The first thing I’d change about modern society? I’d kill the noise. The constant hum of empty chatter, dopamine pings, and algorithmic sludge pumping into our skulls like anesthesia for the soul.

We’ve built a system designed to sedate us scroll, consume, obey. The bastards at the top want us bloated, comfortable, and quiet. Don’t ask questions. Don’t climb the tower. Don’t light the beacon. Just keep swiping your glass rectangle until the graveyard shift comes calling.

We’ve lost the raw madness that kept the species alive. The grit. The wilderness. The deep need to howl at the stars and fight like hell for something bigger than ourselves. People talk about “progress,” but all I see are cages made of plastic and LED lights.

If I could burn it all down and start over, I’d tear out every shopping mall and replace it with forests. No more beige cubicles sucking the life out of people. No more concrete deserts where kids forget what grass feels like. I’d force everyone to go outside until their soft, screen-fried brains remember the smell of rain and the sound of wind in the trees.

I’d bring back the wild-eyed lighthouse keepers. The freaks and visionaries. The ones who manned the edges of the map and screamed warnings when the ships drifted too close to the rocks. They’re gone now. Replaced with consultants and influencers selling us empty promises in 30-second clips.

Modern society needs a hard reset. Not because I hate it, but because I still believe in what it could be. Somewhere under all this plastic and noise, there’s a spark left. You see it in the wilderness. You feel it when you stand at the edge of a cliff, camera in hand, and realize you’ve lost all sense of time. That’s where we need to live again, on the raw, electric edge of life.

We forgot how to suffer well. We forgot how to live well. And if we don’t remember soon, the earth will shake us off like a bad fever.

So yes, I’d change it. Burn down the cages. Cut the power to the machines. Let the animals run wild again, including us. Maybe then we’ll deserve to keep going.

The clock is ticking. And the lighthouse is empty.