Defusing Armageddon, Part 1

Anger in America is at an all-time high, but why?

“Speak when you are angry and you will make the best speech you will ever regret.” ― Ambrose Bierce

According to many, we are all going to hell. The end of the world is nigh. We are going to die from climate change, decadence, pandemics, immigrants, liberal media, conservative media, drugs, politicians, or plutocrats. Pick your poisons.

But I predict that we will come out of this malaise with banners waving. Why? Because betting against Armageddon is the smart move. If I’m right, I’m a prophet. If I’m wrong, well, it’s Armageddon. Who will remember?

We seem to be really pissed at each other these days, but there may be multiple weird reasons for that. For one, the news and social media have settled on fear and anger as the most potent emotions for “driving engagement”. We used to go to horror movies for a good scare, but The Chainsaw Massacre is tame compared to today’s social media. I can swipe left as fast as the next person, but I’ve still seen things I can’t unsee. All of this to sell us some sugary cereal.

Compared to violence and fear-mongering, sober discussion doesn’t stand a chance. Science and tech are suspect, even though they are the only way forward. Who cares about that stuff? There is more money to be made pitting people against each other. There’s even a formula for it: Find the craziest characters in the opposing camp and present them as exemplars of the movement. This formula is called “nut-picking”, and it's the primary weapon of the culture wars, allowing each side to scorn the other side’s bozos with perfect justification. Are you not entertained?

Are you motivated?

There may be some merit in riling ourselves up, if it gets us off our butts to fix things that are broken. But anger is a stupid brute and the stupidity is contagious. We tend to fear what we don’t understand, so the things that wind us up the tightest are typically the things we understand the least. This is not ideal.

Mark Twain said, “Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured.” There is a limit to how much anger we can bear, and we may have reached it. Is this really the best way to sell cereal?

The media and politicians are whacked. But there is another, even stranger, force at play. Our diet has changed over the last 50 years, and it has altered the miniature ecosystem of microbes that live in our gut. These gut microbes can “talk” to us in several ways, but the fastest route is through the vagus nerve. Microbes can signal the health of our gut by producing dopamine and serotonin. They can also tell us when our gut is unbalanced by producing toxins and inflammation that can make us depressed, anxious, and even psychotic. These are the startling revelations of gut-brain research.

In other words, our crappy processed foods are making us antisocial, and better primed to pick a fight than a flower. Add this to a pushy, violent media and you have the recipe for a toxic stew.

Next week, we’ll come back to this potential apocalypse and see if there’s anything we can do to save ourselves. Don’t quit on a worrisome note, subscribe right now so you won’t miss the happy ending.

References

Cryan JF, O'Riordan KJ, Cowan CSM, Sandhu KV, Bastiaanssen TFS, Boehme M, Codagnone MG, Cussotto S, Fulling C, Golubeva AV, Guzzetta KE, Jaggar M, Long-Smith CM, Lyte JM, Martin JA, Molinero-Perez A, Moloney G, Morelli E, Morillas E, O'Connor R, Cruz-Pereira JS, Peterson VL, Rea K, Ritz NL, Sherwin E, Spichak S, Teichman EM, van de Wouw M, Ventura-Silva AP, Wallace-Fitzsimons SE, Hyland N, Clarke G, Dinan TG. The Microbiota-Gut-Brain Axis. Physiol Rev. 2019 Oct 1;99(4):1877-2013. doi: 10.1152/physrev.00018.2018. PMID: 31460832.