our desire may know no end

liked this bit from haley nahman’s most recent newsletter:

In his book Status Anxiety, Alain de Botton posits that Americans are more susceptible to envy because we’re obsessed with equal opportunity and are therefore less likely to accept our circumstances. I find this pretty convincing, because it doesn’t concern whether “equal opportunity” actually exists here (it obviously doesn’t), but rather our shared belief that it does, which impacts our sense of what’s possible and therefore our disappointment at not living up to all of it. That sense of what’s possible is everything, and as the realm of what we consider possible expands into absurd territory (never get old! never work! fix the “unattractive” way your eyelids move!), our desire may know no end.

NEVER GET OLD! BE BETTER IN EVERY WAY! ETC ETC