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Oct. 16th, 2005 04:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
leia131THE FOLLOWING ARE MY OPINIONS AND MY OPINIONS ONLY. PLEASE FORGIVE ME IF I AM TOTALLY OFF.
(Cut because it turned out to be really long)
In so many, and I mean like the vast majority, of cultures in this world there is a ceremony that signifies the change from child to adult, and that involves pain. At the age of 10 or maybe as old as 15, all kids in these cultures do something or have something done to them that makes them an adult and hurts. And they do it voluntarily. And they're proud to do it. We don't have that. We don’t have either a clear line that divides childhood from adulthood, or a painful ceremony. Our culture is soft and comfortable. Maybe that's why kids have no respect for anything or anyone. Maybe that's why there's all this teen angst and idiocy. We don’t know when to grow up, or what exactly is expected of us once we get there.
And don't give me this bullshit about 18 meaning you're an adult. Nothing changes when you're 18 except that you can order Girls Gone Wild off the television. The expectations for your behavior and role in society don’t suddenly and dramatically alter. You don’t have to do anything special, and you aren’t really treated any differently.
And it makes me think that this is a problem in our society, this gradual change from child to adult, instead of an instantaneous one. Maybe this has something to do with cutting. Because in our culture we have no pain for teens to go through, no outlet for this instinctual need that is seen in scarification and real tattoos in other cultures.
Given I know exactly shit about why people cut themselves, but I now think it has to do with a subconscious need to prove something by enduring pain. The thing they prove in other places is that they are ready to become adults. Who cuts themselves here mostly? Teenagers.
And another thing. Go ahead and bitch about our government. I don’t mind. Hell, I probably even agree with you on a lot of the issues. But don’t stop there. If you’re going to criticize our government and compare it to other places in the world and say that they’re better or they have it right, then you also have to look at other places where they don’t have it right.
And I don’t mean Iraq or anything. I am not even going to think about going there. I’m going to criticize the governments in Africa and South America where they are so enamored with Western ideals and beliefs that they are giving up their traditions and ways of living that they have held for thousands of years and forcing their people to do so as well. Where they pass laws saying that people can’t go into town unless they are ‘properly dressed’. That is, properly dressed in castoff rags from well-meaning missionaries and bastard Westernizers, instead of the robes or thongs that they’re had for centuries.
It just makes me so mad. Say what you want about our government, (and yes I realize we have to wear certain things to go certain places, but we’re not going back on hundreds of years of tradition and betraying our fellow countrymen so we can appeal to higher powers) but don’t for one second tell me that you’d rather live in a place where you can’t pierce what you want or do the dances you’ve always done. Don’t for one instant tell me that you want to live in a place where they’d make laws that force you to do things tantamount to walking around naked in our culture, and you couldn’t get a driver’s license anymore, or go out dancing in clubs or choose who you wanted to marry or wear make-up or get a tattoo or own a dog.
Because I don’t believe it.
That was a rant. And it felt good.
(Cut because it turned out to be really long)
In so many, and I mean like the vast majority, of cultures in this world there is a ceremony that signifies the change from child to adult, and that involves pain. At the age of 10 or maybe as old as 15, all kids in these cultures do something or have something done to them that makes them an adult and hurts. And they do it voluntarily. And they're proud to do it. We don't have that. We don’t have either a clear line that divides childhood from adulthood, or a painful ceremony. Our culture is soft and comfortable. Maybe that's why kids have no respect for anything or anyone. Maybe that's why there's all this teen angst and idiocy. We don’t know when to grow up, or what exactly is expected of us once we get there.
And don't give me this bullshit about 18 meaning you're an adult. Nothing changes when you're 18 except that you can order Girls Gone Wild off the television. The expectations for your behavior and role in society don’t suddenly and dramatically alter. You don’t have to do anything special, and you aren’t really treated any differently.
And it makes me think that this is a problem in our society, this gradual change from child to adult, instead of an instantaneous one. Maybe this has something to do with cutting. Because in our culture we have no pain for teens to go through, no outlet for this instinctual need that is seen in scarification and real tattoos in other cultures.
Given I know exactly shit about why people cut themselves, but I now think it has to do with a subconscious need to prove something by enduring pain. The thing they prove in other places is that they are ready to become adults. Who cuts themselves here mostly? Teenagers.
And another thing. Go ahead and bitch about our government. I don’t mind. Hell, I probably even agree with you on a lot of the issues. But don’t stop there. If you’re going to criticize our government and compare it to other places in the world and say that they’re better or they have it right, then you also have to look at other places where they don’t have it right.
And I don’t mean Iraq or anything. I am not even going to think about going there. I’m going to criticize the governments in Africa and South America where they are so enamored with Western ideals and beliefs that they are giving up their traditions and ways of living that they have held for thousands of years and forcing their people to do so as well. Where they pass laws saying that people can’t go into town unless they are ‘properly dressed’. That is, properly dressed in castoff rags from well-meaning missionaries and bastard Westernizers, instead of the robes or thongs that they’re had for centuries.
It just makes me so mad. Say what you want about our government, (and yes I realize we have to wear certain things to go certain places, but we’re not going back on hundreds of years of tradition and betraying our fellow countrymen so we can appeal to higher powers) but don’t for one second tell me that you’d rather live in a place where you can’t pierce what you want or do the dances you’ve always done. Don’t for one instant tell me that you want to live in a place where they’d make laws that force you to do things tantamount to walking around naked in our culture, and you couldn’t get a driver’s license anymore, or go out dancing in clubs or choose who you wanted to marry or wear make-up or get a tattoo or own a dog.
Because I don’t believe it.
That was a rant. And it felt good.
