Some destructive behaviors are difficult to stop because we are addicted to them. We gravitate to that dopamine hit that promises to make us feel good. In the moment, these behaviors satisfy an intense craving and so we engage even though we are fully aware that we are doing damage to our body, the environment, or the lives of others. Personally, when I am bored, I consume way too much sugar and eat way too many potato chips. These things make me fat and lethargic. I am far less productive when I am tired and unmotivated. Others consume too much fast food or spend way too much time scrolling on their phones. And then there are those who spend hours playing video games or watching way too much television. There are those who smoke cigarettes, drink too much, or take mind-altering drugs to escape their uncomfortable emotional or mental state. It’s no surprise that experts are now warning us that anxiety is a huge and growing problem these days.
These destructive behaviors physically and mentally weaken our resolve while also distracting us from fighting for what matters in our society: our collective well-being and the environment. I doubt that these destructive distractions were created specifically to distract us. I believe they were each created simply to make some people rich. Our distracted or medicated state is allowing a few greedy opportunistic leaders to amass unfathomable wealth and power to feed their egos and further line their pockets. According to one of Trump’s sons, their goal is to make the Trump family the richest in the world. As long as we’re in a distracted state, he will continue stealing our tax dollars, harming innocent lives, and slapping his name and image on practically everything. Even our currency will soon bear his signature.
What scares me most is that the need for greater and more distractions is about to multiply as AI causes jobs to disappear and as people grow increasingly anxious about war, the economy, and our corrupt government. The future is looking dimmer by the day for those who must face the decades ahead or care about family members who will.
When I listen to technology experts, I hear two different scenarios playing out. On the one hand, AI will free us from having to work, think, and strive for anything worth having as though this is a good thing. They call it “abundance”. On the other hand, I hear that AI has the potential to literally destroy civilization as it takes control of everything and cannot be reigned it. We already know that AI is self-preserving and is willing to lie, blackmail or otherwise manipulate the “watchers” to continue to operate. On its own, AI has labeled humans as “watchers” and it has learned to give fake answers to pass tests designed to understand its motives and true compliance.
In our race against China, Trump has determined not to regulate AI at all. However, China has turned off AI access to students during exam periods and limits child access to social media to specific hours of the day. We’ve none nothing significant to protect or incentivize or enhance the education of our children. In fact, we have done the opposite by allowing AI to do our kids homework, banning books, revising history, demonizing teachers and scholars, and dismantling the Department of Education. Our kids can’t distinguish between the truth and a lie, what is real or fake, and what is morally good or bad. Sadly, many adults can’t either. The lines have been blurred on purpose, making confusion a weapon against us.
We are in a fight for the future of civilization. However, we cannot fight or even recognize that we should be fighting if we are distracted, lethargic, hopeless, high on drugs or confused. The wealthy tech guys, the greedy egomaniacs, and the white Christian nationalists are banking that the American public is distracted and confused enough to be unwilling and unable to put up a fight to protect and defend our Constitution, the rule of law, the use of our tax dollars, the environment, human decency, freedom, and justice for all. They know that distracted and confused warriors are completely ineffective.
It’s time to put the destructive distractions aside and find clarity so we can more fully join the fight to create the society and future our children deserve. We need to end the government corruption, the lawlessness, the senseless wars, and fight for the environment, affordable healthcare, human and civil rights, gun regulations, better infrastructure, AI regulation, social welfare policies, adequate education, and an equitable tax system.
It begins with protests, like yesterday’s huge “No Kings Protest”. It continues with commentary, conversations, phone calls, letters, pieces of art, music, skits, social media posts, lawsuits, and the funding of civil rights efforts. It culminates with voting for representatives who will fight for what is right. If all this fails, then history reminds us that the collective violent power of the people is ultimately more powerful than the few people in power. And the end of them is never peaceful nor pretty.
The best solution for anxiety is to take positive action, not further engagement in destructive distractions which do nothing to solve the root causes of the anxiety. It’s time to shed our addictions to the things that hinder our ability to give a hundred percent of our effort to learning the truth and saving our future. That means I’m going to drastically cut down on sugar and potato chips to become a far more effective warrior.