"The Internet has usurped the collective unconscious and access to cosmic consciousness has become difficult and almost primitive"
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Maron’s line lands like a late-night complaint that secretly doubles as a spiritual diagnosis: we’ve traded the old, messy inner commons for an algorithmic feed, and the swap wasn’t neutral. “Usurped” is doing the heavy lifting. It’s not that the Internet merely influences how we think; it stages a coup, occupying the space where shared myths, anxieties, and instincts used to simmer without being monetized or A/B tested.
The phrase “collective unconscious” borrows Jung’s grand language, but Maron uses it with a comedian’s skepticism: he’s naming something huge while hinting that we’re too distracted to even argue about it. Then he pivots to “cosmic consciousness,” a term that evokes psychedelia, meditation, all the ’60s-and-beyond promises of expanded awareness. The sting is in the downgrade: access to that bigger mind is now “difficult and almost primitive.” In a world of infinite information, the most basic human task - getting quiet enough to feel connected to anything larger than yourself - has become a stone-tool exercise.
The subtext is less anti-technology than anti-replacement. The Internet doesn’t just fill time; it crowds out the conditions that used to invite insight: boredom, solitude, sustained attention, the slow processing that turns experience into meaning. Coming from Maron, a podcaster whose career thrives online, the irony sharpens the point. He’s both beneficiary and casualty, voicing a cultural anxiety many people feel while scrolling: hyperconnected, over-informed, and somehow farther from whatever “real” is supposed to be.
The phrase “collective unconscious” borrows Jung’s grand language, but Maron uses it with a comedian’s skepticism: he’s naming something huge while hinting that we’re too distracted to even argue about it. Then he pivots to “cosmic consciousness,” a term that evokes psychedelia, meditation, all the ’60s-and-beyond promises of expanded awareness. The sting is in the downgrade: access to that bigger mind is now “difficult and almost primitive.” In a world of infinite information, the most basic human task - getting quiet enough to feel connected to anything larger than yourself - has become a stone-tool exercise.
The subtext is less anti-technology than anti-replacement. The Internet doesn’t just fill time; it crowds out the conditions that used to invite insight: boredom, solitude, sustained attention, the slow processing that turns experience into meaning. Coming from Maron, a podcaster whose career thrives online, the irony sharpens the point. He’s both beneficiary and casualty, voicing a cultural anxiety many people feel while scrolling: hyperconnected, over-informed, and somehow farther from whatever “real” is supposed to be.
Quote Details
| Topic | Internet |
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