• the "lone wolf" going beyond societal conventions
• fame, regardless of how it's achieved
• bending & breaking rules "to win"
• a "winner"
At the same time, the US - the poster child for this ethos - incarcerates more people per capita than any other country. We energetically punish "losers" - those who failed to evade our law enforcement and judicial systems. Convicted criminals embarrass us, not because they caused individuals and society to suffer, nor because we / society failed them, but because they spotlight our society's, and our own personal, psychosocialspiritual poverty. "The one who dies with the most toys wins" is the tragicomedic philosophy of life for too many of us.
Big business has successfully converted society into a global feedlot of deadheads mindlessly "consuming" ever greater quantities of mass-produced garbage. Mary Jo Leddy, author of "Radical Gratitude", on CBC radio's Tapestry (10/13/02), pointed out the relationship between inherent, endemic dissatisfaction in consumer societies, and a deep sense of emptiness, inadequacy, powerlessness.
How low must we sink before our schools and universities responsibly graduate decent, caring, wise human beings? Robert J. Sternberg PhD spent much of his career trying to move this agenda forward: http://healthyhealers.blogspot.ca/2014/01/teaching-for-wisdom-urgently-needed-now.html
 |
| Shower in Tuscany |
Thank you for this post - hats off to the four professors at Dalhousie for being decent, caring and wise human beings!
ReplyDelete