Taking Stock: Our Societal Trends
By Ellen Corsi
As the new year begins, we tend to take a mental stock of where we are now, and what we want to accomplish in the next year. Another piece of this, is mulling over how things are, and why they are the way they are, right now. When you look at societal changes over the last 50 years, our countries, individually, and our world, has changed drastically. The majority of countries in the world have the same pivotal concerns.
If you travel a lot, which I do, you will find many of the same social mores and trends worldwide. I have endeavored to 'expand my horizons' over the years, and the fact that most countries have the same social concerns is interesting and enlightening.
It seems that in the last 26 years, our social concerns have moved into a whole new genre. In past years, say in the 1960's and 1970's, our personal freedoms were a non-issue. We were more concerned with economic and political issues. However, in the 1980's our focus began to change, and has continued to the present, with no sign of relenting. Our lives are now of "zero tolerance" and "political correctness" as opposed to the 1960's and 1970's where our lives were more of "live and let live" and "let it be." The question that is raised in my mind is, 'Why?' Are we becoming a worldly society that is more concerned about limiting other people rather than becoming a huge global society that has tolerance for others and compassion for their fellow global man? Have we lost sight of more pressing problems in the world?
It seems that we have moved ourselves to a point of putting our social selves into a box that is becoming smaller as the years go by, instead of opening ourselves to the world and working to solve problems that will make our world a better place to live. It seems that at some point we have decided that we need to control other people's personal lives instead of creating a global community of free-speaking, free-living people. My (social) concern is: How far will it go? And, what's the end-game here?
I admit it, I'm an idealist. Even though I have been self-employed for the last 15 years, there were many years when I worked in corporate life. In my idealistic way of thinking, I could never understand why most people couldn't go to work, do their job, get along, and go home. Hence, the self-employment! My friends will tell me, it is just human nature.
Since the 1960's, we have moved from one decade to another with historic social changes marking each one, except for the last twenty-some years. As we have moved along, our social standards seem to have lost their sense of humor and tolerance for other people. How we treat and address simple things that happen every day is amazing. The following are examples of some social differences as to how it would have been treated years ago, and how it is treated today.
1. Years ago, kids rode their bicycles everywhere. Once in a while, they would fall off of their bikes, skin their knees, bandage them, and move on to the next piece of fun. Today, kids have more safety gear than you can list (or possibly wear at one time), and they still get hurt anyway. So much for creating a perfect world!
2. True Story: I'm playing basketball in the ninth grade and I dislocate my knee. I get up, it goes back into place, and I walk home, which is a distance of about a mile. Later, I go to the doctor and have it checked. My knee was sore, but that's it. No big deal. Today, E.M.T.'s are in place at basketball practice, just in case someone falls, and someone will probably get sued if they do fall.
3. Before "political correctness," at a social gathering of co-workers, sometimes you'd hug your boss or co-workers to greet them. You would all have dinner and a drink together and enjoy the evening. Today, at a corporate social gathering, you can only greet co-workers with a "side hug" due to sexual harassment issues; (your cell phone is ringing); make sure your conversations with co-workers are in check with the latest social mores; (your cell phone is ringing, again); don't smoke; don't eat that, it has trans fats in it; (Your cell phone is ringing); don't drink too much; make sure you have a designated driver; and buckle up.
4. I was watching the local news this evening. One of the top stories was a recall of a stroller because one child scraped their arm on the wheel. This stroller company will be recalling thousands of strollers because one child experienced what we all experience- life.
Are our social trends becoming too limiting and invasive of our personal freedoms? Are we losing our social sense of humor about life in general? Are we becoming too serious as a social global community?
It's definitely something to mull over during the new year.
