It occurred to me today that there are several problems with our societal preference for easiness.

One of my favorite science fiction novels of all time is The Time Machine by H.G. Wells. I don’t love it because of the sci-fi in it, because there’s not a whole lot. In fact, anyone who knows about Herbert George Wells, and his background, understands that the novel is more about class conflict than it is about sci-fi. In the novel, Wells’s main character is able to travel into a far distant future where he encounters the human race, evolved over time into two different species of “people”. Wells paints two different evolutionary pictures of these two different species –> one species is the evolutionary descendants of the proletariat working class (the Morlocks) and the other, the evolutionary descendant of the bourgeoisie elite (the Eloi). As the time traveler interacts with these two groups in the far future, he ends up (as a scientist)

One of the greatest things, in my mind, that H.G. Wells is able to establish in this book is that, throughout time, those who able to do difficult things stand a better chance at a more decent future than the rest of us. There is no question that, after the novel is over, the Morlocks are those that are to be revered, as they have maintained a strength of body and mind that the Eloi end up losing –> through their easiness of life.

I will never forget the first time that I read that novel and I thought to myself about what it means to do the hard things in life.

I’m not sure how far back you would have to go to try to find the place in Western society when we started preferring the easy things. I can’t help but think, whenever I am pondering this issue, about the infomercials that always tout how a thing can make your life easier. Maybe we have mass media and mass advertising to thank for this obsession that we have, looking for the easiest way.

Here’s another example: I am a semi-avid runner, which is to say that I 1) run, and 2) never look forward to it. I do also, have to say, that there is something to be said about the joy of doing hard things. Running, for me, ends up usually being that thing that I didn’t want to do that I enjoyed much more than I would have thought had you asked me before I was to begin.

I can tell you that it is by far easier for me to sit on my couch than it is for me to go out and run a few miles. But, I hope that this more difficult thing is coming with some advantages for my health that sitting on the couch won’t be able to offer me.

The problem with seeking easy and avoiding hard is that it makes us weak.

Now, don’t get me wrong: I don’t have any problem with things being easy. But, it is unfortunately the case that we have been picking “easy” rather than picking “right”. By all means, choose easy if it doesn’t have a significantly higher cost than a harder alternative might have.

But, are there any easy alternatives that don’t have a cost? I wonder.

I’ve seen motivational posters (hate those things) that say on them, “Do the hard thing.” And, as incorrect as it is for us to chase after the easy thing every single time, costs be damned, it must also be wrong for us to just assume that, because something is hard, it is the right thing to do. There are certainly times when we make things difficult for ourselves unnecessarily.

So, where’s the median? The middle ground between becoming mental and physical weaklings because we’ve worked so hard to avoid anything hard vs. the burden of always doing things the hard way, even when an easier and smarter way exists?

I don’t know.