An unremarked phenomenon has been brewing for the past 10 years: a total lack of seriousness among modern adults. There’s a foolish, scatterbrained, overly casual nonchalance directed at every endeavor, task, or moment, that deserves serious consideration and attention. We’ve all witnessed it. The middle and upper classes are not serious people. Hedonistic distraction, along with a cultural disparagement of serious attitudes, elevated emotions or senses of duty, have created a situation where an alarming number of adults exist in a state of arrested development. And these are the exact people employed in positions that require a capacity for professionalism and a sense of responsibility and honor.
You can envision the person who created the Louvre’s surveillance password. You can mentally map out their entire life. Instead of a job at Taco Bell, they somehow weaseled their way into a security position guarding priceless cultural heirlooms. Do they feel even one iota of shame, or dishonor, for what they did?
If you feel like you're bad at your job and it's making you depressed, just consider that, as the investigation of the recent heist revealed, the password to access the Louvre's videosurveillance system was "Louvre".
— Philippe Lemoine (@phl43) November 4, 2025
