the same new shit

‘The difference between technology and slavery is that slaves are fully aware that they are not free’ ~ Nassim Nicholas Taleb

the same new shit

I recently had to renew my passport. I went to the Post Office nearest my place of work, which isn’t really a Post Office, rather a glass-fronted cubicle in the local Morrisons (see also: WH Smith, Costcutter etc). When I was a kid, such places were often a focal point of the community – especially if you lived in a village. No more.

I walked in and noticed the shelves were being emptied, ‘It’s closed mate’, came the voice from behind. Turns out the entire shop was closing down. I didn’t ask why, but I suspect the rampant anti-social behaviour in that part of town had something to do with it. I carried on to the next nearest ‘Post Office’, this one being in WH Smith in the centre of town. There was a long queue – all the self-service machines were out of order, which left two poor cashiers to serve an ever-growing line while Skynet was on strike.

The headline of that day, I kid you not, ‘UK Supreme Court Rules “Woman” Means Biological Female’. I remember thinking, ‘Is this progress?’

I began reflecting on this odd feeling in the UK – a curious mix of melancholy and decay: roads increasingly look like the surface of the moon; buses don’t run on time (if at all); cities don’t seem to have bins anymore (the streets are horribly filthy); shops and pubs are closing left, right and centre – half of our high streets are boarded up; then of course there is the massive boom in the homeless population (and the inevitable increase in anti-social behaviour that comes with it), and yet we are building more houses that turn out to be… a) ugly, b) shit quality, and c) no-one who needs a home can fucking afford. In short, a gloomy shithole overrun by an equally vapid, paternalistic bourgeoisie that seem to make endless excuses for those who commit terrible acts against others. Habitually blaming the ‘evils of society’ in stupid opinion pieces, they invariably do nothing to address said evils, nor show any empathy for those who are innocent victims of the ‘hard done by’ perpetrators who themselves live in the very same sick society, yet somehow manage not to succumb to such dreadful, self-entitled acts. Go figure.

This all got me thinking about the little things; stuff that you never used to think about, basically because you didn’t need to: going to the Post Office was as straightforward as it gets; you could happily kill time window shopping in town and not immediately feel profiled by some pudgy security guard; you could go to Sainsbury’s and not find yourself under surveillance for doing what you’re supposed to be doing, i.e., actually paying for your fucking groceries. It wasn’t Mission Impossible to see your GP, and NHS dentists didn’t always used to be a rarer sight than unicorns. Rivers and beaches weren’t so brazenly contaminated with sewage as water company fat cats continue to collect their bonuses unchallenged by our toothless politicians and judiciaries. And you didn’t need to win the lottery to buy an ugly, shit quality house. Qualitatively, life used to be a lot harder to be sure, but still I feel there was a richness experienced that is entirely lacking in the 21st century’s automated malaise.

I had to leave home at 16 (long story). This was back in the nineties, man, was that a different world! I was claiming benefits while studying at the local college. I currently work in mental health and, don’t get me wrong, I support the welfare state: everyone gets down on their luck, and I don’t pay taxes to bomb brown people I’ve never met in some far-off land. Nevertheless, I work with grown adults many of who blow more money in a day on crap than I had to spend in a week as a teenager getting away from physical and emotional abuse. Admittedly, not a great basis for comparison: while undoubtedly processing certain trauma, this is very different to the downward, often self-destructive spiral that comes with chronic mental health conditions such as bi-polar or schizophrenia. I’m more interested in the cultural differences: back then, people were less hyper-focused on the self and there was an attitude of just ‘getting on with life.’ It was self-evident that you would experience hardship, and you just had to find a way of dealing with it. I grew up in a council house, my parents never had much money, so I learned early on that part of being independent meant getting a job and doing things for yourself. Therefore, being broke on benefits at college just made me want to make something of myself despite all the obstacles (whether or not I have achieved anything is another matter!). Eventually, time healed old wounds – and it did take time – which led to a process of reconciliation. We are a more sedentary, self-absorbed, materialistic and atomised society than ever. Add to that significant benefit payments, for what frequently seems like a medicalisation of real life, and it sort of creates a perfect storm for idleness, which I don’t think is good for anyone. I am actually starting to wonder if people need some adversity in order to thrive, but I digress!

A young lodger, I had to do my own food shopping, cook for myself, do my own laundry etc, which wasn’t a huge problem as I’d worked part-time jobs that helped give me a sense of independence. Many of the often intelligent, grown adults I’ve worked with are quite institutionalised, which I find ironic: the more do-gooders bang on about ‘enabling’, the less independent many adults (particularly those with poor mental health) seem to be. Over the years, I’ve witnessed a society turn its most vulnerable into commodities, which is proving detrimental to both their dignity and recovery (although housing associations are making a killing!).

The irony is everywhere: the more we talk about therapy and well-being, the more miserable people seem to be. The more we progress technologically, the more degraded society seems to be getting, and the less stuff seems to work. The more connected we are via the Internet, the more divided and hateful our society becomes (anti-immigration riots etc). The more we talk about health, the higher the rates of obesity and diabetes. The more alarming the climate situation appears to be, the more we’re encouraged to buy throwaway shit we don’t need and take holidays abroad. The more we talk about ‘diversity’, the more homogenised, manufactured and predictable has our artistic and cultural landscape become. Moreover, there doesn’t seem to be any shared experiences connecting people via cultural movements. For me, it was coming of age surrounded by the UK dance scene and before that it was indie and grunge. Generations before me had punk, new wave and before that it was the swinging sixties, funk, soul, jazz and rock ‘n’ roll. Nowadays, it just seems to be a neurotic fusion of social media vindictiveness and the banality of memes. I guess that would explain the nostalgia for bands spanning an era when there were cultural movements – from the Rolling Stones to Oasis?

Allegedly, there has never been such an abundance of art and knowledge at our fingertips, and yet we seem to be getting dumber, more paranoid and depressed while less artistic by the minute. A diminishing of individual freedom and creativity seems to be the cost of a techno-feudal society. To a mass psychosis bereft of vision, the answer just seems to be more of the same new shit.

2026