Do you worry about the heat death of the universe?
I actually think it’s more likely that the universe will keep expanding until spacetime eventually rips apart and everything ceases to exist. I worry about that a solid amount, usually when I’m high.
How do you manage ennui?
I had to look up what “ennui” meant, and I’m somewhat comforted to know that there is a word to describe how I feel 70% of the time. I try to manage ennui by creating music, spending time with people I care about, and eating good food. I feel like most people, myself included, attempt to deal with their existential malaise by not thinking about it. That’s hard for me though because sometimes I’ll be at the function and I’ll catch myself talking about the inevitability of death. I’m not really fun at parties. Anyway, I’ve found that it’s more helpful to me to think about what is making me feel dissatisfied, whether it’s something in my life, or something I’m not doing that I need to be doing, and then I act on whatever conclusions I come to.
How do you make earnest connection in a world of instant gratification?
It’s definitely not easy. Connections with anything meaningful are complicated and require a lot of effort. I’ve definitely bought into the culture of instant gratification on some levels, but overall I try to be a perfectionist. By approaching all of my relationships (interpersonal and otherwise) with that mindset, and by holding them to a high standard, I think I’m able to really connect deeply with things and people beyond a superficial level. You also have to genuinely care about whatever you’re trying to connect with. Faking it just leads to wasted time, and it will eat away at you.
Is factory farming sustainable or ethical?
Factory farming is neither sustainable nor ethical. Factory farms produce so many greenhouses gases and are a huge contributor to global warming, making them unsustainable right from the jump. They also produce several toxic chemicals that can damage the ecosystems in which they exist, as well as cause lots of health complications for people. Conditions in factory farms are so bad for the animals that they’re always freaking out all the time, and are given drugs like Prozac and Xanax to calm them down. And then we eat these animals and consume those chemicals, along with growth hormones and other terrible shit. Unethical for the animals and unsafe for us. You’ve probably also seen those videos of baby chickens being ground up alive, or of cows being confined to super small spaces where they live in their own feces. It’s all so fucked up. I said fuck the meat industry and became a pescetarian (can’t give up sushi).
Sartre considered contemplation a luxury, do you?
Definitely. A lot of people don’t have the time or the resources to contemplate the complexities of existence like Sartre did. Sartre was a bourgeois white dude, so he didn’t have to deal with a lot of oppression that other groups of people face, which gave him time to think deeply about shit.
