Seeing the Mosquito Before It Lands
A thought of the day in (exactly) 100 words
Like a golden mosquito, our consumer culture injects a numbing agent before sucking our blood. Whatever form its predation takes – violence against living beings, distortions of democracy, twisting of truth, screen-sapping of our spirits, theft of our childhoods – it starts out mild. Barely noticeable. No big deal. By the time we notice it, by the time we feel it, it’s too late.
The trick is, next time, to try to see the mosquito before it lands. Don’t just react to the big, outlandish attacks; attune to small, buzzy, normal-seeming ones. Don’t ignore them. Herein lies a golden opportunity to resist.
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The numbing agent already exists within human beings. It is desire.
Nothing better numbs a human being to the proper path of life than pursuing their desires (of course, first determining which are the correct desires to have, and then broadcasting their conclusions to the world--or at least social media).
Desires are internal mosquitos (to borrow your metaphor), stinging us to gratify this urge, and fulfill that craving
Consumer culture is the vehicle through which the numbing agent/desire works. So long as desire is lionized, consumer culture will exist in some form.
What is required is unattachment, the only successful desire/mosquito repellent known to humankind.