Why are full grown adults acting like children?

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05/10/2024 12:53

Subject: Why are full grown adults acting like children?

Anonymous

What is happening on college campuses is for the young. A period in development where they are trying to make sense of the world around them, form deep counterculture peer groups, where their fight (NOT flight) instinct and sense of indestructibility is strongest, and where they feel they know everything even though it’s an incredibly narrow slice of reality. This makes sense. This is developmentally appropriate and evolutionarily designed.

But what typically follows in full adulthood is a period of growth with more world experience, a finally fully developed brain, and the capacity for a more nuanced and complex worldview.

We have for a while been experiencing a sociological shift - a period of arrested development for adults (while also projecting adulthood on children - different topic for another time). Socially and psychologically this has been occurring for at least the last 20+ years impacting the family and our psychological wellness (especially our children’s). Then in the last decade or so we saw that turn to our domestic politics (in brief: politicians that act like petulant toddlers), and now it’s coming to roost in the geopolitical sphere. This is not a video game or simulation. This is not Model UN hypotheticals. This is our safety and our existence as a nation here. This is the preservation of democracy. This is about living in an imperfect world with the best international leaders at the helm. (Imperfect is an understatement yes, but I’ll take democratic principals over any of the other options on the table! And if we continue down this path, they won’t even be “options”.)
We are imploding from the inside.

Youth rebel and see things simply. As they should. And we should listen. And, as adults, take it in along with our more nuanced understanding of how the world works.

Kid wants to stick finger in outlet. Adult covers outlets because we know better. But then we find a tactile activity for the little one because
we also listened to their needs and used our judgment to find the mutual path forward. And eventually kid also learns, hey finger in socket is not great. Just looked like a smiley face, but I’ve learned there are wires and currents and it’s just more complicated than I realized when I was baby.

In short, this adult/child dynamic is the natural order of balance, of ying and yang. This is harmony. As is found in nature. When harmony and balance are disturbed, the ecosystem falls apart. These are very simple natural principals.

We are imploding. This is not a game. This is our physical and geopolitical safety. We can come together as a nation AND continue to push leaders to do the right thing by the world. We can care about injustice and not seethe at each other here. We can grow up and not all act like teenagers. Enough is enough. Put on your adult pants and be a leader. For your kids, for your neighbors, and for the world.