According to Bertrand Russell, one of the biggest sources of our unhappiness is a complete focus on ourselves.

It’s the hyper-attention to our flaws, our sins and our shortcomings. It’s the endless pursuit of obsessing over these negative black holes that we spend our waking hours trying to overcome them… or numb them from our minds.

And even though he wrote this close to a hundred years ago, humans haven’t changed much. We see this focus on the self on a much grander scale today, but we also see a smaller, counter-narrative:

the many communities of people helping each other out.

It seems we’re in a weird tension of time where we’re miserable with ourselves, but quick to respond to those in need.

I suppose the big question is, which one will prevail?