Reflecting on the dramatic shifts in public opinion, political leanings, and social norms, a friend recently asked how it’s possible that so many people seem to have changed their values so quickly. The more unsettling answer is that many haven’t changed their values at all; they’ve changed how much attention they can afford to give. Increasingly, people aren’t asking what they believe, but how much they can still carry.

We like to believe that obedience is a matter of belief. That people comply because they agree, because they’re persuaded, or at least because they’re afraid. But most of the time, obedience and even fear have very little to do with belief at all. People often obey systems they know are wrong not because they’re convinced, but because resistance is exhausting. Many Americans recognize this feeling now, even if they wouldn’t name it this way. The constant churn of dramatic news. The unending cycle of crisis, outrage, reversal, and escalation. The sense that everything’s urgent and nothing’s resolvable. Over time, this does something subtle to the psyche. It doesn’t make people careless.

It makes them tired. I, for one, feel tired.

Tired of the sense that every moment demands a reaction, a position, a performance of concern. Tired of being told that everything is catastrophic and urgent, while being offered no clear path toward repair. Over time, this kind of saturation doesn’t sharpen moral clarity. It dulls it. When exhaustion reaches this level, something subtle starts to shift.

Research on cognitive scarcity shows that when mental bandwidth is taxed, attention narrows and higher-order judgment suffers. Tolerance for ambiguity increases because there's not enough energy to contest........

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