[Rant] LifeSpace

<rant>
I think I understand a lot of things, and yet I really do not. I believe that the LifeSpace is collaborative, that we experience the world in collaboration and that we are socialized memetically. The belief is that our brain got so big that we lost most of our instincts so as to spare our mother's birthing canal. So, we, instead of inheriting our survival skills, we in fact have to learn through oral tradition and through the teaching of our community as to what is right and what is 'wrong.'

In today's society we believe that there are inherent concepts of good and that children will learn to be good from their growing up, but I think in this time of crumbling social structures, we find ourselves in the midst of a level of self-centeredness and cynicism that we have never experienced in the recent past.

I think it is primarily based on the lack of tight-knit experiential and teaching communities wherein discipline, modeling, role modeling, co-teaching and co-learning. Instead we have television and films such as Home Alone and their copycats wherein it is always Never Never Land and Lord of the Flies. Where adults are inept and the biggest smart ass kid with the smirking foppish grin wins the day.

This is a terrible generalization, but I believe that we are going through a transition wherein the parents are not able to play the part of adult and the children are too willing to reject their hyper-sensitive parents' discipline-free lives, believing themselves to be over-competent and under-experienced adults. Where their concepts of self are completely developed and thoughtful and worthwhile. Which cannot be the truth.

We always refer to teenagers as know-it-alls and it used to be a huge joke because we all know that teenagers don't know much of anything -- but at some point we adults started to believe them.

It all has to do, in my opinion, with the lack of social context, community, clubs where adults and children are able to share their experiences and where discipline is part of growing up and not a cruel part of the dark ages of the strap.

To me, Community is not just a nice thing or a cool way of fulfilling projects; it is essential for our survival, for our civilization and our neighborhoods.
</rant>