A Few Dark Truths That'll Scare the Sh*t out of Most People
"He was kind to the man that pissed in his mouth for years"
President Nelson Mandela once had a bizarre experience.
He went to a restaurant surrounded by his security guards. He noticed a man waiting in line, and asked his security guards to tell him to join their table. The middle-aged man sat a few seats away from Mandela.
Right after the man finished his meal, he rushed out of the restaurant in a sweat. He looked frantic.
The security guard told Mandela “The man’s hand was shaking while eating. Perhaps he’s unwell.”
Mandela: “Nah, he’s not unwell. He used to run the jail I was in. Every day he’d torture me. After hours of abuse I’d ask for water. He would just pee in my mouth.”
Mandela went on… “Now I’m the president he probably thinks I will seek revenge. That’s why his hands were shaking and he was terrified.”
Mandela wasn’t interested in revenge.
He felt that revenge destroys the humanity inside of a person. He wanted to be patient and tolerant, so that he could grow as a person along with the rest of the citizens of South Africa.
The dark truth is that revenge destroys your character. Without character you have nothing and will likely never be successful.
Dark Truth #2 — We’re no longer constrained by resources.
Many of society’s problems are the result of scarcity.
We’re convinced that a lack of resources in the big areas that need change is what will destroy the planet and make humans extinct. This fear used to make sense. But not anymore.
We have unlimited power through nuclear.
We have unlimited intelligence through AI.
We have unlimited productivity through robots.
The formula for GDP (Gross Domestic Product) and how we measure human productivity will therefore be rewritten.
Our problem in the future will no longer be a lack of resources. That’s why solving hard problems, like getting humans to live on Mars, isn’t as crazy as it sounds.
The dark truth is most people aren’t aware of this change. They’re still stuck with a scarcity mindset, that’s reinforced by mainstream media that’s desperate to create fake urgency to profit from it and prevent bankruptcy.
Dark Truth #3 — Being politically incorrect is a superpower
Being politically correct is how you fit in. It’s a safe path.
And for years I lived this way as a banker because I didn’t want to rock the boat or jeopardize my next promotion. Sherry (a.k.a. Schrodingr’s Brat) on X made me see the dark truth of political correctness:
I met my best friend over a politically incorrect joke she blurted out at brunch one day, and to her relief I laughed so hard I snorted.
Intimacy is the reward for taking the risk of being offensive.
Political correctness has made people scared to say the wrong thing out of fear of offending someone. So we don’t have the real conversations that create change and help innovation thrive.
Comedian Jerry Seinfeld says it’s why there’s no good comedy on TV anymore. The only way to see real comedy is to go to live stand-up where there are no censors or nanny police.
The writers I spend the most time with all came from conversations about things I couldn’t say publicly. There’s a magic to being offensive in private that becomes the foundation for great relationships.
More people need to say what they think.
Dark Truth #4 — Do-gooding often creates more harm than good
In 1985 there was a concert called “Live Aid.”
The mission was noble: raise money to solve the famine in Ethiopia. Everyone from rock band Queen to Elton John performed. The event was a success and the money began to be given out.
The first place the money went was to Ethiopian charities. They were supposed to use the money to buy food and fix the famine. But the Ethiopian charities gave the money to the “Derg,” the Ethiopian military dictatorship. The Derg caused the famine in the first place.
They used the money to bankroll a resettlement program that killed an extra 100,000 Ethiopians.
Everyone cheers do-gooding efforts like Live Aid, but rarely does anyone report on how harmful these interventions can be.
Dark truth: Charities often raise money, try to send the cash to the country in need, only to have the people on the ground intercept the money and use it to fund more terror.
Dark Truth #5 — Therapy culture is toxic
Mental health has now gone mainstream.
Everyone loves to blame their problems on mental health issues. Therapist demand has gone through the roof. But the dark truth is that we are now describing normal life as a problem.
We’re taking everyday struggles and overdramatizing them into all sorts of disorders and fake labels that make us think we’re broken.We’re not as broken as therapy culture makes out.
Life is supposed to be hard. Struggles will hit us all. If we perceive every challenge in life as an overwhelming mental health disorder that needs a therapist, we’ll become soft and not be able to do hard things.
Let’s stop describing every aspect of normal life as a giant problem.
Dark Truth #6 — Hit pieces written by journalists are a sign
Andrew Huberman hit piece on his dating life.
Bill Ackman hit piece (that includes his wife).
Dave Portnoy hit piece.
Jay Shetty hit piece.
Mainstream media are attacking popular social media figures as a final and desperate attempt to remain relevant. However, these despicable tactics are only causing them to lose more credibility.
The dark truth is mainstream media has lost it’s relevance (and everyone knows it).
Dark Truth #7 — The grandma/grandpa way of life is far healthier than modern living
Old people are right.
Waking up early, doing the gardening, eating fresh food, going for a walk, reading books, talking on the phone, eating an early dinner, and being in bed by 9 PM is truly living.
I wish my grandma was still alive so I could tell her that her way of life was right all along. The new way of living is toxic to our health.
The dark truth is we’re overworked and stressed, and nobody wants to admit it.
Dark Truth #8 — A lack of purpose is the silent crisis
We’ve become obsessed with problems that are none of our business.
The average person is outraged by every little thing, especially things that have nothing to do with them, such as wars in Europe.
Question: why is that?
Well, when you don’t have a purpose in life there’s no way to curate what’s important to you and what’s not. Distractions and temptations slowly start to take over your life. Pretty soon you’re no longer thinking for yourself.
The obligations of others are delivered to you via notifications on your device. You jump from one notification to the other based on perceived urgency. The urgency makes you feel importance which strokes your ego.
Soon, you’re a different human being.
You’re a vessel for someone else’s mission and a soldier in someone else’s culture war — and you don’t even know it.
The solution is to choose a purpose for your life, so you can stop being manipulated by big problems that you’ll never be able to solve.
If the world feels dark, now you know why.
Dark Truth #9 — A $150,000 comfortable salary is one of the saddest existences
This might sound like a lot of money.
But in modern times, living in a big city, with the current cost of living pressures, $150,000 isn’t much anymore.
The danger is it’s not enough money to become financially free, but it’s just enough money to keep a person trapped. The type of person who says every money-making opportunity online is a scam.
Or that goes on a dating app, finds a good enough partner, then feels pressured into getting married and having kids so they can fit in.
This person’s existence is miserable over time, but not miserable enough for them to be motivated to change.
The comfort of predictability is enormous. It’s as addictive as heroin.
There’s nothing wrong with earning a salary. What’s sad is when people stay stuck in a boring job to maintain a mid-level salary, instead of chasing their dreams and tapping into their potential.
This is why we have a comfort crisis. Comfort is addictive. But few people talk about the huge regrets that come with it.
Dark Truth #10 — Educated individuals with college degrees are an ignorant class we need to be scared off
A degree can make you think you know everything.
The fake expert status can breed entitlement. Consuming knowledge is not the same as the wisdom that comes from doing hard things and failing your butt off.
93 year old badass economist Thomas Sowell says it even better:
In a democracy, we have always had to worry about the ignorance of the uneducated. Today we have to worry about the ignorance of people with college degrees.
Too much education can lead to ignorance. That’s the real problem. Your mind closes and you start to diss anyone’s worldview who doesn’t have the same high-class Harvard credentials as you.
Beware of experts. Their education is often based on a model of the world that’s now extinct.
The world is run by:
- C students
- failed employees
- and probably people less smart than you.Don’t underestimate yourself — Codie Sanchez
Dark Truth #11 — Gyms are dying because of this weird reason
Gyms have become cemeteries.
I just came back from one. Mindless zombies are everywhere. Gymgoers can’t stop looking at their phones. They’re in the gym but they’re not moving. They do one set of an exercise per 15–20 minutes.
They may as well sit at home on the couch. This devastating reality means we’re likely becoming less fit as phones continue to erode people’s attention. The dark truth is phones need to be left at home.
Tell me which of the 11 dark truths you loved the most and why in the comments.
P.S. — One final dark truth.
Well. A blunt truth anyway.
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Banger. #3, 4, and 10 are especially poignant. The era of political correctness and virtue signaling about doing good that makes things worse must end.
Dark truth #12: a Magnum ice cream gives you a few moments of pleasure followed by a feeling of sickly sweet nausea and a reduced bank balance.
#7 was the best. I enjoyed reading these nuggets of wisdom in an entertaining package.