I had someone tell me that psychology has taken the place of the elderly in our society. What we used to look to our grandparents for, we now pay someone $100 dollars an hour to do for us (and of course we pay someone to take care of our grandparents in the process as well...), and I don't think we are better of for the 'professionalization' of wisdom at living.
We have taken essential aspects of society and 'trained' people how to 'do it better' and then watched as society is no longer capable of adressing these aspects...
We have schools that don't educate effectively, a criminal justice system that perpetuates criminal behavior, and a social welfare system that creates poverty; this is due to the underlying assumption that professionals are better at doing it than community is, and so undermining community in the process.
No wonder we have seen the atomization of families, the failure of community services, etc. there are professionals to do those things for us...
...do you think we are better off?
5 comments:
I see a place for it, but not at the *expense* of grand-parental wisdom.
Have you seen out on youtube, there's an old guy named geriatric1927 who's made quite a splash. You can even find him on wikipedia now and part of the explanation for his meteoric rise in popularity is that he's an elderly, grandfatherly figure speaking to the ferrel youths of society ... and they're eating it up!
Go to youtube and do a search on "geriatric1927" and you'll find a video diary he's been working on for quite some time. He tells stories from his life, school, the war, etc. It's fascinating.
I'll take a good ol' grandfather any day!
His video series is called "Telling it all," and I see he's got like 40 installments now.
I think that there is a place for pro counseling, but it is sad to me when someone turns there first rather than a friend, spouse, minister, or God... (There's a thought).
And for the old guy on the internet (no, I didn't check it out)... it seems that this is still one more way to sidestep the real face to face encounter with people who KNOW YOU and LOVE YOU and have the ability to function in community with you.
What a wierd society we live in!!
Maybe, but it shows that there's a void there. Sure, a real live grandpa would be better. But if there isn't one ...
I agree Mike...
We live in a society that desires community and relationship but doesn't know where to find it, and runs away when it is present.
I would describe my own experiences along this vein, until I found a group of people who were uniquely commited to the Way of Jesus. It was there that I first discovered what a true friendship was, what healthy community looks like.
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