From the moment we can even comprehend it, we are taught to strive for greatness. We are taught we are special and capable of anything we put our minds to. And so the pressure to perform is always bearing down on us.
It’s exhausting.
At the same time, we are bombarded with unprecedentedly alluring entertainment and substances — TV, video games, social media, alcohol, sugar, nicotine — that distract and drain us. There is always another fix right there in your pocket: one more scroll, one more episode, one more drink, offering a momentary high at the expense of tomorrow.
Add the weight of the polycrisis to the pressure of the achievement society and the drain of the dopamine society, and for many, the load becomes unbearable.
Han calls this the burnout society. And it has fully arrived.
Recent data from the Future Forum indicates that 42% of the global workforce reported feeling burned out as of 2021, a figure that has remained at record highs. We are physically exhausted by the grind of blacked-out calendars with no time to rest. We are mentally and spiritually exhausted by the weight of inadequacy, the constant deficit we put ourselves in.
In short, the challenges are thornier than ever. We ask more of ourselves than ever. And we have less energy and capacity to do it than ever.
The consequences are not only personal. The same logic that tells individuals to extract maximum value from their careers tells corporations to extract maximum value from the earth. The same drive that makes us feel perpetually inadequate makes nations compete for dominance rather than cooperate for survival.
Our need for more, more, more is not just making us sick. It is making the world sick.
This is an excerpt from my upcoming book The Antihero’s Journey: From Burnout to Real Contribution in Polycrisis Times. To read other excerpts, go here.
