This is the first of a series of weekly book reviews that I will be doing as part of my goal of reading a book a week.

In order to ground my thoughts in the text, I will be going through the passages I picked out as especially noteworthy and annotate them with my thoughts.

There are several great and unalterable dimensions that show a man's stature. Pain is one of them. It is the most difficult in a series of trials one is accustomed to call life. An examination dealing with pain is no doubt unpopular; yet it is not only revealing in its own right, but it can also shed light on a series of questions preoccupying us at the present. Pain is one of the keys to unlock man's innermost being as well as the world. Whenever one approaches the points where man proves himself to be equal or superior to pain, one gains access to the sources of his power and the secret hidden behind his dominion. Tell me your relation to pain, and I will tell you who you are!

This is David Goggins, college-edition. To say that one’s reaction to pain is the meaning of life, was then and again is today a shocking assertion. I believe that having this sort of mindset (at least for the next couple decades) will be useful. Even if one does not adopt it now circumstance will likely force this mindset upon the majority of people soon enough, not necessarily to thrive but to survive (although survival under dire circumstance, may, from this perspective, be deemed a sort of thriving and garners a deep sense of fulfillment).

As a rule one will not have to go far to uncover the pain. Indeed, even the individual is not fully free from pain in this joyful state of security. The artificial check on the elementary forces might be able to prevent violent clashes and to ward off shadows, but it cannot stop the dispersed light with which pain permeates life. The vessel, sealed off from pain's full flow, is filled drop by drop. Boredom is nothing other than the dissolution of pain in time.

This insight holds a lot of weight in the present day. There's a prevailing notion that we exist in an era marked by unprecedented abundance, prosperity, and peace, making the rising rates of suicide, depression, and a pervasive sense of emptiness shocking for many. The belief persists that we are on the brink of achieving utopia, or at least a semblance of it, where the next piece of progressive legislation will secure us physical, material, and mental well-being, followed by perpetual happiness. However, this pursuit is increasingly seen as a fool’s errand, where the marginal benefits to happiness from such security are diminishing. Pain, long underestimated and now akin to an undervalued stock, is making a resurgence. Our society is plagued by boredom and a deep-seated yearning for purpose, with a widespread message that security equates to happiness. Yet, there's a growing demand for pain, for sacrifice, for the pursuit of greatness, against a backdrop of scarcity. The Chinese water torture of existential boredom is not sustainable. It leads to madness, with people preferring to face acute pain in the short term rather than endure the extended agony of a life devoid of meaningful struggle.

Henceforth, all measures are designed to master pain, not to avoid it. The heroic and cultic world presents an entirely different relation to pain than does the world of sensitivity. While in the latter, as we saw, it is a matter of marginalizing pain and sheltering life from it, in the former the point is to integrate pain and organize life in such a way that one is always armed against it. Here, too, pain plays a significant, but no doubt opposite, role. This is because life strives incessantly to stay in contact with pain.

This reflects a pivotal trend I've noticed within certain online communities, where there's a growing fascination with embracing pain through intense physical challenges. Activities such as endurance running, heavy weightlifting, taking ice baths, and consuming foods that prioritize nutrition over taste—eschewing the addictive flavors of sweets, trans fats, and sugars that have dominated the past fifty years—are becoming more popular. This movement suggests a departure from the habits of the boomer generation, the last to actively avoid discomfort, readily embracing any "miracle" solutions to sidestep pain, including drugs and laws designed to minimize physical effort, an attitude that seems to intensify with age. However, a shift towards a mindset reminiscent of figures like David Goggins, Andrew Huberman, and Joe Rogan is becoming evident. Society is beginning to lean into pain and sacrifice, aiming to incorporate and master discomfort rather than fleeing from it. This shift indicates a broader transformation in how we approach life's challenges, seeking strength and resilience in the face of adversity.

The central question concerning the rank of present values can be answered by determining to what extent the body can be treated as an object…The secret of modern sensitivity is that it corresponds to a world in which the body is itself the highest value. This observation explains why modern sensitivity relates to pain as a power to be avoided at all cost, because here pain confronts the body not as an outpost but as the main force and essential core of life.

In today's world, there's a noticeable trend towards extreme caution and protection when it comes to personal well-being. This cautious approach frames the human body as a precious object, where any harm or discomfort is often viewed as unacceptable or even wrongful. The idea that one should avoid any activities that could potentially cause harm leads to a very sheltered existence. This sheltering was the goal of many helicopter parents, making the opposite pain-seeking, mindset particularly puzzling to those who have worked hard to provide a life of comfort and security for their children. They may find it difficult to understand why their child would choose to endure the pain of running 20 miles or engage in any activity that pushes their physical limits to the point of true exhaustion and pain.

However, there's a shifting perspective that sees the body not as something to be overly protected, but as a tool or instrument to achieve one's goals, even if it means sacrificing physical well-being in the process. This approach values the pursuit of greater achievements over personal comfort, suggesting that true fulfillment can come from using one's body as a means to an end, whether for personal goals or a higher collective purpose. This viewpoint often clashes with the beliefs of those who prioritize individual rights and freedoms, seeing such sacrifices as a form of injustice or an infringement on personal liberties. Yet, it posits that through collective effort and personal sacrifice, individuals can transcend their limitations, contributing to something greater than themselves and finding deeper meaning beyond their own shallow, individual desires.

We can assume that in the future this new assessment of the value of free inquiry as the pillar of liberal education will correspond to a comprehensive transformation in the organization of educational practices as a whole. We are now in an experimental stage. Nevertheless, we can predict with some certainty that education will become more limited and more focused, as can be observed wherever the training of man as a type rather than as an individual takes precedence. This is true for military academies as well as seminaries, where from the outset rigorous discipline governs the entire course of training. This is no less true for education in vocational professions and the crafts. By contrast, the model of individual growth is articulated in the Confessions, which gave rise to a wealth of novels of self-cultivation and development.

Adopting a perspective that prioritizes the full instrumentalization of the body inevitably extends into the realm of education, leading to a similar instrumentalization of the intellect. Currently, liberal education primarily focuses on self-cultivation, a journey of personal discovery to identify one's beliefs and values, an almost religious experience (in a Luthernian sort of way). This is the education that has produced an army of surplus elite snowflakes.

However, what's emerging—and is increasingly valued—is a shift towards practical functionality over the pursuit of individual self-actualization. This shift is most evident in the workforce, where there's a growing frustration among employers with the education system's failure to produce graduates equipped with the necessary skills to be immediately effective in their jobs. As a result, there's a noticeable trend towards majors and disciplines that offer tangible skills and products, moving away from abstract academic fields.

This trend will likely accelerate, necessitating a national shift towards rigorous intellectual training. The goal would be to cultivate a generation capable of becoming "digital warriors," with skills in coding, drone operation, and the use of sophisticated interfaces. Fields such as software engineering, electrical engineering, and rocket science are becoming increasingly critical. This emphasis on practical, tangible skills is essential for meeting the demands of a rapidly evolving technological landscape and ensuring that the next generation is prepared to contribute effectively to society's advancement and any future conflict.

Here we note that, while fortification walls were being demolished and churches transmogrified into museums, urban architecture strangely enough still revealed clear traits of preparation for war and defense.

Anyone entering the banking districts at the heart of today's cities will be convinced by this assertion. One is struck by the instinct that conceived of these strongholds in such a seemingly secure space, built of otherwise unused squared stone, with iron-barred windows and protected with steel-plated inside vaults. Here one also grasps the meaning of that peculiar, festive mood that radiates a demonic light throughout the ostentatious cashier halls. It reflects a situation where, if one would grant a person a magic wish, a dream of happiness and life without pain no other image would be evoked than the magic number "One Million."

Meanwhile we have learned a hard lesson concerning the relative degree of security that money provides. The years in which each person could call himself a millionaire are not far behind us, and whoever today expresses a wish for a million would also be required to stipulate that this presupposes no new inflation or that the money is to be spent in one of the smaller neutral states.

In our contemporary society, we often pride ourselves on being beyond war, particularly within our own borders. Yet, the architecture of many buildings we rely on still carries an undercurrent of anxiety, as if these structures need to be prepared for defense, or at least to project an image of safety and trustworthiness. This is evident in the high levels of security seen in major financial institutions in cities like New York, where the extensive use of glass suggests openness and transparency, yet in reality, these buildings are designed to be fortress-like and impenetrable. It's a fascinating observation by Jünger that remains relevant today.

Moving to the allure of sudden wealth, there's a prevalent fantasy in modern society akin to winning the lottery, believing that such fortune would solve all problems. Initially, the dream was a million dollars, but now it has inflated to a billion. This notion perpetuates the (somewhat contradictory) myth that wealth is both obtained unjustly by the few at the expense of the many, and that if only I achieved that amount of wealth would I be happy and my life pain-free. However, those with either wealth or a sense of empathy and intelligence understand that happiness is not so easily procured.

Lastly, there's a point that's often overlooked today: the presence of not just billionaires but a whole cohort of centimillionaires, amidst rising inflation and currency devaluation. These issues are mostly discussed within cryptocurrency circles; however, given our recent bouts with inflation and the likelihood that printing more money will continue to be a go-to solution for future crises, this cycle seems unending. We might be heading towards a reality where being a millionaire or billionaire is commonplace, rendering the concept meaningless. This would be a severe form of wealth destruction for many (making austerity and pain commonplace for even the most “secure”) and perhaps lead to an existential crisis, where everyone would question sought monetary ends we've prioritized for so long.

The brief number of days during which the masses eliminated their opponents fills the cities with clamor, but there follow other, more dangerous situations where silence reigns. Pain now demands payback on its outstanding debt.

Here, we delve into a concept reminiscent of Clausewitz's reflections on war, where he highlights how a battle often leads to immediate chaos but, then leads to periods of slow peace—one that mirrors our current era, marked by a profound silence. This silence, however, isn't about the lack of discussion but rather a life empty of any real, vibrant noise or activity. It's a silence that signifies the absence of tumult and vibrancy, contrasting sharply with the chaos of conflict.

This notion extends to the idea of humanity's repayment of its pain debt, a concept that resonates deeply not just because it mirrors our national debt situation (where the joy and prosperity of today are financed by the hardships of tomorrow) but also because it is somewhat comforting to know that previous socities have bankrolled their futures before and have emerged, although injured and battle-hardened, not destroyed. Still there is the inevitable truth of the medium term: the debts of the present, both literal and metaphorical, will need to be settled by our generation through significant trials and tribulations. This cycle suggests that for every era of peace and prosperity, there is a cost to be borne, a debt of suffering and sacrifice that must soon be repaid.

…the masses have been left with only one liberty, the liberty to consent.

Parliaments and plebiscites are being transformed ever more clearly into acts of acclamation, whose manufacture replaces the free formation of public opinion. But this manufacture of consent signifies nothing other than the transformation of the masses from a moral agent into an object.

In the digital age, especially with platforms like TikTok at the forefront, there's an intriguing dynamic at play where personal moments and activities become content for public consumption. This trend leans heavily into the objectification of personal experiences, where individuals transform aspects of their lives into digital showcases. By participating in viral challenges or sharing snippets of their daily routines, people begin to see their existence through the lens of content creation, effectively objectifying their own narratives in the quest for engagement and validation.

As we delve deeper into the mechanics of TikTok, it's evident that the platform encourages a unique form of unity through coordination. Users come together to partake in dance challenges and other collaborative trends, which serves as a stark contrast to the isolated, individual-focused nature of earlier internet interactions.

Looking ahead, the future seems poised for a new era of digital mobilization. Rather than mere conformity, this wave of participation signals a search for meaning within the collective. The coordinated actions on platforms like TikTok suggest a move towards finding fulfillment in shared experiences. There is the potential in what has previously been thought to be a deeply divisive and individualistic medium for a deeply satisfying form of communal existence, where the value lies not just in user expression but in the joy and connection found within the harmony of the users.

The amount of pain we can endure increases with the progressive objectification of life. It almost seems as if man seeks to create a space where pain can be regarded as an illusion, but in a radically new way.

The quote suggests that our capacity to withstand pain expands as we increasingly view life as an object, as if attempting to render pain merely an illusion. This perspective was initially linked to the rise of mass media, yet its relevance persists, especially as our existence becomes more intertwined with digital and technological advancements. As we becoming increasingly immersed in digital media (from social media and videogames to AR and VR), the distinction between the physical and digital worlds blurs, leading to a form of human objectification where individuals are reduced to objects within a complex object-oriented program. Life, in this view, starts to resemble a vast, interactive game and most of the people in it are NPCs.

This digital immersion has led to a unique cultural phenomenon where personal experiences are often framed in terms of video game logic. I’ve had friends and podcasters jokingly refer to real-life situations as if they were gaming scenarios. This represents a digitally native view of the world, where one grounds their present experience (as least partially) not in past real world experiences but digital ones, indicating a profound shift in perception exclusive to the current generation—a generation that has grown up with this technology as a fundamental part of their upbringing. This shift profoundly influences our identity and worldview, but it also harbors potential risks.

Viewing life as a video game can desensitize us to the reality of our actions and their impact on others. While this perspective can empower and detach, enabling a person or perhaps an army to view their opponents as just the other team in a game of COD (thereby desensitizing them and increasing operational efficiency), it risks a dangerous dehumanization. Actions taken against others in the perceived 'game' of life may lack empathy and remorse, echoing the consequences-free violence of GTA.

We are also struck by the synchronicity of events, where images of luxurious comfort are interrupted by photos of a catastrophe simultaneously wreaking havoc on the other end of the globe. The spectator's involvement is conspiciously silent. This silence is more abstract and crueler than the wild rage one can witness in the southern arenas, where in the bullfight, for instance, remnants of the Ancient Games are still preserved.

The juxtaposition presented in today's 6 o'clock news, where the narrative swiftly shifts from catastrophic events like island-engulfing floods or wildfires in California to the celebratory scenes of a company's IPO, epitomizes the stark contrasts that challenge our cognitive processes. This dichotomy, especially when both extremes are facets of the same society, is not only difficult for the human mind to reconcile but also deeply unsettling.

The ancient games offered a form of engagement through the spectator's emotional investment—outrage, in many instances. In contrast, today's observers are more passive, often resorting to social media platforms like Facebook or Twitter to express their feelings. This might serve as a modern catharsis, but more often, it leads to the internalization of these contrasting narratives. Such internalization fosters unresolved, tumultuous thoughts, breeding a silent, simmering anger. This psychological state, marked by a blend of confusion and suppressed rage, poses a significant risk to one's mental well-being and is a psychological collective contagion that increases the demand for a unifying unleashing of societal frustration.

Today, we again are able to bear the sight of death with greater indifference, since we no longer feel at home in our body as we did before.

Today's attitude toward death has evolved to a state of heightened detachment, a shift driven by our diminishing connection with our own physicality. With death being a recurrent theme in video games and news reports, its presence has become both omnipresent and abstract. The constant exposure to simulated violence and distant tragedies, where the death toll is just another statistic, contributes to desensitizing us. The concept of death, therefore, becomes an alien notion, stripped of its gravity as we grow increasingly distanced from the reality of loss.

However, it's through the palpable experience of losing loved ones that death's true weight is felt. It's in these profoundly personal moments that the abstract becomes concrete, and the value of life, both the life of others and the one’s own life, is sharply felt. This newfound gratitude for our own existence stems from a close, personal encounter with death—a reality that many in today's society are shielded from. Therefore, death, perhaps pain’s greatest extreme, is the antidote for those who take their own lives for granted.

The practical consequence of this observation for the individual is, despite everything, the necessity to commit oneself to the preparation for war—regardless of whether he sees in it the preparatory stage of ruin or believes he sees on the hills covered with weather-worn crosses and wasted palaces the storm preceding the establishment of new orders of command.

This reflection resonates deeply with the closing thoughts of my debut article for the Columbia Independent, where I posited that AI is poised to usurp our jobs, the elite class will face a significant upheaval, and so you should prepare yourself for war. However, my framing, compared to Jünger's discussion, carries a more utilitarian tone, whereas he suggests that there's a profound sense of fulfillment to be found in preparing for such an impending challenge.

Today, the sense of an approaching storm isn't a matter of if but when, making preparation not just advisable but essential. In embracing this mindset, the act of preparing becomes an empowering endeavor. When the anticipated moment of upheaval arrives, those who have readied themselves will not only stand firm but also have the potential to lead and inspire others. This minority of forward-thinkers could play a pivotal role in guiding the broader community through the trials of tomorrow. Such a perspective elevates the concept of preparation from a mere survival tactic to a source of significant inspiration and collective strength in facing the future.

This is the first of a series of weekly book reviews that I will be doing as part of my goal of reading a book a week.

In order to ground my thoughts in the text, I will be going through the passages I picked out as especially noteworthy and annotate them with my thoughts.

There are several great and unalterable dimensions that show a man's stature. Pain is one of them. It is the most difficult in a series of trials one is accustomed to call life. An examination dealing with pain is no doubt unpopular; yet it is not only revealing in its own right, but it can also shed light on a series of questions preoccupying us at the present. Pain is one of the keys to unlock man's innermost being as well as the world. Whenever one approaches the points where man proves himself to be equal or superior to pain, one gains access to the sources of his power and the secret hidden behind his dominion. Tell me your relation to pain, and I will tell you who you are!

This is David Goggins, college-edition. To say that one’s reaction to pain is the meaning of life, was then and again is today a shocking assertion. I believe that having this sort of mindset (at least for the next couple decades) will be useful. Even if one does not adopt it now circumstance will likely force this mindset upon the majority of people soon enough, not necessarily to thrive but to survive (although survival under dire circumstance, may, from this perspective, be deemed a sort of thriving and garners a deep sense of fulfillment).

As a rule one will not have to go far to uncover the pain. Indeed, even the individual is not fully free from pain in this joyful state of security. The artificial check on the elementary forces might be able to prevent violent clashes and to ward off shadows, but it cannot stop the dispersed light with which pain permeates life. The vessel, sealed off from pain's full flow, is filled drop by drop. Boredom is nothing other than the dissolution of pain in time.

This insight holds a lot of weight in the present day. There's a prevailing notion that we exist in an era marked by unprecedented abundance, prosperity, and peace, making the rising rates of suicide, depression, and a pervasive sense of emptiness shocking for many. The belief persists that we are on the brink of achieving utopia, or at least a semblance of it, where the next piece of progressive legislation will secure us physical, material, and mental well-being, followed by perpetual happiness. However, this pursuit is increasingly seen as a fool’s errand, where the marginal benefits to happiness from such security are diminishing. Pain, long underestimated and now akin to an undervalued stock, is making a resurgence. Our society is plagued by boredom and a deep-seated yearning for purpose, with a widespread message that security equates to happiness. Yet, there's a growing demand for pain, for sacrifice, for the pursuit of greatness, against a backdrop of scarcity. The Chinese water torture of existential boredom is not sustainable. It leads to madness, with people preferring to face acute pain in the short term rather than endure the extended agony of a life devoid of meaningful struggle.

Henceforth, all measures are designed to master pain, not to avoid it. The heroic and cultic world presents an entirely different relation to pain than does the world of sensitivity. While in the latter, as we saw, it is a matter of marginalizing pain and sheltering life from it, in the former the point is to integrate pain and organize life in such a way that one is always armed against it. Here, too, pain plays a significant, but no doubt opposite, role. This is because life strives incessantly to stay in contact with pain.

This reflects a pivotal trend I've noticed within certain online communities, where there's a growing fascination with embracing pain through intense physical challenges. Activities such as endurance running, heavy weightlifting, taking ice baths, and consuming foods that prioritize nutrition over taste—eschewing the addictive flavors of sweets, trans fats, and sugars that have dominated the past fifty years—are becoming more popular. This movement suggests a departure from the habits of the boomer generation, the last to actively avoid discomfort, readily embracing any "miracle" solutions to sidestep pain, including drugs and laws designed to minimize physical effort, an attitude that seems to intensify with age. However, a shift towards a mindset reminiscent of figures like David Goggins, Andrew Huberman, and Joe Rogan is becoming evident. Society is beginning to lean into pain and sacrifice, aiming to incorporate and master discomfort rather than fleeing from it. This shift indicates a broader transformation in how we approach life's challenges, seeking strength and resilience in the face of adversity.

The central question concerning the rank of present values can be answered by determining to what extent the body can be treated as an object…The secret of modern sensitivity is that it corresponds to a world in which the body is itself the highest value. This observation explains why modern sensitivity relates to pain as a power to be avoided at all cost, because here pain confronts the body not as an outpost but as the main force and essential core of life.

In today's world, there's a noticeable trend towards extreme caution and protection when it comes to personal well-being. This cautious approach frames the human body as a precious object, where any harm or discomfort is often viewed as unacceptable or even wrongful. The idea that one should avoid any activities that could potentially cause harm leads to a very sheltered existence. This sheltering was the goal of many helicopter parents, making the opposite pain-seeking, mindset particularly puzzling to those who have worked hard to provide a life of comfort and security for their children. They may find it difficult to understand why their child would choose to endure the pain of running 20 miles or engage in any activity that pushes their physical limits to the point of true exhaustion and pain.

However, there's a shifting perspective that sees the body not as something to be overly protected, but as a tool or instrument to achieve one's goals, even if it means sacrificing physical well-being in the process. This approach values the pursuit of greater achievements over personal comfort, suggesting that true fulfillment can come from using one's body as a means to an end, whether for personal goals or a higher collective purpose. This viewpoint often clashes with the beliefs of those who prioritize individual rights and freedoms, seeing such sacrifices as a form of injustice or an infringement on personal liberties. Yet, it posits that through collective effort and personal sacrifice, individuals can transcend their limitations, contributing to something greater than themselves and finding deeper meaning beyond their own shallow, individual desires.

We can assume that in the future this new assessment of the value of free inquiry as the pillar of liberal education will correspond to a comprehensive transformation in the organization of educational practices as a whole. We are now in an experimental stage. Nevertheless, we can predict with some certainty that education will become more limited and more focused, as can be observed wherever the training of man as a type rather than as an individual takes precedence. This is true for military academies as well as seminaries, where from the outset rigorous discipline governs the entire course of training. This is no less true for education in vocational professions and the crafts. By contrast, the model of individual growth is articulated in the Confessions, which gave rise to a wealth of novels of self-cultivation and development.

Adopting a perspective that prioritizes the full instrumentalization of the body inevitably extends into the realm of education, leading to a similar instrumentalization of the intellect. Currently, liberal education primarily focuses on self-cultivation, a journey of personal discovery to identify one's beliefs and values, an almost religious experience (in a Luthernian sort of way). This is the education that has produced an army of surplus elite snowflakes.

However, what's emerging—and is increasingly valued—is a shift towards practical functionality over the pursuit of individual self-actualization. This shift is most evident in the workforce, where there's a growing frustration among employers with the education system's failure to produce graduates equipped with the necessary skills to be immediately effective in their jobs. As a result, there's a noticeable trend towards majors and disciplines that offer tangible skills and products, moving away from abstract academic fields.

This trend will likely accelerate, necessitating a national shift towards rigorous intellectual training. The goal would be to cultivate a generation capable of becoming "digital warriors," with skills in coding, drone operation, and the use of sophisticated interfaces. Fields such as software engineering, electrical engineering, and rocket science are becoming increasingly critical. This emphasis on practical, tangible skills is essential for meeting the demands of a rapidly evolving technological landscape and ensuring that the next generation is prepared to contribute effectively to society's advancement and any future conflict.

Here we note that, while fortification walls were being demolished and churches transmogrified into museums, urban architecture strangely enough still revealed clear traits of preparation for war and defense.

Anyone entering the banking districts at the heart of today's cities will be convinced by this assertion. One is struck by the instinct that conceived of these strongholds in such a seemingly secure space, built of otherwise unused squared stone, with iron-barred windows and protected with steel-plated inside vaults. Here one also grasps the meaning of that peculiar, festive mood that radiates a demonic light throughout the ostentatious cashier halls. It reflects a situation where, if one would grant a person a magic wish, a dream of happiness and life without pain no other image would be evoked than the magic number "One Million."

Meanwhile we have learned a hard lesson concerning the relative degree of security that money provides. The years in which each person could call himself a millionaire are not far behind us, and whoever today expresses a wish for a million would also be required to stipulate that this presupposes no new inflation or that the money is to be spent in one of the smaller neutral states.

In our contemporary society, we often pride ourselves on being beyond war, particularly within our own borders. Yet, the architecture of many buildings we rely on still carries an undercurrent of anxiety, as if these structures need to be prepared for defense, or at least to project an image of safety and trustworthiness. This is evident in the high levels of security seen in major financial institutions in cities like New York, where the extensive use of glass suggests openness and transparency, yet in reality, these buildings are designed to be fortress-like and impenetrable. It's a fascinating observation by Jünger that remains relevant today.

Moving to the allure of sudden wealth, there's a prevalent fantasy in modern society akin to winning the lottery, believing that such fortune would solve all problems. Initially, the dream was a million dollars, but now it has inflated to a billion. This notion perpetuates the (somewhat contradictory) myth that wealth is both obtained unjustly by the few at the expense of the many, and that if only I achieved that amount of wealth would I be happy and my life pain-free. However, those with either wealth or a sense of empathy and intelligence understand that happiness is not so easily procured.

Lastly, there's a point that's often overlooked today: the presence of not just billionaires but a whole cohort of centimillionaires, amidst rising inflation and currency devaluation. These issues are mostly discussed within cryptocurrency circles; however, given our recent bouts with inflation and the likelihood that printing more money will continue to be a go-to solution for future crises, this cycle seems unending. We might be heading towards a reality where being a millionaire or billionaire is commonplace, rendering the concept meaningless. This would be a severe form of wealth destruction for many (making austerity and pain commonplace for even the most “secure”) and perhaps lead to an existential crisis, where everyone would question sought monetary ends we've prioritized for so long.

The brief number of days during which the masses eliminated their opponents fills the cities with clamor, but there follow other, more dangerous situations where silence reigns. Pain now demands payback on its outstanding debt.

Here, we delve into a concept reminiscent of Clausewitz's reflections on war, where he highlights how a battle often leads to immediate chaos but, then leads to periods of slow peace—one that mirrors our current era, marked by a profound silence. This silence, however, isn't about the lack of discussion but rather a life empty of any real, vibrant noise or activity. It's a silence that signifies the absence of tumult and vibrancy, contrasting sharply with the chaos of conflict.

This notion extends to the idea of humanity's repayment of its pain debt, a concept that resonates deeply not just because it mirrors our national debt situation (where the joy and prosperity of today are financed by the hardships of tomorrow) but also because it is somewhat comforting to know that previous socities have bankrolled their futures before and have emerged, although injured and battle-hardened, not destroyed. Still there is the inevitable truth of the medium term: the debts of the present, both literal and metaphorical, will need to be settled by our generation through significant trials and tribulations. This cycle suggests that for every era of peace and prosperity, there is a cost to be borne, a debt of suffering and sacrifice that must soon be repaid.

…the masses have been left with only one liberty, the liberty to consent.

Parliaments and plebiscites are being transformed ever more clearly into acts of acclamation, whose manufacture replaces the free formation of public opinion. But this manufacture of consent signifies nothing other than the transformation of the masses from a moral agent into an object.

In the digital age, especially with platforms like TikTok at the forefront, there's an intriguing dynamic at play where personal moments and activities become content for public consumption. This trend leans heavily into the objectification of personal experiences, where individuals transform aspects of their lives into digital showcases. By participating in viral challenges or sharing snippets of their daily routines, people begin to see their existence through the lens of content creation, effectively objectifying their own narratives in the quest for engagement and validation.

As we delve deeper into the mechanics of TikTok, it's evident that the platform encourages a unique form of unity through coordination. Users come together to partake in dance challenges and other collaborative trends, which serves as a stark contrast to the isolated, individual-focused nature of earlier internet interactions.

Looking ahead, the future seems poised for a new era of digital mobilization. Rather than mere conformity, this wave of participation signals a search for meaning within the collective. The coordinated actions on platforms like TikTok suggest a move towards finding fulfillment in shared experiences. There is the potential in what has previously been thought to be a deeply divisive and individualistic medium for a deeply satisfying form of communal existence, where the value lies not just in user expression but in the joy and connection found within the harmony of the users.

The amount of pain we can endure increases with the progressive objectification of life. It almost seems as if man seeks to create a space where pain can be regarded as an illusion, but in a radically new way.

The quote suggests that our capacity to withstand pain expands as we increasingly view life as an object, as if attempting to render pain merely an illusion. This perspective was initially linked to the rise of mass media, yet its relevance persists, especially as our existence becomes more intertwined with digital and technological advancements. As we becoming increasingly immersed in digital media (from social media and videogames to AR and VR), the distinction between the physical and digital worlds blurs, leading to a form of human objectification where individuals are reduced to objects within a complex object-oriented program. Life, in this view, starts to resemble a vast, interactive game and most of the people in it are NPCs.

This digital immersion has led to a unique cultural phenomenon where personal experiences are often framed in terms of video game logic. I’ve had friends and podcasters jokingly refer to real-life situations as if they were gaming scenarios. This represents a digitally native view of the world, where one grounds their present experience (as least partially) not in past real world experiences but digital ones, indicating a profound shift in perception exclusive to the current generation—a generation that has grown up with this technology as a fundamental part of their upbringing. This shift profoundly influences our identity and worldview, but it also harbors potential risks.

Viewing life as a video game can desensitize us to the reality of our actions and their impact on others. While this perspective can empower and detach, enabling a person or perhaps an army to view their opponents as just the other team in a game of COD (thereby desensitizing them and increasing operational efficiency), it risks a dangerous dehumanization. Actions taken against others in the perceived 'game' of life may lack empathy and remorse, echoing the consequences-free violence of GTA.

We are also struck by the synchronicity of events, where images of luxurious comfort are interrupted by photos of a catastrophe simultaneously wreaking havoc on the other end of the globe. The spectator's involvement is conspiciously silent. This silence is more abstract and crueler than the wild rage one can witness in the southern arenas, where in the bullfight, for instance, remnants of the Ancient Games are still preserved.

The juxtaposition presented in today's 6 o'clock news, where the narrative swiftly shifts from catastrophic events like island-engulfing floods or wildfires in California to the celebratory scenes of a company's IPO, epitomizes the stark contrasts that challenge our cognitive processes. This dichotomy, especially when both extremes are facets of the same society, is not only difficult for the human mind to reconcile but also deeply unsettling.

The ancient games offered a form of engagement through the spectator's emotional investment—outrage, in many instances. In contrast, today's observers are more passive, often resorting to social media platforms like Facebook or Twitter to express their feelings. This might serve as a modern catharsis, but more often, it leads to the internalization of these contrasting narratives. Such internalization fosters unresolved, tumultuous thoughts, breeding a silent, simmering anger. This psychological state, marked by a blend of confusion and suppressed rage, poses a significant risk to one's mental well-being and is a psychological collective contagion that increases the demand for a unifying unleashing of societal frustration.

Today, we again are able to bear the sight of death with greater indifference, since we no longer feel at home in our body as we did before.

Today's attitude toward death has evolved to a state of heightened detachment, a shift driven by our diminishing connection with our own physicality. With death being a recurrent theme in video games and news reports, its presence has become both omnipresent and abstract. The constant exposure to simulated violence and distant tragedies, where the death toll is just another statistic, contributes to desensitizing us. The concept of death, therefore, becomes an alien notion, stripped of its gravity as we grow increasingly distanced from the reality of loss.

However, it's through the palpable experience of losing loved ones that death's true weight is felt. It's in these profoundly personal moments that the abstract becomes concrete, and the value of life, both the life of others and the one’s own life, is sharply felt. This newfound gratitude for our own existence stems from a close, personal encounter with death—a reality that many in today's society are shielded from. Therefore, death, perhaps pain’s greatest extreme, is the antidote for those who take their own lives for granted.

The practical consequence of this observation for the individual is, despite everything, the necessity to commit oneself to the preparation for war—regardless of whether he sees in it the preparatory stage of ruin or believes he sees on the hills covered with weather-worn crosses and wasted palaces the storm preceding the establishment of new orders of command.

This reflection resonates deeply with the closing thoughts of my debut article for the Columbia Independent, where I posited that AI is poised to usurp our jobs, the elite class will face a significant upheaval, and so you should prepare yourself for war. However, my framing, compared to Jünger's discussion, carries a more utilitarian tone, whereas he suggests that there's a profound sense of fulfillment to be found in preparing for such an impending challenge.

Today, the sense of an approaching storm isn't a matter of if but when, making preparation not just advisable but essential. In embracing this mindset, the act of preparing becomes an empowering endeavor. When the anticipated moment of upheaval arrives, those who have readied themselves will not only stand firm but also have the potential to lead and inspire others. This minority of forward-thinkers could play a pivotal role in guiding the broader community through the trials of tomorrow. Such a perspective elevates the concept of preparation from a mere survival tactic to a source of significant inspiration and collective strength in facing the future.