Back to List

Everything is in Vain!

Author: Youngjin Kang

Date: July 21, 2024

Everything is in vain!

Self-help gurus are in vain. They win the heart of the crowd with easy, happy words. They make everybody feel like a genius by perpetually repeating the most obvious and generic catchphrases. They cuddle everyone's heart with the cheapest, sugarcoated hope.

Mystics are in vain. They act as though they are the keepers of the most profound secrets of the universe, yet they never explain anything clearly. They openly despise rationality, and celebrate obscurity. Their world is full of auras, spirits, crystal energy, hidden dimensions, and supernatural forces. They never fail to obfuscate everything with a toybox of vague terms. They make profit from fools who worship ambiguity.

Academics are in vain. They rejoice in the word play of their intellectual masturbation, and endorse each other with empty words backed up by the circular loop of their contrived language. They live in their own ivory tower of groundless speculations.

Industry professionals are in vain. The momentum of their work is held upon the pillars of inner politics, mannerisms, and nitpicky technical details which are solely hinged upon their own irreversibly intertwined fabric of rules. Their wisdom is a mere muscle memory of their own bigoted protocol.

Innovators are in vain. They say that they are the creatives, yet their vision is a mere assortment of catchy business slogans. They accuse you of being narrow-sighted unless you, like a parrot, copy the exact set of buzzwords they have in their minds. They nitpick every single word you say in their obnoxiously literal way of interpretation, and distort your faculty of reason under the mold of their shallow narrative.

Revolutionaries are in vain. They pledge to "break the norm". They promise to "change the world" by overthrowing the bigotry of the smug elites. When they themselves finally receive the throne of fame and authority, however, they too become complacent in their own ivory tower of pride. They only cared about their ego all along.

Everything is in vain, except one's thirst for truth that is separate from personal success. Only in one's ability to find joy in things which shall last beyond one's lifetime, there will be true dignity.