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Interconnectedness
"The Earth provides enough to satisfy everyone's needs, but not for everyone's greed." -- Mahatma Gandhi
I came across three seemingly unrelated items in the news recently, but I noticed a connection that I found quite interesting. Let me share brief summaries of the articles with you, and then we can consider the relevance of them.
Connection Cited Between TV Watching and Autism
A Cornell University economist published a paper identifying a possible connection between children exposed to high volumes of television watching and autism. This paper has drawn a huge amount of criticism over the non-scientific approach the economist used to arrive at his conclusion - many parents and researchers have expressed outrage. But Waldman believes that television restriction may have "helped rescue his own son from autism" and agrees that while his findings aren't official, he just says that he thinks the correlation should be explored more. He also suggests that parents should limit children's television viewing until more research can be done.
DePauw Sorority Removes "Unsexy" Members
With their 100th anniversary coming up in 2009, the Delta Zeta sorority headquarters warned that if their Indiana chapter didn't improve recruitment, it would be closed. Over the years the chapter had become a haven for intelligent women, good in science and math. It had also developed a reputation for including women who were "socially awkward." National officers of the sorority sent out a letter to members saying they were all coming up for review – and that their commitment to recruitment and expanding the chapter would be questioned. Strangely, the letter urged all the women to "look their best" for the interview.
Following the interviews, the sorority evicted 23 women whom they claimed didn't seem committed enough about recruiting new members. In a fascinating coincidence, every woman evicted was either overweight or a racial minority. The 12 women not asked to leave were slender and "sexy." 55 faculty members signed a petition against the chapter's actions, expressing concern that the women expelled "were less about image and more about academic achievement and social service."
College Students Found to Be More Narcissistic Than Ever Before
A study just published by five psychologists found that today's college students are more narcissistic and self-centered than in other generations. Professor Jean Twenge of San Diego State University, the lead author of the study and also the author of "Generation Me: Why Today's Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled - and More Miserable Than Ever Before," said, "We need to stop endlessly repeating 'You're special' and having children repeat that back. Kids are self-centered enough already."
The study examined over 2 decades' worth of responses, by over 16,000 college students nationwide, to a set of questions called the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI) between 1982 and 2006. The NPI asks for responses to statements such as "If I ruled the world, it would be a better place," "I think I am a special person" and "I can live my life any way I want to." Students' NPI scores were found to have risen steadily since the study was first introduced. By 2006 two-thirds of the students had above-average scores, a 30 percent increase from the first year of the evaluation. Dramatizing how the problem begins for children early in life, Twenge cited a song they are taught to sing in preschool to the tune of "Frère Jacques": "I am special, I am special. Look at me." She also said that MySpace and YouTube were examples of how "current technology fuels the increase in narcissism."
Considering All the Stories Together
Now let's examine more closely all three of these stories in the week's news. Do you see a connection?
- An economist identifies a possible link between increased television viewing and children diagnosed with autism.
- A sorority evicts over 65% of its members, in a transparent attempt to remove "uncool" women from its chapter, to improve their image. Many of the women kicked out are devastated. 6 of the 12 remaining quit in disgust.
- A recent study finds that college students are more narcissistic than ever before. 2/3 of respondents believe that they are special.
These stories all highlight a disturbing cultural trend: We are becoming increasingly isolated as human beings and subscribing to a near religious over-valuing of that which is most transient and least spiritually fulfilling.
We don't need last week's news to inform us that in our society, at the youngest ages, we are being separated from what is natural and organic and we are being weaned on passive, anti-social activities. We are then being taught to value and promote the individual self above others. No wonder we are a culture obsessed with the most shallow and un-inclusive qualities in ourselves and in others. The majority worship thin, beautiful celebrities, rather than brilliant, accomplished teachers, astronauts and artists.
A Pew Research Center poll released January 9, 2007, surveyed 18 to 25-year-olds about their generation's most important or second most important life goal. The results? 81% said it was "to get rich." 51% said "to be famous." Only 12% answered "helping people in need," and just 4% responded, "to become more spiritual."1 Compare this with a similar study conducted in 1967 where 85.8% of college freshmen said their most important life goal was to develop "a meaningful philosophy of life."2
As a culture, and a country, we value money, looks and fame above nearly all else. The trends being identified in these studies and in the news are merely indicative of a disturbing increase in what Buddhists call "ignorance." This is the meaning of the term "Darkness," when juxtaposed against "Light" or "Truth" in spiritual pursuits. Darkness describes Truth obscured, Light veiled by misunderstanding and the confusion of priorities.
We see a trend of people moving further and further away from real sources of lasting joy and fulfillment, towards those things which are most material and transient and which we know ultimately don't lead to happiness.
Instead of playing in parks or in the sand or with simple toys, all of which require the growth and use of a healthy imagination, too many children are parked, unengaged, in front of a television screen, mindlessly observing facsimiles of the real world.
Often sororities place greater value on their members' physical attractiveness to the opposite sex, than on achievements in math, science and other intellectual pursuits. (While I can't cite specific studies on sororities, nor any radical actions taken by them outside of Delta Zeta, many of us have witnessed similar attitudes in place in schools across the country.) And studies have found college students in general to be increasingly more narcissistic.
What we see is evidence that we are moving, as a society, further away from a sense of interconnectedness with other individuals, and with all of life. When a child plays by the ocean or under a tree or with other children, there's a sense of community, of being part of something larger and grander than oneself alone. From these early experiences engaging with the warm, palpable, vibrant world around them, children learn to appreciate humanity. They learn about friendship and sharing and teamwork. They learn about the eternal nature of love, the ocean, the open sky.
When a sensitive, impressionable human being, new to the world around them, is exposed to passive and idle entertainment and is then taught to believe he alone is special and important, he is being deprived of that which makes him most human, which gives any of us the potential to be creative and to evolve.
Tapping into an adult-oriented and overwhelming volume of mind static – the "radio signals" directed at the television by every living person watching it at a given moment – a child is bombarded by waves of awareness that are bound to cause damage of one kind or another. Expecting a child to process that kind of input and remain uncorrupted by it is beyond irresponsible, it's egregious.
But children learn well. After a diet of Orwellian mental programming that wealth and a certain type of physical appearance lead to success and love, as well as programming that they alone are special, what do we expect? No wonder smart, but unsexy young women at Delta Zeta were traumatized by their evictions.
With achievement, intelligence, inclusiveness and strength as cultural values, we might all have a chance to feel respect and appreciation from others, earned through hard work and focus. On the way, we would grow and evolve. With attractiveness and a talent for self-aggrandizement representative of what society values, only the few can look forward to success in life. On that path, no one can evolve much, we all simply cling to the most transient of all goals, becoming more and more miserable as we age and become less sexually desirable.
I feel for the coming generations who will be most affected by this trend. I wish we could all protect children from this violence to their spirit, but I know that at the moment it's an unrealistic desire. At least what we can do is strive to reverse the trend. To fight narcissism one by one. To consider how we are all on a common journey, rather than on an individual and singularly important one. To show appreciation for those around us who are contributing their intellectual, creative and spiritual talents to the community. And to encourage everyone to develop a healthy relationship with nature, so that we can all begin to recognize more each day how much life and spirit we share with the individuals and the world around us.
The truth is that what we share with others is everything. And believing that we stand alone, that we are uniquely important and that our physical bodies are the extent of what we have to offer the world, separates us from that which is eternal. Clinging to this separateness leads to the ultimate dark night of the soul, the ultimate ignorance. It's nothing less than the rejection of Truth and of God. No wonder everyone seems so miserable.
Nicole Grace
March 2007
"The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quiet, alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature." – Anne Frank
1"How Young People View Their Lives, Futures and Politics." The Pew Research Center, January 9, 2007.
www.people-press.org
2Higher Education Research Institute, University of California Los Angeles.
http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/heri/heri.html
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