Wanted to re-share this superb analysis, as a way to put a bit more flesh on the bones of the idea that…

Wanted to re-share this superb analysis, as a way to put a bit more flesh on the bones of the idea that ‘lockdowns’ have removed our basic freedoms and damaged many of us mentally and socially. Society is a high school. Not an analogy. /1 https://t.co/1stDMhEXNh

I watched the euphoria of re-opening in Melbourne yesterday, and wondered again at what it means, that our societies see social life as liberation, and individual life as oppression. But it all makes perfect sense if you see modern societies as societies of adolescents. /2 https://t.co/mhW20KLJ2M

I won’t describe the ways that’s literally true, that our societies are modelled on high schools. The article does that very well. But adolescents see restriction of social activity as oppression, it was always called being ‘grounded’. At that stage of life and development…/3

…friendship and social life are absolutely fundamental and central to your existence. But as the article describes, that developmental stage has spread into and now dominates adult life as well. Previously adults had fewer friends and social activities as they aged…/4

…because they had matured, were more aware of their own individuality and focused on raising families and their work or vocation. They didn’t need friendship as much, or social life, it had already done its job for them. Not that they were hermits, but they were grown up. /5

The narratives around social and mental health damage caused by lockdowns could be cut and pasted directly from any description of teenage life. The libertarian waves dominating politics are literally this vast adolescent mass, of all ages, railing against being grounded. /6

Grounded by the State, by corporations, by public health orders. Everything outside social life is seen as a restriction. Again, this is how teenagers think, and because we’ve turned societies into high schools, it’s why libertarian politics wins. It joins all the dots. /end