Crab Culture

It seems like much of the way people ‘take care’ of each other is mere performance. Much of it is just asking if a person has done the bare minimum to eat or drink in a given day— whether they themselves who are asking even have is questionable to that end as well. A parallel between that of say, these anorexic twins can be seen with these performances. Both parties are reliant on the other to keep their compulsions at bay and around until the next day. In part it’s feeding the negative with the idea of a positive. 

Not to negate the positive prospect and possibility that people grow together, but the amount people use one another as crutches is the negative. 

Most of human interaction is benign. Small-talk is all-around, as if simplicity in statements isn’t stagnating. In of itself there is nothing wrong with simple, basic interaction, but the bare minimum of survival becomes the bare minimum for an idea of empathy. 

To say it isn’t on some level a genuine amount of empathy would be unfair, but it’s often tantamount to momentary rather than continued existence in a balanced manner. Embodied in the Camus ideal of doing “whatever it takes to not kill yourself” as the meaning of life, all the while killing themselves slowly in that. Interactions involve the perpetration of these— though solitarily speaking, it’s not all too different. ‘Do what you need to do’ is taken to detrimental delusions. 

This breeds instability. It could and more often than not does devolve after a person starts ‘getting better.’ Perceived instability to that Might, the one not at that stage grows animosity; contempt for what they think they can’t attain. Whether it’s an intentional instance of a crab bucket or not is ultimately irrelevant as the game is at least two people energizing off one another to the bitter end. Accidental all-around psychic vampirism. But to call blame to one or the other in regards to the individual versus societal situations would be wrong. It’s a chicken or the egg scenario. Whatever the case, the constant instability is cause for a great many more parts in this cycle. At some point it seemingly almost self-sustains. That though is merely an illusion, the strain breaks the brain in many ways and it inevitably crashes down. 

Instability breeds more of the same. Well-meaning advice is often given from that of people in little or no different stages than you. Of course, that’s inescapable and symptomatic to the human experience, but it’s also evident that you can’t exactly rely on people with that. Why would you take advice on caring for yourself from a person who negates it themself? Well-meaningfulness is meaningless in the face of repetition. It’s meaningless when what is so blatant that it’s openly discussed (ex: ‘loneliness epidemic’ in the most interconnected era of human existence), but hardly taken much action to. 

Social interaction has obviously been impacted heavily by technological advancement, and with that the solitary becomes social. Well, more accurately parasocial. Time and take after another, it’s a never-ending barrage of niches and their constituents reliant on them for an outlet. Too often are all these temporary means seen as monolithic, long-lasting relationships. It’s possible though innately unlikely. Too often does it all implode based on petty differences. But, it’s infection. 

In the celebratory 100th episode of the podcast Satansplain, Church of Satan High Priest Peter H. Gilmore delivered a poignant statement to this matter, saying that “people have a problem that they think every connection has to last forever, that it’s all going to be a commitment. And that’s kind of overthinking things…” And the result of this overthinking is inevitable and incessant devastation when temporary fixes fall short of their monolithic ideal. 

What it all is, is cruel optimism, ‘a situation where people cling to a fantasy or object of desire that actually prevents them from their own flourishing.’ Like an anorexic, their ECI is that of emancipation. Put two anorexics together and they’ll feed off each other, so to say. This is because the desire is connection; the lie is that it’s based on mutual uplifting.