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.