8 September

A bit long, but some ideas aren’t sound bites. I know the world seems crazy to many people. I think the cause is something hidden in plain sight. For generations now, we’ve allowed adolescents to grow up in a separate, isolated culture. Beginning in their own rooms, and with schools becoming an intensely separate social culture increasingly isolated from the adult world. The internet and social media have dramatically accelerated this. This means whole generations now come to adulthood seeing the world in adolescent ways, and maintain that the rest of their lives. ‘Grown ups’ who well into their 50s and beyond still find their favourite bands, sporting teams and drinking a main focus of their lives. ‘Having a fun time’. It’s all they know, not their fault, we removed the part of our culture where the two social worlds intersected. Society farmed kids out to schools and the entertainment industry to focus itself on recreational adult lifestyles, free of child interference. Take any serious issue the world faces, and you’ll see it’s caused by adults who still see the world like a big high school. It’s the only world they know. The obsession with personal feelings and emotions, with jockeying for social status, with friendship, with personal appearance and self-improvement, and an economic system focused on individual success, like your position in a class or in the HSC. Every serious issue becomes which ‘team’ you’re part of, forming your alliances, like you do in school. The substance of the issue itself? Ignored. The biggest growth professions are about ‘messaging’. About marketing. Trying to turn issues into juicy sound bites, which will get the momentary attention of societies of adolescents. No long-term, multi-generational construction of institutions to run society, but competition for limited attention in a market of personal tastes and opinions. We’re awash with fads, in all areas of life. Climate change or a pandemic become like selling soft drink. ‘Influencers’ replace leaders.