The Social Dilemma is out on Netflix now. @tristanharris and @aza and @noUpside (and more) have done an excellent job presenting what is probably the technological dilemma of our generation. I am especially interested in its perennial contours. 1/9

Throughout history, saints and martyrs and gurus have reminded the rest of us that even physical coercion in extremis is no match for the human will. Most of us could never pit ourselves against such forces. Physical coercion, for most of us, is coercive. 2/9

Likewise, philosophers train to resist argumentative coercion, and Extremely Online People train to resist media coercion. But most of us will still remain susceptible to the most sophisticated arguments and advertisements. 3/9

While nothing in our world is so coercive that a human being cannot resist it in theory, that doesn’t mean that most of us won’t tap out long before the coercive forces have exhausted themselves. Rare is the person who goes all the way. 4/9

For millennia the message has been clear: the future of humanity hangs on the development of our powers to resist coercion in extremis—both personally, and as a community. Most of us will not fulfill this directive, which is why we look to artists and saints with such hope. 5/9

Today we are facing a new coercive opponent. The challenge feels existential. But this is anything but novel, and we are anything but unprepared. Wisdom traditions going back thousands of years are unambiguous in their exhortation: cultivate discipline. 6/9

Through disciplined practice, human beings are capable of shaping themselves into Archimedean points. In doing so, generation after generation, they prevent the coercive forces of the day from running roughshod over the world. 7/9

Modern civilization owes a staggering debt to the unbroken lineage of ascetic practitioners who have resisted coercion anew in every age. The way to repay that debt is to continue this lineage. 8/9

In summary: The Social Dilemma does an excellent job articulating our present threat, to which I suggest we humbly consider applying the solutions that our ancestors have passed down to us through generations at great personal and collective expense. 9/9