Bad to the bone

There’s a sickness beneath the surface of modern civilization, a quiet rot spreading through our institutions, relationships, and communities. You don’t have to look far to see it, cruelty disguised as commentary, betrayal normalized in love, profit prioritized over people. Somewhere along the way, the social fabric began to fray, and now, the seams are splitting.

Are we inherently bad to the bone?

The desensitization of the soul: 

Every headline bleeds, every feed scrolls by with one more tragedy, and every time, we care a little less.

We’ve been conditioned to accept the unacceptable, to justify mistreatment if it aligns with our team, our tribe, our side. Decency becomes conditional, kindness reserved for the deserving, but who decides who deserves it?

In this new world, empathy feels old-fashioned, integrity seems naïve. 

Compassion = Weakness.

The collapse of collective responsibility: 

• We no longer see ourselves in one another.
• We walk past suffering.
• We scroll past pain.
• We justify neglect with self-preservation.

Our connections have become transactional. Friendships are filtered. Intimacy is outsourced. Trust is a currency too rare to spend freely, and in the absence of mutual accountability, cruelty multiplies. Small slights snowball into systemic harm.

We tell ourselves, “It’s not my fault", and maybe it isn’t, but it is our problem.

Are we rotten, or just tired?

Perhaps we’re not bad to the bone, but bruised to the core. Generations raised in survival mode. Traumas passed like heirlooms. Empathy crushed under the weight of economic hardship, social division, and digital disconnection.

People act out not always from malice, but from fear from scarcity, from learned helplessness masked as confidence.

And yet…

Hope in the hollow: 

Even in decay, there is renewal, the tree with the hollow trunk still bears fruit, the broken city still houses love. The world still has those who reach out when others turn away, the antidote to rot is not rage, it’s responsibility.

• To be better, where others have failed.
• To act justly, where it would be easier to ignore.
• To keep showing up with softness in a world hardened by hurt.

Conclusion:

Being “bad to the bone” isn’t a birthright, it’s a choice, made easier by apathy and harder by accountability, but history is shaped not by those who follow the decay, but those who resist it.

So resist.

Choose decency, even when it’s inconvenient, speak up, even when silence is simpler, love fiercely, even when fear tells you not to.

Because even in a collapsing society, one kind act still holds the power to rebuild. 

If this resonated with you, you might love a free short course worksheet, please email me for a list of topics to choose from, thank you.