We Are All Becoming Hikikomori

In Elliot's most optimistically titled video yet, we examine how cost of living, mental illness, and alienation of labor all set the table for an American--and global--crisis of "disconnected youth," not dissimilar to Japan's infamous "hikikomori" phenomenon.

featuring the voice of @FinntasticMrFox as Luca

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editing by danae o.!

thumbnail by @userbfly

00:00 introduction
02:51 luca
05:56 austerity and ableism
08:47 carceral sanism
14:55 alienation

Bibliography

Clara E. Matthei (2022). ““How Economists Invented Austerity & Paved the Way to Fascism”

Liat Ben-Moshe (2020). “Decarcerating Disability”.

Karl Marx (1844). “Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844”

Music: “KALEIDOSCOPE” (prod. plantcham)

[elliotsangestevez]

we accidentally put adler-bolton's "psychiatric imaginary" article twice; the one on eugenics is called “Eugenics and the Economic Valuation of Life” and it is linked in the bibliography in the description

[hebedite]

I think it is also very important to call out the fact that disability benefits in the US are a joke, and keep people in poverty. For example you are not allowed to have any outside income exceeding $1, 470 per month ($2, 460 if you are blind), you are not allowed to have over $2, 000 in "assets" which includes, savings accounts, cash, land, vehicles, and household goods(which are vaguely defined as anything you own that can be converted into cash or used for food/shelter), and these assets can include things your parents, spouses, and immigration sponsors own. On top of all that you are guaranteed to have to apply 3 or more times because you will be denied multiple times, and this is supposed to be a means to "discourage" people trying to "fake" disability to receive benefits. Oh and of course your benefits, if you are single, max out at $914 per month (states can increase this amount, but even CA caps it at around $1, 500 i think). Disability is a joke and it's important to note the caps on how much in assets you can have were defined in the 1970s and have never been updated. They do not increase according to inflation, and the bill to counteract this has been on hold for years now and hasn't even been voted on in congress...

[amandamccallum]

I think more and more people are coming to the realization that we were not created to pay bills and die. The state of society, every job overworked and underpaid, all expenses too high so you are a wage slave. Young people are looking at it and saying you want me to spend my whole life doing what?

[Christine.Baraka]

What's amazing is that this system creates all kinds of dysfunction in people due to stress, but some respond to the stress by actually being able to work harder. They become numb to their own physical and mental needs as they just keep working harder and harder. Capitalism loves these people, and will continue to champion them as the "ideal" while those of us who become chronically ill and disabled due to the stress are left to become homeless or institutionalized. The people who appear "successful" at the top are still very unhealthy just like those at the bottom. This is what capitalism creates.

[jonathanschweiss]

It's distressing to see how a lot of people responded so derisively to that woman's frustration with full-time work because I found her experience extremely relatable.

[meditationforhumanswithpro]

The issue of American Hikikomori is near and dear to my heart, I spent 10 years in a room playing video games and drinking whiskey. Just alone for 10 years. I can confirm this "deficit" was STAGGERING to overcome, when I made the choice to make a change and spent just about another 10 years crawling out of that hole . I work one or two guys helping them make a similar change. I believe that this issue of disenfranchised youth is going to be a massive challenge in the next 50 years. thank you so much for speaking on this issue and thank you for bringing the this topic to your channel.

That aside, I wish you luck man, I watch a lot of commentary on youtube and You are a voice that I hope is around for years to come.

[graycat]

Ngl I’m a girl and low key a hikikomori or a shut in. I’ve lived a very sheltered life to the point that I’m so comfortable being alone for months. I have dreams and aspirations now but at one point I use to be so used to being inside. Covid didn’t affect me at all. I haven’t been outside the house in a while again but I don’t care.

[serijas]

I don't see that as a mental illness. That's just a natural "give up" response to a situation that's helpless.
Our system **is** fucked up.
Our system **is** brutal and doesn't allow you to stand on your feet.
It's just the nature of the reality we live in.

[downtherabbithole]

As a disabled person living outside the US, I don’t know how disabled ppl in the US survive. I am worn down by our system & struggling, even though it’s so much better here. Sending ❤️ & 💪 to us all in the Disability community.

[AnnaCatherineB]

Its bizarre and horrifying that working and following what we are told is considered more sane than being free and protesting by whatever means necesary so people stop being abused and killed around us.

[buttercupghost]

I dropped out of high school, and the only times I go outside are on the weekends my parent comes to visit and when I have doctors appointments. There were a lot of reasons for why I dropped out; I have chronic illness, chronic migraines, P.O.T.S. and unexplained health issues. I also have bipolar type 2, anxiety, autism, and ADHD. Back when I was in high school, I wasn’t diagnosed for bipolar, and being not properly medicated for it definitely ruined my life. Just my chronic regular health issues would be bad enough, but falling into depressive episodes was catastrophic. I couldn't keep up with the work. I couldn't handle being in school. I dropped out, with the intention of taking the GED. However, everytime I tried to study, I would have panic attacks, feeling like I was back in that dark place in my life. My way of dealing with anxiety isn't healthy; I either try to push through it, or I avoid it. Neither are great reactions. I dropped out when I was sixteen; I'm twenty one, and I still haven't taken the GED. I can’t. I just panic anytime I try to study.

I feel like I'm trapped, but I don’t want to go out, either. It feels like such a pain to go out, to do anything, I'm just not interested in it. I think the worst part is less than I'm trapped in this house, and more that I'm trapped alone. I don’t have many friends, and the ones I do are online. Even those friends aren't interested in my special interest, and I sometimes feel they just aren't interested in me. I live with my sibling and one of my moms, and sometimes my siblings friends visit and my other mom. That's my entire world.

I don't want to escape. The world is scary. All I want to do is write and read, I don't want to do anything else. All I want to do is immerse myself in my special interests and hyperfixation. I just don't care about anything else. I'm scared of the world, and what do I do with things that scare me? I avoid them.

Ever since I've gotten on medication, my anxiety has been worse. I no longer want to die, and that scares me so much. Because if I want to live, that means I can't escape by dying, because I'm now scared of dying. I feel trapped by my want to live—but I also don't want to go back to being that depressed.

I don't know what to do.

Not to mention, it HURTS to do anything. Walking hurts. Going out and doing things PHYSICALLY HURTS. My body hurts. It makes me not want to do anything.

I think it totally stems from capitalism. If it wasn't for needing money, I wouldn't be so worried about being a shut in. I would be less afraid of the world, and I would avoid it less. But I feel so powerless, because even just saying capitalism is the problem feels like it's screaming into the void. I feel helpless.

[schizotakes]

ive been a Hikikomori since 2020, and honestly it hurts so fucking much. i used to try to make myself go and enjoy stuff outside do stuff alone. but i just cant enjoy it. it feels meaningless alone honestly. i dont WANT this life but it feels so fucking hard to get out of the hole and enjoy my youth when literally nothing outside my room is bringing me joy. infact going outside makes me feel fucking worse somehow. seeing how life passes you by like you're a particle of dust in the breeze and wishing you could find the internal peace to accept your reality. but since humans are social critters. its void.

[kaijuultimax]

I've been Hikikomori since the pandemic started. I lost all my high school friends in 2018 and my girlfriend left me shortly after I left for college in 2019. After graduating college in 2021 and feeling robbed because I spent most of my time getting my Bachelors by sitting in my mom's house on Zoom, I was greeted by the tech industry bubble bursting. 2 years later, I still an unemployed. I want to be a part of the world, but between what happened with my relationships, the pandemic, the software industry being impenetrable and my degree making part-time jobs turn down my applications, it honestly feel like the world just doesn't want me around anymore. I just stay in my room now, skipping multiple meals every week to minimize the burden on my parents (who are already struggling just as hard as everyone else in the current economy) and hoping that maybe one of the indie games I'm making will generate just enough money for me to escape this hell of starvation and isolation.

[binuxuser]

Been in isolation for more than a decade now, very rarely leaving the house and only doing so for healthcare purposes. I feel like I went mad at some point when I realized the unreasonable expectations of time and productivity that capitalism requires.

The exception being that I got a job earlier this year, working part-time as a sort of intern at a software company, earning much less than minimum wage. To be honest, I wouldn't go back to that job for ten times what I used to make. And I think there lies the problem. We've built a system that doesn't compensate people fairly, threatens them with hunger, pain, cold and even death if they don't adapt, and tells them to be thankful for the privilege at every step. Why in the world should I spend nearly a third of my life working to make someone else richer while not even being paid fairly for it?

I don't know if I'm self-righteous enough to call it a personal rebellion, but it does feel good to escape the system somewhat, even in this hollow way. There's things I want to do. I want to make cool art. I want to go to the grocery store and feel the air conditioning and buy food. But there's always a strange layer of fakeness to everything. No one is there because they want to, everyone has a gun to their head. How can anyone genuinely engage with anything while under that kind of oppression?

I feel like there's nothing for me here, in this world that we built.

[aabrightlove]

No one ever chose to be alive, so allowing each other to suffer through life is truly abhorrent

[warpdrivefueledbyinsomnia]

In a lot of cases, these hikikomori could very easily be integrated into normal society and could prove to be very contributive. All it requires is just being willing to think a little bit differently about how they are treated.

And if there is one thing we fail horribly at doing in the US, it's dealing with "different".

[nathanpellow]

Our masters and owners have done a really great job at keeping us separated. Almost everyone or anyone has been othered or labeled as undesirable. It’s wild if you just take a couple seconds and think about any group and how we’ve all be propagandized to not trust each other. No wonder we are lonely and isolated. SMH

[Patchouliprince]

The pandemic really truly did make this so much worse. I’ve been isolated and so lonely for three years now and no one acts like it’s important anymore so I’m shoved to the sidelines. Since other people aren’t willing to take precautions to keep everyone safe I’ve had to become a complete shut in. It sucks.

[gfy]

Society is so fucked, of course nobody wants to go out in it. Another banger, Elliot

[Nathouuuutheone]

Listening to this in the middle of the night, in my parents' basement, living off welfare, unable and unwilling to have a normal job or go to school, major anxiety issues, counter-culture fanatic, watching youtube videos and anime and scrolling on reddit all day...

And yes, I did encounter the term hikikomori a while ago along with adjacent concepts and find it to be a reflection of me and a sort of philosophical groundwork for justificiation that I'm essentially living my best life under the circumstances. The fact that the cost of living is growing fast is just reinforcing my idea that the system is not made for me and does not deserve that I break myself to fit in. If they want us to starve, I will gladly starve without giving them a single minute of my time. I will only go out if it's to do something truly worthwhile, and there is very little I find worthwhile besides fighting against the coercion and oppression of the system.