Pray Tell, Are You Postmodern? Are You Wonderful?

The education crisis in America is a personal crisis. It is the result of a paradigm shift. Generation X has been asking hard questions and the Baby Boomers are frustrated. "Why can't the generation of young parents just accept the traditions?" The older folks ask themselves. "Kids these days," they say.

What has happened is an explosion of information and technology that has opened up a virtual world. This virtual world makes it hard for us to keep our walls up so high. It makes it hard for us to deny that we are part of a collective. Every time we think we have found a boundary that defines us, that boundary moves. Our minds were still forming as we saw images of astronauts on the moon. Our childhood yards were littered with huge satellite dishes and noisy lawn mowers. Most of our great-grandparents, and in some cases our grandparents, knew lives without electricity, indoor plumbing, gas-powered lawn equipment, Monday Night Football, or fast food. They want us to continue raising our children as our parents were raised, as they assume we were raised, but who even raised us? A collective, that's who. A collective that was evolving faster than the speed of light. We are just now catching up enough to be able to even see.

There is a voice inside the head of younger parents these days, a voice that says, "You don't have to go outside yourself to belong, just be yourself." "Who am I?" We answer back.

Why are we here?

When we can answer that question we can better know how to raise children. The older generations had various answers for that question, but none of them seem valid these days. There is too much information to the contrary. Modern moms need to be philosophers, and modern dads want them to be, or are we now postmodern?

Generation Y is changing society. They seem optimistic that nothing can go wrong if they don't want it to. Are they correct? Is the power of positive thinking truly powerful? What is wrong? All I can come up with after years of musing is that imbalance is what is wrong, if anything is wrong. Who defines balance? What determines imbalance? There is an ecological intelligence that seems to know. The balance in nature is evident wherever humans have not invaded. Why do progressive humans feel compelled to upset that balance? What is progress if it isn't balance? After much musing I can only seem to come up with the answers of comfort and fear of suffering. They sell us comfort and it rules the world of humans. Anything that makes us more comfortable is at the top of the priority list, but are we really, truly comfortable, or are we sedated? There is a comfort that comes from a feeling of being connected to the balance of nature, and there is a comfort that comes from being isolated from nature by utilizing it at a resource. Are these the opposing consciousnesses? Are these two poles at the heart of the education crisis? Have we been taught that God is a resource to be utilized? Are gods involved in the balance of nature? Do they have opinions about us? What should we tell our children? What is important? Food? Shelter? The pursuit of happiness? Being a productive member of society? How many societies are there? What does it mean to be productive? Is there another way? Is it a good way? Is it a better way? Is there consciousness after death, is that life? Who knows these things? The richest person? The most dogmatic person? The oldest person? The youngest person? God? Can we talk to a god? Will a god talk back? Are we gods? What is the definition of a god? What is worship? Do we worship ourselves? Do we pray to each other? Do we pray to ourselves? If you answer these things quickly, thinking you know... you haven't become a philosopher yet..... and child-raising probably also seems straightforward to you. Why have you even gotten this far reading my post? Go, do something productive... you'll feel more comfortable.