Maggie's Farm

We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.

Our Recent Essays Behind the Front Page

Much Sorry with Delays
Birth, Death and All That Stuff in Between
How to Honor Labor Day, Every Day
My Yom Kippur Miracle (Repost from 2010)
Good intro to fly casting
Peach update, with pie
NYC update
Easy for you to say: To the elites on mass immigration
For NYC on 9/11, Sailors' Snug Harbor
Pickled Peaches
Water Shoes
Labor Costs in U.S.
Your "identity"
Good news about The Great Courses
Uses of Hot Pepper Jelly/Sauce, Chutneys, and Jams
A Saturday Drive to Litchfield County, CT
How to Pick a Kayak
Civilized: Fruit forks and knives
Loads of kayaking on Cape Cod
Psychology Experiments' Questionable Results

Categories


All categories

Quicksearch

Links

Blog Administration

Open login screen

RSS Readers

Add to Google

Subscribe with Bloglines

Friday, April 8. 2016

"Who am I?," "Why am I here?,"and other self-centered, deep, important questions

If you go to Harvard College, they intend to help you discover your true purpose in life.


The meaning of your special snowflake life. Your mission. It hearkens back to the time when America's colleges were basically Congregational seminaries with sciences and liberal arts to help produce well-lettered and knowledgeable preachers and professors.


The assumption now, of course, is that the most privileged kids in the world are helpless infants and idiots. The infantilization of college students continues unabated. Meanwhile those who do not attend colleges grow up right away.


I do not know how to account for this trend. "Extended adolescence"? There was a time when college students considered themselves fully-fledged adults, and were viewed that way too. Age 16, or 18 depending on your background, was it.


Regardless of how long the kids and the higher ed administrators conspire to delay it, everybody confronts reality and is forced to grow up eventually. Sippican's sewer line is a good metaphor.

Posted by Dr. Joy Bliss in Psychology, and Dr. Bliss, The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation at 18:22 | Comments (4) | Trackbacks (0)

Trackbacks
Trackback specific URI for this entry

No Trackbacks

Comments
Display comments as (Linear | Threaded)

Dad is not a snowflake. He dropped out of HS after the Japs bombed Pearl Harbor, married Mom, joined the Navy, spent '42-'46 seeing the world (North Atlantic, Med, Pacific) from a warship. Returned home (carrying his shield) to a wife and daughter, finished HS, then went to college on the GI Bill.

f' the f'ing snowflakes.
#1 Donny "The Bear Jew" Donowitz on 2016-04-08 19:22 (Reply)
I am enthralled by these stories. We returned home over Easter weekend to bury my wife's grandfather (artillery in the European and Pacific theaters during WWII). He and his wife were married the same day as my father's parents, both men were servicemen on 30 day leave before redeployment from Europe to the Pacific. My grandfather was educated on the GI Bill as well. One of thousands who would otherwise have continued in the stoop labor or factory jobs they were doing when the war broke out.
#1.1 Gordon on 2016-04-10 13:03 (Reply)
We're homeschooling our children. One of my goals is to raise an young adult that can enroll in college or otherwise prepare for a productive life by age 16, 17. We'll see.
#2 Jack Walter on 2016-04-08 22:43 (Reply)
Take notice of tv commercials, Tv shows and products that are geared towards kids--

Products for teenagers are even being infantilized. Sippy cups for middle school kids. Cups with holders for snack foods to keep spills to minimum. Sleeping bags for older 'kids' so they don't have to make their bed. With special hidey holes for loot. In cute little animal shapes.
TV shows that encourage the living in make believe. I just saw commercial for a new show for a fairy princess that tries to pass as a "human".
My kids watch a minimum of TV and which I'm glad, there's nothing on the "kids" channels that has any content that isn't depraved, retarded and encourages narcissism. Even cartoons are poltiicized and sending messages. While encouraging selfish behavior and immediate gratification at the same time that humans are ruining the planet by their mere existence.
#3 fjord on 2016-04-09 07:13 (Reply)

Add Comment
(Your e-mail will not show in your comment)

By commenting on this site you agree to the site rules listed here. Email
addresses will not be displayed and will only be used for email notifications.

Quick reference guide: [i] italics [/i], [b] bold [/b], [u] underline [/u],
[url] (web address) [/url]. More tips here.

Enclosing asterisks marks text as bold (*word*), underscore are made via _word_.
E-Mail addresses will not be displayed and will only be used for E-Mail notifications.

To prevent automated Bots from commentspamming, please enter the string you see in the image below in the appropriate input box. Your comment will only be submitted if the strings match. Please ensure that your browser supports and accepts cookies, or your comment cannot be verified correctly.
CAPTCHA

BBCode format allowed
 
 
A Chris Southern Consulting website.