The Struggle

As Keanu Reeves said, we are not struggling with depression, we are struggling with the world we live in.

And it's inevitable. 

The very moment you cease to buy into hustle culture - “my 5 to 9 before my 9 to 5” - you are hurled into a void. A void outside of the existential territory defined by contemporary society.

You cast yourself out. If you are not careful you may end up living in exile.

Just as I'm exiled from corporate and academic structures, depression creates exile from the default assumption that life should feel manageable and meaningful. 

You need alternative structures to cope. I have Maa Kuu. It's both a liberation structure as well as a meaning making system.

Liberation structures carry you when you step outside the system. They give you identity and permission. They offer not a template, but a container for all the wacky you got.

Being an outsider, in exile, depressed, you need to create your own meaning. I think this was the existentialist project, but now in 2025 very late capitalism has pared down the meaning to shopping and fucking.

I don't enjoy shopping that much.

Personal meaning making systems are flourishing. People are so into astrology now. And no wonder, astrology can be wonderful.

Thus armed to struggle you can navigate both the Real Life and the ever changing moods landscape. It's not for everyone, but anyone can do it. And many of us have to.