then or in retrospect. Most of those times involved being stuck in institutions whose rules - or unwillingness to enforce their own rules - made people's lives unpleasant. I simply yearned for the day when time, or in some cases my own efforts, set me free. In the meantime, I learned to avoid conflict & the possibility of harm. Perhaps I misunderstand what you mean by 'true struggle'. Maybe Joan Didion's version from 'On Self-Respect' is what you had in mind; it was certainly in mine as I read, and she's always worth a hefty quote:
'Self-respect is something that our grandparents, whether or not they had it, knew all about. They had instilled in them, young, a certain discipline, the sense that one lives by doing things one does not particularly want to do, by putting fears and doubts to one side, by weighing immediate comforts against the possibility of larger, even intangible, comforts. It seemed to the nineteenth century admirable, but not remarkable, that Chinese Gordon put on a clean white suit and held Khartoum against the Mahdi; it did not seem unjust that the way to free land in California involved death and difficulty and dirt. In a diary kept during the winter of 1846, an emigrating twelve-year-old named Narcissa Cornwall noted coolly: "Father was busy reading and did not notice that the house was being filled with strange Indians until Mother spoke about it." Even lacking any clue as to what Mother said, one can scarcely fail to be impressed by the entire incident: the father reading, the Indians filing in, the mother choosing the words that would not alarm, the child duly recording the event and noting further that those particular Indians were not, "fortunately for us," hostile. Indians were simply part of the donnée.
In one guise or another, Indians always are. Again, it is a question of recognizing that anything worth having has its price.'
This is romantic (and breathtaking prose). But, ultimately, it's an American version of the British stiff upper lip. I think your piece might be, too. There's plenty of suffering about still; it may well serve as an antidote to self-absorption and too much comfort. I'm not convinced that makes it a recommendation. It's the old British WW2 paradox: "We were Blitzed, but we were happy; we stuck together." I don't deny the increased happiness for a second; my mum told me about it. Humans are undoubtedly cooperative, gregarious animals. But I'm not going to try selling that particular recipe for greater life-meaning in, say, Ukraine.
It’s not a lack of struggle that causes what you see; it’s the inability to find “contentment”. Chasing pleasure 24/7 but still not happy. They don’t know what to do. (It’s been noted that the term “happiness” is being used where “contentment” had been used before. Happiness is fleeting. Contentment isn’t.)
Was always told - depression is when your reality is below your expectations. Lower your expectations and you’ll be fine.
It’s quite simple. At one end, you have “ego” - your value is determined by how others see you. At the other end, you have “self-esteem” - your value is based on how you see yourself. Too many lack self-esteem and are driven purely by ego, which is easier to manipulate.
Edward Bernays (the father of public relations) relied on playing on the ego for marketing campaigns. Your value is based on how others see you with a product. The auto doesn’t get you from A to B; it’s how you tell the world who you are. The amount of marketing each younger generation has been exposed to has increased exponentially.
We have so many options. Decision making is stressful. Look up consumer studies. A sample tasting table in a grocery store has 20 flavored jams and jellies. People don’t make purchases. But if only 3 flavors are offered, people buy them. It’s called “analysis paralysis”. Limiting the options makes it easier for a person to make a decision.
It wasn’t that long ago that many people never went far from where they were born during their entire lives. They had very limited options. Today, people have hundreds of options for a weekend trip that will have them travel further from home than that person went in a lifetime.
Wonderful piece today. This is so very true: "We ravage every quiet moment with noise—podcasts, social media, the nonstop churn of news—anything to avoid stillness. Silence has become our nemesis, so we desecrate it with a constant stream of distraction." I see this in friends, family, and catch myself following into it and then I reach into the hole and pull myself out.
Too much struggle, trauma and hardship can also leave us depleted and empty with no sense of purpose. I understand the point that you're trying to make but personally, I could take a long break and live in comfort for a while.
So true. I assume what the article is really getting at is not the hardship of extreme poverty, excessive grief, or lifelong bad luck (only those who haven’t experienced those could call them necessary!), and more the mild but constant resistance of physical exercise (including forgoing the comfort of an elevator for stairs, or a close parking spot for a further one, if one’s body allows) and continual mental challenges in the sense of problem-solving (learning new skills as the article mentioned, but also maybe just switching things up occasionally: trying a new role in work, taking a different route home, spending time with different people). I hope you catch a break and can enjoy the *good* kind of comfort for a while!
Exactly. This article ignores struggles other than living in a hunter-gatherer society and medieval conflicts. Just because we have smartphones and a couch doesn’t mean we haven’t faced any adversity.
Heard that. I would relish a break from the relentless mad scramble to rejuvenate and heal.
Not sure if I agree with the current analysis of the state of the world. I wouldn’t describe it as comfortable. Millions in the United States struggle with hunger, a crises of belonging to various identities which in this new era have seen rampant violence against, and climate change which should be every human beings focus the moment they wake up in the morning. Even something like the “Atomic Clock” sort of analyses point to us being closer to midnight probably than any point ever before, save the actual missile crises of the 60s. People are depressed because no one in any sort of perceived power has offered us a way out. Writing about people being comfortable and that causing depression assumes that the majority of the world actually has access to said comfort. It certainly exists for many many people across the world. But the majority still suffer at the hands of the ultra comfortable few, and are left feeling like they could work their ass off to figure out a solution, but to what avail?
In contrast with the history of humanity, we live in a comfortable civilization. The obesity rate in the West isn't a secret. You know this. You're just trying to be "that guy."
Hardly the first time I’ve seen it suggested that a generation’s only problem is that it’s too soft. It’s a privileged take, and a boring one at that. But by all means, pat yourself on the back for being smarter than everyone else.
But the truth is, he’s not remotely smarter. This is ALL regurgitated think-piece panic documented by dozens of (better, I might add) writers before him.
BDTWS, why not use your real name?
Because idiots might get confused and address me as, say, Mr. X Wintermute, or something equally ridiculous.
1. Good Comeback!
2. Not "harsh" at all.
3. Are you a BOT, or A.I.? Or how about a form of shadow banning by Substack? We may never know.
4. 2600 X LEET
5. Is WINTERMUTE A.I.? William Gibson would certainly agree.
Playlist: ZayALLCAPS. Pi'erre Bourne. BigXthaPlug.
That’s harsh !
I'm sorry... people aren't starving (some people), therefore they are comfortable? Look at the relative buying power of basics (groceries, housing, etc) of the average person in a wealthy society today vs 50 years ago. Look at the fracturing of communities along social, economical, racial, and cultural lines that serve our economic systems at the cost of isolating people. Look at the realities of productivity vs. pay.
Not to mention that this whole thing paints an extremely rose-tinted view of the mental and social well-being of peoples that struggled more in our history.
Methinks it is you, in fact, trying to be "that guy".
The average person in any developed country is so much better off now than in 1975 it’s almost unbelievable.
Smartphones, on-demand entertainment on your fancy sound system and your big flat-screen TV, air-conditioning and an array of listening options in your car (plus all the safety features), air conditioning (and no smoking!) in your public transport, amazing advances in healthcare, home-delivered goods and meals, cheap air travel, high quality consumer products from around the world delivered cheaply, great coffee everywhere, great food everywhere, and on and on.
If you forced the average 25 year old to spend a week in the reality of 1975 they would be horrified.
The metrics you’ve cited are one way of quantifying ‘better off’. Another might be to consider things like incomes vs housing costs, or wealth inequality, or the ability of a single-working-parent household to live in relative comfort, etc etc. These would probably paint a very different picture
Wealth inequality is an interesting metric for the type of society you live in, but it's not particularly interesting for this topic. By some measures, the USA has extreme wealth inequality, but it doesn't change the fact that the vast majority of US citizens live in fabulous comfort compared to most of the human beings who have ever lived, and even most of the people alive today.
You're right that it's hard for a single income to support a family today, but don't kid yourself that people lived in great comfort back in the day. Expectations of family life are so much higher than they were. Back when a single income could buy a house and a car and support the family, the house was very basic and so was the car. And the food was awful and your entertainment and travel options were extremely limited.
Like I said, if you put most modern Americans in one of those houses for any length of time they'd be begging to return to 2025.
Don't get me wrong: lack of affordable, high quality housing is a big problem in most developed countries. If only US citizens were sensible enough to vote for the type of leaders who might do something about it.
I've never heard obesity being described as comfortable though. We may have more access to ways to escape how we feel, but those ways don't actually work. Drug addiction, obesity, porn, video games...they are not comfortable companions. They are a different kind of discomfort.
Obesity is a disease, I wouldn't use it as a measure of comfort.
Be humble, man. Your article has more than a few holes, and you brushing off this fellow’s kinda proves his point(s)—and then some!
I genuinely am not trying to be that guy. All I wanted to point out was that from a first person perspective, I completely agree. When I myself feel comfortable, I am depressed. And I don’t like how being at comfort is pushed onto us from all sides either. But to only analyze it from that perspective wouldn’t account for the people around me whose perspective isn’t as comfortable as mine. And I think that without being specific, if we look worldwide, the majority of people don’t get to experience this level of comfort, and even in our own society it’s probably far less that we’d hope. If I could edit your article and say that middle class America has a comfort problem, and we should all get outside and take a camping trip without phones together, then I’d say “this is a beautiful article”. And I think there are many parts of the article that are spot on. But a lot of times when I write something like this or read something like this, there’s a limited scope of perspective that isn’t addressed. And hopefully someone comes across this from a wildly different background from me. I bet if some billionaire read this they’d say “yea if you get complacent then you won’t earn a lot of money” or whatever their idea of a “successful life” looks like. I couldn’t even imagine…
This article is written for and about the US population in general.
And the US population in general has a comfortable place to live, a job, a smartphone, endless entertainment options, etc. Like other developed countries, whole generations have grown up with no worries in their day to day lives. There is no great ‘suffering’ going on for the vast majority.
For proof, look at how US citizens vote. They could seek leaders who will focus on affordable housing, better healthcare, or other things that will contribute to the wellbeing of ordinary citizens. But they don’t.
We’ve all read the stories about how US citizens ‘suffered’ when inflation spiked in the early 2020s. If this was true, and if the voting population were responsible adults who took their voting seriously, then voters would have rejected the candidate who was PROMISING them more inflation via his insane tariff policies. But they didn’t.
This is not the behaviour of responsible adults struggling to make their communities and their nation better. Instead, it’s the behaviour of bored children who think the important things will always be fine (because in their frame of reference, they always have been).
I like your analysis! Well formatted too. I think this is a good look at it. I’m no sociologist so I can’t really speak on any authority broadly. But it feels like the US population in general is quickly slipping into a life that isn’t “fine”. And I think the folks that voted for Trump probably feel even more so than me that the world is not fine, and America is not fine, and are hitting the panic button on each of their specific issues. Also the world at large is not fine and that’s why I brought up climate change and that will only be stopped from a complete effort at all levels of society. Forces bigger than any one person could vote away or pray away or pay away, etc. But yea I wish I had more time to type out more to this I like your response
Not US, but Western population.
https://www.leftfieldtraining.com/richmond-hawthorn/leftfield101/comfortably-dumb-part-1-1
I am keen to read your part 2 but the link seems to be broken.
Also you’ve got ‘Wish you were here’ in my head for the first time in years.
Thanks for the heads-up, Greg.
And, funny you say that...
https://www.leftfieldtraining.com/richmond-hawthorn/leftfield101/comfortably-dumb-part-2
Millions in the United States struggle with hunger, but every human being’s focus should be climate change from the moment they wake up in the morning?
The irony of this sort of virtue signaling is staggering.
This article is an exhausting, pernicious rehash of complaints we habitually make about ourselves - long, boring, and depressing, and which leads nowhere. It dwells on a subject that is thoroughly misunderstood.
I have read so much over the years that warns of the dangers of “comfort.” Comfort is not the right word for what is being described. Complacency, lack of motivation, laziness, over-indulgence, misguidedness , lostness - none of these are “comfort.”
This is what comfort really means:
Verb
Middle English comforten, conforten "to strengthen spiritually, inspire with courage, exort, cheer up, encourage, invigorate," borrowed from Anglo-French conforter, comforter, borrowed from Late Latin confortāre "to strengthen, restore strength to, invigorate, cure" (Medieval Latin also "to cheer, reassure"), from Latin con- CON- + Late Latin -fortāre, verbal derivative of Latin fortis "strong, robust" — more at FORT
Noun
Middle English comfort, counfort "invigoration, encouragement, assurance, feeling of relief, pleasure, gratification," borrowed from Anglo-French comfort, confort, cunfort "solace, encouragement, enjoyment, satisfaction," noun derivative of conforter, comforter "to strengthen, encourage, solace"
We’ve skewed the meaning of this word to fit an agenda against properly taking care of ourselves bc we’d rather beat ourselves than love ourselves.
Comfort, physically and psychologically, is absolutely necessary for health. As the centuries have piled on, especially into our “toxic male energy” and “toxic hustle” society and the bs spewed by Steven Pressfield that Art is a war, all derivative of the original “Puritan work ethic” neurosis, we have had it in for ourselves. There is a balance between action and rest which is still largely being disregarded in favor of “self-improvement”. This article is another subtle example of this.
It is natural, when in love and at peace with oneself that one will “work hard” enjoyably and feel accomplishment. One does not need “discipline” to accomplish this; one needs only a strong desire for a happy result. In order to learn how to play the piano well, one must sit comfortably or one will wreck one’s posture and ability to play. Comfort is at the root of every good result. Relaxation is the key.
Struggle never enters the picture.
“The disease of ease”?! Life is meant to be a gentle flow, not a fight.
To clarify, I wish we would get off this hard-ass, self-flagellating, pushy male attitude and relax, because when we do, we do our best work, make our best creations, and experience our greatest fulfillment. Ranting like what goes on in this article - which we’ve seen a million times before - needs to stop, bc all it is is self-hatred, not love. Sure, if I survive something terrible, if it doesn’t kill me, it will make me stronger, but that is not what life is supposed to be focused on, as this article unconsciously deviously implies.
What needs to start is a focus on trusting our natural flow and enjoying everything.
What keeps the balance is simple awareness and love of oneself. Enjoyment does not lead to decadence. Lack of awareness and sensitivity do.
Awareness of how one feels and what one wants guides the whole process of living healthfully. Comfort is the barometer of health.
The reason people have gotten off track with this is because they have looked outside themselves for fulfillment to material things. Not all souls are capable of having high integrity. The unversed just keeps making individuals in an effort to cultivate greater consciousness. It wants conscious beings; we are its tools, its agents, its sensory organs in the physical world.
Do you really think it wants us to be uncomfortable? Try stretching without relaxing into it comfortably and see what happens to your tendons.
Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU bro I’ve never agreed more with a comment. Yes. This is NOT what life is supposed to be about.
even though i enjoyed the article, i cant help but agree with this comment. by biggest issue was the preconceived notion that the writer seemed to have when writing this piece: everyone who reads this is some level of an adjusted person in society not currently faced by struggle. my problem with that is that some people cannot afford to be endure the burdens of struggle and unpredictability given that’s the basis of the current situation they’re in.
If I replace comfort with convenience it has more personal meaning.
It is both comfort and convenience.
https://www.leftfieldtraining.com/richmond-hawthorn/leftfield101/comfortably-dumb-part-1-1
Needed this this morning. Thank you. 🙏
Oh good... more boring, "things are bad because y'all are too soft" hot-take.
Quoting philosophers doesn't make this argument sound any wiser than it did when Joe Rogan slathered on about it.
You might be a comfortable person writing for other comfortable people, and that’s fine. If you’re running diagnostics on modern society, your response is silly.
People are suffering. Failing health care systems, homelessness, exploitation of laborers, mass incarceration, climate disaster, etc exist in our society even if you and your friends aren’t experiencing those things. Don’t conflate genuine suffering with the enlivening experiences of risk, passion, effort, and healthy discomfort. Not to be a downer, I realize not every piece of writing needs to address everyone and be all-encompassing. But this piece is trying to make a sweeping point about generations. Petit bourgeoisie talking to itself
This
I wholeheartedly and respectfully disagree with this perspective, although I think it contains many truths. My great grandmother was much more “connected with nature” than I was- as was her husband and all of her children as a depression-era family. But she certainly suffered much more hardship and by all accounts was not given the opportunity to seek contentment. Her entire life was spent birthing and caring for the children she birthed. I think part of the reason anxiety and depression rates are rising is because people are actually studying them now; psychology is a relatively new field. There’s also greater awareness of these conditions. And, no matter what time period you live in or what hardships you face, contentment is found within. It’s not dependent on external circumstances , yet it’s certainly easier to cultivate when we feel safe.
I certainly agree the amount of distraction in our world today likely contributes to feelings of overwhelm/anxiety/sense of purposelessness; these are new ways to fill internal voids.
You missed the entire "perspective."
Writing is subject to the interpretation of the reader, no?
While you didn’t touch on the subject of God and man’s suffering, your essay reminds me of the quote “we all have an infinite hole in our heart and try to fill it with finite things”. When we toss aside God and higher values, we’re left with a void which demands to be filled. We can distract and numb, but we can never overcome our design.
Agree
As good as anything I have read in a long time. I created a folder of quotes that I have discovered along the way in my continuing education, primarily for my kids to find once I am gone. I feel I need to create another for exceptional essays and articles. This will be the first entry. Thank you.
While I think you put forward excellent points, it’s not the whole story. It’s a bit of an over-index on the comfort crisis. There’s something called the single cause fallacy which says in the complex reality there is always an ecology of factors that give rise to symptoms.
The best over arching framework for the problems of the world I’ve found is the meta-crisis. If I had to pin it on specific flaws of the modern world it would have to do with lack of true belonging and robust cultural systems that connect humans to earth, to each other, and to transcendence.
Can see that. I also keep adding the word ‘convenience’ when he says comfort.
What is striking about this post is how we all “know” this, yet you say it in way that makes me stop and reconsider everything again… really well written.
I disagree. I ended up skimming half the post because nothing in it felt new to me. I was waiting for some creative solutions or enlightening perspectives—and then the cop-out dropped: writers don't provide solutions. interesting.
You bore me. Suffer more. Talk less.
As 30 year Buddhist practitioner, I wholeheartedly agree.
The solution is a cultural change that expects adult-aged people to behave like adults.
Live for other people and engage in meaningful activities instead of just pursuing a life of play.
You can start small. For example, read Substack articles properly if you plan to comment on them. This is a good way to show respect for the author, and shows that you’re interested in learning from the community of people in the comments section.
Like a philosophical gut-punch. The idea that comfort, unchecked, quietly erodes us really hits (“spectators of our own decay”). Go deep outlaw. Loved it, thanks.
Such a powerful read—especially potent after a layoff. Thanks!
I'm sorry to hear of the possible layoff. But you've touched on an aspect I believe to be very significant.
I'm looking through this piece and comments. I don't see any mention of the commercial interests in all of the pain our "comfort" has caused. Yet for my money, therein is often the real culprit to our society's pain and distress... the debt load most this "comfort" costs and our struggle to maintain.
Man, I liked your piece right up to the Conclusion. I didn't need all that stuff about abysses and caves and daring, it was a bit purple for me. But I still thought a lot of what you said made sense. Then I turn to the Comments and see the dismissive way you're responding to people and then I have to do some work to keep your ideas separate from that small bit of unpleasantness. I simply can't see where that attitude gets you.
I remain challenged but unconvinced. When I think back to the times in my life when I've 'suffered more', they did not give me anything good, either then or in retrospect. Most of those times involved being stuck in institutions whose rules - or unwillingness to enforce their own rules - made people's lives unpleasant. I simply yearned for the day when time, or in some cases my own efforts, set me free. In the meantime, I learned to avoid conflict & the possibility of harm. Perhaps I misunderstand what you mean by 'true struggle'. Maybe Joan Didion's version from 'On Self-Respect' is what you had in mind; it was certainly in mine as I read, and she's always worth a hefty quote:
'Self-respect is something that our grandparents, whether or not they had it, knew all about. They had instilled in them, young, a certain discipline, the sense that one lives by doing things one does not particularly want to do, by putting fears and doubts to one side, by weighing immediate comforts against the possibility of larger, even intangible, comforts. It seemed to the nineteenth century admirable, but not remarkable, that Chinese Gordon put on a clean white suit and held Khartoum against the Mahdi; it did not seem unjust that the way to free land in California involved death and difficulty and dirt. In a diary kept during the winter of 1846, an emigrating twelve-year-old named Narcissa Cornwall noted coolly: "Father was busy reading and did not notice that the house was being filled with strange Indians until Mother spoke about it." Even lacking any clue as to what Mother said, one can scarcely fail to be impressed by the entire incident: the father reading, the Indians filing in, the mother choosing the words that would not alarm, the child duly recording the event and noting further that those particular Indians were not, "fortunately for us," hostile. Indians were simply part of the donnée.
In one guise or another, Indians always are. Again, it is a question of recognizing that anything worth having has its price.'
This is romantic (and breathtaking prose). But, ultimately, it's an American version of the British stiff upper lip. I think your piece might be, too. There's plenty of suffering about still; it may well serve as an antidote to self-absorption and too much comfort. I'm not convinced that makes it a recommendation. It's the old British WW2 paradox: "We were Blitzed, but we were happy; we stuck together." I don't deny the increased happiness for a second; my mum told me about it. Humans are undoubtedly cooperative, gregarious animals. But I'm not going to try selling that particular recipe for greater life-meaning in, say, Ukraine.
What a remarkable response. You echo and expand on my own irksome sentiment.
Hee hee, you're such a snot.
It’s not a lack of struggle that causes what you see; it’s the inability to find “contentment”. Chasing pleasure 24/7 but still not happy. They don’t know what to do. (It’s been noted that the term “happiness” is being used where “contentment” had been used before. Happiness is fleeting. Contentment isn’t.)
Was always told - depression is when your reality is below your expectations. Lower your expectations and you’ll be fine.
It’s quite simple. At one end, you have “ego” - your value is determined by how others see you. At the other end, you have “self-esteem” - your value is based on how you see yourself. Too many lack self-esteem and are driven purely by ego, which is easier to manipulate.
Edward Bernays (the father of public relations) relied on playing on the ego for marketing campaigns. Your value is based on how others see you with a product. The auto doesn’t get you from A to B; it’s how you tell the world who you are. The amount of marketing each younger generation has been exposed to has increased exponentially.
We have so many options. Decision making is stressful. Look up consumer studies. A sample tasting table in a grocery store has 20 flavored jams and jellies. People don’t make purchases. But if only 3 flavors are offered, people buy them. It’s called “analysis paralysis”. Limiting the options makes it easier for a person to make a decision.
It wasn’t that long ago that many people never went far from where they were born during their entire lives. They had very limited options. Today, people have hundreds of options for a weekend trip that will have them travel further from home than that person went in a lifetime.