2025 Is Going to Be A Wild One
January 1st 2025
It's here. It's finally here.
I might edit this post later since I'm half awake after staying up until midnight researching plans for this year, so my writing may seem impulsive.
Like most people, I believe this year is going to be either a tough one or a turning point. We have a orange turd for a world leader who's unpredictability will either shake or break Western society (not that I'm against Western society being turned into something else) and the transition will hurt millions of people. We have an internet with dark web influence that has dominated every single mainstream online space. People are becoming homeless rapidly. People are starving and dying. Costs are going up. Mental health, declining birth rates, and the bird flu are becoming concerns as big as climate change. I could go on, but you get the picture.
But let's take a break from the news. I want to get personal here. Last summer, I took a gigantic risk to make a huge change in my life by moving to another city to find a high paying tech job. During that process, I not only injured my back for the third time, but I struggled with both suicidal and homicidal thoughts from September to shortly after the Don won the election. These thoughts were so intense that I didn't want to come back to my hometown. During this time, I've wrestled with so many questions. Is my autism really something I can overcome? Is meritocracy a false god? Who is to blame for my failure besides me? Why do people push personal responsibility and self-help as the only solutions even though it's perfectly clear I can't live life alone or do things with God or even my own strength anymore? I've finally come to three conclusions which are will be shaping what I'm going to do this year forward when it comes to living my life.
My first conclusion is a phrase that everyone who read Mark Manson's top-selling book knows fairly well: don't try. Yes, on a basic level, personal responsibility is important. But if I can't even change my life by moving to another town and throwing out 20 resumes a week for two months, how is personal responsibility even going to lead to a life-change? I finally grasped the concept of why trying too hard doesn't work. The more one tries too hard, the higher the chances of failure. For lack of a better example, if a man tries too hard to find a girlfriend by using pick-up techniques or being too chivilrous, he'll remain alone. But if that same man simply is friendly to a woman without being creepy or even presenting his intentions to date or marry her (or if he simply doesn't try much and only flirts just a little), and somehow discovers she is interested, then he can simply ask her to coffee and she'll give him a chance.
Our society consistently tells us that we have to try to buy more stuff. We're told we have to be more attractive. We're told to try to be more confident, make more money, win more games, go on more trips, sleep with more people; it's more more more until one completely burns out and doesn't know what's important in life anymore.
The only solution to this is that we need to figure out what we want, and put most of our time energy and resources into those very few things that matter. This 2025, I plan to figure out what matters to me the most and then spend the rest of my life working on those things. Most likely, those things I'll be concentrating on are my marriage, my art, and helping my community. What I definately won't be focused on is money (unless it's making enough to survive), how macho or manly I tend to be (since that is starting to scare more people these days), or how many friends / followers I have, which leads me to my next point...
My second conclusion is that as an artist, I must create for my own personal enjoyment, not for other people or the "wake them up." In 2025, who in their right mind wants to be the most popular on social media now? We live in a world where people may know who Taylor Swift is but many people have never heard one of her songs! We live in a world where there are so many micro-movements or people having personal Spotify playlists that so-called "trendy" genres like We're in a world where half the people in it follow musicians, influencers, or "gurus" who don't even have 30K followers, and they claim that they're the movement to follow, the community to be a part of, or the church with the ultimate truth. But they're just a small niche that is "unique"...just like every other bubble that's floating out there. It is impossible to reach everyone because community in general has become much more personalized rather than collective. And reaching out may cause a few people here and there to connect between a few communities here and there, but in general, there is more division and disagreement or even war with eachother because our normie mainstream system can't present collective knowledge or consumer experiences. The system has been broken down into little groups that are forced to "do their own research," find their own "truths," or form their own identities through the things that algorithms present to them online.
While I'm writing a larger post on why this is happening when it comes to the media, my main point here is that if one is to "wake up" or reach the general population, it will be a losing battle (unless you have a ton of money or influence already from the past). We simply need to look for people who will listen to us, figure out what they really need or want, and simply give it to them before encouraging them listen to us. There is no point trying to procelitise or convert people to a personal cult or to build an empire or start a movement, especially if you're not a charismatic person. Most people have made up their minds about life and the world around them. But if even just one person listens to you, make them your entire world.
And finally, I realize that in order to have the world "progress," at least one person or one group of people has to get hurt.
I'm not saying this because I WANT to hurt anyone, I am 100% against harming a living creature. I'm saying that this is one huge fundamental Law of Power, and it seems to keep the world spinning even though I strongly disagree with it. Think about it, bullies only back down if you tell them to do so, instead of "just walking away and ignoring them" like our parents taught us in the 80s and 90s. People only hire you if you "sell yourself" and preach a sermon covering why they should hire you instead of nicely asking if you can be helpful. If one is selling a digital product, more and more emails with extra sales and annoying funnels are created to pretty much mold a customer or client into a fountain of money that keeps on giving.
These are horrible ways to change your life and your circumstances. One has to literally be confident or pushy and even scammy in order to move forward or make a change. That is what I learned after watching Trump get elected again after the people said no in 2020. This is why "the left" or progressives hardly win, only preserve the status quo, or never move forward.
Anyway, my plans this year are to begin a side hustle selling video game music assets to indie game developers on itch.io. There's a pretty big market for it. I'll be networking through game jams and Discord to build things up that way. Other than that, I'll pretty much find a job while standing up for causes in my community ensuring that people get the housing they need if they are going to become homeless. I'm also working on a book which I hope to release in September this year. Stay tuned for more on that in a later post.
While 2025 is going to be pretty hectic, it's also going to be the year that determines where I end up. There's a chance that if I don't get some kind of solid employment this year, I could be homeless again like last year. If I can't connect with my community this year, I plan to just throw my hands up and just wait until my wife and I can move away from the city once she finishes university. Also, our marriage sucks, so I'm going to try to do better in terms of that by spending more time with her and trying to keep the romance alive.
The 20s since the pandemic have been all about figuring things out, striving to push the boundaries of what we thought was possible while discovering things of the past that are impossible now. It's the year I have to look in the mirror and say, "This is who I am, and this is where I'll try to go." Here's to at least trying to make 2025 to 2030 as barable as possible, to the endless pursuit of a world that will not only survive, but also crush fascism and populism, and give us at least a small glimmer of hope and a reason for the next generation to keep on keeping on.