Maintaining Sanity in the Face of Societal Fatigue

We are experiencing a profound fatigue. This fatigue is not a lack of sleep or overwork. It is deeper, quieter, and more difficult to replenish than that. We may appear to be fine on the outside, continuing to work, smiling, and staying active on social media. Yet inside there is energy slowly draining away, with no idea how to replenish it. As technology grows more advanced, transport becomes faster, food is easier to obtain, and information is just a touch away on a screen, yet we increasingly feel tired. Not only tired bodies, but weary minds and weary hearts. In the past we chased information. Now information chases us. In a single day we receive more information than people in past centuries did in months. Yet our brains have not evolved as quickly as information technology. Our brains are designed to digest information slowly, within small communities, with a more tranquil rhythm of life. But now we are compelled to know everything at once. The result is a sense of fullness in the head, yet emptiness in the soul. Many of us know a great deal, but find it hard to understand ourselves. Not finished with the flood of information, we also live with fatigue from conflict. The world today seems never to stop arguing. Global figures keep stoking hostility. Social media has become an arena for mutual attack. Small differences of opinion often turn into long-lasting hatred. We are often quicker to anger than to listen. What is exhausting is not only large-scale conflicts between nations, but also the small daily conflicts that continually appear in our lives. Chat groups can become heated over political choices. Friendships fray over differences of opinion. The digital world keeps us in a tense mood with no respite. Every day there is a new anger to respond to, as if we are required to be emotionally on alert at all times.