From Logic to Lunacy: How Good Ideas Turned Absurd
The Pilot’s Checklist for a Crashing Plane
A friend once told me about his new relationship. He described it not with enthusiasm or warmth, but with the precision of an aircrew performing pre-flight checks before takeoff:
"We’re aligned on finances. We have compatible future goals. We’ve agreed on division of household labor.”
It was a meticulous inspection before committing. And yet, I knew, just as he knew, that despite the extensive preparation, the relationship would eventually encounter turbulence, emergency landings, and perhaps a midair explosion.
That’s when it hit me. Everything in modern life has become like this.
We take things that once worked simply—marriage, capitalism, democracy—and turn them into bloated disasters. We check every box, we follow every rule, and yet, the plane still falls from the sky.
Marriage: From Partnership to Contractual Nightmare
Marriage used to be a functional arrangement. You met someone, felt compatible, built a life together, and stayed unless something truly disastrous happened.
Now, it’s something else entirely.
Prenups are negotiated like corporate mergers. Endless discussions about equality make marriage resemble a fragile business partnership rather than a human relationship. Modern marriage demands that partners be best friends, therapists, financial planners, adventure buddies, and the most mind-blowing lovers all at once—an impossible expectation.
At the same time, the one thing that once held marriages together—the willingness to endure hardships, dull moments, and the natural ebb and flow of life—has been discarded. The institution of marriage, once a partnership grounded in practicality and companionship, has morphed into an exhausting, high-performance role that few of us can sustain. Because as it turns out, no checklist can manufacture a deep connection between two human beings.
Max Weber warned about this. He argued that as society becomes more "rationalized," we drain the humanity out of it. Marriage is no longer about companionship—it’s about legal safeguards, spreadsheets, and communication strategies.
Capitalism: From Wealth Creation to a Speculative Circus
Capitalism, in its original form, had a certain logic. Effort and innovation led to prosperity. The system was never perfect, but at least it rewarded productivity.
Now, the system no longer resembles what it once was. Financial speculation has overtaken real productivity. Billionaires shift money between accounts rather than creating value. Influencers build entire careers out of selling an illusion of success rather than contributing anything tangible.
Jean Baudrillard saw this coming. He called it hyperreality—where we no longer engage with real things, only with their simulations. The modern economy has followed this pattern. We no longer have real capitalism—just games played on screens.
Stock markets aren’t about investing in businesses anymore. They’re about gambling on derivatives, betting against economies, and getting rich off financial products that don’t exist.
Adam Smith’s invisible hand has been replaced by a sleight-of-hand trick.
Democracy: The Illusion of Choice
Democracy was meant to give power to the people, but over time, it has become an illusion carefully managed by lobbyists, corporations, and career politicians more interested in their own image than in public service.
Elections create the appearance of choice, yet real influence lies elsewhere, beyond the reach of voters. What was once designed to hold leaders accountable now insulates them from consequences, turning governance into a spectacle where decisions serve those who fund the system, not those who live under it.
Gore Vidal had a long history of exposing the performative nature of democracy, often arguing that elections were nothing more than a spectacle controlled by money and entrenched power. His sharp, cynical take on politics aligns perfectly with the idea that democracy, in practice, serves the powerful rather than the people.
Democracy is supposed to give you the choice between candidates, but now it is actually a choice between corporate factions.
The Spectacle of Absurdity
In the end, what we see isn’t just a decline of functional systems—it’s a transformation of reality itself.
Activism doesn’t seek change; it seeks attention.
Asylum once meant sheltering the persecuted, but now it struggles to separate genuine need from opportunism.
Education was once about knowledge, but it has become a credential factory.
Social interactions were once about connection, but now they’re just image management.
Guy Debord warned us in The Society of the Spectacle—when society becomes a spectacle, people stop engaging with real life. Instead, they play roles, follow narratives, and treat existence like a stage.
Everything that was once grounded in function has become a theater of absurdity.
Conclusion: Is There a Way Back?
So, what do we do? Can we reverse the absurdity, or are we destined to continue this descent into hyper-bureaucratic madness?
Perhaps the only way out is to stop playing the game.
If marriage has become absurd, then build a partnership that actually works for you.
If capitalism is rigged, then play outside its rules.
If politics has become a circus, then stop being its audience.
And maybe, just maybe, instead of following the pilot’s checklist, we should ask if we even want to get on this plane at all.