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.

Wildred

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

Indosentia

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

Kadot

a person looking at an abstract spiral

Keyframe

a large rock in the water with emanating ripples

Anchorage

a person's arm extended over river rapids

Nemotia

a city with clouds of smoke