In a World without Depth
Sometimes, the best way to understand depth is to look at a world where it is missing ― not as a judgment, but as an experiment in seeing. The scenes below offer such a view. What they show is up to the reader to discern.
In a world without depth,
it’s difficult to grasp what depth looks like.
And vice versa.
So, let’s make the effort.
―
Please read these one by one. Let each sink in for a while.
In a world without depth, people speak a lot. Words pass by, but few of them reach anyone — not even the one who says them.
In a world without depth, decisions come fast. They are handled, confirmed, and closed, as if the important thing were to get them out of the way.
In a world without depth, comfort, health, and fun are measured in dollars. What cannot be priced is hard to recognize.
In a world without depth, religion is something one accepts without much thought. So is science. Someone else will think about it.
In a world without depth, politeness is a set of rules. Being polite is following the rules.
In a world without depth, the world ‘is what it is’ simply because what it is, is what it is supposed to be.
In a world without depth, criminals are taken as bad people. Bad people must be punished. If one of them does something personal, the response must be personal as well.
In a world without depth, poetry is a description.
In a world without depth, beauty is something one wants to possess rather than simply enjoy.
In a world without depth, people make ever more and create ever less.
In a world without depth, silence feels awkward. People are afraid it may say too much.
In a world without depth, people swipe, scroll, and respond. But there is no connection.
In a world without depth, inner landscapes stay private mostly because they have become thin.
In a world without depth, success is what others can see. Yet the future always sees more.
In a world without depth, people seldom ask ‘why.’
In a world without depth, power may win. But what’s the game?
In a world without depth, love is nothing but a feeling and all feelings are eventually suspect.
In a world without depth, people see what they call stress, or tiredness, or a need for distraction. It passes, and life continues.
In a world without depth, time is something to fill. Empty moments feel like mistakes.
In a world without depth, promises are kept as long as they are convenient. After that, they fade without much regret.
In a world without depth, advice comes easily, and questions with no clear answer are avoided, while understanding takes too long.
In a world without depth, imagination is either tolerated or a distraction.
In a world without depth, empathy becomes a script to be followed.
In a world without depth, beauty is photographed rather than realized.
In a world without depth, motivation and manipulation look the same. Respect becomes hard to find.
In a world without depth, depth itself is like the third dimension in a two-dimensional universe. Some things happen as if by magic.
In a world without depth, where is the difference between much and many?
Some shadows stretch further.
In a world without depth, people can go to war without listening to one another.
In a world without depth, illness is almost always seen as coming from outside.
In a world without depth, medications are mostly symptomatic. (That is what they are.)
In a world without depth, anyone can quickly be seen as an expert in mental coaching, mediation, or diplomacy.
In a world without depth, growing complexity easily turns into geopolitical tension.
In a world without depth, truth becomes whatever is easiest to accept.
In a world without depth, super-A.I. becomes a danger, not a friend.
In a world without depth, one may wonder who still cares for the world as a whole.
In a world without depth, nothing can keep it together. I’m sorry, but the world is not a balloon.
―
This world may feel distant.
Or uncomfortably close.
That is for each reader to decide.