Are you depressed or trapped in an elaborate pyramid scheme?

Capitalism’s relentless demand for productivity fuels burnout and alienation, prompting "quiet quitting"

 

Last year, Céline Tshika’s satirical jingle calling out the absurdity of life under late-stage capitalism was all over social media. To be honest, it still lives in my head rent-free.

Scroll through Instagram or TikTok and you'll find a lot of content like this: meme after meme, reel after reel, all satirising the ridiculous, productivity-and-progress-obsessed modern world we live in.

You might laugh, but beneath the humour lies a painful truth. We have inherited a dumpster fire of a world, run by some pretty insidious white men. We are locked into a system that prioritises profit and productivity over human well-being – so yes, our frustration runs deep.

As memes that make light of burnout, depression, and crushing existential dread increase in popularity, they also reveal a much larger issue: the profound alienation the average person experiences under late-stage capitalism.
This isn’t a new phenomenon. But it is becoming more and more obvious that the system we are trapped in was not built for human fulfilment.

Capitalism is cognitively destructive because it alienates individuals from their work, themselves, and each other, while perpetuating a culture of relentless productivity and self-blame.

Marx’s theory of alienation reveals how capitalism deeply disrupts the human psyche by severing individuals from key aspects of their existence. He argued that in a capitalist society, the worker is no longer connected to the products of their labour. Instead, their work becomes a means to an end — to generate profit for someone else.

The repetitive, monotonous nature of production deprives workers of creativity and agency, reducing them to dehumanised cogs in a profit-driven system. Capitalism also alienates individuals from their species-being—their innate potential for meaningful, creative activity—and fosters competition that isolates them from one another, eroding genuine social bonds and leaving them disconnected and disempowered.

Fast forward to today: As capitalism continues to evolve, so does its capacity to alienate.

Neoliberal capitalism thrives on the myth of meritocracy, demanding relentless effort while offering few rewards. This creates cognitive dissonance, where individuals internalise systemic failures as personal inadequacies.

Market logic is embedded into every aspect of our lives. It encourages us to become “entrepreneurs of the self,” obsessively optimising productivity and marketability at the cost of our mental health. Failure is framed as personal responsibility rather than a systemic issue, fostering shame and guilt while deflecting blame from the system itself. This commodifies happiness, promoting it as a purchasable product through goods, self-help programmes, or therapy, all while reinforcing the very structures that generate widespread dissatisfaction and despair.

This constant demand for productivity translates into longer work hours, higher expectations, and, inevitably, burnout, pushing workers into an endless cycle of "hustle culture.”

The result? An alarming rise in unhappy, overworked, disillusioned people.

Anxiety, depression, and burnout are often framed as individual problems that require personal solutions — like medication and therapy – but it's clear that these issues are not solely the result of personal shortcomings or a lack of "grit." Instead, they reflect the structural violence the capitalist system is predicated on.

The logic of constant productivity that underpins capitalism demands more than we can give. It fosters a culture where rest is seen as laziness, and where the pursuit of happiness is a never-ending chase for the next promotion, the next hustle, or the next self-improvement challenge. The pressure to "do it all" in a world that increasingly demands perfection has led to an epidemic of mental health crises.

Anxiety and depression are symptoms of a broken system, not individual failures.

As Marx would argue, alienation in a capitalist society is not merely an emotional or mental state; it is a reflection of the exploitation and dehumanisation at the core of the system itself. The constant drive for more — more work, more productivity, more success — comes at the expense of our well-being.

Under capitalism, community and solidarity are replaced by competition and individualism. As Marx noted, “the ruling ideas of any age are the ideas of its ruling class,” and in this age, those ideas emphasise self-interest over collective well-being. This erodes the cognitive and emotional support systems that humans rely on, deepening feelings of isolation and alienation.

By recognising the cognitive violence of capitalism, individuals can begin to reclaim their agency and build alternative ways of thinking and living.

And so, here we are, increasingly sick of the 9-to-5 grind. We’ve seen the promises of capitalism and we’re no longer buying into them. The idea that we can have it all — a fulfilling career, mental peace, and personal happiness — has been shattered by the reality of burnout, structural inequality, and the pressure to always "do more."

So, what’s the solution? Well, Gen Z’s response has been clear: If capitalism won’t let us rest, we’ll cheat the system. The rise of the “quiet quitting” trend is only the beginning. We’re rejecting the corporate grind and opting out of the idea that our worth is tied to our productivity. The endless pursuit of success is not only exhausting, it’s also a trap.

In the end, we’re not just rejecting the 9-to-5 workday; we’re rejecting a system that demands we sacrifice our well-being for the benefit of the few on top. So, while your boss might be clinging to the idea that you should work harder, you should think about finding ways to tap back into sustainable sources of meaning: community, spirituality, creativity. And keep making memes.