Time to grow up:
A teeny tiny dissertation on the decline and infantilism of modern America.
If you were to drop into the contemporary life of the average American person you would find that most adults have a phobia beyond all others, I would say it was beyond even that of public speaking which is supposedly the most common phobia:
The fear of growing old, maturing, and having any sort of quality of life after the age of 30 to 35 appears to be almost unthinkable in the way that people act regarding their own aging and mortality.
Nothing emphasizes this more than our entertainment media that we consume on a daily basis. Reinforcing this is the idea that we must forever stop any growth beyond High School as emphasized in Gwen Stefani's latest video. In my podcast I've addressed this, but I felt it was necessary to actually put this down in print since it is such an overwhelming cultural force and so under-reported. No one seems to care that the average age of people moving out, making families (if they ever do at all) or gaining responsibilities while forsaking freedoms and seeing all this as a virtue rather than a hindrance is on such a drastic decline in a way that's never been seen before.
I can't imagine what the proper collective response might be. The fact that it's happening and it's happening at an exponential rate compared to previous generations should frighten people far more than it does and this childlike clinging to an ideology of “youth as God“ is not beneficial to either the generation here and now or the next to follow. One can only imagine where this leads a civilization when responsibility is looked at as problematic and no one is there to buffering against this... No one wants to be responsible for themselves, much less others and we are reaping the rewards of that mentality through lockdowns and government authoritarianism.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not blaming Gwen Stefani for the idea that youth is a good thing as she parades around in a high school locker room while not having seen the inside of ANY school in probably close to four decades. Notwithstanding, it is significant as a demonstration of what exactly is happening in where we as a society are going.
Think of videos like that as the canary in the coal mine of modern civilization. It's not so much the slippery slope it's we've already slipped we're down the slope and we're just continuing. Studies about men's testosterone levels dropping at exponential rates makes me believe that the two phenomena can't help but be related in some way. In 1940 (or so) men's average testosterone was at the time about 1400, today, out of a study of approximately 2,000 people, the average testosterone came back at a remarkable 400. Frightening numbers to be sure. Assertiveness, fortitude, & clarity: these are all benchmarks of things that we are losing as a society and the infantilism I think is a byproduct of all of that. In no way do I excuse myself out of this group...I haven’t existed in some testosterone laden vacuum & none of us can be truly insulated from a phenomenon that's as large and widespread as what I'm describing. Its an observation that I think is worth looking into at a much deeper level and more often than it currently is. The answer I think begins with accepting responsibility first and reframing it as a positive which we inherently know it ultimately is.
Anyway, a far deeper conversation needs to be had when the same traits necessary to maintain a healthier cultural equilibrium are regarded as toxic masculinity and derided as relics of a bygone age.
All this is above my paygrade to pretend to have all the answers, any comments, ideas and well-intentioned critiques are appreciated.
All the best.