Most of our survival instincts are based on belonging to an intimate social system.
Due to the ever shifting cultural mores and business needs, fewer and fewer of us belong in such a system.
Is that what’s hurting us? I ask you, dear liberals, because you usually advocate for the people who want to opt out of such systems, at least, in their current form.
Has our social progress been tossing out too much baby along with the dirty bath water? Can we ever go back to a simpler living?
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Most of our survival instincts are based belonging to an intimate social system.
Due to the ever chugging cultural mores dnd business needs, fewer and fewer of us belong in such a system.
Is that what’s hurting us? I ask you, dear liberals, because you usually advocate for the people who want to opt out of such systems, at least, in their current form.
Has our social progress been tossing out too much baby along with the dirty bath water? Can we ever go back to a simpler living?
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>Do you think the mental health crisis results from so many of us being bent in ways we were never meant to by society?
Probably.
Heck, we could rephrase that and say:
>the mental health crisis results from the way nature made us and that isn’t necessarily compatible with the way we are living
Well that took a turn. Democrats build inclusive, supportive communities. Republicans build exclusive clubs and undermine the communal support systems.
I think that we have created a society in which we are very isolated. Families do not stay close together, people do not have opportunities to build friendships and community and we don’t have the time to spend with our friends.
It is not good that people are substituting real relationships for fake ones based on screens. It is not good that parents are constantly monitoring their children and planning out every little detail of their day and not letting them actually be children. It is not good that children are hyper segregated by age and that we have decided that there’s no benefit in having them get on a bike with their friends and roam around the neighborhood.
I think it’s the other way around. We are bent as a result of society taking advantage of our mental health crisis. Of course the effect feeds itself.
But the mental health crisis comes from right wing control over the media. The constant push for every poor person to prioritize work above all despite how meaningless most of the work is and the constant reminder that rich people do none of the work but have all of the money and luxury. It is batshit.
Perhaps a light at the end of the tunnel is the newer generations don’t seem to take any pride in their job. It is merely a means to live their lives, as it should be. No one is trying to put up their statue for it. Hopefully that catches on.
>Can we ever go back to a simpler living?
I don’t know!
…but I know that, if there is anything that the government could do to help us “go back to a simpler living”, it might involve:
…and the rest would probably have to be done outside of the government.
I don’t know what you mean by this:
>I ask you, dear liberals, because you usually advocate for the people who want to opt out of such [intimate social] systems, at least, in their current form.
I think that it is a contributing factor for sure. I don’t know if I would be on board with saying it’s the entire reason.
That being said I don’t think this is a left/right issue. A big factor here is the right pushing liberarian/neoliberal economics and intentionally undermining unions. I would also say that their baseless opposition to people being LGBTQ is a separate contributing factor.
>you usually advocate for the people who want to opt out of such systems, at least, in their current form.
Key word: OPT. You enjoy your family, are comfortable with your gender role, etcetera? No one is taking those away from you. We just want people to be able to say no to those things without being ostracized and while being able to survive and thrive.
Yes.
Human societies built themselves densely for a reason. Multi-generational families were common for a reason. Public spaces existed in every society for a reason.
We are social creatures. It is unhuman to separate each other onto our own quarter acre plots of land. It segregates everyone, reducing social interactions, therefore reducing social cohesion, and making it hard to form lasting connections.
It is also severely knee-capping us all financially. By trying to immediately leave the home at 18 or so, you put people at a severe financial situation via making them pay basically to just survive. For example:
Minimum wage in my state is $15.50/hr. COL in my metro area is $21,243. So after taxes and those expenses, I’m only left with $3,676 for anything else. Meanwhile, if I don’t leave the home immediately after becoming 18 (which I am going to do), and I actually save up and wait until I have a partner, I’ll be able to save at least $19.4k every year. After 6 years, that’s $116,400 saved up. I can go through college with no debt. I can afford a down payment on a home. And if I invested, every single dollar of that $19.4k, I’d have $171k (assuming 6% yearly return). If I chose to wait 10 years, that’d be $194k – $306k. That doesn’t even get into other family members going into the workforce and also staying home and doing the same thing.
By just working minimum wage jobs, we could collectively have more in savings/wealth, than the overwhelming majority of households.
By discouraging multi-generational households, we actively prevent people from building multi-generational wealth and prosperity. We actively plunge people into financial and economic insecurity. And it’s an enormous problem most people don’t realize. Imagine how much less poverty there’d be if people didn’t move out of the home until they actually had a partner or could ACTUALLY afford to move out. Imagine how much more business activity there’d be if people weren’t paying just to survive. Imagine the social cohesion from everyone not stressing about bills.
Not encouraging multi-generational living, has been detrimental to the prosperity of America. I solidly believe that. That is obviously not the only reason, but I firmly believe it is a massive one.