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Continuing the previous post about the three acts of life:
In the past, families and cultural institutions provided the answers for each stage with particular life scripts that people were required to follow. Not much variation or choice.
Then improvements in education, technology, and the rise of the middle class began to give people new choices and opportunities for independence and self determination. The changes and new opportunities resulted in the development and diversification of cultures, and the scientific, medical, and technology advancements that improved living conditions and extended human lifespan.
These changes and progression were beneficial for both society and the individual. Discovering on your own who you are, what you can do, and how you can give back is an adventure that requires courage, patience, responsibility, and resilience, but can also result in happiness, connection, and fulfillment.
The modern era has been an amazing ride with admirable achievements in technology, medicine, art, literature, music, and human rights.
But now, it seems we’re entering a stage that’s rejecting modernity and attempting to take away people’s choices in a movement to return to narrowly defined traditions and scripted answers. It seems to me that those who support this are not willing or able to go on the adventure of individuation and want to return to those scripted answers.
If it’s an individual choice to live a traditional life, ok then. The Amish have been doing that for a long time.
But forcing scripts and traditions on others is not ok and is impossible to achieve without extreme disruption… which of course becomes a convenient way for the fearful and the ignorant not to examine themselves and instead blame everyone else.
The main issue is control. To control the stages of life with an outside script is to control the individual and to control the individual is to stop the process of individuation and the progress in society.
Something that would stop the regression is for enough people to wake up to their individuality and choose it. But that's the catch: if they don't know they have the choice, they won't use their free will to exercise it.
When I was younger, I was more optimistic about people waking up, Now, I'm no longer so sure. Maybe it's up to individuals to communicate with individuals and keeping alive a network of small lights in the face of darkness.
In the past, families and cultural institutions provided the answers for each stage with particular life scripts that people were required to follow. Not much variation or choice.
Then improvements in education, technology, and the rise of the middle class began to give people new choices and opportunities for independence and self determination. The changes and new opportunities resulted in the development and diversification of cultures, and the scientific, medical, and technology advancements that improved living conditions and extended human lifespan.
These changes and progression were beneficial for both society and the individual. Discovering on your own who you are, what you can do, and how you can give back is an adventure that requires courage, patience, responsibility, and resilience, but can also result in happiness, connection, and fulfillment.
The modern era has been an amazing ride with admirable achievements in technology, medicine, art, literature, music, and human rights.
But now, it seems we’re entering a stage that’s rejecting modernity and attempting to take away people’s choices in a movement to return to narrowly defined traditions and scripted answers. It seems to me that those who support this are not willing or able to go on the adventure of individuation and want to return to those scripted answers.
If it’s an individual choice to live a traditional life, ok then. The Amish have been doing that for a long time.
But forcing scripts and traditions on others is not ok and is impossible to achieve without extreme disruption… which of course becomes a convenient way for the fearful and the ignorant not to examine themselves and instead blame everyone else.
The main issue is control. To control the stages of life with an outside script is to control the individual and to control the individual is to stop the process of individuation and the progress in society.
Something that would stop the regression is for enough people to wake up to their individuality and choose it. But that's the catch: if they don't know they have the choice, they won't use their free will to exercise it.
When I was younger, I was more optimistic about people waking up, Now, I'm no longer so sure. Maybe it's up to individuals to communicate with individuals and keeping alive a network of small lights in the face of darkness.
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