In a world that often feels like it's on fire, the simple act of being human has become an exhausting, contradictory burden. This is the central argument of a poignant opinion piece by Alice Switocz Goldbloom, published on December 31, 2025, which captures the unique anxieties of our time.
The Paradox of Modern Existence
Goldbloom acknowledges that hardship is not new to the human experience, citing examples like her own parents surviving Nazi-occupied Poland. However, she argues that the present moment carries a particular and pervasive weight. The demand is to care deeply about a relentless barrage of issues—from global climate change and fragile democracies to wars on multiple continents and the disruptive rise of artificial intelligence—while simultaneously managing personal concerns like family health and relationships.
The challenge, she writes, is to care enough but not so much that you become draining to others. This extends to our digital lives: we must be present on social media to stay connected, yet limit our exposure to avoid mental poisoning. We are expected to post sufficiently to prove we exist, but guard against oversharing. We should care about audience engagement, but not let it define us. It’s a tightrope walk of emotional labor that leaves many feeling spent.
A Canadian's Smug Yet Terrified Vigil
The author provides a distinctly Canadian lens on this global unease. Canadians, she observes, often watch the political and social turmoil in the United States with a mixture of horror and fascination, like witnessing a slow-motion train wreck. There is a creeping fear that similar democratic fragility could eventually reach Canada, albeit potentially tempered by the country's social safety nets like universal health care.
This position breeds a dual sensation of smugness and terror. The national stereotype of politeness and reason feels insufficient when confronting fundamental threats to democracy and a planet in crisis. "Canadian politeness doesn’t help much when democracy is fragile and the world is on fire," Goldbloom notes pointedly.
The Unrelenting Pressure Across Generations
This burden of modern humanity does not lift with age; it merely transforms. For older adults and retirees, the anxieties shift to financial security, the nature of one's final years, fears of becoming a burden, and whether one has adequately prepared the next generation. The promised peace of perspective is often overshadowed by fatigue and the physical aches of aging.
For Americans, which the author calls "its own peculiar burden," the pressure involves maintaining faith in national ideals and the democratic experiment amid evidence that suggests the country is perpetually on the brink. The task is to love a nation seemingly incapable of self-love.
Ultimately, Goldbloom's piece is a raw reflection on the collective exhaustion of 2025. It articulates the silent struggle of balancing infinite concern with personal preservation, highlighting how the very tools and connections designed to improve our lives have also compounded the weight of simply being human.
