There are three things that are driving the current state of human distractions, as I see it. They are: PTSD, Attachment Disorder and Emotional Immaturity.
1. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
I think we underestimate the effect that all of the world wars have had on the current state of human functioning. The trauma of the killing of men, women and children, the devastation, havoc and destruction that has been wreaked upon all of human kind by human unkind is unimaginable, and I think we see the consequences every day. It’s horrific.
Many Americans, for example, have ancestors that fled Europe because of either WWI or WWII. Think of Russians and their history of wars, China and their history. It doesn’t matter if you won or lost – everyone has lost. Even if you weren’t in a war, or didn’t have a parent who was in a war, it is not possible that you haven’t been impacted one way or another by someone who has had a negative war time experience.
And the reverbational impact of war is post-traumatic stress – which means: nightmares, irrational thinking, upset and unstable moods, crazy and irrational behavior. Depression, anxiety. All forms of mistreatment of men, children, wives, brothers and friends. There is no way that anyone, in any culture across the world has not been impacted by this. (We can add in here the effects of slavery, torture victims, and all forms of mistreatment of animals.)
2. Attachment Disorder
When people live in a world of irrational stress then their ability to bond becomes impacted – they can’t. When people are unable to bond and connect with each other then they treat others like objects and when people objectify each other then they mistreat each other. Parents get angry at children and expect them to act and behave ways that are beyond reason. Even children mistreat each other.
3. Emotional Immaturity
The upshot of the first two, PTSD and Attachment Disorder is emotional immaturity. We live in a world of emotional 7 year-olds, or younger.
What I see are people who are pretty good at navigating the physical world, and mentally they are pretty sharp. Their problems, whether they are cognizant of it or not, are invariably in the emotional realm. They either feel too much or don’t feel enough. They don’t know how to read or regulate their emotions. That is because they are unattached, having been raised in a world of people who are anxious, depressed and irrational. Not everyone, mind you, but enough to make living in the natural flow of life very difficult.