What Is the Cost of Our Enjoyment?

What is the cost of your enjoyment?

I have been writing for years trying to get everyone to wake up, trying to sound reasonable. Trying to sound thoughtful. Trying to sound balanced. I have tried to say things in a way that would not make people defensive. I have tried to avoid sounding angry, bitter, dramatic, or extreme.

But I have had enough.

I’m tired of whispering about something that feels like it is on fire.

So take this blog post however you want. It’s not like the people who are lacking sense are lining up to read this anyway. I highly doubt this reaches the people it is actually supposed to reach because there is no short form video with clickbait to explain it to you, followed by an ad that will bring you right back to where they want you. A distracted. Depressed and deprived consumer.

But at what cost?

For them, nothing. They actually gain. With each click, tap, swipe, and scroll they gain. Attention is profit. Division is profit. Addiction is profit. The fact that we are living in a dystopian Truman Show and only a few can see that is literally taking a toll on my human.

Cameras everywhere. Opinions everywhere. Surveillance disguised as convenience. And somehow the majority of us participate willingly. The strange part is not that the system exists. The strange part is how few people seem disturbed by it. Everything is happening at once. Wars. Environmental shifts. Corruption. Collapses. Exposures. Yet we are all too numb to react. We are numb to empathy. Numb to emotion. Numb to the care of another human’s life because we are entertained, performing, depressed, or “living the good life” while the world tries to warn us each day of its decline.

The sun is hot but does not seem to draw heat the same. The fog leaves residue on windshields. The snow comes in September. The street lights are slowly becoming a purple hue. None of this is normal, yet the human population is too entertained to question the why.

We film it. We joke about it. We scroll.

Meanwhile, we are being pitted against each other while the elite continues all the bad business as per usual. From the sexual abuse and exploitation of our children and everything that trickles down underneath, and if you claim you are angry yet your children wear clothing that are not age appropriate or have unlimited access to the internet, makeup and anything that should be restricted then you are no different than them, and you can argue with your mother and not me about these facts.

See that is the thing. We love to point fingers while doing the same things on a lower or “modest scale”. Whether it is posted online in hopes of becoming rich and famous or on a stage for a trophy and recognition. To me it is all the same, as it always somehow comes with an exchange of dignity, self esteem, sexualization, and abuse.

We consume it. We normalize it. We reward it.

Just look at the uniforms of each sport. I am sure it does not help with the game as much as it helps with the visual satisfaction of the owners and onlookers. But we are not ready for that conversation. We are not ready for that honesty because the sheep is the majority and majority rules, right?

The spectacle is profitable. The bodies are profitable. The outrage is profitable. The silence is profitable. I can go on and on, we know this. But let us land this plane.

What is the cost of our enjoyment?

Is it the Super Bowl with commercials that tell more than they should? Is it the fake outrage we collectively have with no action behind it each time a big company does some foul shit but somehow never tanks? Is it the files that should not need to be released for anyone to be held accountable because it was clear as day? Yet it becomes entertainment when we watch others’ trauma displayed and recited to millions daily.

What have we become?

We allow color to and their terrible ways decide instead of the actual human. We point fingers instead of joining brain cells to work together for a fix as the world resets around us. Are we waiting for them to leave in spaceships? To live on yachts in the middle of the ocean while we burn and rot on land none of us own?

Being human right now is embarrassing.

Not because we are incapable. Not because we are unintelligent. But because we are distracted. Because we are passive. Because we trade long term well being for short term pleasure. 

Being brown is being human degraded by other humans while they start life at level one hundred with the difficulty set to one and we start life at level one with the difficulty set to two hundred while everyone ignores that fact because it does not affect them. When it actually does. And before we all collectively realize it, it may be too late.

Yet the imbalance is visible if you are willing to see it.

And still, even that becomes content. A debate. A trend. A hashtag. Rarely a sustained effort toward structural change. We argue over identity while systems tighten. We defend brands like they are family. We fight each other while the structure remains untouched.

And the cost keeps rising.

I do not enjoy much these days. I limit my phone usage. I prefer conversations in person where you can see someone’s eyes, hear their tone, feel their presence. I prefer connection that is not filtered through an algorithm. That choice costs me visibility. It costs me reach. It costs me fake friendship. It costs me money. It costs me participation in certain digital economies.

But it does not cost me my peace.

So I ask you again, seriously.

What is the cost of your enjoyment?

Is it your attention span?
Is it your empathy?
Is it your children’s innocence?
Is it your community?
Is it your dignity?
Is it your ability to think critically without being told what to think?

Every system requires energy to survive. Ours runs on attention and compliance. When we stop feeding it mindlessly, it weakens.

This is not a call to live without joy. Joy is necessary. Celebration is human. Art, sports, music, laughter, shared experiences, these are beautiful.

But joy without awareness becomes sedation.

Enjoyment without accountability becomes exploitation.

Entertainment without limits becomes control.

So before you scroll again, before you defend something because it entertains you, before you dismiss something because it challenges you, ask yourself honestly:

What is this costing me?

And is the price worth it?

Hope this helps, hope you’re hearing me, 

-B