The rise of drugs, consumerism, crime, and mental illness
For the majority of people, this is the greatest time to be alive in human history. We have 5.3 billion people with internet access, over 90 percent of the world has access to electricity, life expectancy continues to increase along with life extension capabilities, individual rights are strengthening, and global poverty continues to shrink. Times are so great we have protests, boycotts, and outrage over egregious acts, but also the most minuscule situations. With all of this being true, why are so many people in the so-called first world unhealthy, unhappy, shallow, and consumed by negativity? Have we excelled to a point where we have to take our advancements for granted? Are the Kardashians, Birkin bags, and Drake more interesting than Satoshi Nakamoto, Space X, and AI?
That answer is undoubtedly no, yet the coverage is extremely lopsided making it difficult for people to identify alternatives. As a result of this programming, at scale, we have regressed in being able to identify what serves our best interests leading us into a cultural downward spiral. In doing so, we’ve lost our identity and learned to find peace in toxicity. A classic case of cognitive dissonance.
How did we get here?
This question is not a focus, but to briefly theorize, I infer we got here because of big government, inefficient money, and corporate greed. These systems have over-extracted, regulated, and suppressed us into roles of defeat and servitude. The flaw of big government, a modern phenomenon, is that it needs to continue increasing its reach and therefore cannot prioritize its citizens while extracting their liberties, energy, and property. Limited government intervention would not focus on weaponizing its power over poorer countries or engage in proxy wars in the quest for more power. Corporate greed hurts us in similar ways via lobbying. It minimizes opportunities available for small business owners leading to the centralizing of power politically, socially, and economically.
Finally, we have had an inefficient or crooked monetary system since 1971 when the gold standard was destroyed by Nixon. This empowers the U.S. to create money at will, devaluing the purchasing power of anyone holding dollars. Not having a fixed limit on the existing flow of money leaves us all vulnerable and compromised. It allows failing businesses to be bailed out selectively rewarding incompetence. On an individual level, most are left in a race to work more, while making less.
These forces put enormous pressure on a family. It intensifies stress in the home threatening the stability, potential, integrity, and dignity of a family. Regardless if families can weather the storm and remain together or separate, the damage is done unless we’re conscious of these external attacks. Unfortunately, most people will impulsively blame those closest to them. Marriage is down and single-parent households are significantly up. Divorce is skyrocketing and kids are left to be guided by those without their best interest in mind, peers, falling victim to crime, addiction, and consumerism.
Crime
Crime has remained relatively the same throughout the world over the last few decades. However, because we live in a surveillance state like never before, it’d be fair to expect crime to decrease. Signing up to be a criminal has never been less profitable or sustainable. You’re almost guaranteed to get caught. So why is crime not meaningfully going down?
Some people are unconsciously looking for clout as a coping mechanism for childhood trauma and the rest are being squeezed into survival mode. With the former, I’m referring to those you see committing crimes or incriminating themselves online for attention due to a lack of adequate love, attention, and support or experiencing some sort of abuse that tricked them into seeking external validation. On the other hand, people are being pushed into survival mode as jobs are being automated, devalued financially, or have been outsourced to other countries and AI. These factors will continue to accelerate at even faster rates while enhancing the sophistication “criminals” will come to utilize. Physical crime is now primitive as smarter “criminals” take their talents online. The presence of scammers is something we all feel one way or another. We’re all bombarded with cybercrime tactics daily and this is just the beginning. The technologically inept will unfortunately suffer the most.
As a criminal today, you may cheaply convince yourself you’re doing the right thing knowing institutional crime has never been more evident, yet it seems to be more protected and profitable than ever. If you follow closely, you’ll see crime has infested every space of society. Non-profits, churches, colleges, legal systems, etc. Even once highly regarded people and occupations have succumbed to crime. For someone hopeless, this can become a reason to validate their petty crimes. In recent years, we had the Wall Street GameStop scandal, politicians inside trading or just politicking, and even the two most recent U.S. presidents associated with criminal lawsuits and impeachment. This is extremely damaging to the morality of a people. Under these circumstances, poor people will suffer the most trying to join a game reserved for institutions unaware that they’re the bait swimming amongst sharks. Left to be the scapegoat.
Mental Illness
Some people think mental illness is an excuse for “soft” people. This is a misinformed opinion often perpetuated as a result of normalizing and even glorifying street culture and traumas. In reality, people are “harder” and colder than ever. Look online, it’s full of negativity. Walk down the street and count the people who smile, look you in the face, or speak. The social disarray in which we live today is far from being a result of people growing soft.
Previous generations that overcame their shortcomings have grown critical and uncompassionate younger people. This is understandable when you lack a nuanced perspective. However, we must understand the circumstances today are more difficult even considering the existing privileges. For one, life was significantly slower and therefore simpler pre-2010s. Ignorance is bliss, and we know more than our brains have evolved to comprehend.
Older generations (those who experienced a portion of their teen’s pre-social media) did not feel the pressure to socially compete against the global population online. Your competition was likely within a range of a 100-hundred-mile radius. And those within that radius likely had similar experiences and struggles to you. Nowadays, you can find kids who have become millionaires and are traveling the world. Naturally, you’ll feel envious or inferior unless you’ve studied stoicism. For many these feelings evolve into depression, loneliness, hopelessness, and anxiety. Even adults fall victim to these feelings. In fact, during pregnancy, the potential for mental illness increases in an unborn child when a mother is battling stress. The worst possible outcome of these feelings results in self-harm or mass shootings. Both of which are on the rise.
Families are more detached than ever effectively removing voices of wisdom from a child’s life. Large families are crucial to the mental health of an individual, hence the adage that it takes a village to raise a child. We’re social beings becoming more isolated damaging our mental wellbeing. Without proper social connections, our brains cannot fully develop and tolerate difficulties. The challenges today are multi-dimensional, complex, and mentally taxing. Per the WHO, “the global economy loses about US$ 1 trillion per year in productivity due to depression and anxiety.”
“More than 700,000 people die by suicide every year. Suicide is the fourth leading cause of death in individuals aged 15–29 years”.
WTO
According to Charlie Mackesy, the most courageous thing you can do is ask for help. True as this may be if you have people view you as soft and dependent, you’ll never ask. Buying into the concept of being “hard” is modern, colonial, and destructive.
We can better prepare ourselves and future generations to deal with mental health and embrace challenges by being graceful, kind, learning, and building community offline. This develops the ability to self-regulate, see failure as room for growth, and know that everyone experiences suffering. In addition, we can also prepare by engineering artificial hardships into our lives. Some practices may include meditation, avoiding sugar, running, waking up early, journaling, and restoring boredom in the moments when you let your phone bail you out. See suggestions here.
Addiction
When most people hear the word addiction/addict, they think of a flawed individual. They don’t conclude that in some way, we are all addicts. There are addictions to work, sugar, fitness, alcohol, social media, attention, creating, acquiring new skills, caffeine, dance, politics, etc. I think it’s important we understand this before pointing the finger at someone who has addictions you don’t choose as your own. Our addictions are a part of our journey in life, for better or worse, and should not be used to determine who we are but rather to question what happened to us.
Finding peace in addiction and unconscious consumerism is about filling a void. The rise and normalization of it is a sign we have institutionally and socially failed one another. With that established, we can empathetically analyze unconscious consumerism and addiction specifically looking at cell phones and drugs. I’m choosing these two addictions because these are what I deem most practical to the goal of restoring humanity.
Cell phones
Cell phones are a great tool but have become a better master. Some research finds that 27.9 percent of adults are addicted to their phones. That is staggering individually and frightening when you think about where that leaves children. This addiction accelerated with social media hooking the world. Social media was marketed as a way to connect us. In the early days, in my experience, it was great at that. Once it became our central medium of engaging with each other, occupying our attention via algorithms, it shifted. Now, it’s been two decades since the first network was established and research suggests we are living in a loneliness epidemic. Spending time shouting and flexing on each other online, we have lost our way of communicating with one another offline. It’s also led us to become extremely self-centered further isolating us from maintaining relationships beyond the digital theatre.
Smartphones also gave men instant access to porn. As a result, men have noticeably become scared or disinterested in speaking to potential mates. Studies show a large section of men under 35 are not having sex. Even for the men that are there’s a disconnect. Men have lost the understanding of how to treat women with respect and dignity.
With addiction to cell phones, partnerships have struggled to overcome the temptations available. Intimacy is threatened as one person is often not fully engaged, leaving the other to compete against a phone that knows you best. Addiction to cell phones is a double-edged sword harming the value of relationships and healthy communication.
Drugs
When openly discussed, drugs used to have a stigma associated with them. This is no longer the case today and is a positive sign that we now allow people to live their truth without shaming them. However, it’s also a gateway to normalizing drugs for people to adopt it irresponsibly and unconsciously. These substances are not largely used by people with proper education, intention, and mental development. In addition, the quality that most people have access to on the streets is tainted and testing facilities that protect citizens are only offered in a few countries. I would urge anyone to study Dr. Carl Hart and Dr. Gabor Mate on this subject if you find any of this controversial or new. That being said, drug use in mainstream culture has become such a central theme in the arts leading to a rise in usage and death. For those struggling, you are beautiful, worthy, and seen. Please seek help. For the rest, be sympathetic, and supportive, and provide unconditional love. No matter the choice, we can all benefit if we learn to control our addictions.
Consumerism
Consumerism is often subtle. We can easily convince ourselves that we love or need the items we purchase out of want and what’s a trend. Many people get new phones yearly, unaware or careless of the way it contributes to the humanitarian crisis in Colton mining fields. Before that, it was clothing in China and the inhumane working conditions we disregarded for our leisure.
With consumerism being the most tolerable addiction, there’s rarely anyone able to play devil’s advocate. If they tried, they’d likely be a hypocrite, called a hater, or too woke. I want to stress that I’m not saying we need to want less at all! I just believe that if we consume on our terms and with genuine interest it adds value while if we unconsciously consume it’s a net negative. The culture reinforces that we need to want more forever. Many believe that by simply having your needs fulfilled you’re a failure. By flying in economy or having an old car you’re struggling. Not only is this a toxic assumption, but it fosters a society rooted in overconsumption and waste, accelerating environmental issues.
Like everything else, consumerism is neutral in itself. The problem lies in our reliability and lack of awareness around our consumerism. How it is largely practiced today is around branding and the more expensive the better. Purchases become about status and what the brand exudes about us. It’s a shortcut to obtain validation, likes, and followers. A security blanket or band-aid to cover up our scars. Whether you can afford it or you’re making a detrimental financial decision, in the long run not addressing the why around the action will enslave you to the action itself. Material purchases can only be a placeholder of peace for so long. Many of us are craving love and getting it confused for attention, materials, or some other coping mechanism. At some point, we have to become diligent enough to understand why we need something and the impact of our vices. Overconsumption is the motive for many wars as resources are infinitely in need.
Where We’re Potentially Headed
Three potential outcomes I foresee are the U.S. breaking up, the dollar collapsing, and/or corporations migrating to further expand or avoid restrictions. Breaking up seems like a reach if you haven’t studied history. Rome, Britain, the Ottoman Empire, and countless others should be clear examples of a government shrinking. The U.S. is more polarized than ever and only together due to coercion i.e. the civil war. You have groups violently demonstrating their politics and it may become easier for some states to transition away. Someone who speaks candidly on this idea is Balaji Srinivasan. Regardless of what may occur, any one of these will severely impact the geopolitics of the world spiraling into even worse outcomes. However, it will be minor when considering the threatening existential crisis that can percolate with the rise and deployment of AGI. We must change the trajectory of our behavior.
Conclusion
Most of our systems are built on trust. When that trust is broken and exploited, it accelerates crime, addiction, and toxicity. These issues are the result of hopelessness and inhumane conditions. Our reactionary responses are detrimental to our well-being and future generations, keeping the cycle on repeat and harder to identify. We can break this sequence. Doing so will help lead us to a wealthier world birthing an ecosystem in harmony with nature.
Moreover, with AGI on the rise, our lives may depend on this transition. Remember, we’re all in this together and play a part in fixing it. We are all worthy enough right now! Consider what you’re voting for daily with your actions. Our actions contribute to our reality. We must become proactive!
Footnote:
1. I used quotations around criminals to respect their circumstances, pain, and humanity. Some might say they’re weak for resorting to lesser behavior. I say you’re a part of the problem.
2. There’s a lot of data proving that our tendency to overconsume was enabled by shifting to a fiat-based monetary system. Over time our dollars are routinely losing value nudging us to “stimulate” the economy or lose our savings.
3. The heterosexual views around family are not to imply it is the only way of uniting or building a family.
Actionable steps:
Rehab.
Therapy.
Spend wisely.
Build community offline.
Don’t allow your beliefs to dehumanize others.
Books:
The Myth of Normal by Gabor Mate, MD
Peace Is Every Step by Thich Nhat Hanh
Be Here Now by Ram Dass
How To Love by Thich Nhat Hanh
Activity:
Accountability groups questions — In Pursuit Of… (stefanglover.com)
Sources:
NIDA IC Fact Sheet 2023 | National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) (nih.gov)
Marriage Rate in the U.S.: Geographic Variation, 2021 (bgsu.edu)
How do countries compare when it comes to life expectancy? | World
Internet and social media users in the world 2023 | Statista
Access to electricity (% of population) | Data (worldbank.org)
12 key metrics to understand the state of the world — Our World in Data
Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation (hhs.gov)
Number of single mothers U.S. 2022 | Statista
Explainer: A looming U.S. debt ceiling fight is starting to worry investors | Reuters
(2) Balaji on X: “It‘s not one country, it’s two parties. https://t.co/Zwocyx64Ur” / X (twitter.com)
How Does Social Media Influence Mental And Emotional Health? — SocialStar (officialsocialstar.com)
