Earlier this year, Ben Hunt from The Epsilon Theory started a series of posts called The Long Now. To me, it’s a philosophically-inclined commentary on the current state of the US financial system. A call to arms that compells everyone to take control of their financial futures.

I know that there is no Long Now. The Now is short. That is exactly what makes it precious beyond price. The Now is for LIVING.

I know that there is no Safe Future. The Future is risky. That is exactly what makes it precious beyond price. The Future is for INVESTING.

His latest in the series, Is This Normal? Asking For a Friend, questions the social and political abstractions we’ve been bucketed into, losing all sense of nuance and identity. Life has become deterministic, programmable.

That’s the defining characteristic of life in the Long Now … you swim in an ocean of stimulus and fear so long that you forget whether or not there was ever a shore. You forget yourself. You forget your identity as an autonomous human-in-full, connected with other humans that you work and play with in a non-instrumental sense. You forget your Pack.

You have to adopt an open mindset to really enjoy this series. But once you’re there - it’s some of the best writing I’ve read in a while.