How The Pandemic Exposed We're All Just Pretending

Original Article by Lynn Steger Strong theguardian.com

In her essay, Hamilton speaks of talking to others she also thought of as successful who were actually just performing success the same way she did. Hearing them say now that they were one bad week or month from going under before Covid-19 shocked her. She discovered that, in fact, the lot of it has been a ruse for a while.

It’s not just shame that keeps us quiet either. We keep our “failures” close to us because we know, especially in the markets that both Hamilton and I work in – art, books, restaurants – it’s so much about appearance. Is that book or that chef, that artist important? Why should anyone pay for her rent, her studio, her tour? Our pretending we’re not drowning is the proof we have that we might still be worth saving. Our performing stability is one of the few ways that we hope we might navigate the narrow avenues that might still get us out.

Hosts Zack Hayes and Phil Hayes breakdown the article from theguardian.com in this week's episode of Pure Speculation. Follow us on Twitter @strugglestate

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