Clarifying priorities by identifying the first principles of parenting. And, a look at the underlying forces that cause the "overprovide/overprotect" youth development paradigm?
Nice article Shane, I feel we are living in times where any adjustments we do for the community or society are viewed as encroachments on individual freedom. Freedom unfortunately, is just watered down to freedom to buy. Marketed to us as this great tool of expression, when it really is just more consumption.
The idea of inculcating maturity to look beyond yourself is very important and beautifully highlighted in your piece. Great read.
Thank you very much! And so well said: freedom is just freedom to buy. The degree to which our culture is created by marketers and consumerism is perhaps the most underappreciated reality of our time. This from Victor Lebow in 1955: “Our enormously productive economy demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfaction and our ego satisfaction in consumption. We need things consumed, burned up, worn out, replaced and discarded at an ever-increasing rate.”
Thanks, Josh! Great point. It prompted me to jump on Google Ngram Viewer. Apparently the word maturity has been declining in use pretty consistently since 1935. Thought-provoking. I think there is a lot to this idea of making words like virtue, maturity, and adulthood sexy again.
Nice article Shane, I feel we are living in times where any adjustments we do for the community or society are viewed as encroachments on individual freedom. Freedom unfortunately, is just watered down to freedom to buy. Marketed to us as this great tool of expression, when it really is just more consumption.
The idea of inculcating maturity to look beyond yourself is very important and beautifully highlighted in your piece. Great read.
Thank you very much! And so well said: freedom is just freedom to buy. The degree to which our culture is created by marketers and consumerism is perhaps the most underappreciated reality of our time. This from Victor Lebow in 1955: “Our enormously productive economy demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfaction and our ego satisfaction in consumption. We need things consumed, burned up, worn out, replaced and discarded at an ever-increasing rate.”
Great essay Shane! I love the focus on maturity (a word I seldom hear) and working with our impulses. Thanks for sharing it!
Thanks, Josh! Great point. It prompted me to jump on Google Ngram Viewer. Apparently the word maturity has been declining in use pretty consistently since 1935. Thought-provoking. I think there is a lot to this idea of making words like virtue, maturity, and adulthood sexy again.