Kalen Nicole

I have finished my 8th series of the pandemic- The Good Place.

One of the main characters, a reformed demon named, Michael, uses of dry one-liners to detail his pointed observations of human short comings. One of his such observations is the popularity of frozen yogurt.

“There’s Something So Human About Taking Something Great, and ruining it a little so you can have more of it.”

I don’t like frozen yogurt (I think it tastes like air) so this particular quote instantly resonated with me and my monogamous relationship with ice-cream. But with my endless Virgo desire for understanding the mundane, I could see Michael’s quote related to many other facets of human life and our ready exchange of value for convenience or quantity.

There are so many food things that have been ruined slightly for the sake efficiency or convenience. Think of GMOS, low-fat popcorn, frozen-yogurt. But there are even more aspects of our existence that have been reduced from their full splendor of their intention and go without notice.

Advances in technology, and emphasis on user experience and convenience have changed the way we approach: taking pictures, watching television, dating, and more. You no longer need a “camera,” film or developing agents to take and develop films- you simply need a cellphone. No need to acquire and digest a TV Guide Book, or sacrifice your time watching the TV Guide channel – we have Netflix, Hulu, and countless other streaming services to allow you to watch anything you want whenever and WHEREEVER you want. Do you want to date? Is there someone you are interested in, but don’t want to be rejected? Hop on an app, select a person, meet-up. Now do you like this person, but don’t want to commit? No worries, keep on dating, shallowly invest in anyone you’d like until you meet someone with the same endgame as you.

Cellphone cameras and Netflix, hence my appreciation of The Good Place and several other binge-worthy shows, are advancements I’m happy to be the beneficiary of; but, the convenience that has replaced romance and reciprocity in modern relationships unsettles and irritates me.

The trade-off is unfair and unfathomably damaging.

In full honesty, most things in my adult life are harder than I expected. Managing my time, pursuing my interests, making friends, cultivating a home. Sometimes the difficulty overshadows the joy of the journey, the “sundaes.”

uh-oh, kalen u lost me lol

In grad school I learned about primitive accumulation, separating the people from the means of production. For example, instead of growing your own food, only farmers grow food and you must get your food through purchase or trade. But that’s not all. Primitive accumulation also describes when the methods of obtaining capital becomes the Capital itself. Ie. slaves were used to grow crops/ capital, but there integral nature to the economic system made THEM the capital as well.

My assertion here, is that through the hundreds of years of technological advancement and the simultaneous progression of primitive accumulation- many people are no longer are in charge of the means that make life wonderful. We often are able to outsource difficult or unpleasant tasks. We are able to cultivate and censor nearly every moment of existence- ordering take-out (which you should rn, it’s a pandemic), using social media to curate an idealized self, streaming music to avoid hearing a song that doesn’t fit your algorithm, having a hard conversation via text or ghosting to avoid discomfort, forfeiting religion in the pursuit of personal freedom, shaming and minimizing the experiences and presence of people who do not congeal with our social views and levels of comfort- ie. the aging, people with disabilities, people experiencing homelessness, people with different beliefs.

I was able to write that paragraph, because I’ve lived some of it and I’m working on unliving it because though it is a social default, it is empty- like frozen yogurt.

“All things are wearisome,
    more than one can say.
The eye never has enough of seeing,
    nor the ear its fill of hearing.” – King Solomon

Our possessions and aspirations only have the value that we give them. So individually we decide what is important and what is not, and attribute our resources (time and energy) to them accordingly. The take-away of this post is that many have been misattributing their resources for quite some time- treating important matters as trivial and monumentalizing and sacrificing for things that are trivial for the sake of social acceptance.

There is no accomplishment or moral superiority given to those who whole-heartedly chooses ice-cream instead of fro-yo.

Regardless of the outside approval, you know what means the most to you. I hope you go after those things full force, without cutting corners for convenience or making your true dreams a little bit “worse, so you can have more of it.”

Stay-tuned for the next “scoop” and comment below if any of this resonated with you.