Mainstream Madness & Alternative Bullshit
- Madhukar Dama
- 6 hours ago
- 6 min read
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Prologue
Imagine you’re standing at a crowded crossroads. One road is brightly lit, wide, lined with banners of authority and signs of approval — the mainstream. Everyone you know is walking that way, and the noise of the crowd convinces you it must be the right direction. The other road is narrower, quieter, and seems to offer refuge from the madness of the first. It’s the alternative path, decorated with handmade signs, exotic promises, and whispers of truth withheld from the masses.
You hesitate. The first road looks suffocating, mechanical. The second looks liberating — until you notice the stalls lined up, each selling salvation at a price. And suddenly you realize neither road guarantees freedom. Both are built, managed, and maintained by people with agendas. Both lead to traps that feed off each other.
This essay begins at that moment of hesitation — at the realization that the choice between the mainstream and the alternative is not a real choice at all.
Madness of Mainstream & Bullshit of Alternatives
1. The Trap of Two Doors
Life tells you there are only two exits: the mainstream and the alternatives.
Pick one, they say.
Obey or rebel.
Consume or escape.
But either way, you’re already caught.
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2. The Mainstream Madness
The mainstream is polished. It has offices, uniforms, degrees on the wall.
It feels safe because it’s loud enough to drown your doubts.
It’s the doctor who looks at a screen more than your face.
It’s the teacher who knows the syllabus but has forgotten what wonder feels like.
It’s the government official who talks of justice while signing contracts for corporations.
This is the madness: a machine that runs on autopilot, stamping human lives like documents.
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3. The Smell of Authority
Authority smells like disinfectant and fresh paint. Hospitals with fluorescent lights. Banks with their marble floors. Universities with gates taller than temples.
It smells like certainty.
But scratch the wall and you’ll smell rot.
Conflicts of interest. Deals under the table. Research sponsored by the very industries it’s supposed to regulate.
Madness, but with clean curtains.
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4. The Herd in Suits
The mainstream doesn’t survive because it’s true. It survives because it’s crowded.
Everyone else is in it. Everyone else follows.
And nothing makes people feel safer than the comfort of the herd.
So you stay in line. You take the pills. You pay the bills. You watch the news.
You keep nodding, even as your gut whispers that something is wrong.
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5. When Madness Wears a Smile
Mainstream madness is insidious. It doesn’t come screaming.
It comes smiling.
It tells you:
“This is normal.”
“This is progress.”
“This is the best we have.”
And you nod. Because fighting the machine feels bigger than death.
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6. The Rebellion That Sells
But then, there are the alternatives.
The rebels, the seekers, the outsiders.
They come whispering:
“No, the mainstream is rotten. Follow us instead. We have the real thing.”
And you listen. Because you’re tired of the pills, the schools, the lies.
You’re tired of the madness.
So you run toward the so-called freedom.
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7. The Bullshit of the Alternatives
And what do you find?
More cages.
More dogmas.
More businesses dressed as salvation.
The healer who promises detox but sells you powders.
The guru who preaches simplicity but builds an empire.
The “alternative thinker” who starts every podcast with “buy my supplement.”
The rebel who screams about freedom but quietly collects your obedience.
It’s bullshit. Just another costume for the same circus.
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8. Handmade Cages
Alternative bullshit is seductive because it feels handcrafted.
Organic, artisanal, anti-system.
But look closer — it’s still a cage.
It still asks you to kneel.
It still tells you not to think too much.
It still sells you something.
The bullshit is simply prettier than the madness.
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9. The Symbiosis
Mainstream madness and alternative bullshit are not enemies.
They’re partners.
They feed each other.
The hospital’s coldness drives you to the healer’s tent.
The healer’s fraud drives you back to the hospital.
Round and round, like rats in a maze, you go.
The two doors don’t lead out.
They lead back into each other.
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10. The Human Hunger
Why do we fall for it?
Because we’re hungry.
Hungry for healing, for meaning, for belonging.
Hungry for someone to tell us: “You’re okay. You’re safe. Life can be better.”
That hunger is primal.
It makes us blind.
It makes us desperate.
And both madness and bullshit know exactly how to feed it — and how to starve us at the same time.
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11. Manufactured Hope
Hope is the most profitable commodity.
The mainstream sells it in pills and policies.
The alternatives sell it in powders and prayers.
But hope, when manufactured, is poison.
It numbs you. It strings you along. It keeps you chasing a carrot tied to a stick.
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12. The Madness of Experts
The expert is the priest of the mainstream.
Degrees as holy robes.
Peer-reviewed journals as scripture.
Institutions as temples.
And the faithful bow, repeating the chant: “They must know better than me.”
But experts are humans. Humans with mortgages, with sponsors, with blind spots.
And when power meets human weakness, truth suffocates.
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13. The Bullshit of Gurus
The guru is the priest of the alternative.
Robes instead of degrees.
Esoteric words instead of data.
A different kind of temple, but still a temple.
And the followers bow, chanting: “They must be enlightened, and I am not.”
But gurus are humans too.
Humans with egos, with appetites, with bank accounts.
And when reverence meets human weakness, corruption thrives.
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14. The Comfort of Belonging
Both madness and bullshit thrive because we can’t stand being alone.
We want to belong to something.
To a community. To a movement. To a belief.
To be alone with our own eyes, our own mind, our own instincts — that terrifies us.
So we join the herd. Or we join the cult.
Anything but silence.
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15. The Cost of Refusal
Try refusing both.
Don’t go mainstream, don’t go alternative.
Stand in the middle, naked of labels.
People will hate you.
They’ll call you arrogant, lost, cynical.
Because if you don’t join their camp, you remind them of the possibility that both camps are rotten.
And that’s unbearable.
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16. The Myth of the Third Door
Some will try to sell you a “third way.”
A new movement, a new philosophy, a new brand that claims to escape both mainstream and alternative.
But look closely:
It’s still packaged.
It’s still branded.
It’s still a door someone else built for you to walk through.
Still a cage.
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17. The Work of Discernment
The only way out isn’t glamorous.
It isn’t easy.
It’s the slow, dirty work of discernment.
Chewing on every claim, spitting out the poison, swallowing only what rings true.
Trusting your direct experience more than anyone’s promises.
It’s not sexy.
It won’t make headlines.
It won’t sell retreats.
But it’s the only thing that frees you.
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18. Science Without Authority
Science itself isn’t the enemy.
Authority is.
When science is lived as curiosity — observing, testing, learning — it’s beautiful.
When science is sold as dogma, it’s madness.
So keep science.
But burn the pedestals it’s placed on.
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19. Wisdom Without Gurus
Wisdom itself isn’t the enemy.
Gurus are.
When wisdom is shared humbly, tested in life, it’s beautiful.
When wisdom is wrapped in robes and worship, it’s bullshit.
So keep wisdom.
But burn the thrones it’s placed on.
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20. The Unmarketable Path
The real path isn’t marketable.
No system can own it.
No ideology can frame it.
Because it’s lived in the small, quiet choices you make daily:
how you eat, how you rest, how you love, how you notice, how you say no.
It’s boring.
It’s invisible.
But it’s real.
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21. Freedom Isn’t a Door
Freedom isn’t choosing the right door.
It’s realizing both doors are fake.
It’s stepping outside the whole hallway.
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Epilogue
The roads will not disappear. The mainstream will always exist, polished and powerful. The alternatives will always sprout, seductive and rebellious. People will continue to walk both, convinced one is salvation and the other is ruin.
But once you see the design of the trap, you can step aside. You can stop waiting for a perfect system or a flawless savior. You can begin to carve your own ground — drawing from science without worshipping it, listening to wisdom without kneeling before gurus, trusting experience without reducing it to slogans.
Freedom doesn’t lie in choosing between madness and bullshit. It lies in refusing to be owned by either. And that refusal, quiet and steady, is the only step that leads you somewhere real.
