The Disguise of False Hope (Our Lives Under Conscious Purgatory)

The 21st century is unique, it is the first century that for the most part our needs are met in the West. Food is accessible in nearby grocery stores, many of us do not work back breaking jobs and we have a mountain of knowledge at our fingertips with the internet, but alas a lot of us are not happy. We believe that we are stuck where we are. This is a problem that is ultimately unique to the western middle class and in a sense a luxurious feeling for workers in developing countries has not developed, in a way it is a “first world problem” but since the West is a large population, of which I am included in, I believe that it is worth writing about. The American Dream was a lie, that we still believe, the false hope that capitalism will be the ladder to riches is still fed to us, and most of us believe it, but when we can't climb the ladder and become stuck then what happens? I believe that is when we enter  Conscious Purgatory. Conscious Purgatory is the delusional state of mind the 21st century western proletarian finds themself in where they believe that one day they will be rich and on top of the hirecary or what we will be called “the actor”. They believe this opportunity will present itself by hard work, or by somehow manipulating the market (such as NFTS). Instead, they are more often the other, used to fulfil the actors' needs and taken advantage of. Although the worker has certain luxuries in the west, such as perceived freedom of choice and holidays, they ultimately still enslave the actor. Whenever the actor seems to realize this though, they often distract themselves through petty means (oftentimes, their phones, drinking or vacations). Or convince themselves that one day, they will be the actor, therefore living in Conscious Purgatory and allowing the system to continue. People in the Western world, particularly the working class, live in conscious purgatory. They live like this to bear the working conditions they face as they believe the false dream that one day they will rise up the system. They are kept distracted by social media consumerism and temporary pleasures, which keeps them passive while benefiting the elite class of “actors”.  This essay will seek to first elaborate on Conscious Purgatory, why we choose to live in it, the dynamics of the actor and the other and how we must break out of Conscious Purgatory if we ever seek to make a meaningful change in the system that governs our society and how we live.

To understand Conscious purgatory we must first some fundamental aspects of it. Our present society is no longer the same capitalistic society that Marx wrote about in his Communist Manifesto. There have been undeniable changes, the advance of technologies, the breakdown of the nuclear family and the liberalisation of social issues. We now live in a society where we ignore the issues of financial exploitation because we have been set free from societal social chains. This is a unique stage of capitalism that for the stake of this paper we will refer to as “Inclusive Capitalism”. This form of capitalism has sought to shield its horrors of exploitation from the other by putting up a mask of inclusivity, using things such as marketing, success stories and virtue signaling. It is not uncommon to read a story from a capitalist preaching about that fact. “There are more women CEOs today than ever.” Without focusing on the fact that the treatment of women has not advanced as much as it should of (with issues such as sex trafking, rape and domestic violence still being rampent in our society.) The inclusive capitalist will instead point to small meaningless progress that women (or any minority group) have made under the inclusive capitalist system to defend our adherence to it. Where the old capitalist used to buy our loyalty with solely money, the inclusive capitalist instead buys us with false advancements in our society.

The second thing that must be understood is what it means to be the other and the actor in this discussion. Often metaphysical philosophers will use the other and the actor (or self) to understand metaphysics (the perception of our environment around us.) Although I owe Merleau-Ponty and Simone De Beauvoir, for my use of the other, it is not in the classic sense. When Merleau-Ponty speaks of the way we perceive something. He will say something along the lines of. “The self perceives the green lamp across the room.” That would make “the other” the lamp. This is not what this essay seeks to understand. Simone De Beauvoir instead proposes the other that this essay takes influence from. When Simone De Beavoir speaks of the other, referring to women she talks about the power relation between man (the actor) and woman (the other). This relation is an uneven one, where De Beauvior comes to the conclusion that the man (actor) expects the woman (the other) to serve him. Through this uneven power relation that is decided by one party and imposed on the other we understand the situation of today. The same way that De Beauvior argues that women must shake off the shackles of this oppressive relationship, I believe that the modern worker (or who this essay will henceforth refer to as the other), must also shake their shackles.

The other in an inclusive capitalist society is the common worker. In our society it is often heard of people living paycheck to paycheck. “47% Of Americans live paycheck to paycheck.” As well, more than 70% of people say they're are unsatisfied with their jobs. “70 percent of workers say they don’t feel satisfied with their career choices.” It has been acknowledged that the first characteristic of the modern worker is dissatisfaction. The second characteristic is an inability to have another option, our inclusive capitalistic society still has the normal characteristic of a capitalist society (dog eat dog world), because of this even if a worker is dissatisfied he is still forced to continue with this meaningless job, unless he rather starve, lose his house and ruin his life. These are the main two characteristics of dissatisfaction and being trapped in the system. Naturally due to this, we have had to form a defence to this system. 

 Much like early humans created survival instincts to deal with their environment such as “flight or fight”, today humans are still subconsciously creating them. Conscious Purgatory is something that we have all lived in, to survive this hyper capitalist society that the west has (de)volved into. The same way that we used to have to make the split second decision of running away from predators or fighting them, today we have had to learn to cage our humanity to complete our jobs to survive this dystopia. A personal example that led me to create this term is a memory that entrenched itself in my soul. To pay for my education like many other students I had to take an entry level job, for me this job was washing dishes at a restaurant. The restaurant was a busy one, and everyday I punched in at 5 o’clock there was a pile of dishes welcoming me to make my split second, to walk out that door and not afford university, or to wash an inhumane amount of dishes. I ultimately had no choice but to do the latter, sending myself into Conscious Purgatory. I washed the dishes with the belief that with the money I was earning was going to be my gold mine, to an education that was ultimately going to open the doors to stop washing dishes. As well, I had music playing headphones in my ears, to disconnect me from my environment, to enter a purgatory where I was not alive, but instead a work drone, doing what I was told but not conscious to make the hours go by quicker. This story is not unique, truthfully it is what we have all been trained to do when we first attain a job in our teenage years and continue to do it as we grow up. It is a flawed practice that takes away our humanity and yet we all conhere to it. The reason we conhere to it is quite simple, because by accepting our system, we are able to bear it easier and have the false dream that one day it will be us at the top of the system. This is a flawed perception that has been fed to us since kids. We have been taught in the school system, that through hard work we will do grand things, and that nothing can stop us. Every kid is taught that they are the center of the universe and that is what the capitalist system seeks to instil, the belief that everyone and anyone will be the actor, but as the kids grow up and start to realize they are not going to be professional athletes, youtubers or tik tokers, then they are faced with the reality of the world, that the world is full with others and that the actor is reserved for a special class in society. The class is not reserved though, the kid will quickly remember that through his education that he is the center of the universe, and although he is a mere dishwasher, warehouse worker or labourer that one day he will believe that this is a mere step to one day becoming actor “it is my dynasty.” The system, however, is created to keep the worker restricted. The average worker in the west earns enough to support himself undeniably, earning 27.75 per hour (Statscanada, 2024). This pay is substantial but does not leave the worker satisfied, according to Stats Canada again 1 in 5 Canadians suffered from mental health issues (Statscanada, 2023). I believe it is because they live in Conscious Purgatory, these kids that are taught that they will rule the world by the merit of hard work are instead sold to mid-level slavery for the rest of their lives. This mid-level slavery is different from the slavery of the Egyptians and in a way more cruel, the western proletarian is given the misconception of hope. As stated early the capitalist society is ran on a lie that work will set you free, this has not been the case and although many success stories will be told about the American Dream, it is ultimately a failed dream and a false god, pushed forward by the ruling class to keep us chained down and in conscious purgatory.

The last paragraph has touched upon it, but at this point, I will go over the dynamics of the actor and the other in more depth. To begin the other is the proletarian, he often works lower level jobs and is looking for ways to climb up the ladder. The proletarian in the west is in one of the most interesting moments/ situations in history, he has everything to be satisfied but is arguably one of the least satisfied groups ever. The reason I believe that this is, is because the proletarian is so close yet so far from becoming the actor. He can experience small luxuries such as going on holiday to developing caribbean countries and experiencing what it means to be the actor, but he knows that deep down he is not. He still needs to work pay- paycheck, he has money issues and yet he feels that he has no reason to be worried, he lives in a first world country, he is a fool to not be satisfied. He convinces himself that these are first world problems and that one day he will be rich, he just needs to put his head down and work. The actor on the other hand is the man who ensures that this is the system, rather he be a politician, a capitalist or a manager the actor needs the other to continue to live in conscious purgatory, because if he doesn't then the actor ceases to exist. The thing is the actor needs the other to exist but the other does not need the actor, if one day the other decides to stand up for himself, then the actor loses his empire because of this the actor must keep the other restricted, the following paragraph will go over how the actor seeks to do this, through things such as social media, vacations as already mentioned and false business opportunities such as NFTs.

First, social media must be tackled.s “A typical user spends around 864 hours a year on social media, which is equivalent to 36 days or a little over a month.” (Aljazerra, 2023). The average person, therefore is not alive for 36 days a year, and instead in conscious purgatory. Recently a term has come to light to explain this kind of activity. The term is “brain rot” as defined by Oxford Dictionary.  Brain Rot is.“the supposed deterioration of a person's mental or intellectual state, especially viewed as the result of overconsumption of material (now particularly online content) considered to be trivial or unchallenging.”(Oxford, 2025). This consumption of media is part of our conscious purgatory, and a rather comfortable portion of it, we spend hours a day on social media, without acknowledging the world around us. At best we are in a meaningless conversation with a friend, at worst we are watching twenty second videos that may grab our attention but are intellectually wrecking us. The 21st century westerner loves to do this, I am guilty of it too, but it is part of the problem that keeps us in conscious purgatory. We work all day at a meaningless job, go home just to ignore the people around us to instead return to the false world of social media. Let alone that we send ourselves to conscious purgatory at work, we send ourselves to it when we arrive home, to avoid the people around us, but why? Because the people around us are real, they have needs and emotions, and frankly our work and programming are not done to serve these personal needs, instead we are programmed to serve the needs of a corporation. To go back to the school example I was never taught how to ensure that my wife is happy/ be a good husband, but I remember countless times where the micro lessons of time management, organisation and obedience, which had made me the good worker I am today, but yet I return home so tired that I return to social media. Now the actor needs us hooked to social media, he needs us to be “brain rotted”, because through this the proletarian revolution will never happen we will simply be too distracted to realize what is happening around us. To end my point, NPR released a headline which says “New study shows just how Facebook's algorithm shapes conservative and liberal bubbles” (Jingnan, 2023). If social media has the ability to both control us by keeping us satisfied and by influencing our decisions, then it is one of the things keeping us in conscious purgatory.

The next example is vacations. This one will be short. Vacations, although enjoyable, provide a short introduction to what it means to be the actor for the other. This becomes an issue, because it gets the other so obsessed with being the actor. It gets them hooked on the idea that one day that will be them, it is destined to be them and every year the other will take another vacation, to a country less developed then the west and remember what it means to be the global actor, but not the domestic one. If the western proletarian reminds the global actor, then the working class revolution will never happen, because he will be under the false dream that he has made it, when he is still being taken advantage of and enslaved by the ruling class. He will continue in conscious purgatory though, as he believes that one day his whole life will be a vacation instead of being for a couple days once a year. The actor needs this dynamic because it feeds the worker enough false hope and energy for him to continue being useful but keeps him distracted enough to not demand more.

Now the final point is NFTs. NFTS which stands for “non fungible tokens”. These tokens took the west by storm in 2017, with the idea that if you could buy the trademarked image of a cartoon in its token form you could become a millionaire. To keep it simple, if you work hard, have an eye for the NFT then you can be rich. Well, now in 2025 when you look up NFTS the first thing that you are greeted with is. Are NFTS dead? The obvious answer. “as many as 95% of NFTs (owned by more than 23 million people) have no value at all” (Forbes, 2023). So why must we talk about NFTS, because it is a classic move by the actor, to give the other false hope, almost a lottery per say. When NFTS first came out “Justin Bieber purchased a ‘Bored Ape’ NFT for a record $1.3 million”(Forbes, 2023). If you see the definition of the actor spending 1.3 million dollars for nothing, then of course your first reaction is that you might as well buy these NFTS so maybe you can be the one who can sell his next NFT for even more, but instead most are worthless now. So how does the actor benefit? The actor benefits by yet again giving false hope, just another case of the false dream of upward mobility. The average capitalist will always tell you “Capitalistism is the only system that by hard work you can become rich.” There is some truth to that, capitalism is the only system that can ensure that a select few will become ultra wealthy by the merit of hard work, or more often a mix of hard work and taking advantage of the hard work of the other. The NFT shows that a select few did become rich, but 95% of the world lost all the money they poured into this investment and yet in our capitalistic world it is rarely spoken about. This is one of many cases of the actor manipulating the market in his favour. You can write a whole essay on the manipulation of the stock market , or crypto as well, but I choose NFTS because it is such a western problem. The last point is as westerners we often blame the other for his downfall then the actor, when the NFTS downfall happened, you saw many people berating the other for being dumb enough to buy it in the first place, which although understandable is a problem. Because you rarely see people criticising the actor for putting the very system in place, instead of making fun of eachother we must begin to hold the actor accountable.

So what is the solution to conscious purgatory? There are two things that we must do, one mental and one societal. First mentality, we must rebel against conscious purgatory. This rebellion is quite simple, it is to be alive again, instead of being distracted by the world around us, we must live in the world around us once again. Camus Myth Of Sisyphus saved my life, but it did not make me live, it made me tolerate. Today we must shake our chains off, and begin to live again. The gods did not impose a rock on us, like they did to Sysiphus, this capitalist system that we struggle under everyday is self imposed, because of this it is our mental duty to no longer live in conscious purgatory and escape it.  

It is not a question if we can escape a conscious purgatory, as I know as humans we are capable but more so one of when we will finally do it. I can not predict it, but I can tell that each day we are getting closer, and when the moment comes we must commence a revolution. There are many flaws within our system, the amount that we are controlled, the false dreams we are sold and most of all the fact that the one life we live, we are mostly dreaming in conscious purgatory. The socialist revolution is needed, we need a system where humanity is preferred to profit, where the other does not exist, where the actor is smashed to pieces and where humans will breathe again. Because of Conscious Purgatory we have not been breathing, we have been dreaming this false dream of success that we sell our humanity for, without even ever achieving said success. The actor is laughing while we keep ourselves down. We must choose to fight, we must choose to feel pain again and most of all we must choose to live again, because if we live in conscious purgatory, then we may as well never have lived as well.

Work Cited

Government Of Canada, S. C. (2024, December 16). Map 1average offered hourly wage and average hourly wage by province and territory, third quarter of 2024. Average offered hourly wage and average hourly wage by province and territory, third quarter of 2024. https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/241216/mc-a001-eng.htm 

Government of Canada, Statistics Canada. (2023, September 22). Using data from the 2022 mental health and access to care survey, this infographic presents the prevalence of selected mood, anxiety, and substance use disorders. results are compared with the results of the 2002 and 2012 cycles of the Canadian Community Health Survey - Mental Health. the infographic also looks at unmet mental health care needs of those who met diagnostic criteria for a mood, anxiety, or substance use disorder. https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/11-627-m/11-627-m2023053-eng.htm 

Jingnan, H., & Bond, S. (2023, July 27). New study shows just how Facebook’s algorithm shapes conservative and liberal bubbles. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2023/07/27/1190383104/new-study-shows-just-how-facebooks-algorithm-shapes-conservative-and-liberal-bub 

Oxford word of the year 2024. Oxford University Press. (2025, January 22). https://corp.oup.com/word-of-the-year/#:~:text=(n.),to%20lead%20to%20such%20deterioration. 

  Forbes, Lindhe, J., & Staff, F. (2024, September 16). 95% of nfts are dead. but why?. Forbes Australia. https://www.forbes.com.au/covers/investing/95-per-cent-of-nfts-worthless-study-finds/