ESSAY: The failures of a nonextended family / nonagrarian culture; and the reemergence of feudalism.
You know what I find very ironic or just strange as hell?
It seems that in our culture it's rare for two adults to engage in a mentor/apprentice relationship unless money is being exchanged, or the very least, that one person is significantly older and has the right titles. My attempts with friends to advise, teach, lead by example or even just give biking, swimming or driving lessons often end poorly. I find it's a rare ego indeed that can humble itself enough to trust the judgment of another over their own, much less to be willing to re/learn something new.
I understand my perspective is limited to the ten-ish different families/ tribes/groups of people I've immersed myself with in Alabama, Germany, Austria, Ohio, Indiana, and the DMV.
IMHO it's ironic that I've been thirsty and hungry, unable to find the consistent life mentor I've been seeking since age 17. Because somehow logically I would think that there are people out there who would love more than anything to mentor a young person, especially as there seems to be relatively few young people out there willing to be mentored.
I mean there are probably hundreds of mentorship programs in the United States alone for teenagers up to the age of 18. But after that… If you're lucky enough to go to college you have academic support services. There are professional therapists, and rarely someone in your workplace who can give you some advice now and then. But all of that falls far short of the resources you would have when living near extended family full of wise elders.
Young parents and even not so young parents are rarely full of deep wisdom, positive mental fortitude & healthy boundaries. So why does it seem like I am so alone in wanting help to make up for the lack of wisdom in my own family?
I can tell you that if my family had been more agrarian/ extended-family centric I would've been a hell of a lot better off. Growing up around grandpa and grandma, great aunts and uncles, I also know my sisters would not of had eating disorders, we would've had elders to guide our family out of irrational decades-old family grudges.
But instead elders were always like these very distant angels I had rare access to.
Any sort of physical or monetary assistance and inheritance just isn't equivalent to golden wisdom, (while I'm still really grateful for ALL gifts and social privilege I've received)
Part II: The decay of traditional modes of upward mobility and the suppression of community.
I think the suppression of wages and the enshrinement of corporate welfare in our political and legal system is also to blame. Communitarian values suffer when one is forced to compete and spend all of one's time on wage slavery, that is there is NO TIME TO CULTIVATE PERSONAL or SOCIAL GOODNESS. I have lived in and among people from different societies on the feudal/libertarian-democratic/socialist spectrum. The social differences and patterns between socio-economically libertarian /Darwinistic countries and those where one doesn't fear for survival and spend ;most of their waking moments securing themselves and their immediate progeny have long demonstrated higher quality of life... both subjectively and by raw quantitative per capita income data.
Most western Europeans can afford to be informed and cultivate socially-bonding leisure activities. And most if not many consistently poor countries have social stratification (CLASSISM) and cultural norms that counteract social or economic democracy. Accepted radical income disparity and the lack of social welfare is allowed by law. No matter how economists and politicians want to slice or dice it, there has never been an effective free market solution that creates or supports a high quality of life or a STABLE, DEMOCRATIC, fair, fully participatory, low unemployment economy. While there have been benevolent and charitable despots (Qatar, etc), peasants aren't guaranteed the philanthropy will continue, the laws won't change by decree when times get tough, or regimes change. Look at history.
History is also where you should look for proof of the strength of democracy over the unregulated free market. Greece, Rome, vs Persia. New Europe vs Old Europe for gods sakes! The gradual democritization of Europe, and yes, most of the world is not a fluke. The "arc of justice" is not a pretty fantasy (like the never-realized fictions of Ayn Rand or volatile autocracies), SOCIAL & ECONOMIC JUSTICE ARE INCREASING BECAUSE THEY WORK. Anyone who denies that democracy is not the best system for long term prosperity, stability, peace, and stability is not connected to reality. Anyone who denies or equivocates that economic libertarianism is synonymous with democracy is equally deluded. Just as I and anyone else would be VERY ignorant to believe or promote the idea of complete economic socialism or regulation. Economies and systems MUST flex with changing population, migrations, technologies, weather, climate, knowledge, conflicts, etc. That's why we have scientists in positions of power of the SEC, Treasury, Federal Reserve, etc... to provide TEMPORARY and targeted easements of regulation, changes in production and lending rates, and other forms of stimulus.
Instead, our country has diluted its own overall economic power and security by allowing divestment in social infrastructure and living wages. Corporations are now free range entities with little accountability. They may hurt persons, deplete resources, or worsen communities with minimal impunity, in fact, often less accountability than government. They claim to be creators, and only having the ability to create in a minimally regulated environment, but then they want the protection of the corporate welfare state when other countries also play by those same unethical and dysfunctional Darwinist rules they promote. How can one blame China and other countries for not playing fair, like with intellectual capital (copyright or patent infringement) when such stealing is the exact result of free market lax regulation? This is ignorant and childish hipocrisy plain and simple.
Henry Ford knew what the New Deal architects and 20th Century Western Europe have proven; that legally binding socio-economic contracts including living wages (wages which enable savings, paying off debts, and an amount of leisure) increases profitability even for the top 1%. It is simply the pointless hoarding (no-flow) of capital within the economic elite that retards stability.
Libertarianism d/evolves into feudalism. And we see many neo-feudal nations today, most of which are defined by the supressed hopes of millions, and apathy of most of its citizens. Because there is such limited upward mobility, few ever see the possibility to live as anything more than impoverished neo-peasants. Cultural tools such as class, education, language, and race status maintain the feudal economic system. Both the powerful and the powerless millions remain apathetic. Why foster aspirations of good health, education, and material comfort when there is little real democracy? Instead, the permanently oppressed poor tolerate the status quo and spend their time socializing instead of competing, boot-strapping, or climbing socio-economic ladders.
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