Two Sylvias' Weekly Muse: December 24, 2023

Issue 87

Hello Muse Readers!

Do you remember the character of the Red Queen in Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass? Alice meets the Red Queen, who encourages Alice to run beside her. The Queen repeatedly cries, “Faster! Faster!” but Alice cannot keep up with her, and she notices that they are seemingly running in place as they never seem to pass anything. When the Red Queen finally allows Alice to take a break, the Queen explains, “Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place.”

In a fascinating article titled, “The Red Queen Fallacy,” author and Global Politics Professor Brian Klaas (University of London) believes that this parable from Wonderland is a warning for our current society, where many of us feel that we exist in a frantic race just to keep up with life. We constantly feel behind and stressed out, attempting to attain a goal or destination, but we never quite arrive there (wherever “there” is). If you’re not busy, hurrying, and hustling, then…