The term “Perfect Storm” was first used to describe weather-related events where two or more conditions combined to create a much larger impact; usually with negative or catastrophic results. The term has since seen expanded usage to include other non-weather events or conditions that when combined, have calamitous outcomes.
Facilitating this is the inborn human trait of seeking pleasure and avoiding pain. This latter trait is referred to as psychological hedonism which advances the theory that all human actions are motivated by this drive. These seemingly unrelated topics can be grouped under two major areas, technology and immigration. Within these two arenas, are a collection of disparate issues that contribute to our negative outcomes.
TECHNOLOGY
Recent technological advances have enabled corporations to exploit our inborn psychological hedonism for great financial reward. Video games use these psychological principles and reward systems to create compulsive and habit-forming behavior which mimic other addictions. The World Health Organization has labeled this condition, gaming disorder. The addiction is real as it stimulates dopamine release from rewards and developers exacerbate this with game design features like never-ending online multiplayer worlds.
Within the design of these games are psychological mechanisms that use dopamine releases in response to achievements driving the user to repeat the pleasurable activity. There are so-called compulsion loops that cycle the action-reward system. Many games are designed with no established end which encourages indefinite play. The result of this hedonistic behavior is escapism where gaming serves as a means of avoiding the stress of real life which can lead to isolation, anxiety, and depression.
Studies suggest that males are more susceptible to gaming addiction just as they seem to be more prone to other addictions. Combine excessive online gaming with socioeconomic factors, anxiety, depression, academic pressure, and an inability to form in-person relationships, and you have a large sector of the younger generation isolated and living at home. This gaming induced emotional distancing is combined with the financial strains of modern society, resulting in fewer people finding IRL relationships. This also results in lower marriage rates and higher divorce rates. In America, the birth rate (1.6 children per female) has declined below the replacement rate (2.1 children per female) needed for a stable workforce. America is headed for a population shortage.
Further exacerbating addictive behavior is the expanding role played by smartphones and computers, as they become electronic intermediaries and replacements for “old school” human contact and interaction. How often have you looked around at an actual gathering of people to see so many with eyes glued to electronic devices while avoiding or missing the possibility of human interaction?
IMMIGRATION
If we combine climate change, drought, food losses, criminal drug cartels, political corruption, and economic collapse within those countries south of our borders, we find human survival instincts force many to risk a northern migration. There are 20 countries in Central and South America, 13 nations in the Caribbean, and Mexico, for a total of 34 sovereign nations. There are 670 million people living within those 34 countries. That’s a lot of potential immigrants who might want a better life or just the opportunity to continue living.
It is quite obvious that our nation of 342 million cannot accommodate whatever portion of those 670 million people who would want to live here. It is also a fact that we need to find a way to backfill or otherwise supplement our declining birth rates. We need a workable immigration system that controls the influx. We need to screen, monitor and assist new immigrants to integrate them with modern America. This means people from all walks of life, not just the wealthy or those with skills we are unable or unwilling to teach. They need us, we need them, and we need a system to make this immigration process workable. Open borders are not an answer. Armed and masked police and soldiers marching through our streets terrorizing the citizenry are not the answer. What we certainly don’t need are politicians finger pointing and using the immigration problem as political capital.
SUMMARY
There are a multitude of factors both man-made and natural that are creating our Perfect Storm. We will be dealing with our technical advances and need to find a way to use them as tools to help solve the problems they helped create. These are not partisan problems and can’t be blamed on anyone. There is plenty of blame to go around and finger-pointing never solved anything. Both political parties agree that we have an immigration problem. Ignoring the problem didn’t help and the current knee-jerk attempt to terrorize the problem into submission is to ignore the underlying cause.
The correct solution is one that manages immigration to help fill the gaps in our workforce. That solution would allow a controlled influx and provide for a proper assimilation into our nation filled with immigrants from previous migrations. The other solution is to better deal with the sociological impact of technology on our psyche. Gaming addiction needs treatment just as do other forms of addiction. In addition to “treating” the addiction problem, we need to address the other factors that drive people to seek such isolation. Affordable housing, affordable healthcare, inflation adjusted wages, and equal opportunities for education that involve access to both traditional and trades educations.
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