Your observations on Aussies not wanting to engage in enthusiastic conversation (at least in the past) like Europeans and North Americans was my experience exactly when I moved here from Germany in the early nineties. No matter the topic I tried to have a conversation about - from politics to recycling - I was met with awkward silence, oh-well-waddya-gonna-do or yeah-nah-not-good-ey-did-you-watch-the-game-last-night. But the most infuriating sentence in this context by far (although not specifically directed at me) was: ‘If you haven’t got anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.’ Well, the ‘not so nice things’ can’t be avoided anymore now, can they?
Really value Sarah Wilson and her contribution to so many important conversations.
Her comment about "we are the adults born in this time" - I think about this a LOT through the lens of a) being a mental health practitioner with a focus on trauma and b) having teenagers.
So often what I observe in politics, on social media, in interpersonal relationships, in the media, in public discourse - is ADOLESCENT behaviour. The binary hysteria of cancel culture is the most adolescent response to being in disagreement with someone. The inability to take responsibility for your own feelings/actions/role is what teenagers are unable to do. The absence of thoughtful articulation that holds multiple truths- immature. I feel like at the critical point where we need SO MANY ADULTS to grapple with climate crisis, population decline, AI etc has bumped up against the same time that our culture is growing out of infancy in many issues of how we see and treat others - diversity in race, sexuality, gender, ability - and our response at the moment broadly speaking is in its teenage years, not an adult response yet. Does this make sense? I'm curious about others perspectives. Other adults! I wonder if the collective moral injury and trauma (using this word with caution) of the pandemic and impending climate collapse has frozen so many of us in a childlike/ adolescent state. And there is an urgent need to grow the hell up so we Can get on with the business of solving and mitigating so many pressing global challenges.
Wow… I don’t think I’ve ever come across someone who interprets the concept of Individualism like she does. It’s at least incredibly interesting 😅 I think what she’s referring to as Individualism could better be described as elite greed or cronyism
Your observations on Aussies not wanting to engage in enthusiastic conversation (at least in the past) like Europeans and North Americans was my experience exactly when I moved here from Germany in the early nineties. No matter the topic I tried to have a conversation about - from politics to recycling - I was met with awkward silence, oh-well-waddya-gonna-do or yeah-nah-not-good-ey-did-you-watch-the-game-last-night. But the most infuriating sentence in this context by far (although not specifically directed at me) was: ‘If you haven’t got anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.’ Well, the ‘not so nice things’ can’t be avoided anymore now, can they?
Really value Sarah Wilson and her contribution to so many important conversations.
Her comment about "we are the adults born in this time" - I think about this a LOT through the lens of a) being a mental health practitioner with a focus on trauma and b) having teenagers.
So often what I observe in politics, on social media, in interpersonal relationships, in the media, in public discourse - is ADOLESCENT behaviour. The binary hysteria of cancel culture is the most adolescent response to being in disagreement with someone. The inability to take responsibility for your own feelings/actions/role is what teenagers are unable to do. The absence of thoughtful articulation that holds multiple truths- immature. I feel like at the critical point where we need SO MANY ADULTS to grapple with climate crisis, population decline, AI etc has bumped up against the same time that our culture is growing out of infancy in many issues of how we see and treat others - diversity in race, sexuality, gender, ability - and our response at the moment broadly speaking is in its teenage years, not an adult response yet. Does this make sense? I'm curious about others perspectives. Other adults! I wonder if the collective moral injury and trauma (using this word with caution) of the pandemic and impending climate collapse has frozen so many of us in a childlike/ adolescent state. And there is an urgent need to grow the hell up so we Can get on with the business of solving and mitigating so many pressing global challenges.
Also thanks for this conversation and all the uncomfortable conversations you engage in, on the edge of those fragile branches.
Wow… I don’t think I’ve ever come across someone who interprets the concept of Individualism like she does. It’s at least incredibly interesting 😅 I think what she’s referring to as Individualism could better be described as elite greed or cronyism