DISCLAIMER: This piece is satire, written for our April Fool’s Edition, and it is not based on true events.

Imagine a society that subjects people to conditions that make them terribly unhappy, then gives them the drugs to take away their unhappiness.

Those are conditions in which I certainly don’t want to live, and neither do you. Yet, it’s the reality that lies right underneath the one we choose to see. We are wrapped up in this ever-changing, ever-moving world that never for a second lets us stop to consider our own free will – whether we have it and to what extent. It is important that we learn to distinguish freedom from mere permissiveness.

Under the current social and economic regime, we face an environment completely detached from the one in which we evolved. Rather than live as humans were meant to, we suppress our every instinct to conform to standards we do not even understand. We maintain meaningless nicely-pruned lawns as a symbol of functionality within society. We are forced to interact with people we hate, and we are no longer capable of surviving on our own.

This is not development, contradictory to the widely accepted narrative. Quite the opposite, in fact – the Industrial Revolution and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race. The best thing society could do for itself is return to pre-industrial conditions.

It seems like a controversial statement, doesn’t it? To question the very movement that provided us with such convenience, such speed and such civilization feels wrong at first, like a subversion of everything you’ve ever been taught to accept. That’s exactly what it is, but is that such a bad thing? Is it not a sign of maturity, this metacognition and willingness to break away from the lies you have been fed since the day you were born?

The big problem is that people don’t believe change is possible, and it is not possible precisely because they do not believe it is possible. The collective mindset created by our oppressive social regime has led us to believe that technology and adherence to expectation is the only path to happiness and success, but in truth it’s the source of everything that makes us miserable.

The widespread adoption of technology which makes the act of existing so much faster and easier than it has been at any other point in recorded history has made us lazy. It has made us weak, sick and vulnerable. Humankind is susceptible to the control of a system that cares nothing for the individual, for contentment or for freedom.

So, I implore you to question everything around you and to ask the same of everyone you encounter. Do not give in to the ease of accepting the reality of what is presented to you – find your own way in the world, without technology. Quit your job. Do not pay your taxes. Run away and live alone in the woods of Montana.

Most importantly, please send someone to break me out of Supermax.