Directionlessness
Adrift.
So many people seem to be living their lives "adrift."
"Drifter" used to mean a person who travels the country with no particular destination in mind. A hobo. A tramp. (Today, "Homeless," as if that were some kind of unavoidable affliction that "just happens" to people.)
But most people today seem to be Drifters in a different sense. Perhaps a metaphysical sense.
Directionless.
People need goals.
The Human Animal needs goals, has developed as a species that requires goals.
Do other animals have goals? Yes. Survival.
Is survival a goal of humans? It has become all but meaningless in most of the civilized world.
But that psychological need for goals is still hardwired into us.
And we're Directionless without them.
We atrophy.
We decay.
We become Couch Potatoes. ("Mouse Potatoes" for those of use that have replaced endless hours of watching TV with endless hours at our computers.)
I work with kids. They have no goals. They have been taught that they are too young to have goals.
They have been taught this by a generation or two of adults who are, themselves, Directionless.
Sure, they have a goal to make "passing grades." But that is a goal that has been foisted on them by others.
Just like most adults have a goal to keep their jobs. Or to make it to retirement.
But those are "passive goals."
A "passive goal" is a goal you wait for, or a goal to avoid an undesireable result.
Not really a goal. A hope. A wish. A whim.
So, what happens to a person without goals?
If it's an adult, an illustrative example can be seen on the street corners of many major cities holding up squares of cardboard displaying messages of distress written in magic marker.
If you want to see what happens to kids - take a close look at what passes for pop culture today.
Listen to Rap "music" for as long as you can stomach it.
The shortest poem I ever wrote was:
"The human race
Is lost in space."
To be directionless is to be lost.
When people speak of "finding themselves," they are sensing that "lostness," that Directionlessness.
It may be the most tragic malady of modern man.
So many people seem to be living their lives "adrift."
"Drifter" used to mean a person who travels the country with no particular destination in mind. A hobo. A tramp. (Today, "Homeless," as if that were some kind of unavoidable affliction that "just happens" to people.)
But most people today seem to be Drifters in a different sense. Perhaps a metaphysical sense.
Directionless.
People need goals.
The Human Animal needs goals, has developed as a species that requires goals.
Do other animals have goals? Yes. Survival.
Is survival a goal of humans? It has become all but meaningless in most of the civilized world.
But that psychological need for goals is still hardwired into us.
And we're Directionless without them.
We atrophy.
We decay.
We become Couch Potatoes. ("Mouse Potatoes" for those of use that have replaced endless hours of watching TV with endless hours at our computers.)
I work with kids. They have no goals. They have been taught that they are too young to have goals.
They have been taught this by a generation or two of adults who are, themselves, Directionless.
Sure, they have a goal to make "passing grades." But that is a goal that has been foisted on them by others.
Just like most adults have a goal to keep their jobs. Or to make it to retirement.
But those are "passive goals."
A "passive goal" is a goal you wait for, or a goal to avoid an undesireable result.
Not really a goal. A hope. A wish. A whim.
So, what happens to a person without goals?
If it's an adult, an illustrative example can be seen on the street corners of many major cities holding up squares of cardboard displaying messages of distress written in magic marker.
If you want to see what happens to kids - take a close look at what passes for pop culture today.
Listen to Rap "music" for as long as you can stomach it.
The shortest poem I ever wrote was:
"The human race
Is lost in space."
To be directionless is to be lost.
When people speak of "finding themselves," they are sensing that "lostness," that Directionlessness.
It may be the most tragic malady of modern man.
posted by Arbitrary Polarities at 10:55 AM
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