This too shall pass

There is this weight inside that doesn't go away. Yes, I keep repeating "this too shall pass", sooner or later this nightmare of the world's situation will clear up. It's a natural law: when you reach the bottom you can only go back up again, in a very spontaneous and natural way. The thing is: will we survive till we reach the bottom?

This morning, while preparing my breakfast, I was reflecting on how I could trick my brain, my heart, my system, my shocked system, and guide me to perceive the situation in a different way. "Look Back in Anger, by John Osborne, came to my mind.

The intense disillusionment with post-war British society, leading to a profound retreat from the world. The main figure: Jimmy Porter suffers because there are no "good, brave causes left." The post-WWII landscape stripped away the clarity of fighting a visible evil, leaving a void where heroic purpose used to be.

Once, it was such an honourable thing to have heroic impulses, visions, desires. And probably it was even wrong, at least in part. A romanticised reality, that pushed humanity towards big values at incredibly ferocious costs... 

Now everything has been diluted by the comfort of easy lives. That actually are not easy at all, but they let us believe they are. Hence we all tremendously struggle to reach that richness, solace, relief, that we are made to believe being the real eden on Earth. Richness is more and more at hand but the price people pay for that "comfort" is out of proportion, because in that race to become rich, people loose their sense of  virtues and everything becomes possible. The more audacious and scrupleless one is the less they pay for their immoral behaviour!

Nobody can do anything but just watching everything collapsing. It is so incredible what is happening that it even seems surreal, and I bet, many other people like me have the feeling of being in a nightmare, hoping to wake up soon... A deep sense of hopelessness and helplessness.

So I go back to my main question: how can I trick my system to face all this in a different way? I said it, Look back in anger came to my mind. In the book, Jimmy Porter's intense disillusionment with post-war British society, led him to a profound retreat from the world. This emotional, symbolic withdrawal is realised when Jimmy and his girl friend Alison escape their painful reality by retreating into their "Bear and Squirrel" game, choosing to exist in a protective, childlike fantasy rather than engage with a harsh, unrewarding life. This game gives them a way to access a simple affection for each other that they cannot achieve in normal life. The bear is associated with Jimmy, and the squirrel with Alison. 

"We could become little furry creatures with little furry brains. Full of dumb, uncomplicated affection for each other..."

The animals is their answer to the society they experience, interfering with the love that these two characters have for each other. Their relationship is disturbed by the anger and disillusion they feelfor the world they live in.  But when they act like animals, whose only concerns are food, shelter, cleanliness, and sex, they can forget that conflict and feel a simpler version of love for each other. 

The play's climax highlights their final, desperate choice to abandon the struggle against society and live in an isolated, imagined world.

I asked AI to compare John Osborn's Look Back in Anger with todays' situation. Here's the result

The Internal Anatomy of Disillusion

1. The Death of Grand Ambitions

Then: Jimmy Porter suffers because there are no "good, brave causes left." The post-WWII landscape stripped away the clarity of fighting a visible evil, leaving a void where heroic purpose used to be. 

Now: The modern internal crisis is not a lack of causes, but cause fatigue. Today's youth are crushed by the psychological weight of global, systemic issues (climate change, economic inequality) that feel too massive to fix, leading to a paralyzing sense of personal insignificance.

2. The Trap of Expected Meritocracy

Then: Jimmy has a university degree but runs a market sweet stall. His anger stems from the internal humiliation of being intellectually overqualified for his material reality, blocked by a stubborn class system. 

Now: The internal wound today is shame. Young adults buy into the promise that higher education and hard work guarantee stability. When it results in gig-economy hustle and unaffordable housing, the anger turns inward as a feeling of personal failure.

3. Isolation Masquerading as Connectivity

Then: Jimmy dominates the room, talking endlessly to drown out the terrifying silence of his own isolation. He attacks Alison and Cliff because he desperately craves a raw, authentic human reaction in a polite, numb world. 

Now: The modern equivalent is hyper-connected loneliness. The internal state is defined by scrolling through curated lives while feeling entirely unseen. The "anger" is less vocal; it is a quiet, numbing detachment and a deep cynicism toward online "authenticity".

4. Escapism and Intellectual Boredom

Then: Jimmy and Cliff read the heavy Sunday papers just to mock them. They retreat into childhood fantasy games (the Bear and the Squirrel) because the adult world offers no intellectual or emotional fulfillment. 

Now: Today's internal retreat is infinite algorithmic distraction. Doomscrolling, binge-watching, and ironical internet subcultures serve as the modern "Bear and Squirrel" game: low-stakes escapes from a grim societal outlook.

I must say this result doesn't give me anything, I find it empty inspite of the rational, and probably correct, analysis.

Perhaps I should ask him, AI, my real question: Could I find a symbolic something, like Jimmy and Allison's game, helping me to elude my disillusion?

But I have become more and more annoyed by Ai, his know it all attitude, his fake excuses when I point out the banality of many answers, in spite of me explicitly asking him depth, and ro shut out all that new agey rubbish... I keep my question for my reflections, that are at least an interesting distraction, that keep me innerly busy with something that can turn out into a compelling idea!