Individuality as an existential phenomenon in history is a relatively new development, which threatens the power-monopoly of post-modern ideologies. The promise of liberation and unlimited pleasures is an attractive, duplicitous idea promoted by the system to entrain the mind away from challenging the State's power-principle.
“The biggest question may be in economics and politics of the coming decades will be what to do with all these useless people.
The problem would be boredom and how, what to do with them and how will they find some sense of meaning in life when they are basically meaningless, worthless. My best guess at present is a combination of drugs and computer games as a solution for more - Yuval Noah Harari
The desire for meaning, purpose and a life that asserts its own destiny is preconditioned by mythologies which are universal in human societies. The mythos of the hero in terms of modernity is no longer an individual that overcomes, that persists through the tempest of melancholy but a communal creature that affirms the pleasure principle to the point of self-sublimation.
The differentiation of the individual from the collective is also convoluted by its own shadow; the demons we ignore. The neurotic, average persona dwells, even revels in its shadow without overcoming the inherent shortcomings. In this Anti-Psychological Age, the Emotional Plague remains untreated by modern psychology --whose prescription of powerful psychiatric drugs is simply a functionalist band aid.
Ultimately, the emotional tragedies of post-modernity remain unexamined because people prefer the realms of shadows: self-deceit, sublimation in exchange for a socially delineated, culturally approved path. The remedy lies in the realization that shadow-work (actualizing the self by overcoming the social persona) is not necessarily a resting place or the end goal.
Individuals who've divorced themselves from the establishment's version of reality may feel a deeper sense of alienation, dejection and self-condemnation for exiting the matrix of illusions. However, this tension is fruitful in that it produces the necessary vitalism to creates intuitive connection with the authentic Self.
The development of intuitive knowingness of Self, reality and the world around us consecrates the individual beyond the clutches of collective phantoms. The individuated Self immortalizes their existence by challenging their community not by proselytizing its life-affirming philosophy --rather by imbuing existence with its unique essence.
As digital nomads in the information age we take for granted that metrics of self-valuation (e.g. likes, followers and narratives) are a deep-state concoction that does not actually represent the ineffable meaning of life. We service the machinery by assimilating our life-experience into the matrix in the expectation of a dopamine reward.
Today we are explicitly reminded by former founders of Facebook that social media algorithms exploit the human psyche to dominate the public's attention. As convenient as the timing of their admissions may be --the realization that we've been physiologically conditioned by Automated Manipulation is something we need to challenge.
The epidemic of mental illness, addictions and loneliness is the challenge ahead of us. We cannot cure this ailments in our localized community by a verbose exposition on conspiracies or philosophies.