Fear of Discomfort?

I was sitting in the Dentist's chair the other day, mouth ajar receiving a 5 year overdue examination when the Dentist momentarily paused and noted that my wisdom tooth had a rather large cavity in it, and that he would like to schedule a removal.  Fine I thought, its probably a good idea to remove it now before it gets infected (I've had that experience before and I'd like to avoid it again if I could).  'I could perform the extraction here, or if you'd prefer I could send you to another office to have it performed under general anesthesia.'  General anesthesia I thought, why would anyone need to be completely knocked out to have a tooth removed?  As if in anticipation of my thoughts the dentist responded, 'Some people prefer general anesthesia in order to avoid the pain of an extraction.'

This fact started a realization that I've been mulling over for a while now...  Maybe I'm off the mark with this one, but I think that we modern people are becoming increasingly weak, soft if you may, we are developing an intolerance to not just pain but simple discomfort.

Lets take America for example, our economy over the past 50 years has been changing dramatically, we've moved from a strong industrial nation to one that imports nearly everything.  I believe I've head the term 'information economy' tossed around before, an economy in which the workforce is becoming increasingly sedentary.  More and more the average worker is being stationed in front of a computer, not an assembly line and while I won't say this is necessarily a bad thing, I will say it is having an effect on our collective psyche.  As an office worker myself, I can attest to the fact that when a computer is your work tool you gradually become accustomed to low levels of stimulation and low levels of muscular activity. When you couple this with compulsive automobile use, you have a workforce and citizenry that moves less and sits more.  What are the results?  There are obvious negative effects like obesity and adult onset diabetes, but I think there is a growing psychological intolerance to discomfort. 

I don't wish to imply that we should embrace pain, I'm not.  Pain is a very useful feeling, the way our bodies tell us something is wrong, but controlled discomfort on the other hand is really no big deal, frivolous even.  I had someone tell me recently that one of the reasons they didn't like to commute by bike in Bellingham is that they hated the feeling of wet socks.  I questioned the person on this and they were dead serious.  We all know people who would rather drive half a mile to the local store to buy groceries rather than walk.  Hell, in Bellingham alone you can order your groceries, prescriptions and movies online, drive through town and never even leave your vehicle as you take care of errands.  It is a drive-through society.  

I'm worried about this; a population not equipped to deal with discomfort will never take on any goal which requires sweat of the brow, or focused determination.  Think about all the pseudo-environmentalists out there and the products marketed to them, they are all designed to cause as little discomfort as possible.  Hybrid cars, carbon credits, 'organic' pet products...  They all carry a high and mighty message, yet require no actual work on behalf of the consumer.  

What does it take to motivate people?  It is an interesting thought.