When I was really struggling, becoming seriously physically sick while trying to keep going and force myself to my shitty job where I was shouted at, commuting on trains where I was lucky if I got on the first and had to stand pressed against people...
I was telling myself how lucky I was because it was an office job (even if it was clerical and basically a deadend), paid more than most, and was in a fancy area, that I could afford food and shelter (a room in someones house, it was London).
What got to me the most was the adverts everywhere, the newspaper articles in the Evening Standard/Independent, Guardian, Telegraph, etc pretending everything is fine... talking about a life I could never afford and pretending that's "normal" and "middle class". And also feeling guilty for struggling myself, because I could see how many people were struggling with homelessness and poverty, so what right did I have to complain, I thought.
Sorry, none of this is related to the article, it's just what this picture:
Made me think.
The "orderly" signs (I think it was the font that set me off on this), like everything is fine, like nothing is wrong, just follow the rules, like the world is fine and fair like many imagine it is as a young child, like we're patronisingly told it is as adults.
Made me think about how "dystopian" our world is, the shiny veneer, the lies, impervious to the suffering going on around and in front of it. People looking at, hearing, the lies and feeling they're inadequate, they're the one at fault, when none of it was "real" to start with.
I absolutely don't mean to compare my experiences with getting so sick I needed surgeries (for which I had to leave the UK and move to my partners country because of the state the NHS is in) and two years to heal, to people covered in these articles. I suffered but I didn't fall into poverty, even with what happened to me I am one of the lucky ones in late capitalism, I had savings and my fiancé can support me for now.
But that picture just brought back the strain and tiredness and fear I felt, and so many other people must be in similar situations, or worse, and there's so much silence about it because we're all been taught to blame ourselves even though this is obviously bigger than "personal responsibility".