Treachery Of The Common

Cover image for the Treachery Of The Common word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Treachery Of The Common

n.
the fear that everyone around the world is pretty much the same—that despite our local quirks, we were all mass-produced in the same factory, built outward from the same generic homunculus, preinstalled with the same tribal compulsions and character defects—which would leave you out of options if you ever want to reinvent yourself, or seek out a better society on the other side of the globe.

A riff on the tragedy of the commons, which is a situation where individual users acting in their own self-interest end up harming the common good, usually by depletion or pollution of resources.

Mottleheaded

Cover image for the Mottleheaded word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Ecsis

a hand holding a fossil

Mithenness

a person standing on the side of a road

Wollah

a person with shapes raining on them

Rubatosis

Cover image for the Rubatosis word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Amentalio

a person in a white dress, facing away