_MVP_
c pushing will always overwhelm you
- Joined
- Jul 15, 2022
- Posts
- 60,572
- Reputation
- 64,106
We are taught to believe in meritocracy... that work, talent, and persistence can overcome circumstance. But the ladders of mobility have been pulled up and replaced with mirrors. Wealth does not come from labor but from inheritance of capital, of networks, of safety nets. The rich multiply their money while the rest sell finite hours. The myth of the self-made person is the most effective lie of capitalism: it keeps the poor blaming themselves for a rigged equation.
The same illusion governs intimacy. Love, we’re told, is democratic... that anyone can find it if they are kind, confident, or "themselves." Yet in an age where attraction is filtered, ranked, and displayed, beauty has become a hereditary currency. The genetically blessed inherit attention the way the wealthy inherit interest. Those outside the ideal are instructed to "work on themselves," as though charm or character could ever substitute for the social capital of appearance.
Together, these myths sustain a cruel optimism. They tell us that success and love are choices, when in truth they are distributions of genes, of money, of access. The system thrives on this delusion, because people who believe the game is fair will keep playing it. The tragedy is not that most will fail, but that they will believe their failure is personal. In a world already owned by the privileged and the beautiful, effort is not salvation; it is submission disguised as hope.
@disillusioned
The same illusion governs intimacy. Love, we’re told, is democratic... that anyone can find it if they are kind, confident, or "themselves." Yet in an age where attraction is filtered, ranked, and displayed, beauty has become a hereditary currency. The genetically blessed inherit attention the way the wealthy inherit interest. Those outside the ideal are instructed to "work on themselves," as though charm or character could ever substitute for the social capital of appearance.
Together, these myths sustain a cruel optimism. They tell us that success and love are choices, when in truth they are distributions of genes, of money, of access. The system thrives on this delusion, because people who believe the game is fair will keep playing it. The tragedy is not that most will fail, but that they will believe their failure is personal. In a world already owned by the privileged and the beautiful, effort is not salvation; it is submission disguised as hope.
@disillusioned
