I think this is entirely invisible to most people outside of their bubbles, but there is this weird depression that’s kinda inflicted everyone. Not a depression of money but a depression of the soul. There are very few people that I know who are completely thriving right now, and part of that is human. As a country we have never been richer, but have also never been more at each other’s throats.

It feels like it stems from the relentless pace of the society we have created. Everyone is special, deserves all the success in life and should be completely, perfectly happy at all times. That we should never feel impatience or bureaucracy, and we need to destroy all impediments to our success or vision. We’ve lost our empathy for bureaucracy (thanks, Benjamin Simon, for giving me this term), and therefore our stability. Does bureaucracy cost time and money? Of course

My parents had to cultivate patience and slowness being from India. One of my American friends described Chandini Chowk as “having more people than he’s ever seen in his life.” You have to push your way to the front of the line, and if you are in line, you are stuck there forever. So when they saw the opportunity to jump the line, they took it and ran.

America’s having similar problems, but people here are not used to that. Lines are getting longer, and time is filling up. So many of our institutions are not getting enough money, and some have too much.

When they arrived to America, they saw the land of opportunity, the land of freedom. No bureaucracy, no rules, only life in the fast lane. More money, more status, more, more, more. There is no limit to the amount of things they want me to do, and no limit to the amount of time you could waste doing those things. And so they pushed me–to success on their terms. But I learned that with that definition of success, you could always want more. And you can always get your agenda through.

But who are we hurting in that process? Who are we trampling over when we lay off based on spreadsheets or scream at others when they aren’t going at the pace we want to move at? Who do we steamroll when we try to get our way?