When people used to live in small villages and interacted with no more than 50-100 people in a life time, what was valued is completely different from what is valued today.
Back then they valued honor and integrity. Now what matters is first impressions, “clout”/fame, and
standing above the crowd.
In today’s society we no longer value things like domestic affairs, honor, integrity, and humbleness. Now we try to maximise visibility, fame, and brand.
There is probably a huge forgotten mass of people who humbly did their work, improved their local communities as they needed, and raised the next generation. Those who specifically seek fame will easily outcompete these humble people.
> Back then they valued honor and integrity. Now what matters is first
impressions, "clout"/fame, and standing above the crowd.
I think you're right about all those things J7ke. Values have really
shifted. Yet that still leaves strange unanswered questions that
puzzle me.
Most all of the intelligent people I know are deeply unhappy about
it. And I've worked with a good few "famous" people. They were all
unhappy too. Now we're all older, and great levellers like health,
children and life fulfilment have come into play those that survived
(drugs and more money than they could handle) are happier being
"nobody" again (or at least getting recognised occasionally on the bus
by strangers who say "Didn't you used to be...?"). I actually think
many who were "successful" and had their 15 minutes feel tricked.
Even though they "made it", in the sense of "Being there", they were
never there. The cake was a lie.
By contrast, my father and grandfather's generation lived through
awful, awful times, in wars, rationing, brothers and sisters died, and
they were certainly never "on" the TV or Internet. If they had
recognition it was a medal and a parade. However they seemed to go to
their graves with a sense of having lived.
What does it mean then, when we talk about "what matters"?
Is "what matters" a cruel trick and illusion? Perhaps a way to rob us
of the ordinary well-lived life that really does matter?
Back then they valued honor and integrity. Now what matters is first impressions, “clout”/fame, and standing above the crowd.
In today’s society we no longer value things like domestic affairs, honor, integrity, and humbleness. Now we try to maximise visibility, fame, and brand.
There is probably a huge forgotten mass of people who humbly did their work, improved their local communities as they needed, and raised the next generation. Those who specifically seek fame will easily outcompete these humble people.