The Atrophy of Will: How Modern Life Makes Us Weaker
“All of man’s troubles come from his inability to sit quietly in a room by himself.”
- Arnold Rothstein, Boardwalk Empire
There are essentially two sources of motivation for an organism — it does something to escape an unpleasant experience (ex: pain; boredom) or it does something to get a pleasant experience (ex: physical pleasure; excitement). Humans have historically been more motivated by the former as much of the average person’s day would be spent trying to ward off hunger, pain and death. Picture the long hours in the daily life of a farmer and his family. They’re not growing those potatoes because they taste good. While pleasure was certainly an option to be pursued, it tended to (a) take a backseat to the avoidance of harm and discomfort (in terms of time spent), and (b) tended to often be categorized as sin given the widespread impact of religious thinking.
Our modern age is making use of both sources of motivation in a unique way because the range of options for both sources of motivation has increased exponentially. This tectonic shift in options has consequences for both physical and mental health. In fact, I feel a certain amount of pressure as I type these words — pressure to quickly grab your attention and interest knowing that you can simply stop reading this sentence and access exceptional experiences that provide immediate gratification — and the library is essentially limitless. From the thousands of good to great TV and movie options online to the endless array of songs on Apple, Spotify, etc., to books, food, sexual experiences, and on and on.
This is not an article on addiction, although addiction is one of the consequences that emerges from our discomfort-avoidant/pleasure-centric society. My main concern is the impact of modern society on our thresholds for pleasure and tolerance for pain. Both appear to be shifting in a way that has negative consequences for quality of life.
As I discussed to in a previous article on happiness, there are no absolute good or bad states in life. Is working for $15/ hour and living in a small apartment a good or bad thing? The answer is relative to your prior experiences. If you spent your life as a wealthy businessperson and then lost everything and had to work for $15/hour, this would an unpleasant state of existence. However, if you spent your first 20 years on the planet starving in a developing country and managed to escape a genocide as a refugee to come to the West, then the $15 wage and small apartment would probably be very pleasant.
In this example, the same state of existence is experienced very differently, in large part because the threshold for what is pleasant and unpleasant is dramatically different. Now let’s run a thought experiment — let’s say we take identical twins and separate them to be raised in different environments. One twin is raised so that access to pleasure and escape from pain is always immediate. As a baby, it is never left to feel hunger. As a child, it is never allowed to feel boredom or eat unwanted food. The child is not just given toys and sweet food, but it is given the versions of these things that are high in impact. It is given toys with lots of sounds and lights and eventually video games that are highly engaging. Likewise, the food is always fatty and sugary.
Conversely, the other twin is left to experience hunger and the absence of a caregiver for moderate amounts of time (no extreme deprivation). As a child, it is fed only nutritious food and entertainment is only ever low in stimulation — toys that can only be entertaining if one uses imagination.
By the time these individuals turn 21, what do you imagine the central differences will be? The essential distinction will be their different threshold levels for tolerating various states of being. The spoiled twin would struggle to eat an apple or to sit quietly for 10 minutes, whereas these states would be easily tolerated by the second child.
This thought experiment is slowly taking place across time. The second twin is akin to someone raised in the 1930s, and while we’re not quite the spoiled twin yet, it is safe to say we’re trending in that direction.
Obesity is constantly climbing partly because people cannot tolerate an apple when chocolate and chips are so readily available.
Illicit drug use has been increasing for years. The amount of time spent in front of a screen continues to climb. Video gaming is now so prevalent that the gaming industry is set to earn $300 billion annually by 2025. These are all activities we use to escape an unwanted mental state or for higher levels of stimulation and pleasure.
Am I arguing that any attempt to escape discomfort or seek pleasure be classified as unhealthy? No. I am worried about people whose thresholds are continually shifting in a way that makes them vulnerable to engage in unhealthy behaviour — especially children.
This group of people may not fit neatly into an addiction category per se — they won’t necessarily engage in unhealthy amounts of video game playing or eating or internet time, etc. — but they would struggle to sit quietly in a room for 30 minutes. They are probably more easily stressed than the majority of people who have previously lived on Earth — which is concerning when you consider the fact that quality of life has never been higher. Yet, rates of depression and anxiety are climbing in youth?
To paint the picture in a different way, think of the actor Charlie Sheen (if you know little about Charlie Sheen’s life, take 10 minutes on Google to get caught up). Charlie Sheen’s history with addiction to pleasure can probably be summarized as such:
- he became famous and wealthy at a relatively young age,
- the fame and money was used to enjoy sex, drugs, alcohol and partying
- this lifestyle was obviously replete with pleasure,
- the threshold for pleasure increased and he needed more sex, drugs, etc. to enjoy the experiences
- the higher threshold led to higher risk taking and need for more varied types and frequency of sexual activity
It is easy to imagine that having a few drinks of alcohol, a few lines of cocaine and sex with a woman at the end of the night would have been boring for Sheen throughout much of the 90s (and later). In order to derive pleasure, he would’ve required a lot of drugs and multiple sex partners.
If you think about it, this is a terrible predicament. Someone in this situation needs a lot of time, effort, money and risk to have a good time. This is the central point I’m making — higher thresholds for pleasure and greater effort needed to avoid pain are undesirable and should be avoided if possible.
At present, I can recognize the various ways that my own threshold levels for sensory stimulation and pleasure have risen higher than those of people living before me (ex: those living in the 1950s). For example, I have a poor attention span for movies from the 1970s and earlier — I find them to be boring because they’re not edited to keep a fast pace and there’s not enough stimulation via sound and action relative to current cinema.
The consequence of my need for fast paced film is that an entire section of quality movies is essentially cut-off from my life. I would love the capacity to enjoy Gone with the Wind, but I struggle to sit through The Godfather! This doesn’t impair my functioning or lower my quality of life, but it highlights how my life is limited by this issue.
Now, could there be harm if my threshold were to move even higher. What if we all struggled to enjoy the Bourne Identity because it wasn’t stimulating enough? The more that we hit the levers that release dopamine in the brain, the harder it becomes to live without the dopamine. Of course, this example only involves movies, but it takes little effort to see how this could affect most areas of daily life.
It is interesting how many religions proselytize the virtue of discipline and moderation. They’re correct, but not necessarily for moral reasons. If you want to make your life easier in the long run, being disciplined in the short term is the best option. Eat apples today so that things with a moderate amount of sweetness (ex: peanut butter) still taste good tomorrow. Limit the amount of alcohol you drink today to avoid needing more of it tomorrow. Allow for quiet time and unwanted emotions to hang around. Keep your tolerance for these things within a range that is reasonable.
The person who seeks more pain killers to get through the day. The person who always needs sweet and fatty food to enjoy eating. The person who needs to engage in online shopping as soon as they’re stressed, bored or sad.
The problems here are not drugs, food and shopping — it’s low thresholds for stress and high thresholds for pleasure. Modern life is making us weaker and unhealthier.
The solution? As I alluded to earlier — it’s the “old-fashioned, boring things” like discipline and moderation. Delay gratification, tolerate frustration, and try meditation. Take breaks from sex and your favourite food. Actively allowing pain and discomfort to linger longer in your life, and even consider inviting it into your day (think of cold shower challenges). Watch old movies and listen to classical musical.
It’s fascinating how old ideas (which we consider cliches) can be the most powerful antidotes to modern problems.
And always remember that your efforts are not meant to make the current version of you feel better — they’re gifts to be given to your future self. The mark of a truly strong person is not how much they can bench press, but the degree to which they have mastery over their actions. The foundation of such strength is healthy threshold and tolerance levels.
