Young (and not so young) and without a Plan

It's fascinating when certain thoughts are percolating in your head and then you read an item on the web that validates your thinking. Just today, I read this article:

An American Mutant: A Three Part Series on the Man-Child (Part 2)

This was only the second part of a three part series, but this was the part that really caught my attention.

Here is Part 1: An American Mutant: A Three-Part Series on the Man-Child

And Part 3 here: An American Mutant: A Three Part Series on the Man-Child (Part 3)

 It's a fascinating look into the culture of the man-child, of the perpetual adolescent who does not want to grow-up, like the old "Toys 'R 'Us" commercial used to say in its jingle.

 I will not repeat here what the Author, David Masciotra discusses in his article (or rather series of articles), but rather I want to expand on his theme. I believe that a lot of his points are not only valid, but illuminating about today's culture. I have seen the man-child in action. But the man-child is not a symptom of only this generation -- it exists in Generation X, it also blossomed in Generation Y also known as Millennials. What scares me the most is that I have some first hand knowledge of the man-child. I have seen him in action. And I am writing this in hope of preventing the "man-child" from passing unto the next generation.

 The man-child has his own hours and his own schedule. The man-child does not believe in the same productive hours that the rest of society functions in... Is that really a description of a modern day "slacker"? What is a "slacker" after all, but a man-child wanna-be? But the "slacker" has been identified as one who could be suffering from depression. And the man-child? David Masciota says:

"...[they] have no plans for their lives, and the most terrifying part of that is that no one seems to care enough to do anything about it. Their parents reportedly bicker at them but refuse to levy any threats or ultimatums."

 Could it possibly be a lack of self-esteem? Many years ago, I was lucky enough to be given a set of these powerful tapes by self-help guru Jack Canfield. Their title was: "How to Build High Self Esteem.". I realized then one of the biggest problems facing me was the man looking back in the mirror. The lack of self-esteem can be a major hindrance going forward in life. It stops you from having goals, whether positive or negative, any kind of goals. It sometimes robs you of the will to live a normal life -- all you want to do is just get by. It can lead to depression pretty easily.

Is it any wonder, with the world we all have to deal with today and the problems that we have to face how some otherwise sane people choose to "tune out" the world around them and how the same world in kind treats them:

"Political and social institutions ignore them, which is not surprising considering they also ignore the unemployed and undereducated who desperately want a college degree or fair-paying job, and the surrounding community seems to take an apathetically tolerant position regarding their presence.

This may not seem catastrophic, and it certainly is not when compared to people who are forced to live in the margins of inner city or rural poverty. However, the rising number of middle-class males who voluntarily accept roles as fringe figures, misfits, and aimless snails signals deep trouble for a nation undergoing cultural decay, economic collapse, and communal breakdown. The Wall Street Journal reported before the super-recession that the current young generation of men is the first that will be less successful than their fathers.

The financial collapse and unemployment epidemic raises the stakes for the current generation, and may result in a pyramid future where the few upper and middle-class born men with drive and ambition rise to the top, and the rest—the poor and working-class who are uncounted by the powerful, along with the man-child section of the middle-class—fill the bottom."

  There is a pattern here. A self-perpetuating pattern. If you want to live in mediocrity, those around you will let you be part of their tribe. The institutions are geared towards allowing you to be "buried" in this mediocrity, and your parents... well, even if you were lucky enough to have immigrant parents, there is only so much they can take. Their walls have chips and cracks in them and they are crumbling. They have given-up trying to prop you up, to build you up to help you gain a leg-up that ladder of success that is America, because America has wore down on them as well. The land of opportunity is calling in its chips and its collecting, and a lot of people are coming-up short.

 When after so much struggle, after you have achieved your goals, or even some goals, and you have reached some level of relative success, the collapse of what used to be the American Dream is starting to affect even those who can not be categorized as a man-child or "slacker", then something somewhere has gone terribly wrong. Yes, it has affected me... Oh, I won't say that I am exhibiting the symptoms of the man-child in all its glory: For example, I won't be out, until all hours of the night, keeping to a night-owl schedule that would lead me to being compared to a vampire. Nor would I drink myself into a stupor; but just maybe I get my kicks from some wonderful prescription pain meds, or even over the counter ones. Or for a change of pace, I have zero motivation to achieve anything new in my life, to progress beyond where I am right now. After all I say, in this current climate, "what would that get me?"

 The powerful and the rich have everything locked-up in this world, and those in authority, those in the corporate world tell the rest of us what to think and what to do. In light of this, what can I do? But dammit, I think I can still make a difference with the younger generation. Maybe I can influence a nephew or a niece, maybe I can influence someone reading this blog to change their way. I certainly thought better of myself once, and succeeded mightily, broke past the family traditions and achieved things beyond what would have been possible. Now, this success is not uncommon for this family, is not uncommon for immigrants like us at all. But the lesson here is this: Standing still is not the answer. Playing the video game, watching TV, drinking that drink, taking that pill, that is not the answer. The way forward is make a positive step every day, is to say:

"Today is another day, a better day than yesterday, and today, I will do ONE thing more that I did not do yesterday."

I promise to change.

I hope those who can change, those that have read David's seminal 3-part series and my blog, will also change for the better.