Hello all,
This is it, the finial chapter of Mark Manson’s book – Everything is #@%!ed, A Book About Hope. This book kept me wanting to read on. The last chapter takes an odd turn to me. The introduction of AI and how our world is already being influenced by this tech. The growth of AI may seek out conflict for us humans to generate a new hope that we seem to need. Mark states that “we are algorithms based on values and knowledge and hope.” (223)
Our never-ending cycle is, “by the nature of our algorithms, can produce no permanent satisfaction, no final peace.” (223) My interpretation of all this is that we must live with the inevitable struggles that life will throw our way. Much of our lives are uncontrollable and a lot of times, we can be our own worst enemies. “We are a self-hating, self-destructive species.” (224)
A statement that caught me on a personal note from the book is “by the time you finish this chapter, more than a hundred people, just in the United States, will be beaten, abused, or killed by a family member, in their own home.” (225) I was raised in an abusive violent home with an alcoholic father. The impact of these situations can lead to PTSD, depression, anxiety, low self-esteem and extreme destructive life decisions. Also, the impact of A C of A, Adult Children of Alcoholics, is taking place. This is the forced situation when a child must become an adult to survive in a home without parental role models. The social learning that should take place while growing up is lost which leads to social discomforts and struggles. These abusive situations can affect the nervous system, creating struggles in social relations.
Mark’s message can be in your face and harsh. It is logical and calls us to be honest with what hope is. There is always going to be challenges in our lives. And when we do have a comfortable happy life, we will create our own feelings of doom or stress that we need to insert hope in. As Mark says, he hopes “people will stop suppressing either their Thinking Brain and their Feeling Brain and marry the two in a holy matrimony of emotional stability and psychological maturity.” (229)
I recommend Mark’s book to anyone seeking out hope in their life. This is an easy read that kept me interested and makes me think about the whole idea of what hope is all about. I don’t want to give too much away, so I’ll close with this – my own hope requires me to be conscious (thinking brain) of what I am hoping for and actions that are value based, not emotionally (feeling brain) influenced.
Thank you for going through this first book review with us. Next week, we will be talking about a new topic. Hope you join us.
David
The final chapter!
You can tell Mark is about to wrap things up with a bang when he calls the chapter “The Final Religion”.
And mark starts off the chapter with something I’ve never really worried about myself. It’s never been a fear of mine and it probably never will be. He starts out talking about this idea that one day... “A.I.” will overthrow us. Saying things like “you and I, and everyone else will probably find ourselves out of a job”. Pg 218 Now I only think that’s partially the case, sure A.I and robots are becoming the future. But a robot will never protect a human soul. They’ll never replace a human and I don’t think robots will ever truly “gain sentience” unless someone purposely programs them to. Anyways this part was kind of random and kind of off the rails. I think it’s a weird way to start off the final chapter.
Shortly after mark starts to discuss the ideals of evolution. And so far out of this whole entire book, this has been the thing that has made me think the most. Have humans always been around? Did we come from apes? Are we gonna evolve further? How do humans today differ from humans before? Mark talks about a man named “Nietzsche” who was a philosopher asking a different question than everyone else at that time. “Instead of asking what we evolve from, Nietzsche asked what we were evolving toward.” Pg 226. And that’s a great thing to ask. Everything around the world has evolved from something in some way and it’s such a fun question to ask. Will we become stronger? Grow 8 toes? Maybe one day we could adapt to have better vision. Anyways I just really love this topic and I think about it all the time.
Mark finishes off this chapter and the whole book with a section called.... “if I dare”. And this is by far the most inspirational part of the book. Reading this section through, I get what he means by hope throughout this whole book. Hope is... all you need to be happy. If you dare to hope you’ll surpass all your downfalls. I won’t spoil anything from this section because I want you to read it for yourself. But it’s the perfect ending to this inspiring book. Just like this section states. All of you should dare to hope.
Noah