Excellent essay, James. For my part, the solution may be to always keep ones boots on the ground. Eric Hoffer is one of my favorite writers/thinkers because he was actively engaged in meaningful work, with real people, and wrote out of genuine curiosity of the human condition. Maybe this is one potential solution, depending on temperament.
Great piece, it really taught me a lot about a world in which I have no direct experience.
One thing I just have to jump on: "the inhuman hands of the algorithms, which are themselves tuned to the lowest common denominator"
The thing about algorithms is that they are *not* tuned to the lowest common denominator. On the contrary, they are unbelievably good at tailoring themselves to individual consumers. Maybe this sounds paradoxical to many people, because it seems to result in everyone liking more or less the same things anyway, and, worse, stuff that has lower quality than before. (I see this especially in music.) But I think the reality that many people don't want to acknowledge is that yes, the consumers are getting what they ask for. I suppose the reason has to do with instant gratification. Rather than having to wait to see what's actually good, the algorithm gives us whatever our first instinct says is good, which turns out to be not as good as if we just had to wait.
"What I complain of is that life is not like a novel where there are hard-hearted fathers, and goblins and trolls to fight with, enchanted princesses to free. What are all such enemies taken together compared to the pallid, bloodless, glutinous nocturnal shapes with which I fight and to which I myself give life and being."
Strange days we live in. I was unemployed for most of 2025; long story. I moved back home to Wisconsin, got married and took a job in sales this past September. The sales training we did was called Power Sales and there were modules on Hypnotism and CIA Interrogation Techniques (5th Gen Warfare in everything but name). It's actually a good job; long story.
I've wanted to write an essay about it, now I don't have to. Thanks for freeing me up lololol.
"James Taylor Foreman fought the battle and now I can sidestep that battle and fight my own..." or something like that ;)
What the heck did I just read?! God, the way your mind works...opening so many unexpected paths while not only maintaining logic, but building from the unexpected.
Finally moved me (long overdue) to upgrade. Love the irony in that too :))
The essay scared me when you brought in Bukowski in the context of your own meditation on writing versus living. It also reminded me of Levin from Anna Karenina. Levin, who was pondering suicide while having it all, after winning his lost love, having a newborn and what you could call a prosperous estate, realizing that there, in the midst of Kitty talking to the household and his crying baby and the simple, mindless chores of the simple peasants that never wanted to learn was life and living, not in his thoughts - all of this hapenning in the perfect irony where he was using thought to ponder both suicide and living.
If thinking is that dangerous, how much more dangerous is writing - thinking that is brought to life - just because it is "brought" to life, like from a separate realm of life, dangerous precisely because it is ontologically foreign to life?
---
I've come to believe it's not at all a coincidence that business inherited war's vocabulary, interjections, and rules. I heard someone say that if men weren't doing business, they would be at war with each other. It's fashion to trash capitalism, but I think that the atomic bomb wouldn't have been enough to keep us civilized. We need something day-to-day to keep us engaged with each other, not just avoiding each other.
It's capitalism that gave the butcher the courage to open up shop. It's not his benevolence, sure, but most importantly, it's not his fight for survival, but his regard for his own interests. Economics transforms survival into taking care of yourself by talking to others, not of your necessities but of their advantages (a.k.a. selling).
Mad Men bring abundance in the world because they have the environment and frame of thought to use their violence in business, not war. We cannot escape violence because we have this ever-present, ever-demanding, ever-changing thing that follows us everywhere from within ourselves. Economic thought doesn't escape the framing of the Other as threat, but it shows the self that the Other can be kept at a safe distance by building a glass showcase rather than a spiked wall.
Sorry, I got carried away. Just wanted to let our thoughts intersect in some way. Thank you again for such an inspiring essay.
Going to start flinging around "etiquette bezerker", good slur.
Your recoiling at the burden of salesmanship is why I counsel for donation and often, given that I have a day decent job, can't even bring myself to ask. Foreign and afflicting to be down in the trenches when you are born a watchman on the wall.
Excellent essay, James. For my part, the solution may be to always keep ones boots on the ground. Eric Hoffer is one of my favorite writers/thinkers because he was actively engaged in meaningful work, with real people, and wrote out of genuine curiosity of the human condition. Maybe this is one potential solution, depending on temperament.
Great piece, it really taught me a lot about a world in which I have no direct experience.
One thing I just have to jump on: "the inhuman hands of the algorithms, which are themselves tuned to the lowest common denominator"
The thing about algorithms is that they are *not* tuned to the lowest common denominator. On the contrary, they are unbelievably good at tailoring themselves to individual consumers. Maybe this sounds paradoxical to many people, because it seems to result in everyone liking more or less the same things anyway, and, worse, stuff that has lower quality than before. (I see this especially in music.) But I think the reality that many people don't want to acknowledge is that yes, the consumers are getting what they ask for. I suppose the reason has to do with instant gratification. Rather than having to wait to see what's actually good, the algorithm gives us whatever our first instinct says is good, which turns out to be not as good as if we just had to wait.
I keep checking back to the comments to see if anyone has yet said “cookies are for closers”.
There, I said it. I’m not sorry.
Love the story and the many levels you went to from there, JT.
"What I complain of is that life is not like a novel where there are hard-hearted fathers, and goblins and trolls to fight with, enchanted princesses to free. What are all such enemies taken together compared to the pallid, bloodless, glutinous nocturnal shapes with which I fight and to which I myself give life and being."
—Søren Kierkegaard
Strange days we live in. I was unemployed for most of 2025; long story. I moved back home to Wisconsin, got married and took a job in sales this past September. The sales training we did was called Power Sales and there were modules on Hypnotism and CIA Interrogation Techniques (5th Gen Warfare in everything but name). It's actually a good job; long story.
I've wanted to write an essay about it, now I don't have to. Thanks for freeing me up lololol.
"James Taylor Foreman fought the battle and now I can sidestep that battle and fight my own..." or something like that ;)
Epic. That picture still had me laugh out loud. So good man.
I thought you might appreciate this (would love your thoughts on it in light of what you’ve shared here!):
https://telosity.substack.com/p/the-alchemical-process-of-marketing
What the heck did I just read?! God, the way your mind works...opening so many unexpected paths while not only maintaining logic, but building from the unexpected.
Finally moved me (long overdue) to upgrade. Love the irony in that too :))
The essay scared me when you brought in Bukowski in the context of your own meditation on writing versus living. It also reminded me of Levin from Anna Karenina. Levin, who was pondering suicide while having it all, after winning his lost love, having a newborn and what you could call a prosperous estate, realizing that there, in the midst of Kitty talking to the household and his crying baby and the simple, mindless chores of the simple peasants that never wanted to learn was life and living, not in his thoughts - all of this hapenning in the perfect irony where he was using thought to ponder both suicide and living.
If thinking is that dangerous, how much more dangerous is writing - thinking that is brought to life - just because it is "brought" to life, like from a separate realm of life, dangerous precisely because it is ontologically foreign to life?
---
I've come to believe it's not at all a coincidence that business inherited war's vocabulary, interjections, and rules. I heard someone say that if men weren't doing business, they would be at war with each other. It's fashion to trash capitalism, but I think that the atomic bomb wouldn't have been enough to keep us civilized. We need something day-to-day to keep us engaged with each other, not just avoiding each other.
It's capitalism that gave the butcher the courage to open up shop. It's not his benevolence, sure, but most importantly, it's not his fight for survival, but his regard for his own interests. Economics transforms survival into taking care of yourself by talking to others, not of your necessities but of their advantages (a.k.a. selling).
Mad Men bring abundance in the world because they have the environment and frame of thought to use their violence in business, not war. We cannot escape violence because we have this ever-present, ever-demanding, ever-changing thing that follows us everywhere from within ourselves. Economic thought doesn't escape the framing of the Other as threat, but it shows the self that the Other can be kept at a safe distance by building a glass showcase rather than a spiked wall.
Sorry, I got carried away. Just wanted to let our thoughts intersect in some way. Thank you again for such an inspiring essay.
Going to start flinging around "etiquette bezerker", good slur.
Your recoiling at the burden of salesmanship is why I counsel for donation and often, given that I have a day decent job, can't even bring myself to ask. Foreign and afflicting to be down in the trenches when you are born a watchman on the wall.