We’ve been asleep for a long time, and I don’t think most of us have noticed.

I don’t feel like we’re actually living anymore. It feels like we’re just functioning. Going through motions. Completing tasks. Surviving systems instead of participating in life.

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Somewhere along the way, something shifted. Not overnight. Quietly. Gradually. We didn’t fall asleep physically, we fell asleep morally. And while we were distracted, tired, or just trying to get by, the rules changed.

Things that once felt obviously wrong are now labeled normal. Things that once felt right are treated like flaws.

Take relationships and marriage.

Let’s stop pretending. For a lot of people, it isn’t about love, loyalty, or choosing someone through difficulty anymore. It’s about income. Assets. Status. What you bring to the table. What you can provide. If you stop meeting the checklist, you stop being worth the effort.

Love didn’t evolve. It got converted into a transaction.

Look at the internet, which was supposed to connect us. Give us access. Give us community.

Now peace itself is paywalled. If you pay, you get quiet. If you don’t, you get flooded with ads, manipulation, outrage, and noise. Even attention has a price tag. Even silence is a luxury.

Look at work. Look at society.

If you lie politely, flatter the right people, and say what’s expected, you climb. If you speak honestly, ask uncomfortable questions, or refuse to play along, you’re labeled difficult, naive, or a problem.

People who bend rules often get rewarded. People who try to live by them get crushed.

And we’re told this is maturity. That this is realism. That this is just how the world works now.

We’re told to adapt. To lower our expectations. To stop believing in fairness, sincerity, or truth.

But when did survival replace values? When did integrity become a liability? When did being real start feeling like self-sabotage?

I’m not writing this because I think I’m above anyone else. I’m part of this system too. I make compromises. I get tired. I stay quiet when I shouldn’t.

I’m writing because I’m exhausted from pretending this is fine.

A society that rewards deception and punishes honesty is not healthy. A culture that reduces people to money, productivity, and image is not progress.

If you still believe love should be genuine instead of calculated. If you still believe truth matters even when it costs you. If you still believe doing the right thing shouldn’t feel like self-destruction.

Then you’re not broken. You’re not naive. You’re not outdated.

You’re just awake.

And maybe that discomfort you feel isn’t something wrong with you. Maybe it’s your conscience refusing to fall asleep again.

We’ve been numb long enough. It’s time to open our eyes.

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