Comments by "TheDionysianFields" (@TheDionysianFields) on "Carl Jung and the Psychology of the Man-Child" video.

@nemo2327 Except that artists and those left of center represent the majority of the puer aeternis. They have little respect for order, authority or the conventions of society. They dissolve the sacred and the ceremonial. And while they might be more inclined to protect the rites and rituals of tribal peoples, that doesn't mean they see value in any such rituals. You're speaking in direct contrast to the thrust of the video.
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@Mark Onstad I appreciate the candor and thoughtfulness but I think we have to make a definitive call on whether a society can be healthy with any significant percentage of puer eternis (at least among the male population). We also need to recognize that maturity is a very hard line. There's really no spectrum, you either make it or you don't. Anyway, I welcome your leftist opinion, but with a skeptical ear. Too many on the left today seem to believe that a society can function without any grown-ups...even that it *should*. One last thing, and this is just me thinking out loud. Doesn't it seem that conformity is society's job? And that if someone is fully conformed by the time they reach a certain stage, that they never know what they're missing? Don't we need a stable core group to keep the machine running? There will always be the few who simply can't be conformed but imagine a whole world of free-thinking loose cannons (mature or not). Complete chaos.
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@Mark Onstad "To be mature is to know how far from mature one still is." No, that's just being honest with oneself...which of course is vital (and the first step toward maturity). I agree with you about the paradox, but in a different sense. Maturity is like courage. You can't learn courage from a book, you have to go out and practice it; but you can't practice it until you first possess it internally. On the other hand, I completely disagree that maturity is a spectrum. In any given situation, there's the choice between the mature course of action and the immature one. There's no acting 50% mature. I will concede that you can synthesize maturity even if you're not there yet (young children often accomplish this), but it's a much harder way to go because you're always having to override your initial impulse (i.e. the immature response). There's a lot more to say here but it's a conversation that we almost need to start over in order to get it right. P.S. I believe the "machine" is what gives society its stability, good or bad. If we were to break into small, decentralized villages as Gandhi envisioned, maybe we could get by without it. Maybe.
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@chrislowe8746 Everyone is on the track, whether they want to be or not. But I would agree that it's not entirely fair. Neither is life, though, right?
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@bb7407 Absolutely. But society only needs (and can handle) a small number of such non-conformists. Instead, we're creating a system that churns them out in mass, upsetting what I see as a very delicate balance. Those who understand the paramount need for stability will always lean to the right.
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@whygohome172 They're immature in their own way but they lack influence. Artists have serious power to shape our world. The "sexual revolution" wasn't a group of feminists hoping to liberate women, it was all Hollywood hoping to dissolve more psychological borders (to gain more access to our desires so that we might be manipulated even more easily).
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@chrislowe8746 I think people romanticize the hunter-gatherer days. Imagine you're in the first tribe to discover fire. Are you going to share that discovery with other tribes? Hell no. You're going to keep it for you and yours, and if it helps you build an empire and crush the rival tribes, great! We take care of our own, for better or worse. I myself am a deplorable capitalist. I also started the race 60m behind...or at least 30. But as long as it's still possible for someone to start out behind and end up ahead, I don't think the system is completely broken. My guess is that capitalism was an antidote to the utter boredom that came with the agricultural revolution. I have no reason to believe people would be any happier without it.
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@halfyear2991 Why does it tend to distract us? To keep us in line and hide any alternate courses of thought or living. Are you saying that you really can't see the myriad distractions of the modern age?
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Someone (JBP?) must be promoting this video for it to have so many hits. Not that it's not well worth it!
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