5-Shot Friday: A Must-Read from Mark Manson

This article may contain some profane language.

[Please Note: today’s 3/17/17 edition of 5-Shot Friday highlights a single blog post that features some profanity. It’s not “salty sailor/drunk biker dude” profanity, but rather “thoughtful blogger realizing things have really gotten out of hand” profanity for emphasis purposes. Readers who might be offended regardless should pass on this one – which would be a shame, because like any single article featured in an entire edition of 5-Shot Friday, this particular article really deserves all “5 Shots” of your attention.]

Mark Manson’ post is titled Everything Is F***** And I’m Pretty Sure It’s The Internet’s Fault – and it’s one of the most insightful pieces of writing I’ve read in years.

You can enjoy it on its own without knowing a thing about its writer, Mark Manson. At first I didn’t even realize that it was written by the author of a similarly tongue-in-cheek titled book that I’d enjoyed earlier this year, which gave numerous tips on staying level headed in today’s modern world. His choice in titles may tends towards the flamboyant, but his prose is measured, thought provoking, and sensible.

“MM” really hits it out of the park, with insights that resonate at the deepest levels of what is hopefully common sense. His page has an audio player if you prefer to listen rather than read for 10 minutes and 13 seconds.

The 15 second, Good Parts version: Emotions rule the world, humans always push to reduce suffering and hardship, Technology delivers that, which led to the Internet, and the Internet plus the human desire to reduce suffering has led to…information overload, confusion, distrust of anything, and vulnerability to everything.

Translation: it’s not the alt right, liberal media, or Big Pharma, it’s something much more widespread and fundamental that we use every day and take for granted.

Ex-wife leaves you and you start thinking women are inherently selfish and evil? Doesn’t take a creative Google search to find more than you would ever need to believe that women are biologically inferior.

Think Muslims are going to stalk from school to school murdering your children? I’m sure there’s a conspiracy theory somewhere out there that’s already confirming that.

The internet, in the end, was not designed to give people the information they need. It gives people the information they want.

And sadly, there’s a huge difference.

…the fact that I’m most easily given the information that confirms my fears and quells my insecurities—this is the problem. This same network of systems designed to make me feel good every time I open my laptop is the same network of systems that is disconnecting me—disconnecting us—from the rest of our country and often from reality itself.

Manson is addressing a critical flaw in how we use the most basic, widespread, unquestioned repository of information that humanity has ever known, and not surprisingly, it touches on every issue of the modern era.

Politics? There’s fake news. Healthcare? Battling news stories over drug costs, Obamacare vs. Trumpcare, and defunding Planned Parenthood.

Health and Wellness?

If I read an article today telling me that processed grains are harmful, there will be three articles telling me tomorrow that they’re fine, and then another article telling me why all of the previous articles were wrong. By now, I don’t even care anymore. I don’t trust any of them. The abundance of contradicting information scrambles my brain and makes me just want to go play Mario Kart for an hour.

And not only do I check out mentally, but I become cynical and jaded as well. F*** nutrition articles. What do they know anyway? They’re all probably just trying to make a quick buck.

This has become our response to seemingly everything.

The problem is when this level of distrust is turned on a people’s own political system, that political system will corrode itself.

Democracy relies on trust. Rule of law requires trust. If we lose our trust in our institutions, then those institutions will either crumble or turn cancerous.

Read the post. It highlights some evident and not so evident truths about emotions beating logic, the feeling of doom outweighing the overwhelming truth of world prosperity, and darkly disruptive innovation causing a resurgence of tribalism and baser instincts.

You will better understand why there’s such a divide over matters like vaccinations, insurance premiums, and reproductive rights…as well as immigration, gun control, and governmental overreach. (Hint: it’s not because of opposing ideologies.)

Simplifying a hypercomplex world is good, but understanding it without dumbing yourself down is better.

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