Friday, August 28, 2009
youth obsessed
It's unfortunate that we're a society largely obsessed with youth, surrounded around how we look, and how advancing age is something we don't want to come. It's swirled around the notion of beauty, which is also something that's prized and associated with youth mostly. Perhaps it's part of a primal thing in that we're drawn to attractiveness because it's pleasing and may make us feel good. While family is frustrating sometimes, it's nice that part of the culture gives respect to elders and assumes that with age comes wisdom (which may also be untrue). Also with age comes the notion that time is running out - that you should have done this and that or else you won't have enough time to do it - wasting time and life itself. But this is probably just the point of life. I think we're sometimes tricked into believing that something more is what we should have, but life as ordinary is life itself, and that's OK. But that doesn't mean that we shouldn't keep evolving, growing, striving.
I do think there is an evolutionary component that makes youth and beauty as prized at they are, yet society's obsession certainly has gotten excessive. And you see it everywhere you go. Does thinking about these sorts of thing make you fee older? I makes me feel old...
ReplyDeleteIsn't it interesting how we hear about these things that happen to people like they happen in movies and we believe it will never happen to us, that we would never be the kind of person who would do this or that, OR would find ourselves in a particular situation, but then it happens to us, and we become those other people, who we used to feel were different from us - and we feel all lost and trapped in it, even though we didn't pity or understand how other people fell into loss and confusion when we were not them.
ReplyDeleteThis is not exactly in response to your post, but it was what I thought of when I read it.
For most of the millions of years over which our species has evolved, appreciation of and desire for youth was probably selected for since the young are the ones who have the most potential for further reproduction. And with beauty, it's probably tautological- since our notions of physical attractiveness are probably themselves tuned by natural selection.
ReplyDeleteLike many other traits that have Darwinian explanations, maybe it's a relic that is no longer necessary, and that we might even be better off without.
I think we have to accept that we'll never be able to do everything, and instead put our effort into being the best person we can be, and take chances, so that years down the line we won't be wondering "what if?"
ReplyDelete