Cultural distress (and consumerism)

It’s the dissatisfaction of knowing that something ‘better’ is available, and the invented discontent that comes from the peer pressure of being left out or left behind.

For decades, marketers (and politicians) have been working to amplify cultural distress, a hack on our emotions.

Marathon runners don’t complain about the tired, because getting tired is a necessary component of a well-run race.

Fear of this sort of cultural distress pushes us to simply spend money to avoid it.

And so people with a lot of resources are still unhappy, because they succumb to invented narratives about cultural distress–and then, once they buy something to avoid it, discover that it’s still there.