Humph. Another statistic proving that death is All Your Fault.⁰¹ Sure. Or maybe this fishy statistic reflects how demotivating it is to be constantly bombarded with information about what we ought to be doing to keep ourselves healthy. External rewards and punishments are known to kill intrinsic motivation (Hi Alfie!). How do we wake ourselves and others from the internal torpor induced by all this nagging and bribery? Maybe we should focus more on piquing our own curiosity than trying to boss or bribe one another into a semblance of self-respect. (California, you might want to stick your fingers in your ears for a sec.) I get frustrated with these claims because, barring the drunk driving example, from the point of view of the survival of our species; it seems unlikely that the occasional booze or cigarette binge or sabre tooth tiger burger should harm us so irrevocably. Perhaps if our bodies weren’t already so burdened by the onslaught of garbage we have no control over, they would be more resilient to some of the screw-ups we make as a result of the impulses for which we are adapted. But that’s hard to prove and we certainly couldn’t trust the filthy chusma not to shrug and hand their kids cigarettes and deep fried twinkies if it turned out to be true. We are frightened of questions that challenge the simplistic story we’ve agreed upon. So we prove what’s easy. You and only you are responsible for your cancer, obesity, high blood pressure, depression. And back we go to nagging, rewarding, and shaming people for the state of their health until all anyone can hear is a low buzz. It’s the hippie atheist version of sin and damnation. Every now and then we experience a burst of self hatred, but mostly we just don’t hear any of it any more.⁰²

Obviously our simplistic story isn’t working. We are all getting sicker and duller. What have we got to lose by telling complicated stories? Complexity is exciting, outrageous. Everyone has an opinion. A bunch of opinions means conversation, and you have to be conscious to converse. Once we are alive to the world around us, our personal choices have a context and become something more than a doped default.