488.
Principles
Living and life
The tribe
I heard a known writer on some book talk TV program discuss the 'tribe' and how it relates to life today. He blamed modern unhappiness on affluence. I'm not sure I agree with that conclusion but I concur with other observations. He reported back in the settler days some people would willingly assimilate with the Indian tribes. The reverse was never true. Subsistence living brought a closeness and bond between people that 'civilized' society lacked.
He told of ex soldiers longingly refer to their service as their best days. Intergrating later in society often brought depression, sometimes suicide. In a sense the battle groups, around 40 men, were a tribe of sorts. Even if they did not like each other, they would risk their lives for one another.
In another example a woman who contracted cancer had the support of family, doctors, friends, counselors, all forming a cohesive unit around her. Finally, after many trials, she recovered. It was then that depression set in. She was well and now had to fit into society and play her part and she was overwhelmed.
The author made the point that people need to be needed, feel important and wanted no matter what part they played. True. Often today we feel as if we are very expendable and very replaceable.
After his talk, a man in the audience, an ex Marine and now sometimes contractor, said life today was about working to strive to become part of the 1%. In a sense that is true. Human contact, all of everything becomes subservient to this pressure.
I thought this was interesting and describes the lack many of us feel in our relationships and contacts. The writer's solutions were vague, tied in with America and uniting behind doing what is good for the country. I surmise his suggestion is to have little tribes serving this one big tribe. Another suggestion was obligatory service to the country in non combat ways paralleling defensive service.
I find the observations interesting but the solutions nebulous. That is par for the course in most commentaries I hear. That's why I write and search and probe. I think the real reason for this alienation is deeper and spiritual as are the solutions. We feel the pain of our predicament which is real, but the answers are way beneath the economic, political, and social designs we can construct. A whole new way of being has to emerge, and that at present is a murky path to navigate through.
Principles
Living and life
The tribe
I heard a known writer on some book talk TV program discuss the 'tribe' and how it relates to life today. He blamed modern unhappiness on affluence. I'm not sure I agree with that conclusion but I concur with other observations. He reported back in the settler days some people would willingly assimilate with the Indian tribes. The reverse was never true. Subsistence living brought a closeness and bond between people that 'civilized' society lacked.
He told of ex soldiers longingly refer to their service as their best days. Intergrating later in society often brought depression, sometimes suicide. In a sense the battle groups, around 40 men, were a tribe of sorts. Even if they did not like each other, they would risk their lives for one another.
In another example a woman who contracted cancer had the support of family, doctors, friends, counselors, all forming a cohesive unit around her. Finally, after many trials, she recovered. It was then that depression set in. She was well and now had to fit into society and play her part and she was overwhelmed.
The author made the point that people need to be needed, feel important and wanted no matter what part they played. True. Often today we feel as if we are very expendable and very replaceable.
After his talk, a man in the audience, an ex Marine and now sometimes contractor, said life today was about working to strive to become part of the 1%. In a sense that is true. Human contact, all of everything becomes subservient to this pressure.
I thought this was interesting and describes the lack many of us feel in our relationships and contacts. The writer's solutions were vague, tied in with America and uniting behind doing what is good for the country. I surmise his suggestion is to have little tribes serving this one big tribe. Another suggestion was obligatory service to the country in non combat ways paralleling defensive service.
I find the observations interesting but the solutions nebulous. That is par for the course in most commentaries I hear. That's why I write and search and probe. I think the real reason for this alienation is deeper and spiritual as are the solutions. We feel the pain of our predicament which is real, but the answers are way beneath the economic, political, and social designs we can construct. A whole new way of being has to emerge, and that at present is a murky path to navigate through.
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