Human conditioning in the Century of the Self

On human conditioning by the elites and the question of millenials an NTHE

Seemorerocks

Yesterday I wrote a response to this item which I and others regard as an attack on Guy McPherson.

A direct attack (and misrepresentation) on Guy McPherson

Some of the responses  - a small minority - have been along the lines, "don't attack the young"

Along the lines - 

"Start attacking young people and you'll lose the very people you're trying to reach..."

The first thing I would say is that the video is definitely an attack on Guy McPherson (as in, 'shooting the messenger'), however I do not see my response so much as an attack as a set of observations.

The woman in the video may be young but she is ranting on a public platform as a journalist as it were.  

She is not a private person expressing private views but as this is in a very public platform is as subject to analysis - even attack- as anyone else.

Generally I would make the observation that there are too many opinions without reference to fact and not enough research and analysis.

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The following comments stand for me as a beacon of thoughtful and insightful analysis in the face of prejudice and unfounded opinions, so I have decided to repost them.

It is so rare that people can put aside opinions backed up by evidence for actual analysis. So, appreciate the rareness of the occasion

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This is a millennial expressing all the angst of her generation and she hits all the group's major weaknesses. I tried very hard to be sympathetic but her condescension was so off putting that I could only feel annoyed with her rant. She is angry that her future is going to be abruptly cut short with no effort being made by the generation that brought us to this moment in human history and she is taking it out on Guy.

Her world is one of technological answers to life's many problems and she is outraged that someone suggests that no power will save us. She feels entitled to the future and how dare anyone tell her she cannot have it. This is the generation that was never told, "No."

She is astoundingly confident in telling Guy what he/we should do yet she has no clue as to what that might actually be other than to have hope. 

According to Simon Sinek, a psychologist who has studied this group in depth, they have very limited coping skills for dealing with stress as a result of their addiction to technology. They have a stunted ability to form deep and lasting relationships so they are feeling isolated. They have many acquaintances but no deep friendships. Hence her inability to understand Guy's advice to live a life of excellence. She literally does not know what that means. She does not understand that this would be wonderful advice no matter what her future might hold.

Add to this the expectation of instant gratification and you hear her demand that NTHE is utterly and completely unacceptable. According to Sinek, most millennials will never find real joy or deep fulfilment in life because if it does not come instantaneously and effortlessly they have no clue as to how to acquire it. You hear this in her disparagement of Guy's admonition to seek joy. Never does he suggest that life is meaningless and that no one should give a f*ck. Quite the opposite. But, once again, she has no clue what this means. She hears accepting reality on its terms as nihilism.

I find her quotes most annoying, as if Guy has not lived on the planet long enough to have considered these things and rejected them when reality proved too real to pretend it isn't. I am finding that many people prefer illusion and delusion to accepting reality on its terms. Especially for the millennials, if reality isn't what they need and/or want it to be then the rest of us better well buy into their delusions or there will be hell to pay.

In a nut shell, this is not a critique of Guy, per se, because, other than criticising him for his lack of hope, she does not challenge him on any of the data. She is a spiritually immature individual who is livid that this one, lone voice is saying to the world, we had a narrow window to do something to alter the trajectory of NTHE but we missed it. And she is unwilling and/or unable to accept this reality. She cannot bear even one voice telling her that she cannot have what she wants.

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The above comments are observations not an attack.

Every generation has its own conditioning. In my own case my parents having been through war and depression were determined that their children would not go through this again. They provided for us in a way that was unprecedented (with post -World War 11 affluence) and will never be repeated.

The baby boomer generation spawned by the previous generation were the most self-centred in human history (although this came with things that were quite liberating, or so it seemed at the time.

In this sense some of the ideas of the likes of Steve Bannon have a certain sense about them.

It is this generation and their attitudes that gave way to the millennial generation that is being 'attacked'.

The other point is that each generation has by-and-large done the best by their children within the context of what was available to them.

We should never overlook the huge role that corporate, government and media played in conditioning each generation of the 20h Century through to now.

Parents are themselves the product of a similar, but different, conditioning process so can't really be blamed.

To give a clue as to what I am trying to say I recommend as weekend viewing this documentary on how whole generations have been conditioned - in this case he is talking about Freudian psychology.

The documentary is long but well worthwhile the effort if you haven't seen it already

Watch this and then say that you are not subject to this manipulation in any way or form.