The Modern Struggle Is Fighting Weaponized Addiction

In some very deep level, all pleasure creates its own offsetting pain and fear of loss on the other side. I had a tweet recently where I said, in an age of abundance, pursuing pleasure for its own sake creates addiction. A Miyamoto Musashi line: do not pursue pleasure for its own sake. Musashi was a Japanese swordsman in his time; when you pursued pleasure, it might mean a very different thing. He didn't have unlimited processed food, he didn't have internet pornography, marijuana, or alcohol available on demand.

Now that we're in an age of abundance, if we pursue pleasurable things directly for their own sake, we land into addiction very easily, which is hard to get out of. I think the modern struggle is really about individuals, disconnected from their tribe, disconnected from their religions, disconnected from their cultural networks, trying to stand up to all these things that have been weaponized: alcohol, drugs, pornography, processed foods, news media, internet, social media, video games.

With these things, you can basically engage in fake play and fake work. Before, you would have to go socialize with your friends and get drunk with a bunch of strangers; and it was easy and good. Before, you would have had to go find a mate, have sex, create children, and raise a family. Now, you just watch a lot of porn. Before, you might have needed to go climb trees and hunt and get fruit for a little bit of natural sweetness.

Now, you can aspire to all the gelato that you want. The modern struggle not only is trying to stand up to these things that are weaponized, which are giving you small doses of pleasure, but desensitizing you and exposing you to the misery of their loss in their absence.