For 150,000 years, humanity gathered around fires under the stars. In those moments, empathy evolved, allowing us to connect, share, and understand one another. But since 2007, with the advent of the iPhone and the rise of screen culture, the light in people’s eyes has shifted—from the warmth of connection to the cold glow of technology.

We are losing the ability to truly see the soul of another person. Gregg Braden warned at a retreat in Denver on January 5, 2020, that if we lose empathy, we risk losing it forever—within just one generation. A generation spans 20-30 years, and here we are, 17 years into this rapid tech-driven acceleration, witnessing empathy’s alarming decline.

How do we even begin to care about crises that feel so distant, so vast, and so overwhelming? The enormity paralyzes us. What we’ve truly lost is our ability to notice, observe, and recognize what’s happening within ourselves. When the dream we hold doesn’t align with the story we’re living, it’s almost impossible to stay present.

Instead of slowing down, feeling, and understanding ourselves, we rush to declare what we believe, who we are, and where we stand. But authentic action comes only after we regulate our emotions, after we find clarity.

As empathy wanes, so too does our ability to act as agents of our own lives. Albert Bandura defines agency as our unique power to influence life circumstances and shape the paths we take. It is this power that grounds us in purpose and possibility.

Yet, life in the 4th Industrial Revolution feels increasingly like a confusing dystopia. The centralization of power and control over resources disempowers individuals and motivated groups, making meaningful change seem out of reach.

Our basic humanity is slipping toward transhumanism, as technological "advances" pull us further from our identities and innate power. This growing disconnection—both from ourselves and from each other—is at the very heart of loneliness.

Agency is our ability and willingness to make decisions and act in our own best interest, while respecting the interests of others, even in the face of rapidly changing circumstances, time pressures, and incomplete information. It’s not just a skill—it’s a superpower.

Cultivating this superpower is essential for evolution. Each person who reclaims their agency creates a ripple effect, moving us closer to a collective tipping point.

This is how we will achieve peace—not in some distant future, but within our lifetime.

Living in a truth-optional world is the ultimate covert control nightmare. Cognitive dissonance reigns supreme, and deliberate, calculated efforts to dumb us down have taken root everywhere.

We’ve become layered with “opin-onions”—beliefs and opinions piled so thick they make us cry. Right-fighting dominates our conversations, and ego blinds us to reality. Truth? For many, it’s become an afterthought—just say whatever, as if it doesn’t matter.

But it does. That’s the core of loneliness.

We’ve been conditioned to believe in the fairy tale, only to be confronted by the nightmare—on the news, on the streets, and in our own lives. Deep down, we feel it: life isn’t what we were told it would be.

Cognitive dissonance, in psychological terms, is the tension created by holding contradictory beliefs or perceptions. It takes a heavy mental toll, leaving us searching for relief.

In our attempts to regulate this discomfort, we often turn to two familiar patterns: we either entrench—clinging tightly to our beliefs—or we abdicate, giving up our agency altogether.

True liberation comes only when we’re willing to go beyond the blind spots, beneath the ego, and confront what’s real. Until we do, anxiety will persist, keeping us tethered to a cycle of disconnection and untruth.