Posted on Jan 1, 2020
Our lonely society makes it hard to come home from war | Sebastian Junger
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CPT Paul Whitmer “Modern Society” has been on my mind since I recently started ordering ‘stuff’ from Amazon.com.
When I was 6 years old, I recall walking a block and a half to the Kroger Grocery store on N. High St in Columbus, Ohio.
The clerk might use a ‘grabber’ stock to pick an item off a high shelf. He would put it on the counter and my dad would pay him. A Personal Interaction occurred!
Not so with Amazon, ‘one click ordering’ is quick and there is no personal observation or other impression of the clerk for me to ponder on.
Living in the Los Angeles Metro area, I seldom deal with the same clerk or sales person when I shop.
I miss the pleasure of personal interactions in today’s “busy” world where everyone is in such a hurry.
Does anyone else feel that in addition to losing a part of our personal, caring and sharing attitudes we have lost the concept of patriotism that melds our nation together? CPT Paul Whitmer
When I was 6 years old, I recall walking a block and a half to the Kroger Grocery store on N. High St in Columbus, Ohio.
The clerk might use a ‘grabber’ stock to pick an item off a high shelf. He would put it on the counter and my dad would pay him. A Personal Interaction occurred!
Not so with Amazon, ‘one click ordering’ is quick and there is no personal observation or other impression of the clerk for me to ponder on.
Living in the Los Angeles Metro area, I seldom deal with the same clerk or sales person when I shop.
I miss the pleasure of personal interactions in today’s “busy” world where everyone is in such a hurry.
Does anyone else feel that in addition to losing a part of our personal, caring and sharing attitudes we have lost the concept of patriotism that melds our nation together? CPT Paul Whitmer
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It is the "nobody wants us" and isolationism created by the people within today's society that adds to the harm. It is the lack of compassion and empathy that is endemic in civilian society, that prevents the healing process from progressing. So surround yourself with brilliance, the light does shine.
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CPT Paul Whitmer
I can't take responsibility for this - nor can I remember where I got it - but it's good - "We live in a time when everyone is struggling to figure out who they are all the while being bombarded by a fake representation of what they should aspire to be. Through social media, people are given the opportunity to live vicariously through another and show warped moments of their lives that they believe makes them look good. Instead of building self-confidence, this behavior is self-destructive and shallow."
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Kim Bolen RN CCM ACM
It was an excellent post. I concur on that assessment as well. Most, if not all people have forgotten the ability to communicate in person. Most have their faces in the cellphone and live there instead of the world around them. It just maybe safer there.
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GySgt Gary Cordeiro
Go back to the culture in which you were raised. Do some critical thinking. Where is your culture now. Culture needs traditions, religion and family to survive. American Culture in a world view is deficient on all points. Wake up, there are no racial issues. They are all cultural.
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SPC (Join to see)
I remember thinking, as an undergrad, sociology major----over 50 years ago now----that alienation is to society as depression is to the individual person. I still think that this is true.
Alienation is the state or experience of being isolated from a group or an activity to which one should belong or in which one should be involved. Alienation is loss or lack of sympathy; estrangement. Alienation is a state of depersonalization or loss of identity in which the self seems unreal, thought to be caused by difficulties in relating to society and the resulting prolonged inhibition of emotion.
During this excellent, 13+ TED video, I took all kinds of notes that went along with CPT Paul Whitmer's statements. But should I attempt to write about all of my notes, this post would become an essay, being much too long for such a comment as this.. I'll stop by making one brief comment.
CPT Paul Whitmer said that "Who Am I?" is a major ingredient-question in an alienated society. I remember a colleague----we were both mental health providers----said to me that her question wasn't "Who Am I?" but rather was "AM I?"
Alienation is the state or experience of being isolated from a group or an activity to which one should belong or in which one should be involved. Alienation is loss or lack of sympathy; estrangement. Alienation is a state of depersonalization or loss of identity in which the self seems unreal, thought to be caused by difficulties in relating to society and the resulting prolonged inhibition of emotion.
During this excellent, 13+ TED video, I took all kinds of notes that went along with CPT Paul Whitmer's statements. But should I attempt to write about all of my notes, this post would become an essay, being much too long for such a comment as this.. I'll stop by making one brief comment.
CPT Paul Whitmer said that "Who Am I?" is a major ingredient-question in an alienated society. I remember a colleague----we were both mental health providers----said to me that her question wasn't "Who Am I?" but rather was "AM I?"
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