In recent years, life has become easy and comfortable.

"Dopamine"

"Addiction isn't about substance - you aren't addicted to the substance, you are addicted to the alteration of mood that the substance brings." -Susan Cheever

Want to watch a movie? You’ve currently got more movies in your living room on Netflix than Blockbuster’s had in their prime (what, roughly 1998-2003?).

Want to listen to music? Because of apps like Spotify and iTunes, you no longer have to go into a Best Buy (and deal with their quasi-sales customer service bullshit, but to each his own) to buy a physical copy of a CD. You can reach any song or genre or artist anytime, anywhere through your phone or tablet (Anyone else remember walkmen and CD players? What a fucking pain those were.).

Are you hungry? What was once a market dominated by Asian food and pizza (I was Papa John’s man, myself. Phrasing.), in recent years the food-delivery market has opened up to subs, sandwiches, Italian, cheeseburgers, hot dogs, etc.

Bored in line at the doctor’s office? Why not play one of the hundreds of games you’ve got on your iPhone (or Android, if you’re a really cool guy like OmLaLa) that you’ve downloaded like 3 months ago and never touched? (I’m willing to bet you still have Angry Birds on your phone but you haven’t played it in months. Why?)

Need to go shopping? You can browse Amazon or Ebay for whatever obscure items you need (you can buy a full suit of armor on Amazon for like $3,500 dollars right now. No lie. Go look it up. Now you can buy it for that one special white knight beta friend you’ve got as his Christmas gift. The ladies’ll love it.) and have it at your doorstep the next day (usually our Amazon delivery guy is either high or dealing drugs, so if that’s your thing it’s an added bonus).

Want to spin a plate from the comfort of your home?So long as you’re moderately attractive (no beer gut + receding hairline combos), there are dating sites (aside from Tinder, because honestly Tinder’s the ‘final boss stage’ of the dating site world) filled with desperate/wall-hitting women just waiting to be boned by a quasi-alpha/alpha like you (POF and Badoo are, to an RPer, like shopping at the dollar store with $500 in tow. Sure the merchandise is cheap, expendable, mundane, brittle, dusty, expired/outdated and will probably be trashed it in a week, but where else can you get a pack of 50 plates for $1? Costco? They have good prices too if you willing to pay $100 a year for a membership. It honestly pays for itself though, unlike Sam’s Club. Wait, what was I talking about?)

Need to chop some wood and you’ve got no plates on speed dial? Porn has evolved to the point where even people with the most obscure, odd and questionable fetishes imaginable (like chopping to Scrooge McDuck banging out Ms. Incredible in BDSM uniforms covered in maple syrup while Scrooge’s nephews triple team Sasha Gray and that chick from Twilight in a ’98 Chevy Colorado with Blue by Eiffel 65 remixed by Skrillex playing in the background) can have their disgusting needs fulfilled (I’m looking at you Kevin. I know that you’re reading this. Yes, I’ve opened that “New Folder” you’ve got hidden in your Downloads section).

It all boils down to two things about our day and age that have turned even the most rugged, robust men into betas:instant gratification and complacency

If I were still a beta (there are still a few things beta-esque I’m working on, but progress), I’d say these are great and comforting luxuries that we’re fortunate enough to enjoy.

But I’m not and these aren’t.

What these “luxuries” have done to a great deal of us (some RPers are included too. You know who you are. Kevin.) is made every asset of our lives way too damn easy. What an easy life does is it removes the necessity to have to work for anything because it’s all within an arm’s reach.

Dopamine is our brain’s natural rewards system (do something good, get dopamine, feel good about it), but because of instant gratification through these luxuries, most people have become addicted to dopamine. That addiction is not natural; our brains were not designed to handle the current ease of dopamine access. It’s also the cause of multiple levels of depression (the more dopamine you access, the harder it is to access it, so “happiness” becomes further and further from reach). Dopamine addiction is the main cause of complacency. Complacency makes you seek out and stick to what’s “convenient”. What’s “convenient” runs contradictory to RP ideologies:

You may be an RP head-nodder who agrees with a lot of things you’ve read on RP and the side bar but only utilize the ideologies in the short-term because focusing on this new mindset isn’t “convenient” for you right now. (i.e. as long as you’re here reading TRP and MAYBE a few hours after. I was guilty of this in the beginning)

You may subconsciously be on RP looking for PUA advice and as soon as you begin to receive female validation from your frame and higher SMV, you’ll abandon RP in pursuit of pussy because Pussy-Focus™ is “more convenient”. (Pussy is nice, but like Netflix it’s a luxury. You wouldn’t live your life in the pursuit of watching The Big Lebowski on Netflix, would you?)

You may only agree with some RP teachings and you’ve chosen which teachings are “more convenient” to follow. (i.e. you agree on frame and abundance mentality, but you may seriously still think NAWALT as you unknowingly kiss the post-ejactulate from Chad Thundercock’s midnight emissions off of WonderTits™ lips. Kevin, I’m sorry you have to find out this way)

You may follow RP ideologies religiously all the way through Monk Mode, depressed state, angry state, nihilism state, and awakened state, only to fall back into your same beta habits because they’re “more convenient”. (this has happened to me multiple times, if I’m being honest)

If any of the above cases are true for you, you are a dopamine addict like so many others. Complacency through dopamine addiction has been the downfall of all of your beta friends (scarce mentality, complacency, NAWALT and oneitis all go hand-in-hand) and will be the downfall of you if you’re not fully aware of it and actively preventing it. Everything in moderation.

Discipline is hard. Discipline is the antonym of complacency. Discipline is severing your ties with things, places, people that make you comfortable, complacent, and weak. Discipline is always going against your very human instinct that constantly seeks out order and predictability and comfort (Bernard D. Beitman, MD, Professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of Missouri–Columbia). Discipline is going for years striving for a goal knowing there is no instant gratification and you’ll never truly be complacent with what you have. Discipline is always wanting more because you deserve more.

Discipline is the basis of The Red Pill. You don’t just swallow the Red Pill once. You take your medication daily.

Tip OmLaLa for their post.