Post by NuSapiens on Apr 24, 2005 18:03:07 GMT -5
nusapiens.blogspot.com/2005/04/modernity-as-infantilism.html
Does modern life favor cognitive neoteny? Via Primitivism
(www.primitivism.com/index.html), Youth and Regression in an Infantile Society (www.primitivism.com/youth-regression.htm):
Among the young there are quite a few examples of a tendency to regress or turn back.
Popular forms of speech are another site of regression, it is possible to argue. Making statements into questions by the use of rising intonation is a type of stepping back from reality. The declarative sentence becomes an entreaty, "am I right in making even the most inoccuous assertion?" The speaker unconsciously questions his or her ability to say anything straightforwardly.
Television, a passive and in that respect childish form of mass media, has never been so widely consumed. ... To be obsessed with entertainment is reportediy a characteristic of "twentysomethings".
For the past couple of decades or so, the psychological model of the individual has been that of Narcissus, named for the self-absorbed mythological figure. ... The young, as might be surmised, are pre-eminently bearers of this recently arrived ethos, one which is primarily defined as a regression. ... Thus it is easy to see that narcissism is part of a general movement away from sacrifice and repression and thus has subversive potential. Of course, it is also true that there are common weaknesses in this personality orientation, such as self-absorption which takes no notice of the nature of society and hence neglects to question it.
Taking account of regressive features among some of the young, one has to recognize in these features at least a somewhat justified strategy, on whatever level it could be said to be such. The world that youth are expected to enter and reproduce is bankrupt, fearsome, and without prospects.
Not only, as a foundation of modern life, does the encroaching high-tech principle render us all daily more dependent; the institutions of society--and media is only the most glaring example--are themselves infantile and infantilizing. Who would legitimately feel anything but the need to "regress" in the opposite direction of such a non-future?
This seems to be not just a new "Generation X" trend, but evolution: a cognitive transition taking place over many generations to create a type of human better suited for the performance of repetitive tasks in the midst of large, anonymous crowds. Perhaps the personality best suited to modern citizenship is socially passive and tolerant in all ways. This ideal citizen is satisfied with trendy consumer products and vocational success in an economy and society that he/she neither understand nor cares to. Someone that neither thinks too hard nor demands too much meaning from his or her life. In brief, a domesticated human.
(See also: Neoteny and Human Evolution nusapiens.blogspot.com/2005/02/neoteny-and-human-evolution.html)
Does modern life favor cognitive neoteny? Via Primitivism
(www.primitivism.com/index.html), Youth and Regression in an Infantile Society (www.primitivism.com/youth-regression.htm):
Among the young there are quite a few examples of a tendency to regress or turn back.
Popular forms of speech are another site of regression, it is possible to argue. Making statements into questions by the use of rising intonation is a type of stepping back from reality. The declarative sentence becomes an entreaty, "am I right in making even the most inoccuous assertion?" The speaker unconsciously questions his or her ability to say anything straightforwardly.
Television, a passive and in that respect childish form of mass media, has never been so widely consumed. ... To be obsessed with entertainment is reportediy a characteristic of "twentysomethings".
For the past couple of decades or so, the psychological model of the individual has been that of Narcissus, named for the self-absorbed mythological figure. ... The young, as might be surmised, are pre-eminently bearers of this recently arrived ethos, one which is primarily defined as a regression. ... Thus it is easy to see that narcissism is part of a general movement away from sacrifice and repression and thus has subversive potential. Of course, it is also true that there are common weaknesses in this personality orientation, such as self-absorption which takes no notice of the nature of society and hence neglects to question it.
Taking account of regressive features among some of the young, one has to recognize in these features at least a somewhat justified strategy, on whatever level it could be said to be such. The world that youth are expected to enter and reproduce is bankrupt, fearsome, and without prospects.
Not only, as a foundation of modern life, does the encroaching high-tech principle render us all daily more dependent; the institutions of society--and media is only the most glaring example--are themselves infantile and infantilizing. Who would legitimately feel anything but the need to "regress" in the opposite direction of such a non-future?
This seems to be not just a new "Generation X" trend, but evolution: a cognitive transition taking place over many generations to create a type of human better suited for the performance of repetitive tasks in the midst of large, anonymous crowds. Perhaps the personality best suited to modern citizenship is socially passive and tolerant in all ways. This ideal citizen is satisfied with trendy consumer products and vocational success in an economy and society that he/she neither understand nor cares to. Someone that neither thinks too hard nor demands too much meaning from his or her life. In brief, a domesticated human.
(See also: Neoteny and Human Evolution nusapiens.blogspot.com/2005/02/neoteny-and-human-evolution.html)
It's always been this way for the masses safe a few elite. That's what Ivies and near-Ivies are for.