UNDER
TONE
A weekly newsletter from WizBuskOut
The ideas I can’t squeeze into a video.
Every Sunday, I pick one thing I can’t stop thinking about and pull apart the pattern underneath it. Sometimes it’s psychology. Sometimes philosophy, power, culture, money, awareness, or something harder to label.
One email a week. No daily noise.
Actual editions, shortened
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No testimonials. No promise that one email will change your life. Open whichever title makes you curious and see whether you want another one next Sunday.
A Lonely Person Is a Better Customer
What used to be handled by other people can now be sold back to you.
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For much of the last century, more of everyday life happened through people you knew.
Friends listened. Neighbors helped. Families shared childcare. Workers talked to other workers. Local groups gave people places to meet, exchange information, and organize.
People sucked back then too. Communities could be intrusive, judgmental, controlling, and exclusionary. So this is not another story about how the past was amazing and the present is doomed.
The problem is not being alone. The problem is having no one to stand with when it actually matters.
A friend could listen, a neighbor could help you move, and someone could watch the kids, lend you a tool, or give you a ride without turning any of it into a transaction.
Those needs never disappeared. Increasingly, someone can sell you the replacement. And unlike a favor from a friend or neighbor, the replacement can be charged for again and again.
Shortened from an actual edition of The Undertone.
Freedom Is Dangerous
Freedom doesn’t only remove control. It also removes excuses.
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Freedom sounds amazing when someone else is controlling your life.
You imagine moving out, earning your own money, choosing your own work, dating whoever you want, ignoring society, and finally doing whatever feels right. Then you actually get some freedom and realize that nobody is telling you what to do anymore.
That part is less exciting.
Because freedom doesn’t only remove control. It also removes excuses. If your parents forced you into a career you hate, at least you know who to blame. But if you chose the career yourself, the terrible decision has your signature on it.
Most people want freedom from the things they dislike while keeping the security those same things provided. Basically: “Please stop controlling me, but also make sure nothing uncomfortable happens.”
Shortened from an actual edition of The Undertone.
Why We’re Told Competition Makes Us Free
Most people never chose this race. They just kept taking the next step that seemed normal.
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We are told that competition gives us freedom. But that’s not the real reason this story exists.
You can feel it in small ways. At a party when someone asks what you do and you try to make your answer sound better. Or when you scroll and feel a small tightness seeing other people’s progress.
Most people never chose this race. They just kept taking the next step that seemed normal. And slowly, it became their life.
If you believe competition gives you freedom, you will keep trying to win inside the system. You will blame yourself when you fall behind. You will not ask who set the rules or whether the race is even worth running.
Shortened from an actual edition of The Undertone.
Read enough to want the next one?
Send it to me next SundayMy brain doesn’t think in neat little content categories.
Videos need a topic big enough to carry ten minutes, a thumbnail, and a clean argument. I keep finding smaller ideas in books, conversations, the internet, or some completely normal thing people do. They may never become videos, but they’re too interesting to throw away. The Undertone is where those ideas go.
Notice the weird thing underneath the normal thing.
If that sounds like your kind of thinking, you’ll probably feel at home here.
One thoughtful email every Sunday.