We Don’t Know What to Want Anymore

The global desire crisis.

Photo by Anthony Tran on Unsplash

In one of the best books of the century, Peter Thiel observed that the modern West is characterized by its indefiniteness — a pervasive absence of specific desire or vision for the future.

This absence is striking, especially when looking at other countries.

• India wants to reach a level of development equal to the West.
• Russia wants to reestablish its empire.
• Javier Milei is trying to fix Argentina’s economy.
• Erdogan is bringing back the Ottoman Empire.
• MBS is building Vision 2030 in Saudi Arabia.
• Kim Jung-Un wants to conquer South Korea (or at least, build rockets).

We hear about these people because they have definite desires for their countries.

My assumption, therefore, was that their citizens wouldn’t be victims of the current nihilism inherent to Western societies since they were moving toward a clear goal.

But I was wrong.

When I asked these people what they wanted out of life, they looked at me, puzzled; besides trying to move to the West because it’s “more stable” and people “earn more money”, they didn’t know.