Social pressure to conform, part three
My mother passed a saying on to me when I was in elementary school that has stayed with me to this day; “I cried because I had no shoes, until I met the man who had no feet.”
The problem with the baby seat generation, or at least the representatives I've encountered as they buzz by me while on their cellular phones on their way to their next appointment, is that they don't appear to know this saying or what it means. The students I've met seem to be human doings and not human beings.
This generation seems to have no idea of the world beyond their nose. Further, because they have been wedded to the silicon age through one digital device or another, they have no exposure to real emotions. Likewise they have faced no real challenges in their life, so they wouldn't know what an obstacle is or how to deal with it if it reared up on its hind legs and spit fire across their path.
In a discussion I had with a bus-driver we arrived at the notion that the difference between safety and freedom is that freedom allows the individual to fall down in the obstacle course, get back up again, and chart a unique course. Safety pads the obstacles until there is no risk to hide or heart.
It isn't the obstacle course that makes one a better person, it is the act of getting through the obstacles to the point where one crosses under the finish line. Another older person told me when I was young that anything that does not kill a person makes them stronger.
Various societies have some sort of coming of age ceremony which allows the initiate to leave the struggles of childhood behind and be respected as an adult. The United States does not have such a ceremony, and in this high-speed silicon age, it needs one. I suspect that the high use of drugs and alcohol by our young people is the only way they have to challenge themselves and see how strong they are as people.
I've already been challenged by society. In fact I've spit in the face of the devil and marched out of hell. The young people I encounter on the quad don't have the frame of reference I have to cope with something like being a spouse's caretaker until they die, or deal with the consequences of a stroke. They zoom down the sidewalks, and wo be the person who stands in their way.
The final question I have today is – was I that bad when I was their age? More on this tomorrow.