Words that caught us: Where and how has culture chained us, to the harmful and the unnatural?
Saw
this tweet a few days ago:
“Modern
people are so miserable
because
everything
our culture considers normal
is,
in fact, extremely harmful
and
contrary to our deepest nature.”
Then
an inspired soul tweeted back:
“Let's
challenge people
to
name 3 unsavory "normals" in our culture
that
offend the nature of humans
that
don't indulge in unfruitful or harmful conformity.
In
other words, not robots.
I'll
go first:
1)
The Media
2)
Foods that kill you slowly
3)
Constant noise”
That
challenge got our attention.
We
immediately sensed
That
There
was a bigger message
In
this challenge.
It’s
more about chains –
How
we chain and tether ourselves,
Unquestioningly,
To
tradition and convention,
And
how this limits and impedes us,
In a
world that’s in constant flux.
We felt so challenged
That we retweeted the challenge and added:
“4.
Constant Busyness/hustling
5.
Getting stuck in traffic jams every day”
Most
of us have accepted these two
As ‘normal’
obligations of life,
Yet, they
are just recent developments
In our
social history.
Can you see the effect
This acceptance
and normalization
Has on
us and future generations?
Constant
busyness, for example,
Has precluded
us from leisure and rest,
From
hobbies and curiosities,
From having meaningful conversations
And connection,
To
stress and strife.
It’s
sad that this is the life
We
are socializing our children to live.
The harm it does is incalculable!
We
looked at the thread again this morning
And
these two ‘normals’ caught our eye:
“Choosing
inside boxed walls over
outside
in nature (Excessive time indoors)”
“Non-satiable
consumerism”
YOU and Me.
What else
can you add?
What,
in our culture,
Have
we accepted to be ‘normal’,
Yet
it is harmful and unnatural?
Where
have you tethered yourself the most?
What would untethering yourself look like?
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