that kid learned all about existential dread that day
how many times can a fish circumnavigate the globe before it all becomes meaningless?
return to the quiescent inorganic state whence we all came.
The most common form of existential dread, Acute Existential Dread (AED), is an intense feeling of inconsequentiality triggered by external stimuli.
AED is a well-known side effect of psychedelic drugs such as LSD and psilocybin, but it can also be triggered by opening your eyes, overhearing cable news soundbites, and catching your own eye contact in the mirror while brushing your teeth.
Chronic Existential Dread (CED) is a condition that more people are struggling with. Repeated exposure to the monotonous stretches of meaningless tedium that fill our every waking hour has left many wondering, “What’s the point of all this bullshit? Is life really just an absurdly futile melodrama that never ends, until suddenly it does?”
If you think you might be suffering from existential dread, try to convince yourself that there is a god who loves you instead of dwelling on the cruel ironies of life. Religion has helped billions of people avoid confronting humanity’s cosmic triviality for thousands of years. Don’t contextualize those few thousand years as an infinitesimal fraction of the universe’s 13-plus billion years of existence — just take solace in the fact that some oldish books promise you a perfect eternity as long as you follow a few simple rules like abstaining from shellfish, butt sex, and tattoos.
Is planting more trees really a solution to improving city life? Des Fitzgerald asks what does it prevent us from thinking about if we focus only on greening our urban spaces.