Brain Bleed 4/5/2025

We exist in a pocket of time where certain activities are at risk of being aesthetic choices more than actual means of personal fulfillment/enjoyment via a change of environment/activity. I don't think I'm making any grand revelation by saying that. I think people are more than aware of the slope that we've built for ourselves to slip down at this point. Technology has advanced to where a camping setup in the mountains can have all the same trimmings as a living room in the city (utilities included). In all extracurricular scenarios, we have the option to not sacrifice our comfort (sometimes sacrificing our own financial stability to maintain it, for however long).

While this may be nothing new, the scale of our self-imposed comfort in different environments has been ever-growing. You may be in Paris or New York, places with a menagerie of unique, independently owned cafes of which you can pluck out your favorite, but why do that when there's a Starbucks around the corner that hosts the same, comfortable coffees that you enjoy in your Indiana suburb. Having taste for things beyond the corporate has increasingly become a deliberate act of protest, but the things that we go to as a means of this protest eventually become swallowed up by this same beast of accessibility and comfort. And it's exhausting.

What's more insidious is that those honest businesses are encouraged to conform to this comfort either by way of selling their storefronts to a corporate entity or altering their business practices to that of their oppressor. Business with their own ideas must also enact their own form of protest by not adhering to the standards of consumption manufactured by corporate America, but a little bit of adherence is still innately required. This poses another challenge, as creating a way to stand out in a forest of gold-plated slop can potentially lead to an accidental reliance on novelty or gimmicks, lest they simply go under. "This diner after 70 years is still making Coca-Cola the old-fashioned way". That's great! How about the burgers? Has their quality been diminished as consequence of prioritizing this interest-driving novelty of old-fashioned Coke that will likely attract a crowd of non-loyal, shallow consumers? Whose fault is it? The business or the consumer?

Frankly, neither. The problem I most have with capitalism at its current stage/as a whole is that consumers and businesses alike are responsible for how they navigate its presence in practically every aspect of their lives. The two have a tandem relationship, and there are plenty of communities, generally within the dominant class, from which grow hives of consumers AND business owners hell-bent on the maintenance of their comfort. Exposure to the organic does little besides give them a route to impose a sense of cultural superiority over their peers. Engaging with it becomes an act of ego, not love. They don't love the bookstore up the street for the friendly, knowledgeable staff, or their selection of Henry Miller. They love it for how they believe they'll look inside of it. And on some level I believe we all do this sort of thing. It's the potential exploitation that bothers me. Actual fulfillment and bonding becomes secondary. Our image is at stake.

Unfortunately for us, these people are the most influential, and we are encouraged to be them. And even if you are one of them, it isn't your fault. Common social factors have bred this complex. It's almost entirely subconscious. Small businesses have to make money too, and if they are lucky enough to achieve a certain level of success, they must consciously avert taking a bite out of their own tail by appeasing these people. If some influencer comes in, has a great experience with a certain product, relays it to their audience, and now there's a line around the block every Wednesday with "pop" consumers and tourists specifically for that thing. The business enters a balancing act where the thing that got them that publicity and the line outside, and all other aspects of the business, sit on opposite ends of the scale. What that business may have offered prior to this moment may feel like a risk to invest in/experiment with now. There becomes a desire to lean on the thing that got you there and to play into the desires of a shallow consumer base, whatever accommodations/products they may be, thus affecting everyone's experience. 

"Never forget where you came from," comes to mind, but there are groups that likely should.

I say this all not out of pessimism, but out of optimism for a world that consciously engages with this choice of fulfillment over comfort/accessibility/instant gratification. This is all just a big jumble of paragraphs I decided to string together. This madness has no method.

I don't know, I just have thoughts. And they make just enough sense to have words to go with them.

Regards,

CEO