He reminds me of stuff I heard way back during the cold war, that came from the USA, where so many appeared to be as paranoid, (without the help of social media and cell phones) about the 'Red's, the communists, Russia. You had to prepare yourself, you had to be so careful, 'they' 'lurked' everywhere, wanting to pounce on you, convert you into thinking as 'they' did, they were 'everywhere'. Yup! There was paranoia, very fight/flight/freeze. I do share your concern for those youngsters with their heads down, constantly attracted to whatever it is they consider important, it is awful, it is dangerous to their well being, but as with the insecure, uncomfortable, frightening experience of being a teenager in the fifties and sixties, never feeling as good as those skinny models, smoking cigarettes in order to feel and look more as ones peers appeared, confident. Goodness, it was horrendous. My generation was also brainwashed by fashion magazines, pop-star images, our education, our parents and politics. The 'modern age' had already arrived, granted, not yet as insidious as it is now with cell phones and social media, yes the brainwashing has got worse, and there will be damage, but if we all do our 'bit' when we come across youngsters immersed in the media, we can always throw a little 'something' in, that may well take root if the soil is fertile, even if the person is in a fight or flight mode, as were many my age back in my teen years, petrified as many of us were, about atomic war and the end of life on earth. It was scary.
We've learned a lot since then, especially in the last four years and we now know we need to look for solutions down other paths than the one down which we are being led. We'll find those paths, and the solutions will arise as we tread them.
I found answers for myself as I grew older, books, films, friends, people with whom I shared a short acquaintance, all left their little marks which got the cogs in my brain slowly turning effectively, it doesn't happen that way for everyone, we each do tread our own paths, and those of us who feel the need to help others, if one does so wholeheartedly, one will find the answers one needs.
Excellent piece. Very thought provoking. We have a lot of work to do.
How ridiculous
He reminds me of stuff I heard way back during the cold war, that came from the USA, where so many appeared to be as paranoid, (without the help of social media and cell phones) about the 'Red's, the communists, Russia. You had to prepare yourself, you had to be so careful, 'they' 'lurked' everywhere, wanting to pounce on you, convert you into thinking as 'they' did, they were 'everywhere'. Yup! There was paranoia, very fight/flight/freeze. I do share your concern for those youngsters with their heads down, constantly attracted to whatever it is they consider important, it is awful, it is dangerous to their well being, but as with the insecure, uncomfortable, frightening experience of being a teenager in the fifties and sixties, never feeling as good as those skinny models, smoking cigarettes in order to feel and look more as ones peers appeared, confident. Goodness, it was horrendous. My generation was also brainwashed by fashion magazines, pop-star images, our education, our parents and politics. The 'modern age' had already arrived, granted, not yet as insidious as it is now with cell phones and social media, yes the brainwashing has got worse, and there will be damage, but if we all do our 'bit' when we come across youngsters immersed in the media, we can always throw a little 'something' in, that may well take root if the soil is fertile, even if the person is in a fight or flight mode, as were many my age back in my teen years, petrified as many of us were, about atomic war and the end of life on earth. It was scary.
We've learned a lot since then, especially in the last four years and we now know we need to look for solutions down other paths than the one down which we are being led. We'll find those paths, and the solutions will arise as we tread them.
I found answers for myself as I grew older, books, films, friends, people with whom I shared a short acquaintance, all left their little marks which got the cogs in my brain slowly turning effectively, it doesn't happen that way for everyone, we each do tread our own paths, and those of us who feel the need to help others, if one does so wholeheartedly, one will find the answers one needs.
Well said