Could turning 21 be significant for us culturally and
socially as well? We are about to enter
the 21st year of the 21st century. Are we likely to move from collective
Adolescence to collective Adulthood?
In 2021 will we come of age? Will we shift from an adolescent mindset to
an adult mindset? Will we be given the
key to unlock our collective future?
We have been living a collective adolescent life and lifestyle
for most of the past twenty or more centuries.
We have been continuing to live a collective Adolescence for the first
20 years of this century.
We have been driven by our collective adolescent ego;
placing ourselves at the centre of the world where only we matter. The Buddhist scholar, David Loy, names this
collective ego our wego. Loy
describes wego as our “…deluded sense of collective self.”1 For Loy, our wego manifests at a collective
level in similar ways to the ego’s manifestation at an individual level – in ill
will, greed, and delusion.
Loy notes that these “three poisons” play out in our
institutions. Institutionalised greed
plays out in our consumption levels, so much so that “the economy” now is often
considered as of more importance than people’s well-being or the health of the
planet.
Institutionalised ill will plays out in our heightened
militarisation and penchant for retribution and retaliation.
And institutionalised delusion sees us separating ‘us’
from ‘them’ and the continuing polarisation of the world.
Whilst the development of an ego in and individual Adolescent
can be a healthy one, remaining stuck in an ego-centric world view is
unhealthy. The same is true for us
collectively. Sadly, a large proportion
of the population of western-styled cultures are stuck in what Bill Plotkin
terms ‘patho-adolescence.’2
Plotkin is particularly scathing of Westernized societies,
concluding that,
“…many
people of adult age suffer from a variety of adolescent psychopathologies –
incapacitating social insecurity, identity confusion, extremely low self-esteem,
few or no social skills, narcissism, relentless greed, arrested moral
development, recurrent physical violence, materialistic obsessions, little or
no capacity for intimacy or empathy, substance addictions, and emotional
numbness.”
Whew! That’s
damning isn’t it? Yet, if we check it
out, sadly he is not wrong. He suggests
that signs of this ‘patho-adolescence’ can be clearly seen in our political leaders,
celebrities, captains of industry, and media personalities.
Socially and collectively, we are no different. Western-styled societies are trapped in a
patho-adolescent stage of development.
Our collective wego reigns.
Twenty-One
So then, how likely are we to collectively shift from
our Adolescent preoccupation to a more Adult-like mindset?
Not without a lot of work. The work that needs to be done must take on
many forms. It is personal work, as we
are all trapped in our egos and must find our way for our egos to become
servants rather than masters. It is
collective and cultural work, for we are all products of our culture, and
co-creators of our culture.
It is institutional work. Our institutions reflect our values, and our
institutions shape our values. Our work
must turn that around.
It is relational work.
The ways in which we relate to one another (not just our friends and family)
has a massive impact upon our personal emotional and psychological states. The ways we relate to one another also has a
massive impact upon the well-being of our collective selves, and the planet as
a whole.
Are we willing to do this work (individually and
collectively) now that we are turning 21?
Are we willing to become true Adults in a world so sorely in need of such?
Notes:
1. David Loy, Wego: The Social Roots of Suffering,
in Mindful Politics, ed. Melvin McLeod, Wisdom Publications,
Boston, 2006.
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