I was thinking today about how different life in the U.S. is today from when I grew up in the 1950s. Then people died more from physical problems. I think people die more now from what I might call interdependence. Back in the 1950s rugged individualism was the norm. You either survived whatever life brought you or you didn't. There was no in between place as much as now.
Part of the reason for this was most medical advances have taken place on earth since the 1950s. So, in the 1950s you knew you might die of almost anything by the time you were 20, 30, 40 or 50. You didn't think you were going to live past 70 at most unless you were some kind of exceptional person. Most people I knew in the 1950s had some teeth missing. Dentistry was too expensive for most people then. Many people by their 40s had all their teeth gone and had to wear full plates of teeth to eat so temporary gum glues were necessary so your teeth plates didn't fall out on the ground and embarrass you. As you can see it was a much different world than now. I knew men in construction who would go home and eat a steak and fall asleep right after and then die of a heart attack from overwork and then eating too heavy and going to sleep too soon. This was just what happened during the 1950s because people didn't understand about diet much then unless they were really brilliant and studied about it like my father did. So, he was always saving people's lives by telling them how to get their eyesight back and what to eat not to die by 40 or 50. So, I was used to everyone praising my Dad for helping them not die young. Sometimes, I would hear about young people dying between 20 and 30 from alcohol. People mostly didn't use illegal drugs much until about 1965 or 1970. But, you did hear about a lot of upper class and middle class women dying from mixing some calmatives and alcohol or muscle relaxants and alcohol back then. Women's lives were more difficult then than now. But also, much more financially secure in general than now. Now women's lives are almost as insecure as men's lives have always been. So their health problems are more the same as men's too at every age. A man always knew that once he was 18 he was on his own and if he didn't succeed he would die alone. This was the way it always was here on earth. Now, this is true of women too to a greater or lesser degree in the U.S., Canada and Europe.
So, if I move forward now to 2013 I see everything has sort of changed to where men's and women's lives now are equally insecure. What created this change? Probably the number one thing that created this change was the birth control pill in 1960. When women could decide for themselves (rather than getting pregnant by accident while single or married) they had much more control over their lives in every single way. No longer did they have to marry some unknown guy that they only spent one night with from a bar so they could have so much more control over their lives than before.
Men's lives have become much worse though. As women became freer this began to confuse men more and this has resulted in blurring the lines of what the definition of men and what the definition of women actually is which has caused incredibly amounts of suicides and murders in the confusion since the 1960s.
The confusion over sexuality has caused many more problems for everyone than solutions. I actually think it will take hundreds or even thousands of years culturally to work all this out so it actually works for everyone. I don't think any religious point of view about this is actually very helpful ultimately either. I think people just have to decide what they want to believe for themselves individually. Only in this way can it make sense to them and through that what will make sense to society will come from individual choices ongoing.
So, my point of view is that "Rugged Individualism" is the norm for creating a future in this quicksand of ideas we presently have going now. It is literally every man and woman and child for himself or herself at this point and this doesn't look like it is going to change either.
One of the ways to begin to make sense of your life and the lives of those around you is to write your own "Creation Story" of who your soul is and where it came from and where it is going to after this lifetime here on earth even if you live 100 to 500 or more years in this lifetime. By charting your destiny in words from past to future you will begin to understand who you are and where you are going as an immortal soul through time and space and beyond time and space. Only in this way can the human race find it's real potential for everyone.
This sort of "Rugged Individualism" reminds me of Native American Tribes in how they honor the dreams and visions of every member of their tribes in charting the past, present and future of the tribe spiritually and physically. But, this seems to be the future path for the human race also in the here and now.
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