The internet keeps telling me how to “spot the signs of burnout.” Moodiness, exhaustion, cynicism, withdrawal — all classic symptoms, according to a handful of psychologists and “workplace experts.”
“Are you experiencing burnout?” an article written by an underpaid freelancer asks.
Yes, I am a human being with a pulse living in a capitalist society with access to cable news.
American media loves assigning personal responsibility to systemic problems, pathologizing completely normal, human reactions to absolutely insane events: Mothers can’t feed their infants. One million Americans have died from a virus that shows no signs of waning. Last week, 10 Black people were gunned down in their neighborhood grocery store, and yesterday, at least 19 kids were murdered in their school.
We are more isolated, more polarized, and less connected to our communities than ever before.
And yet, instead of suggesting that we might need things like affordable health care and housing, a stronger social safety net, and safer neighborhoods, we are told that we are suffering from coronasomnia, languishing, and decision fatigue.
These diagnoses are supposed to somehow make us feel better, to elicit some kind of “aha!” moment: “There’s a reason I feel this way!”
But this line of thinking still assumes our collective problems are psychological, rather than sociological: If there is a solution, then we have to find it within ourselves.
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The Founding Fathers, cleverly, declared us the right to pursue happiness. I’m a believer in therapy, self-work, and self-care — but these solutions have their limits, as far as happiness goes. Might I have moments when I feel happy? Sure. But pursuing Happiness as a state of being seems ridiculous when the world is literally on fire.
The “cure” to our collective malaise is not personal, but public. It’s the conditions around us that need to change.
I’m not here to depress you — I’m writing this to validate you, to free you from America’s impossible expectations of free will and positivity. I’m here to tell you that of course you’re burned out, and there probably isn’t much you can do about it. Very few people are doing OK right now.
In 2020, we accepted this. We said: “We’re all in this shit show together!” We forgave. We empathized.
In 2022, we are being told to move on, to get back to work, back to our “normal,” pre-pandemic lives.
But we are still experiencing Unprecedented Levels of Bad!
Can’t we give ourselves — and one another — a break?