Our modern world is a form of hell. It is hell because it does not reward any kind of fine or beautiful behavior, only a gutless functionalism. If it makes money, or pleases the masses, it's great; if not, it is forgotten and cast aside. All of what our ancestors worked for, and indeed any intelligent person through history would work for, is disregarded. Intelligence and accuracy come secondary to popularity and marketability. Simplify, simplify. Everyone in the room must get the joke. The result is that intelligent people are prisoners of a time out of control.
Further, it is a death march. I am not referring to some specific "disaster" like global warming or cancer or class warfare. I am referring to the tendency of this entire system to dumb itself down, and then, having killed meaning, to lament meaning. It is a suicidal, morose and neurotic existence, and these always self-destruct. Unfortunately for the good people among us, it is also creeping up on us like aging does. It did not make a single brave assault. It has gradually increased over the years to the point where we are used to it, and then it gains another dimension. It makes us live like servants and deny any of the most meaningful things - fidelity, achievement, heroism, spirit - in favor of the most mundane, namely not offending others.
