ennui

noun - a feeling of listlessness and dissatisfaction arising from a lack of occupation or excitement.

"he succumbed to ennui and despair"

Yup.

I do like that this quote separates ennui from despair, and makes them two different things; because they absolutely are. Someone feeling ennui could never commit suicide because they couldn't get up the energy to do it. Someone in despair could spark into self-destructive action, while someone with ennui simply couldn't be bothered to.

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From endemic into flu season.

So, the pandemic is about to be relabeled endemic, at which point we all throw away our masks and caution and go out and get sick with the flu for a few days, just like we did in the olden days. Aaaaaand just about that time we will roll into the 2022 flu season, where the regular old seasonal flu will be shockingly bad, severely impacting the industrial and food supply chains, so we roll into the 2022 holiday season with scarcity on the shelves and under the Christmas trees, and everyone will act shocked - shocked, I tell you! - that after isolating for two years, the heretofore unprecedented rates of influenza and STDs measured at the end of 2022 will drive a particularly puritan news cycle into the beginning of 2023.

Sigh.

ennui

noun - a feeling of listlessness and dissatisfaction arising from a lack of occupation or excitement.

"he succumbed to ennui and despair"