Would you dare?
Look into the eyes of God
And claim to understand His desires?

Would you dare?
Claim a seat at God’s table
An ant upon an equal throne?

To behold His will is to be Infinite.
To behold Infinity is to be God.

But you are an ant
Crawling upon His table
Understanding Nothing.

—

Reflections of The Damned

Life arose 3.5 billion years ago as simple self-replicating molecules. The first multicellular organisms, and thus intelligence, didn’t arrive until 600 million years ago. Ants evolved 150 million years ago, apes 25 million, and humans just 300,000 years ago.

We are not the pinnacle of evolution. In the same way a bacterium cannot comprehend the intentions of an ant, and an ant cannot comprehend the intentions of an ape, nor an ape a human, we will never be able to comprehend the intentions of an intelligence that evolves in a billion years. And that intelligence may never comprehend God’s intentions in their infinitude.

Much of our lives are run on automatic pilot. We go through the world only noticing what calls out to us. Often in a mindset of routine and getting through the day. We are very much creature’s of our environments. As much as we may like to see ourselves as independent actors, our broader system have huge impacts upon us.

The individual is more and more having to go against forces designed to manipulate. Large organizations can craft things that are so addictive, so enticing, that the average person just can’t help but over indulge.

It happens in every part of our lives. At the grocery store, marvelously designed packaging pulls us towards treats so devilishly tasty that more than a third of US adults are obese. The average teenager spends almost 5 hours a day on social media and even more time on screens.

In many ways, the struggle for happiness is one against addiction. Addiction is a vortex that pulls you in by creating such extraordinarily fleeting pleasure that you are left off worse then you started. By definition addiction creates a hole in ones life and one that can only be filled with addiction.

Almost everyone has had the experience of eating most of a bag of chips in one sitting or going through an entire 1000 calorie pint of ice cream. We have watched a few more hours of Television then we wanted to or we’ve been online way past our normal bedtime.

These compulsive habits are not coincidence, nor are they really the fault of individuals, they are instead by design. Companies and other organizations win when we over consume.

Phones are turned into virtual gambling machines that offer random reward each time we reach for them. Foods are made so hyper-palatable that almost no quantity makes us completely full.

This might be a narrative that you are familiar with. As individuals, we have it pretty hard. We have to face addiction in every direction. Overconsumption and addiction leads to most of the death and disease in wealthy nations. Between cardiovascular disease from the food we eat, lung cancer for the cigarettes we smoke, and liver disease from the alcohol we drink, we are dying because we are addicted.

What should we do about this:

1. Advertisements change us. People should not be forced to consume ads, and brainwash themselves. Consider using an ad-blocker and limiting your consumption of ads in TV.

2. We are all very strongly influenced by who we spend time with. When you can, choose people who embody values that you have, it goes a long way to shaping yourself into the person you want to be.

3. Consider the distant future. People have a strong tendency to discount the future. In general, it is so easy to get caught up in the day to day and not look into the distance. Force yourself to consider what it will be like when you are 80 or 90. You at an old age deserve good health and happiness just as much as you do now. Foster empathy for your future self.

4. Realize that people are simply exploited. We have brains that are massively complex and able to do amazing things, but generally we use simple heuristics to do most of our thinking. Rarely do we even turn our logical think to consider something rationally. Our environments extort this immensely. To fight against this is hard.

5. What we have to do is craft an environment that works for us. Here are some concrete suggestions. Consider turning off YouTube autoplay. Consider deleting addictive apps such a social media from your phone. Consider adding screen time indicators. You can’t make these changes in a vacuum.

6. As you take things away that you think are bad, replace them with things you enjoy. Going on walks is great way to center yourself and reset. Walking is free, makes you feel better instantly, and is good for your longterm health.

7. See your friends and other people face-to-face as much as possible.

8. As you start to distance yourself from addiction. And it is hard. You will become happier.

Dear reader, I have a confession to you, and I should have told you this earlier. It is a conspiracy of proportion so great you it will require some unraveling for you to fully understand. I want to tell you directly, but I cannot. You would never understand, but once you know, it will change how you view the world forever.

This all starts millennia ago among our great ancestors who lived in a terribly dangerous and unforgiving world. Food was hard to find, and so was everything else required for survival. So our ancestors brains adapted to survive – above all else – survive. Their brains formed strong behavioral pattern to allow them to easily perform behaviors that supported survival. While many of us have escaped this environment, the structure of our brains never had time to evolve. We have many crippling short-falls and most of us don’t even know the extent of it. The worst part is not only do we have to live with these shortcomings, but there is a malicious force that is trying to exploit these weaknesses to take advantage of us. I urge you to stay strong, and avoid the grim fate of many great people.

The first thing that must be understood is that human beings wiring is exploitable. We use mental shortcuts to operate in our day to day lives that are far from beneficial to us. We live in a world where some of the greatest minds give their best attempts to encourage us to perform actions that slowly kill us. We already live in a dystopia that is so powerful and omnipresent that most people don’t notice it at all.

Let me explain with a parable.

There once lived a man who was decent and true. His name was Mohamed. He lives in a small village. He lived in a small house with his wife and child, and we worked for a company who built roofs for his neighbors. He would wake up earlier and be well rested, go into town on his bicycle and work until dusk. Then we would come home and spend time with his wife and child. Teaching his child, helping with chores, and reading in the evenings. He would see his friends around town and if anyone ever needed a hand, he would happily give it. He was honest, reasonably hard-working, and fortunate enough to be in good health. He understood his was lucky and he planned for a future that was unknown. He was in-sync with life and was deeply happy and fulfilled. One day he retired, and then he spend time with his grandchildren and volunteered and worked on projects that fascinated him. He died at 92 in his sleep in relatively good health.

In a town just down the way, there lived another man named Omar. Omar also worked as a roofer. He would go into work in the early morning cussing at life for how tired he was. He would drive a car 3 miles into work. He would smoke a pack a day and during lunch time he would eat two cupcakes for dessert. After he left work work he would be so unhappy he would stop by the bar for a few drinks. By the time he got home he would be tired and tipsy and just want to watch TV. So he would watch TV, and maybe catch up with Facebook friends on his iPad. He curse his luck, and did not get to bed until late. Since he never saved for the future, he worked into old age and died at 72 after several years of declining health.

In these overly simplistic stories I want to emphasize that Mohamed is no better a man than Omar, but he did avoid a few bad habits. The toll of even a single addiction to an otherwise well-run life is enormous – let alone more than one. Omar was is no way an addict of anything by the common definition, but yet a couple bad habits soured his entire life. Of course there are more factors to good health than just these few, but avoiding addictive behavior is the holy grail of living a good life.

Much of our society is structured around addicting as many people as possible. If it is an ad for an alcohol beverage, the a technological social platform designed to addict, or packaging for your favorite snack food – we are being exploited in our weakest areas. Since we are provided with such a strong force to fall into deeply addictive behaviors by marketing, technological systems, and other individuals – we must have just as strong of a defense. We must bolster ourselves against temptation to the degree that cusps on paranoia or else we will fall victim ourselves.

We know with tremendous evidence that some things so are addictive to large portions of the populations. Reasonably these things should be avoided all-together. Each of these subjects requires their own thoughtful discussion. Most peoples lives who are addicted could be made radically better for overcoming it. Even more so, someone can avoid so much pain by never being pulled into the vortex in the first place. Most people radically underestimate the destructive power of addiction.

My plea to you is think about the toll that addiction takes. Most people know stories of the devastation it brings. Decide in advance to avoid it all-together and you will be rewarded one hundred times over. The greatest foundation of a happy, satisfying, and noble life is one free of addiction and temptation – and you, dear reader, deserve that.