The Hidden Conspiracy Against Self-Discipline

There is a subtle conspiracy against self-discipline, means that the challenge to conquer yourself is
further complicated by living in a culture antagonistic towards that aim.
There is a subtle conspiracy against self-discipline because society itself is structured in ways that
sabotage and impede your attempts to attain it.
We can think of this as conspiracy because the ways in which it does so are both widespread and
systematic, yet also subtle and obscure.
The same way a person can be biased in favor of an idea, or a game can be biased for a particular
outcome, our modern environment itself is biased in favor of these particular trends.
There are three subtle ways in which society modern culture undermines the sense of personal resolve
and undermines the ability to attain and sustain willpower.
Three key ways, three main embodiments of this dynamic:
(A) The culture bias towards entertainment.
(B) The culture bias towards distraction.
(C) The culture bias towards superficial thinking.

(1) The Culture of Entertainment

Media Programming has turned us into a society more concerned with entertaining ourselves than we
are with getting results.
Ex's: Celebrity gossip. Reality shows. Professional wrestling. Internet memes, etc.
We tend to value diversion & leisure (rather than discipline & personal accomplishment).

(2) The Culture of Distraction

Technology has turned us into a society in which the inability to focus the inability to concentrate has
become the norm.
Ex's: Smartphone gadgetry. Text messaging. Social networks. Face chat/Face time, etc.
We're basically rotting our ability to concentrate, and that's really what productivity requires.
We're conditioned for attention-deficit disorder/disorderness (rather than clarity & concentration).

(3) The Culture of Superficiality

Consumerism (consumer culture) has turned us into a society that values experience in only shallow
and artificial form, and this plays itself out in hundreds of different ways.
We constantly snack instead of eating full meals.
We download individual mp3s rather than listen to full albums.
We have thousands of ebooks but only get through the first two chapters, if any.
We have thousands of online friends with lack of meaningful connections in real world.
We rush impatiently through things rather than process and finish them completely to get the full
"nutrition" that an experience is meant to contain (such as learning program, video training, or can even
be in our relationships).

-Take some time to think about all of this, think about how you can prevent and inoculate yourself from
these dynamics, trends, and ideas.
Ironically, whereas the society tradition once centered around an ethic of industriousness, it is now
mutated into a culture of sloth and indulgence.
So becoming privy to this trend devising means to prevent its poisons from developing within you is
as critical to building discipline in the digital age as any of the more personal, internal dynamics
involved.

--

Lesson Recap / Overview

(1) There is a subtle conspiracy against self-discipline. Society itself is structured in ways that oppose
you and oppose your natural proclivity towards discipline and accomplishment.
(2) "Conspiracy" is meant in the allegorical sense. Do not blame society for your lack of self-control, use
knowledge to become aware and take the power back by taking responsibility for it.
(3) Entertainment, technology, and consumerism are the main embodiments of this dynamic.

The average mind of this country, taught to aim at low objects, eats upon itself.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

-References:
[1] Bryan Ogilvie. How to Conquer Yourself: Discipline & Willpower for the Conscious, Creative Thinker.
[2] Chris Hedges. 2009. Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle.
[3] Lucy Jo Palladino. 2007. Find Your Focus Zone: Effective New Plan to Defeat Distraction & Overload.