How the Modern World Makes Us Mentally Ill

[GSOgymrat]

While overly simplistic and playing fast and loose with terms, I think this video makes some good points. I wouldn't have said how these elements of modernity are making us "mentally ill" but are a source of worry and dissatisfaction. I tend to avoid pathologizing unless doing so is helpful. Several of these features of modernity share the same root cause: unrealistic expectations.

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[Cavebear]

Before I watch this video, I bet I am guilty of less than 1/3.

[Cavebear]

Before I watch this video, I bet I am guilty of less than 1/3.

OK,  I watched.  There were 6 basic claims.

1.  Meritocracy.  I value that, the video didn't.  The claim is that MOST fail.  I didn't.
2.  Individualism.  I value that, the video didn't.  Because it said most aren't.  Anyone want to say that I'm not?
3. Secularism.  The video said that was bad.  Duh, I'm an atheist and enjoy it.
4. Romantatism.  THe video said that we all have a dream we can't match so we "settle".  I don't and I didn't.  I LOVE living by myself.
5. The Media - The video said the media eats us all up.  I'm not elsewhjere than here, when I choose to be.
6.  Perfection - The video said we fail to achieve the perfection of our minds.  I settled for COMPETANCE.  Ever read the Peter Principle?  It says everyone gets stressed bty beibng promoted beyond their skill,  Not ME!  LOL  I knew exactly what I could do and was happy never goihg a step farther.

I scored 6 of 6!

[Cavebear]

OK,  I watched.  There were 6 basic claims.

1.  Meritocracy.  I value that, the video didn't.  The claim is that MOST fail.  I didn't.
2.  Individualism.  I value that, the video didn't.  Because it said most aren't.  Anyone want to say that I'm not?
3. Secularism.  The video said that was bad.  Duh, I'm an atheist and enjoy it.
4. Romantatism.  THe video said that we all have a dream we can't match so we "settle".  I don't and I didn't.  I LOVE living by myself.
5. The Media - The video said the media eats us all up.  I'm not elsewhjere than here, when I choose to be.
6.  Perfection - The video said we fail to achieve the perfection of our minds.  I settled for COMPETANCE.  Ever read the Peter Principle?  It says everyone gets stressed bty beibng promoted beyond their skill,  Not ME!  LOL  I knew exactly what I could do and was happy never goihg a step farther.

I scored 6 of 6!

On the other hand, I can't type worth a damn..., LOL!  And I don't care.

[Baruch]

On the other hand, I can't type worth a damn..., LOL!  And I don't care.

I don't care if you can type either.  It would be more important if I enjoyed the content of what you typed more.

Human beings have always been physically and mentally ill.  It isn't new, just study history.

[trdsf]

As soon as he cast secularism as a bad thing, I stopped watching.  My secular outlook is one of the things that keeps me relatively sane in the face of daunting odds -- especially in that outside of religion, I no longer think of my failings as evidence that I've pissed off some "all benevolent" god again, but just "wow, I fucked up, I better fix that".

[GSOgymrat]

As soon as he cast secularism as a bad thing, I stopped watching.  My secular outlook is one of the things that keeps me relatively sane in the face of daunting odds -- especially in that outside of religion, I no longer think of my failings as evidence that I've pissed off some "all benevolent" god again, but just "wow, I fucked up, I better fix that".

Secularism is one of my sacred cows and as I've said before politically I don't care about atheism, I care about secularism. Secularism is important because it gives individuals the freedom to decide what they value and how they are going to live their life without government intervention. However, secularism isn't really a value system. It gives individuals the freedom to be an atheist, Buddhist, Muslim, Christian, Scientologist, Humanist, nihilist, etcetera. Secularism charges individuals with the responsibility of figuring life out on their own, which can be challenging. Secularism is freedom to choose your belief system but then you have to choose what to believe, just as freedom of speech allows you to express yourself but then you have to choose what to say.

Secularism also means you have to tolerate diversity of beliefs and behaviors, basically that we all agree that we are going to disagree. Secularism ensures there will always be non-conformity, that your neighbor may be doing some weird stuff that you believe is wrong. This can be difficult because conformity of values and behaviors is comforting to many people. I enjoy living in a secular society but I recognize it can be challenging.

[SGOS]

We hear this a lot: "The modern world is stressful and takes a bigger toll than older simpler times."  But hunting and foraging must have caused a lot of stress along with the feudal/peasant times and all the rest of the bloody dangerous past.

But maybe it's true.  I have wondered about this.  Perhaps modernization presents a different kind of stress, not necessary a bigger stress, but a type of stress that we did not have enough time to evolve to cope with.  Is it worse stressing out about being eaten alive by a saber-toothed tiger, or to die from an ulcer after being crushed and humiliated by a guy who wants nothing more than to take all your money away from you?

Sometimes I think it's the same old trope as "Kids today are worse than they were..."  But I don't actually know that.  I've just wondered.

[GSOgymrat]

The world changes but does the human condition fundamentally change? I am not sure. I do think modernity presents some different kinds of stress. For example, be it the year 1018 or 2018, people want to feel validated, but when in history could the average person be either praised or attacked by thousands of strangers from across the global for expressing an opinion while sitting on the toilet?

[Hydra009]

The world changes but does the human condition fundamentally change? I am not sure. I do think modernity presents some different kinds of stress. For example, be it the year 1018 or 2018, people want to feel validated, but when in history could the average person be either praised or attacked by thousands of strangers from across the global for expressing an opinion while sitting on the toilet?

The human condition has not fundamentally changed.  People still have the same kinds of psychological needs, but the environment has changed drastically.

I've heard a theory that a modern lifestyle lends itself to different sorts of trials and tribulations and therefore different types of psychological unease.

In an earlier age, the stress of near-starvation or deadly disease or war might leave lasting psychological scars on the populace, in modern societies that's a lot less prevalent so people have very different gripes and problems.  They're usually less life-and-death and more of a struggle to achieve a satisfying career or get an ideal romantic partner or kick an addiction like cigarettes or opioids.

I've seen someone flip out over a malfunctioning fax machine and casually wondered how they'd deal with Bleeding Kansas or the plague of Justinian.

[trdsf]

The world changes but does the human condition fundamentally change?

I think it does, but not as quickly as the world changes.  The available information load is way ahead of most people's ability to cope with it, but at least in the developed world, you can't realistically opt out.  I get funny looks just for telling people no, I don't do Twitter or Facebook -- even after the latest revelation of how they've fucked up user security again.  I actually get less grief telling people I don't have cable TV.

Even the option to not engage is taken forcibly away from us: my bus ride to work was an opportunity to get my brain engaged in the morning, or to start winding it down in the afternoon -- but I now the city bus line blasts audio ads loud enough to overwhelm my earbuds even when I have the volume turned up too far, literally every one to two minutes.

So here we sit, possessors of remarkable biological computers inside our skulls finely tuned to make connections and find patterns, and we spend almost all our waking hours in a state of sensory overload.  It becomes like trying to find patterns in static -- and the way we are wired, we can, but we can't tell that accidental patterns are meaningless.

[Cavebear]

I don't care if you can type either.  It would be more important if I enjoyed the content of what you typed more.

Human beings have always been physically and mentally ill.  It isn't new, just study history.

Saying that suggests that most humans are ill.  But if so, isn't that the norm?  And if it is the norm, than that is well, "normal".  If you are objecting that we should be "better", well, there is always a "better".  There is no upper end to "better".

Are you always this irrational?

[Blackleaf]

As soon as he cast secularism as a bad thing, I stopped watching.  My secular outlook is one of the things that keeps me relatively sane in the face of daunting odds -- especially in that outside of religion, I no longer think of my failings as evidence that I've pissed off some "all benevolent" god again, but just "wow, I fucked up, I better fix that".

What is with this idea that religion is somehow the source of morality and happiness? Religion has been the route cause of wars, internal violence, abuse, denial of rights... Research has shown that the less religious a country is, the less violence it has. The idea that America is somehow going downhill due to the decline of Christianity is ridiculous.

[Cavebear]

I think it does, but not as quickly as the world changes.  The available information load is way ahead of most people's ability to cope with it, but at least in the developed world, you can't realistically opt out.  I get funny looks just for telling people no, I don't do Twitter or Facebook -- even after the latest revelation of how they've fucked up user security again.  I actually get less grief telling people I don't have cable TV.

Even the option to not engage is taken forcibly away from us: my bus ride to work was an opportunity to get my brain engaged in the morning, or to start winding it down in the afternoon -- but I now the city bus line blasts audio ads loud enough to overwhelm my earbuds even when I have the volume turned up too far, literally every one to two minutes.

So here we sit, possessors of remarkable biological computers inside our skulls finely tuned to make connections and find patterns, and we spend almost all our waking hours in a state of sensory overload.  It becomes like trying to find patterns in static -- and the way we are wired, we can, but we can't tell that accidental patterns are meaningless.

I don't do Twitter or Facebook either.  I suspected them from the start.  I visit those places most likely to help me think while also least likely to gather my information. 

[Baruch]

Saying that suggests that most humans are ill.  But if so, isn't that the norm?  And if it is the norm, than that is well, "normal".  If you are objecting that we should be "better", well, there is always a "better".  There is no upper end to "better".

Are you always this irrational?

Illness is another victim status to be used by the Left.  But if we are all ill, then it isn't useful as rhetoric.

No, I have always believed, that "better" is both possible and desirable.  I don't believe in "progress" which is the idea that this is inevitable and that people don't have to actively choose it.  Like Democrats presuppose that demographic change makes their victory in every election, inevitable.

Agree with Cavebear ... rational?  Disagree with Cavebear ... irrational?  Ego plus virtue signaling.