Mourning the State of the Western World

By chance, have you been unhappy lately? Stressed? Bored? If you’re living in the US, this might be pretty surprising, considering how well off we are as a country. When was the last time you went hungry? No, not “I missed breakfast because my alarm clock didn’t go off,” but “I hope I don’t die of starvation; I’m going to eat these bugs outside because they are all I can find”. When was the last time you stared death in the face? Again, this isn’t “Gosh, he is a bad driver, I hope we don’t crash”, but rather “the insurgents are raiding our neighborhood again” or “that pride of lions came and ate my brother”.

We are so well off, and we can barely appreciate it.

Frankly, I’m not surprised. Being inside all day, sitting down all day, driving from place to place, eating either completely processed food, or chemically-laden produce that messes with our hormones, not being able to sleep from the wonders of our infinite electronic screens that mess up our circadian rhythms, and watching our dreams and curiosity constantly crushed doesn’t exactly do the body or mind wonders.

We sure do know how to enjoy nature. Source: flickr.com

I’m about to go on a rant that is going to make you really mad. Know that you aren’t doing anything wrong. I know that you do everything for your own good. We all are. But you may not be seeing the entire picture. You may have a skewed vision of yourself, your goals, and your productivity. You may have a skewed view of the entire world. We all do. Especially me. All we can do is constantly seek the truth. We may never reach it, but every step closer makes life better.

We can’t keep living like this. I’m talking to you, that comes home after work and watches television for 2 hours, all the while complaining about being overweight. You, that walks on a treadmill, inside, on a beautiful day, wasting energy, your own time, and boring your brain to death. You, that wants to live a healthier life, but can’t muster the willpower to stop drinking wonderfully sweetened beverages and have plain, old boring water. You, that depends on others to find fun things to rather than doing them on your own. You, that is fooled into thinking that everything you’ll ever need to know is on the Internet, and that everything is already discovered. You, that forgets that there are still people starving in the world. You, that drives two miles to work, then walks on the treadmill for an hour after work instead of just walking there in the first place. You, that has given up on seeing what the world has to offer for the comfortable womb of the living room and internet. You, that can’t break dogma and accept different beliefs and new mindsets.

Even if you think you’re immune, you’re not. None of us are. This “disease of affluence” is everywhere, in ways we can’t even imagine. It is up to us to find it, and figure out what in the world to do about it.

And for heavens’ sake, stop having such low standards for yourself. Our ancestors would be ashamed of us. Embarrassed. If there was a huge party, with people from every generation that ever lived, the people from the past would probably not want to hang out with us. Honest Abe would probably be quite disappointed. Teddy Roosevelt would shame us for giving up on “The Strenuous Life.” In all likeliness, they’d probably smack the iphones out of our incessant fingers, walk out, and actually enjoy each other’s company.

Let me elaborate a bit. If you’re anything like most people, you’re probably tired most days, can’t sleep much, and aren’t in great shape. Maybe those are related. And maybe, just maybe, this time you don’t have could be used for things that are actually fulfilling, and god forbid, productive. If you can honestly tell yourself that idolizing TV characters while you waste away, night after night, is fulfilling, please reconsider what you are doing with your life.

If you do decide to see the light, and start building up your body’s strength and energy reserves so you can live longer and better, the good news is that your body won’t let you down. You’ll start to hurt, and you’ll be darn tired, but your body will keep you alive, despite most stresses you can throw at it. It will adapt. It will overcome. But you have to give it something to adapt to. Sitting for 17 hours per day and sleeping for the other 7 doesn’t exactly build much in the way of anything, except for back pain.

Get off your butt. Go see the world. Start working out. Start enjoying working out. You’ll be surprised how much energy you have, and how easy sleeping is. Stop wasting your time on Facebook. Stop living vicariously through your favorite TV, movie, and book characters. We have an entire planet out there, and we constantly shut ourselves in from it.

I’m not just being annoying about the working out. I attacked a couple of sacred workout ideas this summer —don’t do the same muscle groups multiple days in a row, don’t workout twice per day, don’t workout six days per week. Don’t forget to take a rest week every 6-8 weeks. For all I knew, I was going to literally die with a fried central nervous system and broken joints. Despite that, I have more energy than I’ve ever had in my life. My lifts have gone up. I feel great. Honestly, if overtraining was such a worry, our ancestors would have had to only go out and BUILD HOUSES WITH THEIR BARE HANDS, and FIGHT WILD ANIMALS, and HUNT FOR THEIR OWN FOOD a few times per week, lest they get overtrained. That is garbage and you know it.

Again, form follows function.

Side rant, because I don’t have the patience to write a full article about it: stop thinking you’re going to look like you workout without actually being able to. You are going to look like what you are capable of doing. If you sit on the couch 95% of the day, you’ll look like it. If you can do one arm pull-ups, you’re going to look like it. If you can run 100 miles without stopping, you’ll look like it. Start training for function, and form will follow.

Maybe, just maybe the rules are rigged against us. Do you really think Netflix wants you to go see the world? Do the dietary supplement companies actually want you to reach your goals? Do the food companies want you to eat less, and healthier? Do the television companies want you to go explore the world? Do the phone providers want you to use your phone less? Does the medical industry want you to be healthy? Do the consumer products companies want you to be happy with the items that fill your needs, rather than give you more variety than you’d ever know what to do with?

NO. If you did all of that, what the heck would they sell you? What would happen when every American got rid of his television and found entertainment in the company of others? God forbid, we got rid of Netflix as well. What about if we walked to work? What about the loss of car sales, the lowered energy sales? What if the obesity rate went down to zero percent? Where would those extra calories go? What about the lack of medications for the new, healthier population? I’m not going to pull out specific number references, but it doesn’t take a genius to know that these are HUGE, billion dollar industries. If we started consuming dramatically less of them, our GDP would plummet. We would be happier than ever, and yet be freaking out because our economy is crashing. Or would we?

The man is keeping us down. But no, this isn’t the government. It isn’t somebody else. The man is our own weakness and laziness. So start thinking about your life and stop wasting it before you die.

Book Review: Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

This is the book I have prayed would be written for years. I’ve been tempted to try to write it myself, simply because it is the most insanely awesome, thought provoking, and terrifying premise I can conceive. And I’m very convinced its prophecies will become true.

The year is 2044. Overpopulation, combined with scarcity of resources from droughts caused by climate change, has essentially moved everyone down a social class. The upper class is now middle class, the middle class is now lower class, and the lower class is now impoverished. The impoverished are lucky to survive. Countrysides are full of bandits. Unemployment is at its highest ever been. In a nutshell, the good ‘ol days of the early 21st century are gone.

Except there is one ray of hope. One way to escape, to get back to the rich life. Better than that, to have whatever you want. To make all of your fantasies come true. To go anywhere. To have unlimited power. This is OASIS.

OASIS, the Ontologicaly Anthropocentric Sensory Immersive Simulation, is the nirvana of digital experience. It is free. It is an entire galaxy, full of every fantasy and real universe ever imagined: Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Matrix, Narnia, Oz, Harry Potter, World of Warcraft. Every game before it has been combined to be in this huge simulation. Not only aimed at gamers, there are virtual shops. You can shop and have the items delivered to your door. You can go to virtual church. You can hang out in virtual chatrooms, which are simply virtual lounges. This is the end-all be-all videogame. It is a virtual reality machine, where the immersion is only limited by how much high-end virtual reality equipment you can afford. With top of the line equipment, players wear full body feedback suits, and can actually physically run inside of a giant hamster ball.

Don’t think its going to happen?

How about now?

OASIS isn’t just about shopping and gaming, it is the most powerful educational tool the world has ever seen. It contains all of the world’s books, movies, and television shows, for free. Not only that, but it is full of virtual schools. Students in rural areas just have to plug in, and they are in a virtual classroom. Not only is it more convenient, but it is more effective. Instead of having to draw on a blackboard, the teachers can actually take their students on historical simulations or create virtual science experiments for them to do at no added cost. Visiting ancient Rome is a lot more exciting than reading about it. There are no distractions either, since the school simulation simply blocks texting, email, and everything else out.

Inside OASIS you can be anyone you want to be. Any race, real or mythical. Any size. Any color hair. Any face structure. You can look like a supermodel or an actor. Its up to you. If you’re a 40 year old man named Chuck, you can be a 20 year old woman named Kate. If you’re an albino girl, you can be a tall black man. And no one will ever know, unless you want them to. It is a place to start over.

This is our future. Sounds pretty cool, huh? Well everyone in the book seemed to think so. Many of the players never left their homes. They never socially interacted in real life. They never had to. They could go to school in OASIS. They could work in OASIS. They could even order groceries in OASIS. Why should they go out into the real world and suffer, when they can have everything in the dream world?

This sounds a heck of a lot like the Matrix, doesn’t it? Except its self-imposed.

 

The Book

Source: venturebeat.com

I first heard of this book from Jamie Lewis; he recently did a book recommendation post. The novel follows Wade Watts, a poor adolescent who lives in a trailer park. The creator of OASIS has died, and will give anyone his entire fortune that can find a secret item he placed in the game. Wade, like almost everyone in the world, sees this as a way to prosperity, and begins to hunt feverishly for the item. The book follows Wade’s journey through the real world and OASIS worlds as he tries to find it. I’m not giving away any more of the plot, sorry. You can find a longer description at the Wikipedia entry or at the Amazon.com page

What I will say is that the book is incredibly engrossing. Even from the first page, I was hooked. There were hardly any slow parts. Reading it was like playing an amazing videogame: I would put the book down, and for a second, be disoriented as to where I was.  It was that good.

The only real flaws of the book happen towards the end, when the author makes his message very explicit, rather than expressing it with subtlety. Maybe that isn’t a bad thing, because everyone is sure to get the point. I just found it corny how he did it. There are also a few moments where the story is too happy to be realistic, in my opinion. Some places remind me of a Disney movie. It could use some good old fashioned Hemingway tragedy.

Implications

The book raises a philosophical question that I’m not sure if I can answer:

If you were given the chance for a perfect life, to constantly go on adventures and do whatever you wanted, but you had to do it virtually, would you?

Of course, your first instinct is no. But what if the simulation was so good that you couldn’t tell the difference? What if you were so disadvantaged in the real world that any escape would be better? If you were homeless, would you plug in so you could be a billionaire in the game? Could you face yourself, knowing that you weren’t really doing any of that? Knowing that you were living in your own mind, rather than in the world? Knowing that you may never have a real life, real friends, children?

It’s Not You, it’s Your Damn Phone: Valentines Day Special.

The world is going to deny this. It will go kicking and screaming the entire way. But I don’t care. There is no doubt in my mind that our use of cell phones has all but killed anything that might be described as fun in romantic relationships.

It isn’t that phones are inherently bad; it’s just our addictive use of them to contact the opposite sex. Yes, they are very reliable. They are instant. That is what we’re all about these days. But maybe its not what is worth having. It terrifies me to think that I can send my deepest thoughts to someone within seconds just by typing them. This is not how human interactions are supposed to work.

Forget general human interactions, let’s focus on courtship. In a courtship, no matter which gender you are, the fun is in the chase. It’s the mystery, the anticipation that brings the butterflies. It’s hoping that you’ll see that person soon, but not knowing when it will be, and being ecstatic and terrified inside when you do see them. It’s the random, unexpected encounters. It’s the joy of catching up when you see them, of telling them about that ridiculous thing that happened to you while you were at the bookstore, or walking around. It’s getting to see them in person, to see their face, to hear their voice, to hug them. It isn’t about seeing their witty words staring at you through a blue screen.

It isn’t that your words aren’t witty; I’m sure they are. It’s just that you can only get so much satisfaction out of words, especially compared to good ‘ol face to face interaction.

All you hopeless romantics that keep texting that special someone, save your sanity and your relationship and stop messaging them all the damn time. There really isn’t any anticipation in your relationship when you text the person literally 5 minutes after you see them. It isn’t exciting when you fill her in on your life in real time by text. As charming as you think you are, be serious, man. Don’t waste both of your time with a day-long text conversation. Get back to living and loving, and away from texting.

Happy Valentines Day America. Thank me later.

The Nothing We Have Become

The Nothing We Have Become

What did you do today? Take a moment and list everything. Everything. I mean it. Now look at the list. Make sure you write in every time you checked your phone, email, or a website you like to look at (Reddit and Facebook, I’m looking at you). Also mark times when you were watching TV or listening to music (yes, TV and music in the background count).

Now think about your list. Are you proud of it? Did you get a lot done today? Did you have a fun day? Would you feel comfortable showing that list to someone you look up to, an idol? How about sharing it with the world?

Lets go a step further. Make another list, or review the list (if you’ve made it already) of things you want to accomplish in your life. Did anything you did today go towards that list? Don’t think you can opt out here by saying “well, I went to work, and I want to have a successful career, so I was working on that.” That’s crap and you know it. I’m talking about those amazing plans you have for your life, those dreams that you keep secret from everybody. That dream of climbing Everest, of traveling Europe on foot, of starting a business. Did you work towards those dreams today? Did you? Why not?

One day, you are going to die, and you’ll never get to do all this fun stuff you’ve got written down on your cute little goals list. Heck, one day, you are going to be old and decrepit and not get to do anything other than sit on your couch and regret all the stuff you missed because you decided to stay home to watch the new episode of Game of Thrones. That moment will come sooner than you’d think. Now, because you are procrastinating your life, it may not happen at all. Before you know it, you’re going to be staring death in the face, thinking about all those plans you had and feeling your heart being ripped apart from the sadness of knowing that you have failed yourself.

Maybe you haven’t failed society, or your family, which just want you to be a law-abiding self-sufficient citizen,

Have we really reduced the world to this? Source: hollywoodlife.com

but you have failed yourself. Apple and Microsoft sure will be happy; you’ve done exactly what they wanted. But lets forget them for a moment and think about ourselves. You’ve failed that ten-year old kid inside you that promised himself he would see the world one day. You’ve failed the six year old that was going to swim with sharks in 3 different oceans. You’ve failed the ambitious high school student that was going to own his own business. You’ve failed the bright college graduate who was going to be the the president of his country. You’ve failed the founders of the United States, who risked their lives so men could be free and not be tied down by the chains of inherited nobility, so that every man has an equal opportunity even if he wasn’t born royalty. You’ve wasted it away, entertaining yourself on Reddit and Netflix.

Odds are, if you are like most of us, you didn’t do much, if anything, today. Don’t feel bad, it isn’t just you. You aren’t being singled out for mediocrity. This is a trend enveloping the world. Nobody does anything meaningful anymore. We think we are doing things, but we have drawn a veil over eyes, pretending we are accomplishing things, while in reality, we are letting life pass us by. The more gadgets we get, the worse it becomes.

I wasn’t always such a Luddite. I used to play videogames for hours on end; I’d text literally nonstop for days; I would always have music playing in the background, no matter what I was doing. That buzz kept me warm and secure. Getting notifications and text messages validated me. I loved every minute of it, too.

But one day, everything changed. In an English class, we read a passage Allan Bloom’s The Closing of the American Mind about how music is crippling our youth’s thought processes. I interpreted the argument like this: as music gets better and better, and easier and easier to access, we listen to it more and more. As we listen to it more and more, we eventually have it playing during almost all of our free time. When we are listening to music, it is harder for us to have our own thoughts. This is especially true for music with lyrics; we think the lyrics, rather than thinking original thoughts of our own. Yes, we can block out the music and think for ourselves when it is playing, but it robs us of those silences which allow the brain to wander off and think on its own, or at least makes them occur less often.

I thought this whole music as a creativity-stifling agent was very silly, until one day I found myself completely

Not exactly exposing themselves to new experiences in the world, are they? Source: latino.foxnews.com

zoned out and focused on the song I was listening to. Normally, I would be okay with that, but then I realized that that was all I’d done that day. I might as well have been a vegetable, because I sure wasn’t doing or thinking anything on my own. I’d wasted an entire day giving myself the pleasure of listening to music, which was great in the short term, but costed the time I could have used to do something more constructive in the long term (write something, create my own music, make new friends, etc). My point is that it isn’t exactly on my life goals list to listen to music all day. But if that is your life goal, by all means, go for it.

Now combine the effects of music with TV shows, videogames, and Facebook posts, and imagine what this does to your thinking. Yes, I know you can still think, but your thoughts will often be interpretive rather than original. With so much information thrown at us, we often forget to actually think for ourselves. What happens? We get lost in our entertainment and leave our own lives on the shelf to collect dust. Our own dreams come secondary to the goals of the character in the show, in the game, or the lives of other people we see on Facebook.

This scares the heck out of me. With every new iPhone, with all of its great apps, and ability to watch television EVERYWHERE, and every advance in gaming technology, we get closer and closer to a moment where some easily-influenced young person decides that he’ll have much more fun on the internet or playing an online game than going out in the world and actually living. It is so much more fun being a level 90 warrior in World of Warcraft, rather than an awkward, gangly 17 year old high school boy. When domination is just a few hours and clicks away, rather than years of hard work away, of course we are going to be drawn into technological entertainment. But where does this leave our youth? How are we to fix this?

I realize the wonders of technology, and agree with the idea that we can benefit from exposing ourselves to new ideas, and that technology is a good way to do this. I just want people to be aware of how much the excess and unnoticed use of it is crippling our lives. T.S. Eliot’s “Hollow Men” sums it up concisely  especially if you think of it on a small, one-person scale (this is your life/world ending, as you let yourself sink to mediocrity and inactivity):

This is the way the world ends

This is the way the world ends

This is the way the world ends

Not with a bang but a whimper.

This post was inspired partially by this article, which humbled the heck out of me and made me realize how much time I waste on a daily basis.

I later found this one on the same site, which really inspired me.