For those of you my age and older, cast your mind back to a time when you were a kid and we roamed the streets with our friends. Do any of you remember playing some crazy made up games to get ourselves into trouble? Usually this would be the social norm for kids about to go into High School or reaching puberty. It was basically us testing our boundaries and lashing out at the system slightly.
Childhood Highjinx
There was a time when we were all out, as a gang, it was the summer before we entered High School and the girl that most of us wanted in her knickers, or at least I did; by then I fully knew what an orgasm felt like, suggested that we all play Garden skippy. For the better behaved of us that don't know what this game is, it's basically where we skip through back gardens to irritate house owners. It's a stupid game but boy did it wind up residents the wrong way where we lived. Anyway, I remember one instance where a man came running out of his house and kicked one of my friends, Barry, so hard in the balls that he flew over his fence. It's safe to say we learned a good lesson that day.
Why did I tell you that story? Well, picture if that scenario had happened today? If my friend Barry was a kid and he was thwapped over a fence via his testicles? I could imagine his parents would be right down at that man’s door, screaming at him, or worse, calling 911, regardless of the fact that he was trespassing, and regardless of the fact that he was antagonising that man. As kids, we were the brunt bearers of our own irresponsibility’s, if Barry had gone and told his Mum and Dad what happened I've no doubt he'd have been battered by his Dad and grounded for at least a month by his Mum. I'm no flag waver for smacking or hurting kids, but I'd certainly be having stiff words with my son if I caught him doing the same, and, he wouldn't be allowed any of the things he liked for a while.
Respect elders and youngers
If there was one thing we were taught as kids it was how to behave and how to respect our elders. I've worked with a lot of older people (than me) in my time, and the respect that I have for them is immense. The stories, the experience, a time long gone; I can sit and listen to them for hours. I'm also learning to respect my youngers too, it's something we didn't have much of back in our day, respect for our youngers. There was a saying that was only just having negative connotations when I was a little boy, "Kids should be seen and not heard" and lucky my Mum always listened to me. Yeah, it's something I'm slowly learning although it doesn't come naturally like it does with people older than me.
I find it hard to see when there's literally no respect for anyone anymore. Like I said in a previous post I had a mere child literally call me a sexist pig over the wording that I used in a post. I called some woman that was bad mouthing the Grenfell Tower survivors in London a 'whore' and whilst I'll admit that given the people I have on my friends list it probably wasn't the best choice of wording, but simply messaging me and saying "using the wording whore offends me because of x, y and z," and I would have been happy to accommodate, rather than spend a whole 15 minutes trying to get her to remove herself from my friends list because of the abuse that I was receiving. She was a kid and Politically left. I'm beginning to see it all over now, I watch as lefties shout down their opposition in a red-eyed, frothy mouth rage equal to the people they are supposedly opposing.
Free speech ftw!
Can I just say that I'm someone on the left that respects free speech; the left right now, or so I'm seeing, more so in the last day or so, is being hijacked by people that really don't respect the core nature of what true socialist ideals incorporate. Please, before you equivalate my ideals to that of Gorbachev or Stalin and communism, the word socialism has been bastardised too, most European countries are socialist as we speak. Socialism does not equate to Communism. Both are separate entities, one incorporates equality right across the board and was thought up by Carl Marx, and the other champions community ownership. If you were truly left then you would respect that there is an opposition in your community and you'd want to hear them out too so that you can better yourself and the community as a whole. Being left isn't us versus them, it's just us, and that's all there is to it. We have somewhat been bastardised by a bunch of whiny, entitled people that live in perpetual victimhood and think that everyone that opposes them is wrong, or bad. This is what Hitler did, I see this now. I can actually see why the right are so mad right now. Although, please don't mistake my understanding for agreement, I strongly oppose nationalism and racism! I'm open to talking about it though :)
Everyone is a master debator now
For me it's a case of everyone can debate over the internet now. Where we would once get on with whatever we needed to in life, and leave the debates for people that were experienced in such, the world has been duped into a weird micro-environment where each of us are the only people in the universe and nothing else matters. Our opinions revolve around our central universal point and it's not correct to have them challenged. Think marketers pandering to all our needs, think Facebook asking us to express ourselves, everything in this world right now is geared up to have us thinking about ourselves, and we've become terribly selfish and self-important and because of this, hearing another opinion that conflicts with ours is now a terrible feeling, whereas once it was the accepted norm. People get bent out of shape, fights ensue, craziness, friends getting rid of friends. It's all a bit ridiculous really. Yet above all, very little have mastered the proper art of communication. We now scream our demands instead of politely ask, the opposition is made out to be grotesque ogres but if we stop and talk to them we'll understand that their needs and wants don't differentiate much from our own. It is easier to hate and be bitter than to extend a hand of understanding and communicate. I swear it'll get easier when we all just try to understand than be angry at each other.
So, when you're sitting there furious at someone else for thinking differently from you, ask yourself, what circumstances has led to them thinking like that? How can you educate them? No-one listens when you scream, ridicule or anger. It's stupid and it's immature. Educate and inspire, friends. Educate and inspire.
Thanks for listening :)
I recommend reading RAW Food and the Psych Ward and Ready Set Go! Step out. I think it will speak to you
I enjoyed Raw food. I can relate to that a lot.
'Educate and inspire' : You certainly do inspire me! Few people go out of their way to consider things from another's perspective, and acknowledge the hardships that have lead them down the treacherous path they may be treading on...
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Thanks for that :) - I try, you know. I introspect and I also try and see it from a different perspective. If it makes ME feel really bad, why would I want to inflict that on another person?
Well, that does make sense, but on the other hand, 'each to his own', as we like to say, as not everyone works the same way as we do. There is no right way to go about things in general, just a lot of trial and error until you find out what works best in the particularity of the situation at hand ;)
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Yep. The one thing I gradually found out about life, over the last few years is that it takes all sorts, and everyone goes around their life in a different way. I'm a healer, I generally want to bring warmth in peoples lifes. Too many healers would be super duper boring! We all need the different walks, or so I feel :)
True! I am a passenger, like that Iggy Pop song :)
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i try and remove myself as much as possible from the distraction economy and live my life rather than exist within it. i find that aiming for positivity gives me a great real life firewall for situations and i tend to focus my energy in effecting change in a more localized way. i don't have the silver bullet of fixing a lot of the worlds issues so i won't pretend i do. i could not agree more that it's all about education and inspiring, and i don't mean the cheesy use of inspiring, i mean the real, feel it in my boots kinda permission based one that activates people to change or consider. thanks for writing this.
Agreed. I'm not interested in solving the worlds problems, just turn a few heads and change a few minds at a time :)
slow and steady as she goes. ..as they say.
Yup!
The world is turning inside out. Wrong values have became desireable and right ones discriminated.
I don't think there's a wrong or a right way, but people aren't listening to each other that's for sure
It's a battle, we do not strive for understanding these days. I don't think we even communicate, we just yell at each other, it's pathetic. The you are wrong and I am right mentality is taking away everything from us.
Oh you're so right. I so respect that you said that :)
Amazing blog post. Yea good points there. Upvoted and promoted.
Thank you :)
That is true what you are saying, you are someone generous and respectful. We need more people like you on this earth. Thank you
I appreciate that, thank you :)
The world is always changing. For some of us in a good way and for others in bad way. With all this platforms and social hubs people without voice until now can speak ther minds free. Some places innthe world are not good, but i am sure it will change, i am talking about places lile North Korea and Venezuela.
We can speak our minds freely.. with a little respect for each other, right? :)
as I see it you make very valid points but you cannot change things outside of your controlzone.
As you said inspire and teach who is willing to listen, grow and better themselves. There is imo not so much sense to go against a lot resistent and our energy is better used to give to those who want to take help.
Changing the world step by step what is in your controlzone and inspiring others with your own actions and values.
Not looking to change anything outside my controlzone, friend. I ride the waves of change. This was observations over the last 10 years :)
it wasnt meant so preachy as it may sound.
I just get carried away sometimes
Oh hey, that's fine! You know, having your say whilst being respectful is fine with me! :)
The world is indeed changing ...
It is!!
I grew up in a family governed by the 'seen and not heard' mentality. And I love talking with my grandfather about his life growing up.
Great post, followed to show support and read more.
Thanks. Keep listening to those stories!!
@raymondspeaks Really like your posts - reflective and thought-provoking as always!
Thanks! :)
Many people have this bizarre supposition, that when they write, debate or argue, that they are right. I used the word bizarre with weight and deliberance because to be 'right' is in my experience unheard of. If there was a right and wrong way of thinking, the world would already have migrated to the right way because it would be self fulfilling.
What we all have is an opinion, and its right-ness or wrong-ness is contextual. Have you ever noticed how polititions rarely ever actually say anything? Thats because they know empty rhetoric is much safer than trying to be right, they know that in 99.9999999999999% of situations 'right' is not only unknowable, but unacheivable.
We seem to be at a stage where many people feel their opinions must be heard, and that they must be right, simply because the thoughts come from their own mind. Its curious that one of the most important figures in philosophy (as far as we know) only asked questions, and never gave answers, he was of course Socrates. Unsurprizingly that made him about as popular then as asking questions does today, and he ran significantly foul of the establishment, which lead to his death.
So perhaps people need to remember what the word opinion means, and stop considering everything they think and feel as being made of pure gold.
Or, maybe Im wrong...
No, that's a dead honest answer. What I write is opinion, it's no set in stone truth. I'm just a guy mulling through life making sense of it all myself. Most people are. There is no right or wrong in my mind, only emotion and decisions that can turn out for the better or worse.
That is the writing of the person, well personality, inviting us to look more into us than around to understand that around more precisely, thanks
That's exactly right! :) All I ask is that you look inwardly, there is where the answers lay :)
To do it successfully we need education of how to plunge
That's very true. Sometimes we need help to see inwardly
Ah freedom of speech. Where does it end and where does offence begin? ;)
Offence is subjective I think haha
Good post!
I think that society is an emergent phenomenon, the result of constant negotiations and adjustments between its moving parts, which are individuals.
But -- humans don't live forever. So the question is -- how do we perpetuate a stable society when its moving parts are constantly in the process of being disassembled and renewed? Society has a process by which it matures children into adults, such that not only is society reactive to what its individuals do, but society also has an effect on the individuals themselves. Society is a teaching device for how to cooperate and co-exist with other individuals.
The problem with the world view today is that we forget that this is a two way street. Humans have to adjust to reality and society just like society has to adjust to them. And our focus on protecting people from ever having bad outcomes has effectively severed the link that teaches people how to adjust to society. The feedback loop as been severed, and the result is an uncontrolled explosion of people demanding that society adjust to them. Hence "safe spaces."
The consequence of this distorted society is that juveniles are never maturing into adults, and a larger and larger portion of our population are emotionally juvenile although physically and chronologically adult. They never grow up.
As I've mentioned in other posts, I think humans are like yeast in beer. Yeast secrete alcohol as a byproduct of eating sugar, and in a closed container they eventually create so much alcohol that they make it toxic for themselves to live. That's why beer and wine can't get much past 20 proof before they kill themselves.
Humans create bureaucracy and urban legends as a byproduct of our problem solving brains. But in a closed container, this eventually reaches such toxically high levels that people stop maturing and growing and society grinds to a halt.
meep
As a "millennial" who this seems to be aimed towards, I think it's important that older generations look at themselves and see what they have taught young people like myself. I think the things that older generations have desired is what has come to fruition. Us kids didn't just magically pick up on all of this stuff on our owns!
However, I definitely do think that there are some major issues both with the millennial generation and just the world as a whole right now, so I don't completely disagree with you!
Yep, no, I completely agree with you that our generation were the morons that raised you. If I had a kid 10 years ago I would have been raising him completely different as to how I am now. I'm raising my kid with a sense of ownership, responsibility and accountability. These are key in my opinion. We'll see if it turns out like that haha.
Glad to hear my man, you're definitely doing t the right way!