---
title: The Tyrany of Obviousness
date: "2024-01-20T10:58:27Z"
publishDate: "2023-12-24T20:51:49Z"
bookmarkOf: https://mentalhellth.xyz/p/breaking-the-tyranny-of-obviousness
references:
  bookmark:
    url: https://mentalhellth.xyz/p/breaking-the-tyranny-of-obviousness
    type: entry
    name: Breaking the Tyranny of Obviousness
    summary: We are stuck in a hell of frictionlessness.
    author: P.E. Moskowitz
tags:
- Miriscient
- curious
- grief
---


A superb read, especially for me as I look for more depth in life.

I think I've certainly trained myself for a frictionless existence, and have (up until the last few years) tended to avoid difficult thoughts — but I feel so much richer for embracing them!

### Highlights

> “A picture lives by companionship, expanding and quickening in the eyes of the sensitive observer,” [Rothko once wrote](https://www.nytimes.com/1970/02/26/archives/mark-rothko-artist-a-suicide-here-at-66-mark-rothko-abstract.html). “It dies by the same token. It is therefore a risky and unfeeling act to send it out into the world. How often it must be permanently impaired by the eyes of the vulgar and the cruelty of the impotent who would extend the affliction universally!”

---

> there are many forces preventing us from feeling abstractly and confusingly and deeply, and from producing things that help others feel so.

I keep finding myself coming back to this thought in particular. I _want_ to feel abstractly and deeply — it feels much more like "living".