I’ve got amazing news for you.
Almost all metrics of human well-being, from life expectancy to personal income, are increasing all over the world. People from all corners of the planet are being lifted out of poverty at a staggering scale.
In the First World, it has never been easier to be a human being. You can open the tap and drink clean, cool water that doesn’t have pathogens that can kill you. Need food? Drive over to the grocery store and buy food from around the globe at absurdly affordable prices. Constant, reliable energy is available for you to drive your car, operate ubiquitous electronic devices, keep cool in the summer, and warm in the winter. Safety is increasing in developed nations, with child mortality rates and violent crime plummeting.
Our world is so convenient, so safe.
However…
There is a downside to a world where struggling is absent.
We humans grew up on the African savannah under constant stress and struggle. We are adapted to always be under alert and ready for action lest we be eaten by sabre-toothed tigers or something.
There is a genetic need for us to struggle against something. Struggle is good for us. Yet in today’s world, we who live in developed, democratic nations live in a world with far less hardship than our ancestors had to put up with.
This has the potential to do some pretty messed up things to the individual and society as a whole.
We need struggle like we need air and water.
With struggle you can elevate yourself to your wildest dreams. Without struggle life spirals downwards into depression and nihilism.
How to completely ruin a human being
There is a one-step recipe to utterly and completely ruin a human being.
Give him everything he wants without struggle.
Everyone understands that to do this to a child will spoil the child. I have two little girls at home. If I let them eat candy and watch YouTube all day long (which they would love to do!) it will rot their teeth and mush their brains. Children have no fricking idea what is good for them. Parents who give kids whatever they want in order to “make them happy” are going for short-term pleasure over long-term fulfillment. (As an aside: Happiness is a bad goal to chase—read this to learn more).
Children flourish with adversity that is set at an optimal level for their development. In other words, struggling is good for kids.
The thing is that these principles apply to adults just as well as little humans.
If you gave an adult the grown-up equivalent of all the candy and YouTube they wanted (think copious amounts of drugs, alcohol, and video games) this will utterly corrupt that adult.
We see this all the time in the tabloids, where the latest idiot-actor living outrageously on his millionaire income divorces his third wife and checks into rehab.
Paraphrasing Voltaire, work (i.e. struggle) spares us from three great evils: boredom, vice, and need. All bad habits are symptoms of a lack of struggle. Bad habits lead to a crappy life and a deathbed full of regret.
How to completely ruin a culture
There is this modern idea that permeates Western culture that living a pain-free, struggle-free life is a virtuous life. This idea is laughably false.
Not only is this idea erroneous, it is highly dangerous. It turns out that a really great way to ruin a culture is the same recipe as how to ruin an individual:
Give everyone what they want without struggle.
This is a horrible way to govern large numbers of people.
First of all, it is in direct conflict with the human need to struggle against things that they have a shot at solving. Once again, humans need struggle like we need air and water.
Second of all, if everything is promised to everyone, no one will do anything. No work will get done. No productivity. Just a bunch of lazy people expecting a government to give them all.
And then you get a failed state. This has happened again and again in history with Communist regimes. The Soviet Union. North Korea. Venezuela. Cambodia. Cuba. This never works.
Lastly, a governing body will demand something from the people if the people expect the government to take complete care of them. This leads to totalitarian governments that have a pretty dismal track record regarding basic human rights.
A lack of struggle is not only terrible for the individual, but ruinous to society at large.
Optimal, directed struggle
What kind of struggle am I talking about then?
You can categorize struggle in terms of intensity.
- Mild struggle: The individual’s ability exceeds the challenge, otherwise known as the comfort zone. Leads to boredom.
- Overwhelming struggle: Ability is far below the challenge. Leads to frustration.
- Optimal struggle: Ability is slightly below the challenge, but is able to meet the challenge with some effort. Leads to fulfillment and meaning.
Psychologists call optimal struggle “the zone of proximal development”. That just means that the cookie is just beyond reach, but with effort it is possible to get that cookie.
You can also categorize struggle in terms of the results that come from it.
- Undirected struggle: Flailing about and trying really hard without a specific goal.
- Directed struggle: Trying real hard to achieve a well-defined goal.
It’s pretty obvious that directed struggle is good, undirected is bad; however, people don’t act like that. I see tons of examples everywhere of people complaining about their undirected struggle. University students studying useless topics expecting to land a six figure income upon graduation. People working service jobs (which are really hard!) expecting to break out into a better career. Couples who are in a relationship based purely on physical attraction without the future goal of starting a family.
Struggle is good when it is OPTIMAL and DIRECTED.
Finding struggle is a life goal
Optimal, directed struggle is necessary for every single human being.
Finding an honorable and worthy struggle should be the goal of everyone. It is the foundation for finding meaning and purpose.
Reject the idea that struggle, want, pain, and suffering is bad. It’s not. Struggle makes us human. And it lights the path to fulfillment.
Past articles in this series:
- Thing #1 I’m Teaching My Kids: Life isn’t about balance. Life is about feeding all the wolves you need to feed Article Podcast
- Thing #2 I’m Teaching My Kids: Meaning and Purpose Sustains You, Not “Happiness” Article Podcast
- Thing #3 I’m Teaching My Kids: The World is Governed by Absolute Truths Article Podcast
- My New Project: 50 Things I’m Teaching My Kids Article Podcast
Great content! Keep up the good work!