Keeping an Eye on the Time
I would like you to pretend that you’ve been kidnapped by a group of strangely philosophical terrorists.
A hand pulls the burlap sack off of your head, and as your eyes adjust to the light you begin to frantically take in your surroundings. Bright stage lights… A studio audience sitting with baited breath behind you… A giant multi-coloured wheel, with the names of 30 countries on it… Good lord! You’re on a game show!
An annoying jingle fades in on the speakers overhead, and suddenly the audience begins to cheer as a pale, old, evil-looking white dude in a tux struts out from behind some curtains and onto the stage. He does a couple of waves to the audience as the music continues to rattle on, and suddenly you hear the booming voice of the announcer come in:
“Welcome esteemed brothers and sisters, you know what time it is! It’s the Illuminati’s favourite game show, Wheel of Misfortune!”
Shit!
The host pats you on the shoulder, and directs your attention to the giant wheel. The rules of the game are fairly simple: society tends to be easier to influence and control when the world is a scary place, so every few years the Illuminati orchestrates a catastrophe to ruffle some feathers. In today’s game, a new, highly-lethal viral outbreak is set to infect 50,000 citizens of one very unlucky third-world country. Your role as the equally unlucky contestant is also simple: give the wheel a good spin, and wherever the arrow lands is going to be quarantined off from the rest of the world in less than a week. There’s no prize for spinning the wheel — it’s really not that kind of game show. And of course, no one will ever know your part in this calamity. It is the Illuminati, after all.
There is one catch, however: instead of spinning the wheel and dooming the citizens of some poor country to a horrible death, you do have a way out. A beautiful model steps out from behind the curtain, brandishing a giant butcher’s knife.
If you don’t want to spin the wheel, all you have to do is let her chop off one of your pinky fingers. A bead of sweat rolls down your back.
What do you do? Do you take a good look at the wheel, and try to see which countries are on it? How long do you hesitate before you make a decision?
This whole scenario is based on a writing the English philosopher John Locke made long ago, where he questioned the compassion of man. His argument was that given a similar choice, a person would be kept up all night with worry and fear, imagining the pain of their finger getting lopped off. The plight of people in a land far away, who they would never actually meet, seemed to Locke like it would be much less concerning. He believed that humans are naturally much more concerned about the comfort of their immediate surroundings, even in the face of much greater dangers or injustices happening further away. I totally see what he’s getting at — this fact of nature explains why it’s so easy to turn a blind eye to the consequences of capitalism.
My attempt at recreating this situation is obviously a flawed one. I suspect that you, the kind-hearted reader of this article, would consider the weight on your conscious to be much worse than losing your pinky. I brought it up only because I feel that social media and the internet might’ve helped influence your answer in some way.
When I think of think of the biggest mental-health challenges facing University students nowadays, I’m reminded of the doomsday clock that perpetually hangs over my head. As I approach my graduation from Ryerson, I feel as though the minute hand is only a few ticks away from annihilation. The stress of finding work in a competitive job market, when I feel like I still haven’t nailed down my skills or passion. Tick. Comparing myself to peers on social media, or looking at Forbe’s 30 under 30 list. Tock. Not having a single clue as to what the “good life” even looks like for me — forget about how I’m going to ever achieve it. Boom. I’ve felt the pressure that comes as we all stumble through this pivotal stage in our lives. I also see how easy it is for things like social media to compound it even further. I wish I had more time. I bet we all do.
At the same time though, social media has also played a role in showing me just how easy I’ve got it. When I see inspirational stories of amputees on my Facebook feed, news on Reddit about a terrorist attack in the Middle East, or a campaign to help someone in need on GoFundMe, I have to take a step back and be thankful for how fortunate I am. How fortunate you, reading this on your computer or phone, are too. Anxiety and stress have a peculiar relationship with our comfort and standard of living. You could lose your pinky finger and not bleed to death, because of our access to world-class healthcare. We’re so insulated from the hardships that billions of people we share this planet with go through everyday. But now, with the power of the internet and social media, we can at least see their struggles. While not nearly enough of us do anything meaningful with this knowledge (myself included), the least we can all do is try to keep perspective on just how good we’ve got it. Life is a lot like a game show, if you think about it; some people win big, and some people lose terribly. A lot of the time, it really comes down to chance.
I think you’re pretty lucky, all things considered.
What are your thoughts? I believe social media has the ability to direct our focus both inwards and outwards — with positive and negative effects on our mental health. Would you sacrifice your pinky? Let me know in the comments below!
