I might sound like a Luddite or anti-technology, but I do think humans have invented too many things- too much technology (social media, smartphones), too many weapons (guns, nuclear weapons), too many things to make us feel good artifically (drugs, TV shows, etc.). We're in the Aldous Huxley Brave New World of having too many sensories and being lost in all the choices one can make, vs. the sensory deprivation world of George Orwell's 1984. Libertarians mostly support the idea of letting people do what they want and not impose too much, but have you met some of the people in the world? People just cannot handle having total freedom......everyone, including me, succumbs to temptation, and there are just so many out there to latch on to. Just the other day I went to give a blood donation and the phlebomocist (nurse who draws) who checked me in seemed a little slow-paced, low-energy, and then I noticed all the tattoos (not a bad thing in a vacuum) and the lighter she wore on her hip chain, as if to always have it ready. This nurse smokes, and likely smokes a lot. I've never smoked so I shouldn't judge, but there's just something so demoralizing about someone who has to go outside and smoke every few hours to function. All the hurried trips outside to get a smoke, stamping out the cigarette (or, more often, just throwing it out into the street when it's done to get it away from them), it just seems so detrimental yet people are so reliant on. It makes me really sad for the human race in general sometimes just seeing someone outside smoking, imagining how many cigarettes that they've had that day and that it's just become a normal part of their lives while damaging their bodies irreparably, them knowing that it's bad for them but not having the willpower anymore to stop it after making it part of their lifestyle.
Drugs- Really a net negative for society. One of those things that humans should never have started, but once humans did, they became reliant on it, and they can't quit because they know how good of a feeling it is to have had it, and the longer they haven't had it the more they think about it. I bet hard drugs (cocaine, heroin, methamphetaines are similar, except much harder to kick because they give an exponentially stronger feeling of highness/ecstasy when used) are the same way, and why they're so hard to quit....you can try to quit and stay off it for a long time, but once you've had it, you know what it's like and want it. (Read an article about Shaun Weiss, the former child actor of the Mighty Ducks, who said normal people's pleasure meter is like 80-100 when the happiest, but doing meth made him feel like a 1200. That's really scary, no wonder he couldn't ever quit).
It's so hard for humans to resist temptation- I know the feeling of craving some kind of cooking, or getting the feel of cold sparkling water on a hot day, or the runner's high of getting the adrenaline juices going, sometimes I'll do almost anything to get those things.......luckily they're not addictive. Temptations are called that for a reason.... they're more appealing than the other option of the status quo, a perceived boring life. In my own life, I get a little upset with MJ and/or my sister sometimes if they seem addicted by the Iphone, one of the newest temptations of life; truth is, my anger in that moment stems from my own inability to control that temptation to check the Iphone and get that dopamine hit I get from seeing something on the Iphone.....that uneasy feeling that we're all being lured by temptation into doom...it's not that dire, but it does seem like we're all always distracted by those temptations that are drawing our attention....just like the drug user, always thinking about our next hit, and lasting shorter and shorter time intervals between use. Scary.
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