While all numbers and studies should be taken with a grain of salt, something interesting caught my eye in one from Australia, as it supported a discussion I had with a young millennial about progressiveness just a few days ago. My position is that the younger generations are actually less progressive or even negatively progressive (going backward) in their attitudes and behaviors, as in my experience they are opinionated and less accepting of people and things that do not support their world view.
Not only this, the obsession on identity has meant a hyper focus on individual traits to belong to a group, not the person as a whole. Rather than being more accepting of variation, there is exclusion based on increasingly strict and narrow definition.
In my experience, there is less social progress, not more. Which is why I found the study interesting. Not because it supports my experience, but because it might raise some interesting reflections in the people who believe certain things about themselves.
Boomers more likely to help others even if they have differing beliefs:
- 81% of Boomers said they would help someone in need even if they strongly disagree with their
point of view, compared to only 65% of Gen Z- 95% of Boomers believe all Australians deserved a fair go even if they had different political and religious beliefs, compared to 79% of Gen Z
Those are some big differences. If you needed help and asked a "Zoomer" (what a stupid term), there is almost a 40% chance of failure if they believe you are too different to them. Whereas, there is a less than 20% chance if asking a Boomer.
Filled with social justice - lacking in civic consciousness.
Civic Consciousness
Civic consciousness is the recognition that each citizen is for the society and the genuine interests of the society are the interests of the citizen. In the absence of civic consciousness human beings will become selfish and all the activities will be for their own achievements. This will adversely affect the social life. In such a society there will be no peace or security.
Social Justice
Social justice refers to a fair and equitable division of resources, opportunities, and privileges in society. Originally a religious concept, it has come to be conceptualized more loosely as the just organization of social institutions that deliver access to economic benefits.
Do you recognize the difference?
One is about getting authorities to enforce division of resources. The other is about individual behavior.
What is your experience with authoritative control of resources?
But at least there is someone to blame when proxying the failure onto the authority. Something to rail against that isn't the bad behavior of the person in the mirror. In fact, the failure of authoritative social organization becomes an excuse for bad behavior, an excuse to become even more selfish.
Of course, not many people will spend time to reflect on why the world is the way it is, because they live in a world where they feel right, so they already know what is wrong. While feeling right and being right are two different things, without reflection we will act under the assumption we are correct. And when believe we are correct, all the things that aren't working in our favor are incorrect, an injustice, an attack on who we are, based on how we identify.
No matter the trait, everyone of them is attacked by someone. Which makes us all victims.
And this victimhood mentality gives another reason to behave badly. It makes us feel like we are hard done by, that it is all unfair, that we deserve more than others because of our unique individual experience of being a victim. We are entitled to more, and anything we do wrong should be excused, because it isn't our fault, the blame lays on the conditions of our environment that is prejudiced against us.
We are definitely impacted by and become products of our environment, but the way we process our experience is affected by us as well. This means that two people can experience identical conditions, but come out with very different lessons. And, while the world has changed, I think that a lot of the conditions of the past that inspired resilience, are now seen as reasons to be more fragile. The "toughen up" mentality has been replaced by the break down attitude. And this gives room to lay blame on others, without having to do anything to improve the situation.
None of us are perfect.
None of us. However, if we keep attacking each other based on some trait we find wrong in our eyes, we are not only always on the attack, but we are always going to be on the defensive too. And, it isn't just on one thing, it is across the board, from skin color to the shoes we wear, to the education we got, to the privileges we didn't. Everything is an attack vector, and people are encouraged to attack, not accept.
It is a bit like the "when in doubt, zoom out" approach to Bitcoin volatility. If we hone in on individual details, there are always going to be flaws, but when we zoom out, most people are probably pretty decent, and much like most people - very similar to ourselves. Yes, there are outliers, but creating a world of continual division based on individual traits, means that we are all outliers and when that is the case, collaboration and cooperation becomes very difficult indeed.
But hey, I am no expert on the topic, I am just someone that talks about what I observe in my own experience, and flavors it with my various opinions that are biased and flawed, providing plenty of points to argue and attack, so that nothing actually has to be done to improve.
I fail often, but each day I try to be a better version of myself. And, the more I try, the more I realize that the best version of me, is not one that lives in a vacuum, it is one that lives in a community.
The healthier the community, the better me.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]