I can't help but try linking together several broad but seemingly related socioeconomic themes going on today. I will start with a basic premise:

  • We have an increased need for instant gratification

And will claim that the effect has been overwhelmingly negative:

  • As a result, we look for short-term gains, ultimately leaving us unsatisfied when the style simmers down and the substance is nowhere to be found. This is becoming true in relationships as well as business.

This article does a decent job of summarizing some of the basic links, particularly in financial investing and online dating:

http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2014/10/how_both_dating_and_finance_have_been_screwed_by_the_internet.html

This much might be apparent to members of this forum. But I'd like to extend the connections further into business, particularly high technology, and education. Instant gratification, I believe, is ruining both.

We're abandoning long-term thinking and planning much more so than we used to. Results in business must be quick - we need good quarterly results - which disincentivizes long-term projects. But long-term projects are what got us to the moon; what built nuclear plants; what built the Golden Gate bridge, the Hoover dam. There is an argument to be made that in a general sense, despite the fact that we remain optimistic about the future, we're very "indeterminate", or unsure, of how we get there.

These ideas are tied together very well by technology entrepreneur and investor Peter Thiel, in what, IMO, is an incredibly important "red pill" talk on business creation and growth: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZM_JmZdqCw (warning: LONG but certainly worth your time, especially if you have any entrepreneurial inklings).

What he doesn't say, but what I'll posit, is that all this is a result of a need for increased instant gratification. I need to say something outright though: it is never a technology's fault for this. The internet does not make one into a chronic facebook browser and time-waster who loses the ability to think longer-term. Amazon does not make people too lazy to leave the house. It's always the person's problem, they must take responsibility and recognize when they use something as an enabler. We have excellent tools for communication, entertainment, retail, etc that get abused by an undisciplined and untrained society. Nobody taught us how to responsibly use our technology, so we taught ourselves to use them as coping mechanisms.

How might all this apply to women? Well I'm sure you already know the basics. But I'll make some connections for you to consider that you might not have:

A lack of long-term planning leads to stagnating middle class because economic growth becomes relegated to a few select sectors that are winner-take-all (finance and software generally serve the top 10% much more). Economic stagnation for the middle class creates social disorder eventually because the pie is not increasing - life is more "zero sum", more competitive. Thus traditional factors that worked for marriage (stable and relatively good financial standing) start to work less. People get laid off; the man looks to be in worse and worse shape compared to what's being advertised out there; the woman becomes dissatisfied, and follows the imperative of procuring a better mate. I've seen this happen again and again. It's not even so much the money, but the mental state that this puts the man in that makes him seem unworthy, thus beta.

A lot of red pill people seem to express a throwback desire to times that were closer to the 50s through 70s. Given the above explanation, one might see why. It was a more properous time, and prosperity allows for better "polarization" in a relationship: roughly speaking, men can be more like men, and women can be more feminine.

How has this changed? Polariation is going down, fast. We've all seen studies showing male testosterone decreasing decade after decade. I would attribute part of this to economic stress, and the other part to unhealthy lifestyle choices brought on by a need for instant gratification (which, incidentally, might help numb the former). What I haven't seen, but what wouldn't surprise me, is a chart of female sex hormones over time, showing them become less feminine. Too much stress in general just makes people less of who they are (chemically), and as the middle class started to stagnate, women started entering the workforce in droves, more out of necessity than choice. This is one of the "tricks" the middle class had to do to keep up with stagnation; others include credit card debt and risky housing trades (a great documentary on this is http://inequalityforall.com/).


Something that I've struggled to understand about the red pill is the overarching theme: is this about the majority of beta males having a tough time, and picking apart the flaws in society (this theme resonates with anti-feminism posts), or is this about realizing that things are the way they are, and striving to become more alpha to win in an increasingly competitive world (this theme resonates more with pick-up)? I suppose there's no reason the answer can't be both. My ideal viewpoint would actually be both, always striving to become a "benevolent alpha".


Some final thoughts: is the future going to get better or worse?

My honest view is that it will get better for the top 20% or so (in business and attractiveness) and worse for the rest. We will continue to polarize, both in relationships (well, the other way here) and economic power. I think the only way it could get better for the majority is through much higher quality free education, increasing social mobility. But this is not enough, people will need to consciously disconnect from various sources of poison that keep them bound to where they are; the purposeless web browsing, the excessive video games, the porn, the incredibly unhealthy majority of fast food.

Have you sat down and conversed with some of your regular "blue pill" friends a bit after college? They get overweight; they can't concentrate and are addicted to checking their phones for god knows what; they get uncomfortable when you talk about the future. They are burned out, and tied to a job they don't like where they somehow have to put in more than 40 hours of week. They are imprisoned.

This may sound harsh, but let me clarify that there are circumstances to blame for this. People need to work, and damn hard. It is a gradual slide into the above description. It comes about because they have to run faster and faster on the treadmill, and without long-term planning, they slip into short-term solutions. You should invest in pharmaceutical companies that make and sell sleeping pills; beta blockers; SSRIs; adderall.

There are some unsaid facts, even here on red pill. How to people even get to spend time on self-improvement, cooking proper meals, hitting the gym, stimulating their brains with books and learning software or what have you, and then engaging in a fulfilling social life? Let's not forget proper sleep. I'll describe my experience briefly: I'm blessed to have a family that was able to support me after college while I got my shit together. And I'm blessed to have not squandered this privelege on smoking weed and playing video games. Most everyone else had to be thrown into a job to pay off debts and help their family. I took time to teach myself new fields of study and become an engineer. I am upper middle class, and had enough self-realization to put it to good use. I do believe that most of what I've done is possible for others. But I'd be a fool if I didn't realize that it's probably much harder.

I have a friend who is chronically burned out because he cycles between schooling and working to support his family - he's becoming more educated, but had to help support his single mother and unemployed older brother. No breaks for this guy, just trying to stay above water. He knows of red pill concepts too, and I try to help as I can. But being able to actually work at it? Here's the difference between me and him. We both were late starters with women. Except when I was 21, I took a few months off of life to work on my game pretty much every day - and I got that shit handled. He never got that experience; in fact, he hasn't started yet. If anyone has advice on how I could help close friends in such a situation, please let me know.

But yes, to summarize this last section, I think we will continue to become unequal, and red pill related issues will get worse before they get better.


Thank you for reading my post. I know it went in many directions, but the overall themes, I believe, remained consistent. Looking forward to your feedback, cheers.