Now What
The rest of this book will seek to answer a few questions. How do we ourselves achieve true happiness amidst this mess? How can we then achieve true happiness for our country as a whole? Remember that these are our most important goals at the individual and societal levels (i.e. ISOPS). And finally, how do we achieve both these things when a corrupt American elite has so much power? It all starts with this idea: to fix our environment we must first fix ourselves.
Think about two battles being fought in America. The first is the one described in this book. A battle to achieve true happiness for ourselves, and then help others do the same. As we learned in the previous chapters the warriors fighting this battle are losing (in general). This is because the status quo i.e. “the system” has been built on other priorities — limitless wealth, business success over individual success, etc. The people who now have power and influence have been molded by this system because we all are influenced by our environment.
The second battle is being fought to preserve this system. The American elite (i.e. those with the most power and influence) are its warriors. They thrive in the current environment because the system rewards people for the values it upholds. And once thriving, obviously there is incentive to maintain the values which led to their success. In summary, the people in power are fighting to keep a corrupt value system in place. Which makes sense because it’s how they became powerful.
The best warriors win battles by exploiting the other side’s weaknesses. Our current American elite are masters of this. For many of the institutions and products they create, the more weaknesses they exploit the more the creation thrives. Let’s look at some examples.
Politics and media companies are the worst offenders (in that order) of preying on weakness. They exploit division and fear. The more divided our country is between two parties, the easier we become to control. When two sides exist the only thing a politician needs to do is say “everything is the other side’s fault, the other side is the enemy” and boom! This person can now benefit from division and fear. We’ll learn more about why division is harmful, how it’s created, and how to protect against it in Chapter XX. In fact all of these weaknesses have their own dedicated chapters in Part 4. For now let’s keep things high level and continue revealing this army’s battle plan.
The same tactic is used by media companies. What headline is going to capture more of you attention:
“This really good thing is happening, here’s what you should know to stay blissful.”
“This really bad thing is happening, here’s what you should know to protect yourself. Oh and by the way it’s the other side’s fault.”
Of course we want to know what the FUCK that bad thing is and who’s responsible. Good thing? I don’t give a damn about that good thing, tell me what I need to know to survive NOW. Media companies know this well and are masters of exploiting division and fear. Their strategy is why “clickbait” and “sensational journalism” have turned into buzzwords.
One study that examined media coverage of airplane crashes found that between 1991 and 2015 the number of crashes decreased by almost 65%; and yet despite this drop, media attention on airplane crashes rose by almost 125% in the same period.
Data scientist Kalev Leetaru is finding similar, incredible trends by data mining 500 years of history. He analyzed the tone of every single Wikipedia article, and logged which dates in history were mentioned in each article. Despite slight dips of negativity correlated with war and other tragedies, our world history has risen in positive events since the 1850s. This positivity has made a dramatic, almost vertical upward spike since 2005.
We know that Wikipedia, perhaps now the world’s largest encyclopedia, aims to present information as dry and as accurately as possible. We also know the media industry aims to put their own “spin” on these historical events. And by spin I mean let’s scare the shit out of people. Leetaru also did sentiment analysis across a huge number of radio, TV, and online news sources from over 150 countries. He found that the media industry has consistently increased their negative coverage for the past 30 years.
So even though our world seems to be improving from a historical perspective, the news we’re fed has a more negative tone than ever.
Turn on CNN, head to foxnews.com, and from then on their goal is to throw you into a rabbithole of things you should be worried and angry about. People rush to news sources to stay informed about the scary world around them. So obviously it’s in the media’s best interest to make the world appear as scary as possible.
Pharmaceutical, tobacco, and alcohol companies are also on my worst offenders list. They exploit pain and loneliness. Thinking about the modern day impacts of these companies I can’t help but think of Brave New World. Aldous Huxley illustrates an eerie dystopian society where the government has complete control over its citizens’ lives. From job assignments, a strict class system, even mandatory orgies, this society has fallen into blind acceptance of a corrupt system. No questions asked. One of the ways the government maintains contentment and order is through a constant free supply of the drink soma. Described as a sedative, pain reliever, and hallucinogen, soma is the perfect drug to relieve all negative feelings. And it’s free!
One of the key causes of American life expectancy decline this decade is largely attributed to continued effects of widespread opioid addiction. Was this because average people started waking up asking for them? Nope. It was a group of companies who knowingly created an addictive product and were granted permission from our government (ala the FDA) to start handing it out for free (for many it’s free or inexpensive via health insurance). How does this not parallel soma? Much of the same applies to tobacco and alcohol companies. It’s all government-approved medicated bliss. A system that has time and time again allowed for the exploitation of our pain and loneliness weaknesses.
Social media companies prey on weaknesses of insecurity and loneliness. Fast food compainess prey on self-control. Religion (referring to the “fire and brimstone” churches) exploit fear and pain.
How do you even begin to change a system as big as the one we have in America? How do you win battles being fought by an American elite with seemingly infinite power?
This book will propose a two-part (hence Now What Part 1) bottom-up strategy. By bottom-up I mean starting with ourselves. Why? Think about how many American institutions are under some level (no matter how small) of corrupt control. Politics, media, health, finance, justice, religion, education to name a few.
No matter how much control and power these institutions have however there’s one thing they can never fully control. Our own being. They may be able to influence us, prey on our weaknesses, but we are always the ones with the final act of consciousness. We control every step, every word, and every thought. The evidence of our power is seen throughout history. No matter how fucked up someone’s life becomes, no matter how low they sink, there have always been those able to completely turn things around.
How does any fighter win? They become impenetrable to every single one of their enemies’ attacks. For the American people these attacks come in many forms. Fear from the media. Division from politics. Disease from unhealthy foods. Stress from job pressure. Loneliness from social media. Insecurity from materialism. And so on.
The institutions running our country will keep winning these battles unless we become impenetrable to these attacks. We do so by first seeking the best version of ourselves. A version so full of strength and self-acceptance that we become devoid of weaknesses to exploit. True happiness is the biggest “Fuck you” to a corrupt system because when you achieve it, the values the system thrives on become meaningless to you. You will operate under a different set of values that no one can exploit.
I don’t know about you, but I’m getting tired of focusing on all the negative forces around us. It’s time to pivot, and turn our attention to happiness. The next section is dedicated to presenting a few (of many) tools for achieving true happiness. Then in Part 4 we will then look at common areas in modern life that prevent (aka block) us from using these tools.
I can’t wait to start seeing more middle fingers being raised to the people and institutions causing declines in American happiness. I’m proud to say I love this country and the people in it, and I’m proud to say we can do better. Let’s start fixing things by first fixing ourselves.
