Misery Is Downstream Of Culture

By Les Mottosky

Suicide, depression, anxiety, anger, disconnection; these are the cultural calling cards of our time. This sucks. Unequivocally so.

But how did we get here? And – much more importantly – how do we get somewhere else?

The hyper-simplistic answer to the first question: smartphones outsmarted us. We've exchanged mystery, our happiness, and even our meaning for mind-blowing modern conveniences that would make our great grandparents mess their britches in bafflement.

It's been a diabolical trade. And that was before the AI's rode into town.

Smartphones took our spirits, now ChatGPT wants our brains.

That's the black pill perspective. (For those unfamiliar with The Matrix reference, we'll call it the bleak pill). And, as that movie suggested, if humanity is the cancer of the earth, then overuse of these disruptive advancements are the cancer of humanity.

The better news is neither of those technologies are unduly deleterious if we don't slip into overuse or abuse.

The one word lesson – as with all things potentially harmful – is: moderation. We have yet to learn that. And it may be a very bumpy road to get there, but things will be ok once we do learn.

Knowing what to do isn't the same as doing it.

A key to moderating our behaviours is to understand what, how and why we value what we value. When we understand that, we can observe, consider and change our impulsive, auto-pilot behaviour choices.

There's been a shift in how our culture categorizes people, things and nature/ divinity/God. Seventeenth century mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal asserted that humans have a "God-shaped vacuum" within us. He called it an 'infinite abyss' in our hearts and over the centuries that observation morphed into a more accessible metaphor of the idea of a 'God-shaped hole'.

We have an innate requirement to honour the mystery of something greater than ourselves. Our slide into overconsumption seems to have back-burnered this necessity. Including some who consider themselves deeply religious.

That hole in our psyche/hearts may be why the idea of aliens clings so resolutely to our pop culture myths. In the absence of religion – faith in a power we can't see – people opt for the faith in a power we might see.

Many believe humanity has lost our way. Happiness expert Arthur C. Brooks asserts we've merely jumbled-up the formula for what leads to a life of meaning. It may even produce consistent happiness.

Here are the three components of that jumble:

1) Instead of using things, we use people.

2) Rather than loving people we love things.

3) The idea of worshipping the mystery of Nature/Divinity/God has been supplanted by worshipping ourselves.

That last one is via hyper-connection and hyper-availability to others. It makes us feel like we're the center of the world. And we are. Well, we're the center of that world largely sculpted by internet connection. The 'loving of things' also gained traction via social media and the ability to share our new favourite thing with a wide swath of our connections.

Brooks' winning formula to restore happiness is the old school approach: use things, love people and worship the Divine of our understanding.

Simple.

So simple.

The trick becomes knowing the difference between using this new world and being used by it.

Use the phone. Don’t let it use you.
Use AI. Don’t let it do your thinking.
Use things. Love people. And worship whatever mystery provides the humility to remember you’re not the centre of the Universe.

As easy as it is to blame, modernity isn't the villain.

Mindless consumption is.

Restoring our happiness requires a counter culture approach because, the technologies aren't going away. Nor should they. The challenge is unlearning the master/slave mind-dynamic and then employ the tech more effectively.

TAGS: #The Lies We're Sold

Les Mottosky

Writes to expand the capacity of the human behind the career.

Adaptation Strategist // I help organizations turn creativity into their competitive advantage by aligning leadership, culture and strategy to unlock adaptive innovations.