On Monday, August 14, 2023 at 8:36:08 AM UTC-4, ltlee1 wrote:
> On Saturday, August 12, 2023 at 8:24:36 AM UTC-4, ltlee1 wrote:
> > "If I were asked to trace the decline of the American psyche, I suppose I would go to a set of cultural changes that started directly after World War II and built over the next few decades, when writers as diverse as Philip Rieff, Christopher Lasch and Tom Wolfe noticed the emergence of what came to be known as the therapeutic culture.
> >
> > In earlier cultural epochs, many people derived their self-worth from their relationship with God, or from their ability to be a winner in the commercial marketplace. But in a therapeutic culture people’s sense of self-worth depends on their subjective feelings about themselves. Do I feel good about myself? Do I like me?
> >
> > From the start, many writers noticed that this ethos often turned people into fragile narcissists. It cut them off from moral traditions and the normal sources of meaning and identity. It pushed them in on themselves, made them self-absorbed, craving public affirmation so they could feel good about themselves. As Lasch wrote in his 1979 book, “The Culture of Narcissism,” such people are plagued by an insecurity that can be “overcome only by seeing his ‘grandiose self’ reflected in the attentions of others.”
> >
> > Lasch continued: “Plagued by anxiety, depression, vague discontents, a sense of inner emptiness, the ‘psychological man’ of the 20th century seeks neither individual self-aggrandizement nor spiritual transcendence but peace of mind, under conditions that increasingly militate against it.”
> >
> > Fast forward a few decades, and the sense of lostness and insecurity, which Lasch and many others had seen in nascent form, had transmogrified into a roaring epidemic of psychic pain. By, say, 2010, it began to be clear that we were in the middle of a mental health crisis, with rising depression and suicide rates, an epidemic of hopelessness and despair among the young.. Social media became a place where people went begging for attention, validation and affirmation — even if they often found rejection instead..
> >
> > Before long, safetyism was on the march. This is the assumption that people are so fragile they need to be protected from social harm. Slate magazine proclaimed 2013 “the year of the trigger warning.” Concepts like “microaggression” and “safe spaces” couldn’t have lagged far behind.
> >
> > This was accompanied by what you might call the elephantiasis of trauma.. Once, the word “trauma” referred to brutal physical wounding one might endure in war or through abuse. But usage of the word spread so that it was applied across a range of upsetting experiences.
> >
> > A mega-best-selling book about trauma, “The Body Keeps the Score,” by Bessel van der Kolk, became the defining cultural artifact of the era. Parul Sehgal wrote a perceptive piece in The New Yorker called “The Case Against the Trauma Plot,” noting how many characters in novels, memoirs and TV shows are trying to recover from psychological trauma — from Ted Lasso on down. In January 2022, Vox declared that “trauma” had become “the word of the decade,” noting that there were over 5,500 podcasts with the word in the title.
> >
> > For many people, trauma became their source of identity. People began defining themselves by the way they had been hurt."
> >
> > Of course, the first question is whether there was a decline of American psyche.
> Widespread pain and suffering in the US is self evident. Whether one calls it a decline of American
> psyche is not as meaning as finding the cause or causes.
>
> First of all let me unpack the short paragraph which seems to pinpoint the cause of "decline"
> which leads to the emergence of therapeutic culture per David Brooks:
> "In earlier cultural epochs, many people derived their self-worth from their relationship with God,
> or from their ability to be a winner in the commercial marketplace. But in a therapeutic culture
> people’s sense of self-worth depends on their subjective feelings about themselves. Do I feel
> good about myself? Do I like me?"
> Clarification: People's sense of self-worth ALWAYS depends on their subjective feelings, past of
> present. However, subjective feelings could reflect communal/social standard or it could reflect
> individual/freedom standard.
>
> Thus viewed, the cultural change described by David Brooks is from the standard of the community
> or society to the standard of the self and freedom this self should be allowed.
>
> What is a therapeutic culture?
> In short, the self or a small number of self (as in group therapy) is always needing help from other
> people.
>
> Given the widespread pain and suffering, the change from broad based communal (religious or
> nonreligious) to a narrowly based self/individual freedom maximizing standard mal-adaptive in
> the short term. Of course, the question is whether this change is a learning process. And short
> term pain would inevitably leads to long term gain.

"Over the past eight years or so, I’ve been obsessed with two questions. The first is: Why have Americans become so sad? The rising rates of depression have been well publicized, as have the rising deaths of despair from drugs, alcohol, and suicide. But other statistics are similarly troubling. The percentage of people who say they don’t have close friends has increased fourfold since 1990. The share of Americans ages 25 to 54 who weren’t married or living with a romantic partner went up to 38 percent in 2019, from 29 percent in 1990. A record-high 25 percent of 40-year-old Americans have never married. More than half of all Americans say that no one knows them well. The percentage of high-school students who report “persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness” shot up from 26 percent in 2009 to 44 percent in 2021.
....
My second, related question is: Why have Americans become so mean? I was recently talking with a restaurant owner who said that he has to eject a customer from his restaurant for rude or cruel behavior once a week—something that never used to happen. A head nurse at a hospital told me that many on her staff are leaving the profession because patients have become so abusive. At the far extreme of meanness, hate crimes rose in 2020 to their highest level in 12 years. Murder rates have been surging, at least until recently. Same with gun sales. Social trust is plummeting. In 2000, two-thirds of American households gave to charity; in 2018, fewer than half did. The words that define our age reek of menace: conspiracy, polarization, mass shootings, trauma, safe spaces.

We’re enmeshed in some sort of emotional, relational, and spiritual crisis, and it undergirds our political dysfunction and the general crisis of our democracy. What is going on?

Over the past few years, different social observers have offered different stories to explain the rise of hatred, anxiety, and despair.

The technology story: Social media is driving us all crazy.

The sociology story: We’ve stopped participating in community organizations and are more isolated.

The demography story: America, long a white-dominated nation, is becoming a much more diverse country, a change that has millions of white Americans in a panic.

The economy story: High levels of economic inequality and insecurity have left people afraid, alienated, and pessimistic."

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2023/09/us-culture-moral-education-formation/674765/

On Thursday, August 17, 2023 at 11:25:03 AM UTC-4, ltlee1 wrote:
> On Monday, August 14, 2023 at 8:36:08 AM UTC-4, ltlee1 wrote:
> > On Saturday, August 12, 2023 at 8:24:36 AM UTC-4, ltlee1 wrote:
> > > "If I were asked to trace the decline of the American psyche, I suppose I would go to a set of cultural changes that started directly after World War II and built over the next few decades, when writers as diverse as Philip Rieff, Christopher Lasch and Tom Wolfe noticed the emergence of what came to be known as the therapeutic culture.
> > >
> > > In earlier cultural epochs, many people derived their self-worth from their relationship with God, or from their ability to be a winner in the commercial marketplace. But in a therapeutic culture people’s sense of self-worth depends on their subjective feelings about themselves. Do I feel good about myself? Do I like me?
> > >
> > > From the start, many writers noticed that this ethos often turned people into fragile narcissists. It cut them off from moral traditions and the normal sources of meaning and identity. It pushed them in on themselves, made them self-absorbed, craving public affirmation so they could feel good about themselves. As Lasch wrote in his 1979 book, “The Culture of Narcissism,” such people are plagued by an insecurity that can be “overcome only by seeing his ‘grandiose self’ reflected in the attentions of others.”
> > >
> > > Lasch continued: “Plagued by anxiety, depression, vague discontents, a sense of inner emptiness, the ‘psychological man’ of the 20th century seeks neither individual self-aggrandizement nor spiritual transcendence but peace of mind, under conditions that increasingly militate against it.”
> > >
> > > Fast forward a few decades, and the sense of lostness and insecurity, which Lasch and many others had seen in nascent form, had transmogrified into a roaring epidemic of psychic pain. By, say, 2010, it began to be clear that we were in the middle of a mental health crisis, with rising depression and suicide rates, an epidemic of hopelessness and despair among the young. Social media became a place where people went begging for attention, validation and affirmation — even if they often found rejection instead.
> > >
> > > Before long, safetyism was on the march. This is the assumption that people are so fragile they need to be protected from social harm. Slate magazine proclaimed 2013 “the year of the trigger warning.” Concepts like “microaggression” and “safe spaces” couldn’t have lagged far behind.
> > >
> > > This was accompanied by what you might call the elephantiasis of trauma. Once, the word “trauma” referred to brutal physical wounding one might endure in war or through abuse. But usage of the word spread so that it was applied across a range of upsetting experiences.
> > >
> > > A mega-best-selling book about trauma, “The Body Keeps the Score,” by Bessel van der Kolk, became the defining cultural artifact of the era. Parul Sehgal wrote a perceptive piece in The New Yorker called “The Case Against the Trauma Plot,” noting how many characters in novels, memoirs and TV shows are trying to recover from psychological trauma — from Ted Lasso on down. In January 2022, Vox declared that “trauma” had become “the word of the decade,” noting that there were over 5,500 podcasts with the word in the title.
> > >
> > > For many people, trauma became their source of identity. People began defining themselves by the way they had been hurt."
> > >
> > > Of course, the first question is whether there was a decline of American psyche.
> > Widespread pain and suffering in the US is self evident. Whether one calls it a decline of American
> > psyche is not as meaning as finding the cause or causes.
> >
> > First of all let me unpack the short paragraph which seems to pinpoint the cause of "decline"
> > which leads to the emergence of therapeutic culture per David Brooks:
> > "In earlier cultural epochs, many people derived their self-worth from their relationship with God,
> > or from their ability to be a winner in the commercial marketplace. But in a therapeutic culture
> > people’s sense of self-worth depends on their subjective feelings about themselves. Do I feel
> > good about myself? Do I like me?"
> > Clarification: People's sense of self-worth ALWAYS depends on their subjective feelings, past of
> > present. However, subjective feelings could reflect communal/social standard or it could reflect
> > individual/freedom standard.
> >
> > Thus viewed, the cultural change described by David Brooks is from the standard of the community
> > or society to the standard of the self and freedom this self should be allowed.
> >
> > What is a therapeutic culture?
> > In short, the self or a small number of self (as in group therapy) is always needing help from other
> > people.
> >
> > Given the widespread pain and suffering, the change from broad based communal (religious or
> > nonreligious) to a narrowly based self/individual freedom maximizing standard mal-adaptive in
> > the short term. Of course, the question is whether this change is a learning process. And short
> > term pain would inevitably leads to long term gain.
>
> "Over the past eight years or so, I’ve been obsessed with two questions. The first is: Why have Americans become so sad? The rising rates of depression have been well publicized, as have the rising deaths of despair from drugs, alcohol, and suicide. But other statistics are similarly troubling. The percentage of people who say they don’t have close friends has increased fourfold since 1990. The share of Americans ages 25 to 54 who weren’t married or living with a romantic partner went up to 38 percent in 2019, from 29 percent in 1990. A record-high 25 percent of 40-year-old Americans have never married. More than half of all Americans say that no one knows them well. The percentage of high-school students who report “persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness” shot up from 26 percent in 2009 to 44 percent in 2021.
> ...
> My second, related question is: Why have Americans become so mean? I was recently talking with a restaurant owner who said that he has to eject a customer from his restaurant for rude or cruel behavior once a week—something that never used to happen. A head nurse at a hospital told me that many on her staff are leaving the profession because patients have become so abusive. At the far extreme of meanness, hate crimes rose in 2020 to their highest level in 12 years. Murder rates have been surging, at least until recently. Same with gun sales. Social trust is plummeting. In 2000, two-thirds of American households gave to charity; in 2018, fewer than half did. The words that define our age reek of menace: conspiracy, polarization, mass shootings, trauma, safe spaces.
>
> We’re enmeshed in some sort of emotional, relational, and spiritual crisis, and it undergirds our political dysfunction and the general crisis of our democracy. What is going on?
>
> Over the past few years, different social observers have offered different stories to explain the rise of hatred, anxiety, and despair.
>
> The technology story: Social media is driving us all crazy.
>
> The sociology story: We’ve stopped participating in community organizations and are more isolated.
>
> The demography story: America, long a white-dominated nation, is becoming a much more diverse country, a change that has millions of white Americans in a panic.
>
> The economy story: High levels of economic inequality and insecurity have left people afraid, alienated, and pessimistic."
>
> https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2023/09/us-culture-moral-education-formation/674765/

David Brooks continues by largely disagree with the above stories and blame Americans for their lack of morality.

"I agree, to an extent, with all of these stories, but I don’t think any of them is the deepest one. Sure, social media has bad effects,
but it is everywhere around the globe—and the mental-health crisis is not. Also, the rise of despair and hatred has engulfed a lot
of people who are not on social media. Economic inequality is real, but it doesn’t fully explain this level of social and emotional
breakdown. The sociologists are right that we’re more isolated, but why? What values lead us to choose lifestyles that make us
lonely and miserable?

The most important story about why Americans have become sad and alienated and rude, I believe, is also the simplest: We inhabit
a society in which people are no longer trained in how to treat others with kindness and consideration. Our society has become one
in which people feel licensed to give their selfishness free rein. The story I’m going to tell is about morals. In a healthy society, a web
of institutions—families, schools, religious groups, community organizations, and workplaces—helps form people into kind and
responsible citizens, the sort of people who show up for one another. We live in a society that’s terrible at moral formation."

He also specifies a pivoting moment during which one of the choice of freedom from "Authority Structures" was offered as the way
foreward:

On Friday, August 18, 2023 at 2:13:40 PM UTC-4, ltlee1 wrote:
> On Thursday, August 17, 2023 at 11:25:03 AM UTC-4, ltlee1 wrote:
> > On Monday, August 14, 2023 at 8:36:08 AM UTC-4, ltlee1 wrote:
> > > On Saturday, August 12, 2023 at 8:24:36 AM UTC-4, ltlee1 wrote:
> > > > "If I were asked to trace the decline of the American psyche, I suppose I would go to a set of cultural changes that started directly after World War II and built over the next few decades, when writers as diverse as Philip Rieff, Christopher Lasch and Tom Wolfe noticed the emergence of what came to be known as the therapeutic culture.
> > > >
> > > > In earlier cultural epochs, many people derived their self-worth from their relationship with God, or from their ability to be a winner in the commercial marketplace. But in a therapeutic culture people’s sense of self-worth depends on their subjective feelings about themselves. Do I feel good about myself? Do I like me?
> > > >
> > > > From the start, many writers noticed that this ethos often turned people into fragile narcissists. It cut them off from moral traditions and the normal sources of meaning and identity. It pushed them in on themselves, made them self-absorbed, craving public affirmation so they could feel good about themselves. As Lasch wrote in his 1979 book, “The Culture of Narcissism,” such people are plagued by an insecurity that can be “overcome only by seeing his ‘grandiose self’ reflected in the attentions of others.”
> > > >
> > > > Lasch continued: “Plagued by anxiety, depression, vague discontents, a sense of inner emptiness, the ‘psychological man’ of the 20th century seeks neither individual self-aggrandizement nor spiritual transcendence but peace of mind, under conditions that increasingly militate against it.”
> > > >
> > > > Fast forward a few decades, and the sense of lostness and insecurity, which Lasch and many others had seen in nascent form, had transmogrified into a roaring epidemic of psychic pain. By, say, 2010, it began to be clear that we were in the middle of a mental health crisis, with rising depression and suicide rates, an epidemic of hopelessness and despair among the young. Social media became a place where people went begging for attention, validation and affirmation — even if they often found rejection instead.
> > > >
> > > > Before long, safetyism was on the march. This is the assumption that people are so fragile they need to be protected from social harm. Slate magazine proclaimed 2013 “the year of the trigger warning.” Concepts like “microaggression” and “safe spaces” couldn’t have lagged far behind.
> > > >
> > > > This was accompanied by what you might call the elephantiasis of trauma. Once, the word “trauma” referred to brutal physical wounding one might endure in war or through abuse. But usage of the word spread so that it was applied across a range of upsetting experiences.
> > > >
> > > > A mega-best-selling book about trauma, “The Body Keeps the Score,” by Bessel van der Kolk, became the defining cultural artifact of the era. Parul Sehgal wrote a perceptive piece in The New Yorker called “The Case Against the Trauma Plot,” noting how many characters in novels, memoirs and TV shows are trying to recover from psychological trauma — from Ted Lasso on down. In January 2022, Vox declared that “trauma” had become “the word of the decade,” noting that there were over 5,500 podcasts with the word in the title.
> > > >
> > > > For many people, trauma became their source of identity. People began defining themselves by the way they had been hurt."
> > > >
> > > > Of course, the first question is whether there was a decline of American psyche.
> > > Widespread pain and suffering in the US is self evident. Whether one calls it a decline of American
> > > psyche is not as meaning as finding the cause or causes.
> > >
> > > First of all let me unpack the short paragraph which seems to pinpoint the cause of "decline"
> > > which leads to the emergence of therapeutic culture per David Brooks:
> > > "In earlier cultural epochs, many people derived their self-worth from their relationship with God,
> > > or from their ability to be a winner in the commercial marketplace. But in a therapeutic culture
> > > people’s sense of self-worth depends on their subjective feelings about themselves. Do I feel
> > > good about myself? Do I like me?"
> > > Clarification: People's sense of self-worth ALWAYS depends on their subjective feelings, past of
> > > present. However, subjective feelings could reflect communal/social standard or it could reflect
> > > individual/freedom standard.
> > >
> > > Thus viewed, the cultural change described by David Brooks is from the standard of the community
> > > or society to the standard of the self and freedom this self should be allowed.
> > >
> > > What is a therapeutic culture?
> > > In short, the self or a small number of self (as in group therapy) is always needing help from other
> > > people.
> > >
> > > Given the widespread pain and suffering, the change from broad based communal (religious or
> > > nonreligious) to a narrowly based self/individual freedom maximizing standard mal-adaptive in
> > > the short term. Of course, the question is whether this change is a learning process. And short
> > > term pain would inevitably leads to long term gain.
> >
> > "Over the past eight years or so, I’ve been obsessed with two questions. The first is: Why have Americans become so sad? The rising rates of depression have been well publicized, as have the rising deaths of despair from drugs, alcohol, and suicide. But other statistics are similarly troubling. The percentage of people who say they don’t have close friends has increased fourfold since 1990. The share of Americans ages 25 to 54 who weren’t married or living with a romantic partner went up to 38 percent in 2019, from 29 percent in 1990. A record-high 25 percent of 40-year-old Americans have never married. More than half of all Americans say that no one knows them well. The percentage of high-school students who report “persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness” shot up from 26 percent in 2009 to 44 percent in 2021.
> > ...
> > My second, related question is: Why have Americans become so mean? I was recently talking with a restaurant owner who said that he has to eject a customer from his restaurant for rude or cruel behavior once a week—something that never used to happen. A head nurse at a hospital told me that many on her staff are leaving the profession because patients have become so abusive. At the far extreme of meanness, hate crimes rose in 2020 to their highest level in 12 years. Murder rates have been surging, at least until recently. Same with gun sales. Social trust is plummeting. In 2000, two-thirds of American households gave to charity; in 2018, fewer than half did. The words that define our age reek of menace: conspiracy, polarization, mass shootings, trauma, safe spaces.
> >
> > We’re enmeshed in some sort of emotional, relational, and spiritual crisis, and it undergirds our political dysfunction and the general crisis of our democracy. What is going on?
> >
> > Over the past few years, different social observers have offered different stories to explain the rise of hatred, anxiety, and despair.
> >
> > The technology story: Social media is driving us all crazy.
> >
> > The sociology story: We’ve stopped participating in community organizations and are more isolated.
> >
> > The demography story: America, long a white-dominated nation, is becoming a much more diverse country, a change that has millions of white Americans in a panic.
> >
> > The economy story: High levels of economic inequality and insecurity have left people afraid, alienated, and pessimistic."
> >
> > https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2023/09/us-culture-moral-education-formation/674765/
> David Brooks continues by largely disagree with the above stories and blame Americans for their lack of morality.
>
> "I agree, to an extent, with all of these stories, but I don’t think any of them is the deepest one. Sure, social media has bad effects,
> but it is everywhere around the globe—and the mental-health crisis is not. Also, the rise of despair and hatred has engulfed a lot
> of people who are not on social media. Economic inequality is real, but it doesn’t fully explain this level of social and emotional
> breakdown. The sociologists are right that we’re more isolated, but why? What values lead us to choose lifestyles that make us
> lonely and miserable?
>
> The most important story about why Americans have become sad and alienated and rude, I believe, is also the simplest: We inhabit
> a society in which people are no longer trained in how to treat others with kindness and consideration. Our society has become one
> in which people feel licensed to give their selfishness free rein. The story I’m going to tell is about morals. In a healthy society, a web
> of institutions—families, schools, religious groups, community organizations, and workplaces—helps form people into kind and
> responsible citizens, the sort of people who show up for one another. We live in a society that’s terrible at moral formation."
>
> He also specifies a pivoting moment during which one of the choice of freedom from "Authority Structures" was offered as the way
> foreward:
>
> "The crucial pivot happened just after World War II, as people wrestled with the horrors of the 20th century. One group, personified
> by the theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, argued that recent events had exposed the prevalence of human depravity and the dangers, in
> particular, of tribalism, nationalism, and collective pride. This group wanted to double down on moral formation, with a greater
> emphasis on humility.
>
> Another group, personified by Carl Rogers, a founder of humanistic psychology, focused on the problem of authority. The trouble
> with the 20th century, the members of this group argued, was that the existence of rigid power hierarchies led to oppression in
> many spheres of life. We need to liberate individuals from these authority structures, many contended. People are naturally good
> and can be trusted to do their own self-actualization."

On Sunday, August 20, 2023 at 11:55:27 AM UTC-4, ltlee1 wrote:
> On Friday, August 18, 2023 at 2:13:40 PM UTC-4, ltlee1 wrote:
> > On Thursday, August 17, 2023 at 11:25:03 AM UTC-4, ltlee1 wrote:
> > > On Monday, August 14, 2023 at 8:36:08 AM UTC-4, ltlee1 wrote:
> > > > On Saturday, August 12, 2023 at 8:24:36 AM UTC-4, ltlee1 wrote:
> > > > > "If I were asked to trace the decline of the American psyche, I suppose I would go to a set of cultural changes that started directly after World War II and built over the next few decades, when writers as diverse as Philip Rieff, Christopher Lasch and Tom Wolfe noticed the emergence of what came to be known as the therapeutic culture.
> > > > >
> > > > > In earlier cultural epochs, many people derived their self-worth from their relationship with God, or from their ability to be a winner in the commercial marketplace. But in a therapeutic culture people’s sense of self-worth depends on their subjective feelings about themselves. Do I feel good about myself? Do I like me?
> > > > >
> > > > > From the start, many writers noticed that this ethos often turned people into fragile narcissists. It cut them off from moral traditions and the normal sources of meaning and identity. It pushed them in on themselves, made them self-absorbed, craving public affirmation so they could feel good about themselves. As Lasch wrote in his 1979 book, “The Culture of Narcissism,” such people are plagued by an insecurity that can be “overcome only by seeing his ‘grandiose self’ reflected in the attentions of others.”
> > > > >
> > > > > Lasch continued: “Plagued by anxiety, depression, vague discontents, a sense of inner emptiness, the ‘psychological man’ of the 20th century seeks neither individual self-aggrandizement nor spiritual transcendence but peace of mind, under conditions that increasingly militate against it.”
> > > > >
> > > > > Fast forward a few decades, and the sense of lostness and insecurity, which Lasch and many others had seen in nascent form, had transmogrified into a roaring epidemic of psychic pain. By, say, 2010, it began to be clear that we were in the middle of a mental health crisis, with rising depression and suicide rates, an epidemic of hopelessness and despair among the young. Social media became a place where people went begging for attention, validation and affirmation — even if they often found rejection instead.
> > > > >
> > > > > Before long, safetyism was on the march. This is the assumption that people are so fragile they need to be protected from social harm. Slate magazine proclaimed 2013 “the year of the trigger warning.” Concepts like “microaggression” and “safe spaces” couldn’t have lagged far behind.
> > > > >
> > > > > This was accompanied by what you might call the elephantiasis of trauma. Once, the word “trauma” referred to brutal physical wounding one might endure in war or through abuse. But usage of the word spread so that it was applied across a range of upsetting experiences.
> > > > >
> > > > > A mega-best-selling book about trauma, “The Body Keeps the Score,” by Bessel van der Kolk, became the defining cultural artifact of the era. Parul Sehgal wrote a perceptive piece in The New Yorker called “The Case Against the Trauma Plot,” noting how many characters in novels, memoirs and TV shows are trying to recover from psychological trauma — from Ted Lasso on down. In January 2022, Vox declared that “trauma” had become “the word of the decade,” noting that there were over 5,500 podcasts with the word in the title.
> > > > >
> > > > > For many people, trauma became their source of identity. People began defining themselves by the way they had been hurt."
> > > > >
> > > > > Of course, the first question is whether there was a decline of American psyche.
> > > > Widespread pain and suffering in the US is self evident. Whether one calls it a decline of American
> > > > psyche is not as meaning as finding the cause or causes.
> > > >
> > > > First of all let me unpack the short paragraph which seems to pinpoint the cause of "decline"
> > > > which leads to the emergence of therapeutic culture per David Brooks:
> > > > "In earlier cultural epochs, many people derived their self-worth from their relationship with God,
> > > > or from their ability to be a winner in the commercial marketplace. But in a therapeutic culture
> > > > people’s sense of self-worth depends on their subjective feelings about themselves. Do I feel
> > > > good about myself? Do I like me?"
> > > > Clarification: People's sense of self-worth ALWAYS depends on their subjective feelings, past of
> > > > present. However, subjective feelings could reflect communal/social standard or it could reflect
> > > > individual/freedom standard.
> > > >
> > > > Thus viewed, the cultural change described by David Brooks is from the standard of the community
> > > > or society to the standard of the self and freedom this self should be allowed.
> > > >
> > > > What is a therapeutic culture?
> > > > In short, the self or a small number of self (as in group therapy) is always needing help from other
> > > > people.
> > > >
> > > > Given the widespread pain and suffering, the change from broad based communal (religious or
> > > > nonreligious) to a narrowly based self/individual freedom maximizing standard mal-adaptive in
> > > > the short term. Of course, the question is whether this change is a learning process. And short
> > > > term pain would inevitably leads to long term gain.
> > >
> > > "Over the past eight years or so, I’ve been obsessed with two questions. The first is: Why have Americans become so sad? The rising rates of depression have been well publicized, as have the rising deaths of despair from drugs, alcohol, and suicide. But other statistics are similarly troubling. The percentage of people who say they don’t have close friends has increased fourfold since 1990. The share of Americans ages 25 to 54 who weren’t married or living with a romantic partner went up to 38 percent in 2019, from 29 percent in 1990. A record-high 25 percent of 40-year-old Americans have never married. More than half of all Americans say that no one knows them well. The percentage of high-school students who report “persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness” shot up from 26 percent in 2009 to 44 percent in 2021.
> > > ...
> > > My second, related question is: Why have Americans become so mean? I was recently talking with a restaurant owner who said that he has to eject a customer from his restaurant for rude or cruel behavior once a week—something that never used to happen. A head nurse at a hospital told me that many on her staff are leaving the profession because patients have become so abusive. At the far extreme of meanness, hate crimes rose in 2020 to their highest level in 12 years. Murder rates have been surging, at least until recently. Same with gun sales. Social trust is plummeting. In 2000, two-thirds of American households gave to charity; in 2018, fewer than half did. The words that define our age reek of menace: conspiracy, polarization, mass shootings, trauma, safe spaces.
> > >
> > > We’re enmeshed in some sort of emotional, relational, and spiritual crisis, and it undergirds our political dysfunction and the general crisis of our democracy. What is going on?
> > >
> > > Over the past few years, different social observers have offered different stories to explain the rise of hatred, anxiety, and despair.
> > >
> > > The technology story: Social media is driving us all crazy.
> > >
> > > The sociology story: We’ve stopped participating in community organizations and are more isolated.
> > >
> > > The demography story: America, long a white-dominated nation, is becoming a much more diverse country, a change that has millions of white Americans in a panic.
> > >
> > > The economy story: High levels of economic inequality and insecurity have left people afraid, alienated, and pessimistic."
> > >
> > > https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2023/09/us-culture-moral-education-formation/674765/
> > David Brooks continues by largely disagree with the above stories and blame Americans for their lack of morality.
> >
> > "I agree, to an extent, with all of these stories, but I don’t think any of them is the deepest one. Sure, social media has bad effects,
> > but it is everywhere around the globe—and the mental-health crisis is not. Also, the rise of despair and hatred has engulfed a lot
> > of people who are not on social media. Economic inequality is real, but it doesn’t fully explain this level of social and emotional
> > breakdown. The sociologists are right that we’re more isolated, but why? What values lead us to choose lifestyles that make us
> > lonely and miserable?
> >
> > The most important story about why Americans have become sad and alienated and rude, I believe, is also the simplest: We inhabit
> > a society in which people are no longer trained in how to treat others with kindness and consideration. Our society has become one
> > in which people feel licensed to give their selfishness free rein. The story I’m going to tell is about morals. In a healthy society, a web
> > of institutions—families, schools, religious groups, community organizations, and workplaces—helps form people into kind and
> > responsible citizens, the sort of people who show up for one another. We live in a society that’s terrible at moral formation."
> >
> > He also specifies a pivoting moment during which one of the choice of freedom from "Authority Structures" was offered as the way
> > foreward:
> >
> > "The crucial pivot happened just after World War II, as people wrestled with the horrors of the 20th century. One group, personified
> > by the theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, argued that recent events had exposed the prevalence of human depravity and the dangers, in
> > particular, of tribalism, nationalism, and collective pride. This group wanted to double down on moral formation, with a greater
> > emphasis on humility.
> >
> > Another group, personified by Carl Rogers, a founder of humanistic psychology, focused on the problem of authority. The trouble
> > with the 20th century, the members of this group argued, was that the existence of rigid power hierarchies led to oppression in
> > many spheres of life. We need to liberate individuals from these authority structures, many contended. People are naturally good
> > and can be trusted to do their own self-actualization."
> "Rosalie Silberman Abella is the Samuel and Judith Pisar visiting professor of law at Harvard Law School and is a former justice of the
> Supreme Court of Canada." Like David Brooks, she also sees the US and probably somewhere else mean-spirited moral free-for-all. She
> gave a speech recently and the speech was adapted and published by the WashingtonPost.com.
>
> https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/08/14/justice-rule-of-law-ruth-bader-ginsburg-rosalie-abella/
>
> "We’re in a mean-spirited moral free-for-all, a climate polluted by bombastic insensitivity, antisemitism, racism,
> sexism, islamophobia, homophobia and discrimination generally. Too often, law and justice are in a dysfunctional
> relationship. Too often, hate kills, truth is homeless and lives don’t matter.
>
> We need to put justice back in charge, and to do that, we need to put compassion back in the service of law and
> law in the service of humanity. We need the rule of justice, not just the rule of law. Otherwise, what’s the point of
> law? Or lawyers? What good is the rule of law if there’s no justice? And to make justice happen, we can never forget
> how the world looks to those who are vulnerable. It’s what I consider to be the law’s majestic purpose and the legal
> profession’s noble mandate."
>
> -------------------------------------
> Too bad, she did not elaborate on how to distinguish the rule of justice from the rule of law. But a more pressing
> question is the linkage between courtroom action and morality. Courtroom verdicts are most on legality. Whether
> actions by the government or the people legal or illegal. Not on morality or immorality.