A client today asked the question,
What has happened to people?
It was asked in relation to a 15-year old girl who was raped and murdered in his small town in the spring, and came up again because the 19-year old that did it is in court.
It is a valid question.
And while there are man complexities in loved, I think one of the big doctors is that there is a sense of entitlement to get what one wants, when it is wanted. Especially for the young, they hae grown up without having to wait for what they want, it is always available in some form, no matter it is. No matter how niche.
It is unnatural.
Not only that, a lot of it is consumed alone, without the social risk of judgement, which means without discussion or shame, the consumption can wind up, warping reality, reinforcing preferences and opinions without social cross-checking. Or, being able to connect with "like minds" and ramping each other up, normalizing attitudes.
A lot of people think that access to tailored content is good, but the less random we are exposed to in our lives, the narrower out experience becomes, and the more programmed we become, as we repeat the practice over and over, making it a part of us. And because it is engineered and narrow, we are learning from an incomplete lesson, and similar to eating only from one food group only, we will miss vital nutrients, or in the case of information, exposure to the whole picture, and the chance to build full and rich beliefs and behaviors.
Yet these days, it is almost like we have just come to accept that violence of this kind is normal in society. We have normalized it and become desensitized to what would have been considered shocking only a decade or two ago. We almost excuse it, where the perpetrator isn't to blame, it is the conditions of society. And, this is kind of true, but doesn't that mean we should be looking at the causes in society and making changes? Because if we stay on the same path of entitlement, the problem just gets worse.
Imagine a scenario where a child is given whatever they want by their parents, no matter what it is. The child demands, they deliver, like the character Veruca Salt. Now imagine the first time that child is told "no" - How do they react? You might be picturing a tantrum. Now, imagine that after twenty years of getting what is demanded conditioning, then they are told no.
What does that reaction look like?
When it comes to content, there isn't a "no" for most people, because they have access all of the time, to whatever they want, whenever they want it. This is going to skew both what they demand, and their emotional sense of entitlement of getting what they want. And sure, not everyone is going to react the same, but shifting averages are going to affect the number of instances of success or failure. As will the selection bias.
For example, let's test different groups for how many men can bench 100 kilos (220 lb)
- pick 100 random men off the street
- pick 100 random men from a gym
- pick 100 random men from cancer patients
I think that the prediction of the success can probably rank the 3 into an order of likelihood, but the actual number might not be known until tested. But, we can assume that the group of men from the gym are more likely to have conditioned themselves to be stronger, and therefore have a higher chance of being able to perform the action.
Similarly, when a group of people are being conditioned by the content they consume and the way they consume it, the likelihood of similarities in actions are going to increase. When that same process leads to a ramping up of entitlement and niche preferences, it is again going to present in similar ways across the group, because this is what culture does to us.
What has happened to people?
Culture has happened.
We have changed how we behave as a group, and that is going to affect how we behave as individuals. While it is possible that in the current environment some people are going to thrive and get better, we have to consider our outcomes on average. For instance, every day I read of children suiciding all over the world, which is depressing in so many ways. The reasons provided are varied like bullying or body issues, but what is clear is that children are no longer happy on average, or at least not in the ways they were a few decades ago. What is also very clear is that the more they are on screens, the more mental issues they are having on average. Bullying might be a factor, but it might be more the straw that broke the camels back, rather than the actual cause. An unhealthy mind is going to react differently to bullying than a well-adjusted mind, and on average, minds are unhealthier.
We are all on a spectrum of mental health.
And mental illness.
If culture facilitates and puts more emphasis on aspects that encourage mental frailty rather than resilience, more will break with lower pressure. If culture encourages us to be unique individuals that should be treated as special, rather than an individual who adds value to the community, more will have tantrums than demonstrate tolerance. Id culture tells us that our needs are more important than the needs of others, we will take for ourselves what we want, with little regard for who we hurt.
It isn't a few bad apples.
We are conditioning for it, training people to behave in the ways they are, even though we aren't doing it directly, or perhaps even intentionally. Yet, we are doing it, because culture is a reflection of demand, and demand a reflection of culture. We have created a society where supply of what we demand is the most important factor, because that leads to corporate profit, and control over populations.
All the individual failures, are just collateral damage.
As are the rest of us.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]