#tmbsbook

I always get something new each time I read the mysterious benedict society especially as I grow up and find myself in different season learning new lessons. I recently reread it and this is what I took away from it this time. There is a difference between the illusion of control and actual control. There is a difference between the illusion of community and actual community. There is a difference between the illusion of happiness and actual happiness. Just like the hidden messages, social media is attempting to create a feeling of control, community, and happiness, but it is all FAKE. it is a complete illusion and one that will eventually just make us feel more out of control, alone, and depressed than we first were. Just like Mr. Curtain creating the very problem he offers a solution to, social media and society/culture in general hooks us into a vicious cycle of fear and insecurity and uses that to keep us coming back for more and more. Because, just like the Whisperer, we might feel good and feel like our fears and insecurities are solved in the moment, but they ALWAYS come back. Because like Mr. Curtain says and Reynie later learns: the only way to truly overcome them is to FACE them with total and complete honesty. It is realizing the real community you have fighting alongside you and choosing to pursue genuine connection with them despite the fear of being lonely. It is realizing that there is no such thing as complete control and embracing the small things you can control. It is recognizing that true happiness can never come from something that only intends to deceive you out of your sadness. How does Reynie and the gang defeat the Whisperer and its irresistible pull? By recognizing the REAL thing that they have: each other. Human connection is what it is all about. It's hard, it's messy, it's scary, but wouldn't you rather live a life that is true and not built on a lie? Choose truth. Choose community. I am always astoundished (ifykyk) by how ahead of its time this book is. So much relevance as we continue to be an increasingly digital age. May we always hold onto our unusually powerful love of truth :)

rereading the mysterious benedict society is always so weird because I genuinely forget that Milligan's main trait was "sad" because he's literally the happiest most joyful whimsical character in the rest of the series :')

everyone debating the red button or blue button but I've played these games before (I read the first chapter of the mysterious benedict society and the prisoner's dilemma)