Caught completely off guard
in Spirituality ·
Greetings. I want to use this thread to share how I view life. When you're young, you’re essentially blind to the machinery moving around you. They push vaccines on you, the school system dictates exactly what is "true" through its specific curriculum, and you're molded before you even realize it. Every kid has the latest iPhone, yet I’m stuck using a phone from $17; how is that supposed to feel? It makes you feel like an outcast. You don't have the branded gear everyone else flaunts. I walk into school wearing Adika sneakers and I feel the shame of it. Why? Because that's how the game is played. They've engineered children to be materialists. It’s all about who wears what, who has the right phone, or who drives which car. It's all about optics and nothing else. Honestly, if you haven't been struggling to fit in by age 18, you haven't lived. It's pathetic, but true. Today's youth aren't striving for progress; they're just regressing alongside their technology. People need to be smarter than their devices, not subservient to them. Most people are completely oblivious to the reality of their existence. Life is just a repetitive loop: work, home, eat, sleep. That is the standard American experience. I am 23 years old, and only now am I realizing the nature of the world I live in and the kind of people I am surrounded by. I've realized I'm just another pawn.
The realization hit me hard when I was let go from my retail job after two and a half years. During that time, I watched how they would fudge inventory numbers for tourists, how we were forced into unpaid overtime—essentially, everything was against the rules. The "mutual agreement" termination I was handed was nothing more than psychological warfare designed to break me. I knew what was happening behind the scenes at that store, but I didn't report it to the managers. For two weeks, they treated me like a criminal. No one would even speak to me. Since it was my first time facing something like this, it was incredibly difficult. I simply signed the papers because I couldn't stomach the tension anymore. In hindsight, I realize I could have handled it better, but I hope you understand.
Afterward, I filed complaints with the state inspectors and the corporation I worked for. I even called the retail union, only for them to tell me, "You know how our courts are; you're better off doing nothing." I went through the motions with the labor inspectors and the Department of Labor, and you know what happened? Absolutely nothing. My complaints went unanswered. That was the moment I realized I am just a cog in the machine, trying to survive in this broken country. We need a massive wake-up call to realize where we actually stand and the caliber of people we are dealing with. Nobody cares about your struggle; they only care that the facade remains pretty and perfect.
Look at the prevalence of drugs, marijuana, alcohol, and other substances among the youth. It’s shameful how it's become a badge of honor to have experimented. It numbs the younger generation. In San Francisco, I saw 14-year-olds using speed; imagine, that is happening right here in our own backyard. Drugs are designed to hook you, and while some might escape once they realize the problem, most won't. They just end up with a daily habit.
The whole pandemic situation gave me another clear lens through which to view the world. I watched this experiment once: ten actors sit in a waiting room, and a woman who isn't an actor enters. Every few minutes, a sound is played, and the ten actors stand up in response. She has no idea why, but after three or four times, she starts standing up too. It shows just how much control people are under. This pandemic was proof of that. They told us stay home, wash your hands, don't leave if you're sick—it was all part of the same social experiment. 280,000 people died from it, which is roughly 0.003 percent of the population.
We need to wake up and face the reality of what is happening around us before it is too late.
The realization hit me hard when I was let go from my retail job after two and a half years. During that time, I watched how they would fudge inventory numbers for tourists, how we were forced into unpaid overtime—essentially, everything was against the rules. The "mutual agreement" termination I was handed was nothing more than psychological warfare designed to break me. I knew what was happening behind the scenes at that store, but I didn't report it to the managers. For two weeks, they treated me like a criminal. No one would even speak to me. Since it was my first time facing something like this, it was incredibly difficult. I simply signed the papers because I couldn't stomach the tension anymore. In hindsight, I realize I could have handled it better, but I hope you understand.
Afterward, I filed complaints with the state inspectors and the corporation I worked for. I even called the retail union, only for them to tell me, "You know how our courts are; you're better off doing nothing." I went through the motions with the labor inspectors and the Department of Labor, and you know what happened? Absolutely nothing. My complaints went unanswered. That was the moment I realized I am just a cog in the machine, trying to survive in this broken country. We need a massive wake-up call to realize where we actually stand and the caliber of people we are dealing with. Nobody cares about your struggle; they only care that the facade remains pretty and perfect.
Look at the prevalence of drugs, marijuana, alcohol, and other substances among the youth. It’s shameful how it's become a badge of honor to have experimented. It numbs the younger generation. In San Francisco, I saw 14-year-olds using speed; imagine, that is happening right here in our own backyard. Drugs are designed to hook you, and while some might escape once they realize the problem, most won't. They just end up with a daily habit.
The whole pandemic situation gave me another clear lens through which to view the world. I watched this experiment once: ten actors sit in a waiting room, and a woman who isn't an actor enters. Every few minutes, a sound is played, and the ten actors stand up in response. She has no idea why, but after three or four times, she starts standing up too. It shows just how much control people are under. This pandemic was proof of that. They told us stay home, wash your hands, don't leave if you're sick—it was all part of the same social experiment. 280,000 people died from it, which is roughly 0.003 percent of the population.
We need to wake up and face the reality of what is happening around us before it is too late.