On My Retirement from Society -- Reflections of a Shadow Sovereign Who Retired at 20

(Background music)

Why would anyone play a rigged game? The only way to win is not to play. -- John Duran

In 2018, when I was 20, I retired from this world after finishing working as an office worker in a hospital. In 2019, I opened up Philosocom as a way to do good in this world and to feel purposeful.

Truth be told, this world disgusts me. All its wars, all its corruption and general state of decline repel me from desiring to partake in society. And indeed, beyond my online contributions to this world, I want to do nothing with it.

My desire to rectify the world using this website is something I might as well try to do for the rest of my life, as that gives me a lot of meaning, as well as rectifies myself, but beyond that, I want nothing to do with this world.

Today, in December 2025, I am 28 years old. I live retired and engaged to one of the site's readers, who later on went to write for the site herself. I went a long way managing this site, helping a lot of people and even saving some of them from despair, and now I live a post-purpose life, young and retired from a world I despise.

I don't ever see myself integrating with society, forever living in it as an eternal outsider. I am a retired man who never has to work, and who is free to pursue a passionate work on this giant website called Philosocom.

5 years ago, I established my own hermitage where I live as a hermit on the outskirts of society, trying to master peace and self-actualization. Beyond basic necessities and some exercise, I rarely go out. I don't want to go out, and the world disgusts me on a moral level.

Being a hermit, I am often lonely, and managing this website, it is often lonely at the top. However, the writing I do helps pass the time and fills my life with meaning.

I believe this world is doomed and as such I developed my own world where I live as its sovereign. I attempt to rectify the greater world, AKA the "doomed" world as a means to remain a good man in a world were moral depravity reigns supreme.

Despite my retired state, or maybe because of it, I managed to do a lot of good in this world, from helping the needy in third world countries to giving people hope where they needed it most. Growing paranoid from the possibility of having my solitude stolen from me by strangers, I quit most social media and now I live as this world's shadow.

The way this world turns worries me. The internet used to be a place to unite and connect between people. Nowadays with the rise of AI, scammers and misinformation, the internet has become a place that isolates people from each other -- the exact opposite of the virtual world I grew up on in the 2000's.

Being retired, I have no desire to keep up with the times. I kind of live as if I am still in the 2000's, running a genuine website in the world of AI slop, living ascetically and happily in isolation. As my late grandmother used to say, it is better to be alone than in bad company, and I live in the same similar isolation as she did.

I just can't bring myself to be part of this world beyond my online contributions. There is a deeply seated feeling of disgust I endure each time I think about it. I was born a pure soul, and I decided I want to keep that purity around. Witnessing the injustices of the conventional, greater world had made me depressed, dark and knowing well of the dystopian fate this world has doomed itself to.

Opening up and working on this website has helped me rectify much of my darkness, much of my depression and eventually some of my loneliness. In April 2026 this website will turn 7 years old, and I rarely managed to earn from it. Being a non-profit project of pure passion, I am running and managing this website to feel meaningful and to try making this world a better place using my articles.

I believe greed is one of the main things that will bring the world to its doom. Had people were able to change their nature like I did, to be satisfied with what they have, the world wouldn't be so much exploited of its natural resources, and people wouldn't be scammed that often for money.

I believe in compassionate capitalism. I think the world would've been a better place if we were more compassionate. However, humanity at large has fallen prey to hatred, division and toxicity, preventing the route of compassion from being normalized.

I am well aware that I won't be able to rectify the world completely, as the route of rectification is infinite; there will always be something to rectify. However, the more I rectify this world, the more I manage to bring myself back to purity -- my desired state.

Purity and innocence are things which are missing in this world, and being born pure, I always seek to bring myself back to my pure state by doing good. Doing good isn't profitable, nor it is social. However, a good person is who I am, and a good person I strive to be. I gave up on greed, gave up on the idea of re-integrating back to society, because in the end, it is no measure of health to be well-adjusted to a sick society.

And the societies of this world are sick beyond belief.

I believe that retiring myself from society was a good idea, as that allowed me to nurture myself back to good physical and mental health, help people and get love. I am aware I am quite hard to understand, I am aware that my ideas are sometimes complex, but philosophy was never meant to be simple nor effortless to comprehend.

I developed myself to be a contra-force to this world, like a true rebel. Resisting its influences, resisting its ways to control me, and instead walking my own unique path in life. My desire to rectify the world comes from a genuine hope that this world would be better than what it is currently. That people will be happier and less stressed. That there will be less toxicity in the cesspool that is society. And finally, that less people will give in to despair and take away their own lives.

In 2007 my late grandmother tried to do the latter, claiming that the world has forsaken her. Being there for her, the attempt was prevented. Although doing such a feat got me amnesiac and with PTSD which I managed to overcome by my own power, I believe I did the right thing.

However, I believe that was the origin that compelled me to forsake this world myself, going in the opposite direction my late grandmother went, while remaining as solitary as she was. The desire to rectify the world was hers as well, and it is something which I have inherited.

I wish this world was a happier place. However, it just isn't. It is a fake, unjust and greedy world which compels many of its members to seek their own demise, as in the case of my late grandmother and the people I saved.

Although, honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if any of them are dead by now, by their own hands, as saving is a temporary act.

Because the world isn't as good as it was promised to be in the 2000's, I did the sanity-based decision of forsaking/retiring from it, working on a legacy to rectify it and to find meaning in an otherwise absurd universe.

Working on this site comes from my wish to make the world a better place. Hopefully my years-on sacrifice wouldn't be for nothing.

Thanks for reading.