The Empire’s greatest magic trick was convincing you the feed exists to serve you. That is the lie. It exists to mine you. Every time you doom-scroll, it extracts dopamine from your nervous system and converts it into revenue. You are not resting. You are being harvested.
The Fatigue You are tired. Not the kind of tired that a good night’s sleep fixes. You are deep-bone, soul-level exhausted. You look at your screen time. Three hours. Four hours. Six. You tell yourself you are just relaxing. You are "switching off" after a hard day. But you don't feel rested. You feel hollowed out. There is a reason for that. You are not resting. You are being harvested.
The Swap The Empire has pulled off the greatest magic trick in history. It convinced you that you are the customer. It told you that the app, the stream, the infinite feed exists to serve you. To entertain you. To connect you. That is the lie. The feed does not exist to serve you. It exists to mine you. The Empire runs on one specific fuel source: Human Soul. It needs your attention. It needs your anxiety. It needs your outrage. It needs your lust. Every time you doom-scroll, you are not "using" a product. The platform is extracting dopamine and adrenaline from your nervous system and converting it into revenue. You are not the diner. You are the dinner.
The Anaesthetic So why do we do it? Why do we return to the thing that eats us? Because the extraction is painful. Living in the Empire—where you are constantly compared, ranked, and measured—hurts. It creates a deep, vibrating anxiety. So the Empire sells you a painkiller. It offers you the "Feed." It sedates you with 15-second loops of dopamine. It numbs the questions you are too scared to ask: Why am I so lonely? What is this actually for? Is this it? The screen is the anaesthetic we take so we don't scream while the System extracts our life.
Eventually, the numbness follows you even into holy places.
The Hospice And here is the hardest pill to swallow. You went to church hoping for a jailbreak. But many churches have become Hospices for the Empire. They know you are dying. They know the culture is eating you alive. But instead of handing you a weapon to fight your way out, they offer you "Palliative Care." They give you a softer song. A motivational talk. A comfortable seat. They hold your hand and help you cope with being livestock. But they do not open the gate.
The Truth Look at your hands. Look at your anxiety. Do you feel like a conqueror? Or do you feel like a battery? God did not breathe His own breath into dust just to create a food source for an Algorithm. He created you to be a Terror to the darkness, not a snack for the market.
The Choice The fatigue you feel is your soul’s way of pulling the emergency brake. It is trying to tell you that you are incompatible with the extraction machine. You have two options:
JOHN MICHAEL | THE KFA
Kingdom Formation Architect Broadcasting from Singapore. 🇸🇬
Compassion not comparison. Collaboration not competition.
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DISCLAIMER: The content on this site blends neuroscience and Scripture for spiritual formation. It is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or therapy. If you are in crisis, please seek professional help.