The sad, tired, almost dead eyes. The slumping shoulders. The finger meant to extend in an angry gesture of defiance is slightly deflated. The grimace that is indicative of both a snarl and a yawn. Any hint of facial expression has been worn down into a smooth, slightly greasy finish. The veins that run down the face like scars. This middle finger mask discovered by DesignTaxi on Amazon should be the stuff of nightmares – an absolutely cursed image – but I have much more distressing news. The middle finger mask is us. It is we who are cursed.
How could it not be, when this mask, this symbol of weary anger and depressed defiance perfectly embodies not just our rage at the ever increasing horrors of a broken system piling up around us, but also our fundamental exhaustion. We are fatigued y’all!
A little riot/insurrection in January? Check. Climate crisis related environmental disasters? Check. Police brutality? Check. Global pandemic? Check. Hordes of people refusing to take the vaccine or a wear a mask and infecting others with a life threatening illness? Check. Roe v. Wade becoming functionally obsolete? You better believe that’s a check honey. And this is only 2021! We have been living in the middle of this ever increasing chaos since 2020, and really for most of us – a lot longer than that.
Much like this mask, we have had it. Officially. We have been worn down into that smooth nail bed nub. The dark pits of our eyes beg for sweet release. We are so angry and we are so so tired. When Nietzsche said “and if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you” this is what he meant. We are now the abyss.
So let us gaze.
(via, image: Autek/Amazon)
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