Fear, fear all around but not a drop worth drinking.

Having been in the longevity medicine space for sometime, it never ceases to amaze me how much fear mongering there is. It might not be as transparent as "Buy This Supplement or Die", but it often comes pretty close. At first seeing this messaging got me enraged, and then I stepped back and looked at the situation and it all started making sense.

First of all we have to come to face the reality that it works. Fear does drive people to buy things. As we delve deeper we will see why fear specifically works so well. There are several factors that are driving the success of this type of market and marketing.

One of the greatest factors is that our society has transitioned into a 'low trust society'. We have become increasingly isolated and lonely and it has lead us to not trust the intentions of people or institutions nearly as much as we used to.

There is a passage worth sharing from David Brooks in his book How to Know A Person. In it Brooks eloquently describes the incremental steps from individual loneliness to distrust of society:

"Social disconnection warps the mind. When people feel unseen, they tend to shut down socially. People who are lonely and unseen become suspicious. They start to take offense where none is intended. They become afraid of the very thing they need most, which is intimate contact with other humans. They are buffeted by waves of self-loathing and self-doubt. After all, it feels shameful to realize that you are apparently unworthy of other people’s attention. Many people harden into their solitude. They create self-delusional worlds. “Loneliness obfuscates,” the interdisciplinary scientist Giovanni Frazzetto writes in his book Together, Closer. “It becomes a deceiving filter through which we see ourselves, others, and the world. It makes us more vulnerable to rejection, and it heightens our general level of vigilance and insecurity in social situations.” We see ourselves as others see us, and when we feel invisible, well, we have a tendency to fall to pieces... Sadness, lack of recognition, and loneliness turn into bitterness. When people believe that their identity is unrecognized, it feels like injustice—because it is. People who have been treated unjustly often lash out, seek ways to humiliate those who they feel have humiliated them. Loneliness thus leads to meanness. As the saying goes, pain that is not transformed gets transmitted... Distrust sows distrust. It creates a feeling that the only person you can count on is yourself. Distrustful people assume that others are out to get them, they exaggerate threats, they fall for conspiracy theories that explain the danger they feel."

-David Brooks How to Know a Person page 92-94

How_to_Know_a_Person_The_Art_of_Seeing_Others_Deeply_and_Being_Deeply.pdf

Download PDF • 3.44MB

I think this excerpt from the book really captures what is happening in our society. Now how does this apply to fear mongering in the field of longevity?

Individuals that are disconnected from community and have no trust in the institutions that are supposed to protected them will inevitably search for allies.

There thoughts often go "If the FDA intentionally won't protect me from the evil pharmaceutical companies that are out to kill me, AND my doctor is part of the system that is keeping me sick, then I am on my own so fuck them."

"I had better go in the opposite direction and indulge in [insert your brand of alternative medicine]. Oh look, this unvetted website trying to sell me an unproven chemical that comes from a bush I have never heard of seems legitimate and must only have the best intentions for me."

Many in the longevity market understand this and prey on this thinking.

While you can sense my own fatigue and frustration with this thinking, I do not blame it on the individual. It is a societal issue that can best be tackled at a societal level by developing a default cultural environment that encourages individuals to take a more active effort in developing and continually editing and updating their own life philosophy.

The world of longevity medicine is the wild west of medicine. There are many individuals acting in good faith, trying to advance the field and help other people. However, embedded amongst this noble majority, is a charlatan minority that is looking to advance their own economic or social resources with unconscionable disregard for the wellbeing of others.

The thing to do as a consumer in this field is to be vigilant while remaining curious. Understand that any human made institution is imperfect, and protect yourself, but don't throw the baby out with the bath water. It is a difficult balance to strike between the extremes of gullibility and cynicism, but I know of no better way to operate in the unknown.

If you are interested in reading more on the pandemic of loneliness and isolation in our society, I strongly recommend that you start with the book Together written by surgeon general of the United States Vivek H. Murthy, MD.