The title is factually correct, but the essay itself is such a miserable way to choose to view life. I don’t think you can make it past 45 with that attitude.
"But no one lives the life they want. No one lives the best, most interesting life they can. And the tiny shred of human beings who live in these permanently romantic states are all people who got immensely lucky in some way, usually including being born into wealth. I’m not trying to be a dick, here, and I of course believe in transcendent experience. But transcendent experience is usually unplanned and always fleeting. You’ve got to remember that after even the most radical, romantic, and satisfying change you make, your life will eventually just go back to being ordinary life, your life, the mundane life of perpetual boredom and mild disappointment that most successful people lead."<p>If I tried to come up with my own teleological point to life, I foresee matching the author's despair. As did Qoheleth: "Consider the work of God: for who can make that straight, which he hath made crooked?" (Eccl7:13)
Valid concerns but completely misses the point. The point is that most people largely live in the moment and in previous times we had social pressure, limited alternative entertainment options and abortion/birth control being shoddy/dangerous.<p>In that environment living in the moment responding to your immediate wants and desires largely led to some form of partnership and children to make you happier in your old age/ carry on society.<p>In an environment where social pressure has largely broken down (for both great benefit and great cost), birth control/abortion being inexpensive, relatively safe and effective, and a plethora of alternative entertainment options you see what unchecked living in the moment responding to your immediate desires gets you because it's what we have. There's no social pressure keeping the mid life crisis in check keeping marriages together through that trying time into old age where the partnership is really needed. There's often no partnership and no children to begin with. There's also much less missing out on the great talent of women in the work force, much better situations for homosexuals, etc. How do we keep the good and do away with the bad in a way that ensures the continuation of the species? I don't think anyone knows, as I certainly don't know. I think it's more likely the religious out procreate us and eventually gain a voting block big enough to push policy back towards the bad old (but stable/growing population situation) days, or the whole thing collapses and something else rises in the ashes after a prolonged dark ages like after the fall of Rome.